Well, it’s time for the awful truth. No shims needed. £922.77.
6.25 hrs labour @ £85 = £531.25
Service kit @ £153.30
Plus sundries and of course Rachel from accounts share.
It does make me wonder if it is worth buying a so called premium product, when the depreciation is astronomical and servicing seems so expensive. If it wasn’t for the terms of the extended warranty, I could probably do it myself, although I’ve never been into an overhead cam engine, how difficult can it be if one has a tidy mind?
Anyway, it’s done for another 6,000 miles and I have to admit, it feels like a new bike again, although I have run the odo up to 28,000 miles.
I am going to visit Mark Grinnall next week to have a lengthy chat with him about the Voge 900 adventure bike at £9,000, same spec as a Tiger 900 at £14,000+
We may be swapping bikes next Spring and I want to see how the numbers work.
Mine was due to have the shims checked, so I did it myself. At just under 12k miles all the gaps were as they were when it left the factory. Took 2 to 3 hours for me to do as I have not done it before. For an experienced mechanic, no more than 1.5 hours.
The Tiger 800 I had covered 36000 miles - shims were still fine. The Tiger 900 was serviced at 24000 miles and shims were fine, but the service bills were not!
Finding out the Nightstorm battery is on its last legs, nearly stranded at work 100 miles from home. Luckily someone randomly appeared with one of these small jump packs. I guess I’ll be battery shopping later. To be fair I suspect it’s the original battery, I’ve had it since '18 and it’s a '15 plate so it’s not done bad.
Not today, but yesterday. Fed up with not being on the bike I strapped up my knee and ventured out for ride to my sons in Shropshire. Circa 80 miles round trip in the hot sunshine. Stopped for a breather and to cool down on the A49 before the final stretch to home and a pint at my local.
Just dropped the Nightstorm off at SWB Racing in Ebbw Vale to replace the rear shocks and put emulators in the front ones. Will Burchell is a road racer and really knows his stuff when it comes to suspension set up, highly recommended if you are looking to transform your ride with just a few turns of a screw
Helmut and I have just returned from three days away; we had our second track based training day with Rapid Training yesterday, so travelled up on Monday and back today. We decided to avoid motorways the same as last time and spend a day getting there via the Staffordshire moorlands and Peak District.
Monday started warm and dry, we planned a stop at The Old Smithy in Monyash as I have seen it on lots of peoples’ posts. It was great there, very friendly and the food was good - I had an oatcake with beans and cheese.
About a minute after leaving The Old Smithy we encountered absolutely biblical instant - flooding rain, so on went the waterproof jackets and we carried on, a little less spiritedly than before…by Bakewell it wasn’t too bad again and then about 25 miles from Scotter, where we were staying, it absolutely hammered it down. All part of the adventure. We had a lovely bar meal and some beers and an early night ready for our track day.
The track training was once again, superb, the coach was great and we both saw some big improvements in our riding, the track photographer was there, so I will bore you all with some photos when we have them! On the second session, a gentleman on a Triumph 400 had a nasty accident in front of me unfortunately and the session was red flagged for him to be attended to. He is injured and bike looks a mess, but thank goodness it was not thought to be horribly serious as he did fly very high indeed . I hope he makes a speedy recovery, that’s for sure. There were a few more people staying in the hotel that we were and we had a meal and a few more beers with one of them afterwards (he had impeccable taste, owning a 2025 Striple).
Today, we set off home at about 0900hrs after breakfast. We went via Bill Lomas Motorycles which was fantastic!! Very friendly, great coffee and some absolutely amazing bikes in incredible condition. I would have owned most of them in a heartbeat, but the NSR stole my heart!!
Those Jubilees are just horrible. When I first saw them I thought someone had ruined their Bonny with a really bad paint job. Not quite as bad as the new Triumph paint schemes but almost. LOL
The rest of the bikes are really quite nice - I like the orange flame 750 fours…
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. I hope he makes a speedy recovery, that’s for sure. There were a few more people staying in the hotel that we were and we had a meal and a few more beers with one of them afterwards (he had impeccable taste, owning a 2025 Striple).
