Motoring.guru Blog Page 8
7th April 2018
Finally a day warm enough to work outside.
After a painfully long winter, today seemed warm enough to work outside and so I serviced my old Fiat.
Genuine Fiat parts, pattern air filter and Fuchs fully synthetic oil sourced again cheaply off Ebay.
6th April 2018
Sinclair C5 story.
When the Sinclair C5 came out in 1985 I had a sit in one at the local Electricity board shop and like most people thought it was a bit of a joke. I was only months away from my 16th birthday and was looking forward to taking to the road on my Yamaha FS1E sports moped instead.
The C5 was unfortunately probably just about 5 decades too early but amongst those finding it an object of derision were the writers and cast of a late night TV comedy series called 'Who Dares Wins'. They aired a sketch starring Tony Robinson, probably best known as 'Baldrick' and now a Knight.
Their sketch was filmed around the estate where my family home was and in it Tony and his friends ride past my old house in their C5s and a Suzuki GS125ES motorbike owned by by brother's friend at the time is also in shot. A few months later I bought the bike.
I put up the little story on Twitter and Tony included my Tweet in a Tweet of his own! - Another claim to fame!!
Screen shot from Twitter-pictures from Youtube clip
31st March 2018
Blue Monday Cassette Likey
Avid readers of this bog (?!) may recall a post in January where I played my New Order Substance Album cassette (from 1987) which included the track 'Blue Monday' on what the media called 'Blue Monday' - the most depressing day of the year.
On Twiter I saw some people talking about New Order's appearance on Top of the pops performing the track and I put up my photo of the cassette tape poking out of my car radio cassette. Within minutes it got a 'like' from non other than Peter Hook- the bass player and founding member of New Order and Joy Division- quite a big deal for me!
Screen shot from Twitter.
20th March 2018
Servicing the bike.
Changed the oil, oil filter, sump plug washer and coolant on the bike ready for spring. Original Yamaha parts sourced cheaply from Ebay and fresh Motul oil.
Oil looks quite dirty but had only covered about 600 miles! I tape up and label the fairing fasteners as it helps putting them back in the right places...
14th March 2018
Getting a 'passivate' finish on rusty brackets.
I wanted to do some detailing on the Alfa's engine bay and sort out a few unsightly corroded brackets.
The original finish is what I would describe as a 'mild' silver-ish passivate- not full on two tone gold/green.
I believe people have had good results using a coat of Tamiya yellow/gold model paint to get close to the gold effect but that's another story.
I soaked the brackets in a cup of spirit vinegar to shift the worst of the corrosion, then wire brushed them. I then brushed on a coat of silver Hammerite paint to hopefully keep the rust at bay, then when dry gave them a light dusting of some smokey/pinky silver metallic paint (Honda YR508M) I had which sort of gives the passivated effect.
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