After the cut-a-cat adventure, the exhausts were looking a little tatty. With hindsight, there are two much better methods of de-catting them:
1) A single cut near the end of the cat bulge.
2) Just buy a set of nice shiny chromed and cat-free exhausts, £60 delivered for the pair.
I sprayed my pipes with high temperature silver paint, but it didn't really match the rest of the bike. Black would have been a better choice, but I went another way.
Something that's making a faddy comeback at the moment is exhaust wrap. It's basically a fibreglass tea-cosy for the exhaust. The techno-babble is that it keeps the temperature of the gasses up inside the exhaust which helps them flow through faster. That's as maybe, but it also covers up sloppy weld jobs, and makes the exhaust look a little fatter.
I did some rocket science that indicated I'd need 5 metres to cover around 60cm of exhaust. That seems like a lot, but it's all about pi. Mmmm, pi. For once, I got my reckoning right, and 10m just did both exhausts, nicely secured with stainless steel tie wraps.
Does it make any difference to the performance? Not so as you'd notice, but that's not why it's there, is it? The main effect is to soak up water, WD-40, ACF-50, road dirt and such, and steam or burn it off in huge clouds every time you stop. Larks!
Easter weekend seemed like a good time for a spring clean. The bike was looking pretty grubby after winter riding, and there was actually some road grit layered on it - we're not having that. "Gunk" engine cleaner is just the ticket for de-grubbing, and I spent a happy hour brushing the best part of a litre of it into all the crevices of the bike, including a thorough soaking of the chain, which was in dire need of a clean. A good wash down, and the sparklies were restored, then treated to a good coat of ACF-50 to keep them that way.
It was also time for some basic maintenance; a chain tension and rear brake adjustment, inspection of all the nuts and bolts, and I bled the front brake, which was starting to feel a little spongy. The year-old fluid was already looking fairly mucky, so it was easy to see when the clean stuff came through from the master cylinder.
The other modification I made recently was to remove a few things from the bike, namely the L plates. Huzzah! I am now a Big Boy (Jnr). I really don't need a bigger bike for my commute or pleasure jaunts, so unless I plan some touring in this year, I'll be sticking with my 'Firebird'.
I didn't have any lessons, I just went for it. £31 for the theory, £15 for the Mod 1 offroad, £75 for the Mod 2 on road, twice, as I failed the first one (darn unmarked crossroads), works out well compared to the cost of training, or of re-sitting my CBT which would have been up at the end of April. The DSA has recently acknowledged the existence of our bikes, and has classed them as A2, i.e. proper bikes capable of 100kph, so there's nothing stopping you from sitting your test on your Firebird, waiting 2 years, then buying a Hayabusa. Excelsior!
