Gremlin's Tall Stories

Twice in one month? Where is this going?

GiJoe had offered cake from his lovely lady who has been on a cake baking course during the week. Despite my sweet tooth, I decided later, as I was tired from work.

Friday afternoon it was offered again, and I asked if it came with a side of checking why my hot grips weren’t working. I don’t think he was too surprised.

Saturday morning, over to his place again (with ginger beer of course, his supply was dwindling) and we traced it to the controller on the bars. Unfortunately, the grips are the originals, before digital controllers were introduced and my spares were for the newer generation. Not to worry, the trusty GiJoe had a spare set, he bought them on special, and then never fitted them, so plugging a new controller in, and away they went.

However, today was to be different. GiJoe commented that he would now be replacing the front wheel bearings in Lil ‘o Hornet. I asked if he wanted a hand (I do owe him…. Uh… lots), and while hesitant, he agreed on the basis I could learn something. It turned out he was doing it for the first time as well and it’s not like I’m going to do wheel bearings any time soon.

The front wheel was off quick, but removal of the bearings resulted in some swearing, liberal use of Mr Mallet and Blocky, consultation of the manual and still no success. GiJoe turned to a heat gun, and while I was doubtful of the success, it worked a treat and we got the bearings out and new ones in. The pads were finished, so a quick trip to Drury Performance for more, then the brake pistons needed some TLC and the afternoon was consumed.

The Lil ‘o Hornet got lots of attention, new pads, front bearings, brakes bled (with some helped of another mate of his that popped by), chain tightened and a rear set mount replaced. 100,000km and you’re going to have some odd parts needing replacement.

It ended up definitely being a job one person couldn’t do so good to be able to return some of the assistance. GiJoe had an entire cake for me (not just a slice) so a gentle trip home was required. I’ve never noticed just how many horrible bumps our roads have, but the cake survived the trip relatively intact.

Alright, for the next few days I did find chunks of the chocolate decorations in my top box, but they were still yum.

Doesn’t the cake look good? It lasted two days…