... ah, the waiting game sucks.
I now have a working motorcycle in my garage. "Ride meeeeeee", it whispers, "ride me nowwwwww".
"I'd love to," I reply, "but The Man won't let me. I need to fill in a 27B-6 first."
Specifically, I need to register the bike as new and get a registration number. Apparently back in the day, a chap's word was his bond, but then came the welfare state, immigration (what have the Romans ever done for us?), plagues of zombies, and general churlishness. Now we're all guilty until proven innocent, and one has to kowtow in person to some surly beancounter at the local DVLA and evoke the precise incantations to magic up a registration.
LS Imports appear to have sent the correct documents for the bike, so I just need insurance documents. They showed up today, Saturday. The insurance was taken out on Wednesday morning. This is shoddy. I expected them on Thursday, Friday at the latest. Saturday is practically a new epoch. For that reason alone, I'll actively seek a different insurer next year. Yes, this matters.
While I wait for the beaurocracy to grind fine, I've been fiddling with the bike. The rear brake pedal seemed to be positioned slightly low, so I rotated it up slightly. It's on a splined shaft, and just needs one bolt slackened off. A spring washer and loctite were added on reattachment.
After that, I liberally greased every electrical connector that I could find. Prevention is better than cure; specifically, it's better than tracking electrical gremlins with a multimeter.
The one connector I left alone was the infamous sidestand cutout. There's a connector right under the bike, which is going to corrode. The whole switch and cabling is definitely coming out ASAP. I want to get the multimeter on it first to find out what all the wires do though.
Around then, my brother turned up to scoff, but the Huonaio worked its magic. He's just bought a 20 year old Porsche Carrera which needed £3.5K of work done on it right away, and now needs a £5K engine rebuild. Against that, the £550 Hounaio is pocket change. After I remembered to switch the fuel tap on, the bike fired up nicely, and warmed up rapidly. It was idling a little slow, but five seconds of adjustment on the idle screw (the horizontal sprung screw on the offside of the carb) sorted that.
At that point, someone may have been compelled to take the bike for a (very) short romp to the end of the road and back. That person reported that the bike was running just fine, up to 3rd gear and back down again.
Since that counted as its first road run, and it was up to temperature (as proven by the clouds of ACF-50 burning off) I was persuaded to change the stock oil. The sump plug came out easily and the warm oil was ejaculated. It looked tolerable enough, although perhaps a little milky. Better to have something quality controlled in it though, so after leaving it to drain for a good hour - while I went to buy a copy of my long-since-lost CBT to send to the insurer - I popped in 1 litre of Halford's 10W-40 semi synthetic motorcycle oil.
I would have taken out the oil filter, but the plug wasn't for playing. It appears to be 23mm, a really weird size for which I don't have an appropriate spanner or socket. 22mm won't fit and 24mm rubbed. I got an adjustable wrench on it, but no matter how tight I adjusted it, it rubbed. Ouch. I guess I'll be buying a 23mm socket then, although I can see it being a monkey-wrench job at some point.
Later, someone took the bike for another U turn and reported that it sounded and felt slightly smoother, although that may have been cognitive dissonance. Regardless, I'd still suggest changing the oil ASAP on any new bike. It's just not worth skimping on.
eBay is providing an NGK D8EA spark plug and metal L-plates. Now I really do just need reg plates and I'm on the road. Reportedly the DVLA used to issue a reg number on the spot, but now they make you wait 48+ hours for the paperwork. We'll find that out - and report on't, have no doubt - on Tuesday.
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