Enjoying the ride.

When I bought the CBF I never thought I would enjoy it so much. It has always been my dream to own and ride a bike like this and I do sometimes feel a little smug when I see someone looking at it. It passed the MOT with no problems and I am very pleased with myself in fixing the fork seals. I was planning to replace the brake pads, but on checking they are no where near the limit so will wait until latter in the summer and do the oil at the same time. I also managed to find a luggage rack and top box at a reasonable price and I have to say this has transformed my use and enjoyment of the bike. Also got a new pair of boots which again has made riding a little more comfortable.

Fork seals replaced.

Finally got round to changing the fork seal on the CBF. A job I was not looking forward to, so spent a far amount of time planing for it and that seems to have paid off. The job is fairly straightforward. I removed all the fairing which made access easier and also prepared for the coolant change. Once the forks were off it was the case of separating the fork to gain access to the seal. The fluid that came out was a dark contaminated mess! One problem I had not planned for was the water pipe I had planned to use as a seal driver was not 2inch but 40mm, so didn't fit. I had to resort to using the old seal and hammer to drive the new seal in. I did use some tape to protect the fork tube. Once the new fluid was in and the fork reassembled it was just the case of refitting. At this stage I changed the coolant which seemed ok when drained another straightforward job, just took a while the bleed the system. I also had to change both tyres to Pirelli as the rear had a puncture and the front was a little low. Anyway road test has shown the bike handling a lot better and the forks seem to be retaining their fluid.

Interference Cured

Over the last few years the man made noise across  the radio spectrum has increased due to solar panels, LCD TV's etc. I have had a high level of noise here for some time and although not a major issue has not put me 'off air'. However, tonight in the shack I was moving some radios about when the noise floor suddenly dropped to about S1 on 80m and I could hear stations on there. Looking around I realised the power lead to the THD-7 had been disconnected. Bit of testing confirmed this and a rummage in the junk box found a ferrite ring. Adding a few turns of the power cable to this has solved the problem and the lower bands have now become usable.