The other night as I was getting ready to go into town for coffee, I noticed that the bike seemed a bit louder than normal. Then, on the way home I noticed the same thing and I resolved to check it out and see if there was something wrong or if I was just imagining it.
So, yesterday morning I rolled it out of the garage and started it up and, for sure, especially without my helmet on, it sounded noticeably louder. It didn’t take long to find the problem. The noise was louder on the left hand side of the engine and it was quite a shock to see when I looked inside the fairing that the LH header pipe was not attached to the head. A quick feel around the back of the pipe soon proved that both of the nuts that secure the header clamp were missing.
Now, as you know, I like to do whatever maintenance on the bike that I can do myself, not only from the point of view of reducing expenses but also from the satisfaction factor as well. I broke out the tools, removed the chain guard, a pig of a job compared to removing the one on the 4th Gen, and opened up the field so I could work. Nuts and washers required. Amongst my collection of nuts and bolts I found a packet of 10mm nuts and also the appropriate-sized spring washers but the bolts were nylocks and I knew that they would not be appropriate in this situation due to the heat that is generated by the engine and the exhaust header. And, as for being able to replace the one on the RIGHT hand side of the pipe, forget it, it wasn’t going to happen.
So I tightened up the one that I could reach, cable-tied the rear brake hoses out of the reach of the chain and rode the bike out to my shop, the always-reliable Oak Flats Motorcycles. There I presented Gary with my problem. (no booking, you’ll notice, but Gary looks after his “regulars” 🙂 ) “Well, we can fix that, but we’ll have to wait till it cools down before we can work on it, ” he said. That was no problem either, I just asked for directions to the local shops with plans to go get a cuppa and something to nibble while I waited for the repair to be done. Unfortunately, the distance to the shop was somewhat more than what Gary had told me, the sun was beating down, I didn’t have a hat AND my troublesome leg is being even more troublesome than usual this week. I was also wearing my motorcycle riding boots which are not designed for slogging across country, so you’d think I’d have considered all that before setting out, but did I? Of course I didn’t.
The last half of the trek, Fisher Street, is all uphill as well, so, by the time I got to the shops I was hot, tired and in considerable pain. I REALLY needed a drink. But, misery loves company and when I went to get some cash out of the magic money machine, it said that it was having trouble reading my card. I tried three times, each time with the same result. Bugger!
There was nothing to do except trek back to the shop which I did, arriving even hotter, tireder and in pain than what I was when I had set out. AND I hadn’t had my drink! Brad solved that with a bottle of water from the cool box but he couldn’t help with the rest. By then he’d started on the bike and, amazingly, after the bike being ridden into town and back and from my place to the workshop, he found one of the header nuts still sitting on the top of the swingarm. It didn’t take him long to get the LH nut and a new spring washer on but the RH one was being a bear, that is until he customised a spanner that would reach into the tight confines behind the pipe.
As he noted, it IS a genuine Honda spanner from the toolkit of a “postie” bike so it was entirely appropriate. I’ll keep it in my toolkit in case I ever need it again. With the right tool now being used, it didn’t take him long to finish the header job, re-attach the chain guard and take a (very) modest amount out of my bank account for all of his time and trouble. As I have noted on many occasions, finding a good mechanic is just as important as finding a good doctor, and OFM get my vote every time. The weather on the weekend is looking good, so, just in time too.
However, to say that I was exhausted after all of that is an understatement.