Fr. Matthew Cashmore

Priest in the Church of England. Father, husband, son. Keen biker.

Category: Mechanics

Potching

February 28, 2008 /

Darn itI’m not sure when it happened, but all of a sudden I seem to be a potcher. Anytime I find myself twiddling my thumbs I gravitate to the garage where I start taking things appart and attempting to make them better.

It may seem harmless, but my poor motorbike is getting a little sick of having everything taken off and messed with. I keep finding myself looking at sites that advocate building your own pannier systems.

I think it all stems back to that mech engineering apprenticeship I did when I left school, it still feels like only yesterday but as my father reminded me this weekend it was 12 years ago. The motorbike mechanics course at Merton also has a part to play, and Stace has just started a welding course at Hammersmith that I think I may sign up for next term.

The garage is pretty much complete now, the work bench is finally in, all that remains is to wire in the electrics (to the bech), pipe in the compressor and complete the shelving for the fridge and microwave….. oh my dear Lord… I am turning into my father.

Brake hell…

August 7, 2007 /

Or rather… ‘why I shouldn’t be allowed to fix my own bike’.

It seems every time I try to fix my bike, do something simple, it always turns out to be a pain in the butt. In this case I was putting new pads in the front callipers ready for September – I didn’t want to be riding the length of France, Spain and Morocco on brand new pads – and I completely screwed the retaining plug for the pad pin… this was the result

Broken pin

Then to add insult to injury I ordered a replacement off ebay from a breakers up north and they sent me this

Unknown Calliper

If you can tell me what bike this part is for I’d be grateful – because it ‘aint for the CBF! New (correct) part should arrive today – so hopefully I’ll be back on the road tomorrow.

However, given I plan to do an oil change this weekend – that could be short lived!

Grrr bloody grrr

August 4, 2007 /

Now the thing is this week I’ve been tucked away in Cashmore towers because the lady of the house has required a nurse – and as you know I’m quite good at doing that kind of thing – in any case I took the opportunity to carry out a few repairs to the CBF – oil change, brake pads – that kind of thing. All was progressing well until I did this… to the left hand brake calliper…

broken brake 001

Now, fortunately I was at home this week so I thought, no great issue I can afford the time to order a second hand part off ebay – see the auction here – and wait for it to arrive.

I’m already frustrated because I can’t get out of the house (not to mention breaking a £100 part off my bike), but to make matters worse there’s a postal strike and it doesn’t arrive until today – 7 days after I ordered it – nothing to do with the breakers sending it – just the bloody post!

But guess what – here’s what they sent me…

calliper 004

Can you see the difference here? I bloody can, and it means I’m going to have to drive into work all next week in the bloody car because the bloody breakers sent the wrong bloody part.

Now where’s my book – ahh there it is – Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

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