So I’ve had this blog for just over a year now and pretty much not posted a thug to it. This isn’t really what I expected, but work commitments, the arrival of our third son and a string of mechanical problems with the R65 have meant I haven’t had time to spare. Hopefully over the next year I’ll do better…. Much better. 

Things with the bike started to go wrong within a month of having it. Firstly the speedo stopped working. Not ideal, but before I got chance to investigate, I started experiencing poor starting, rough running and cutting out at low revs. This got progressively worse over a few months. I swapped out just about all the ignition parts, stripped and cleaned the carbs & put an in line fuel filter in, but non made a difference. Eventually it it got so bad it wouldn’t start at all. I had to get it recovered from work and took it to my mate Andy at benchdonkees. Within an hour or so he had discovered the valve clearances were all screwed up…. Doh. It should have been one of the first things I checked. 

Anyway. I now had a running bike again. In fact it was now running really well and all just in time for the 2015 Distinguished Gentlemans Ride. A stunning day riding out from Sheffield and through the Peak District. This was the first and so far only decent recreational ride I have had on the R65. Two weeks later I was riding home from work and the gear leaver fell off. 

It was now late October and I was just too busy to get it sorted. Over Christmas a finally got the replacement fitted, but now the MOT had lapsed and there were a few other little jobs needing doing. A few weeks ago I got round to getting it ready for its mot and took it last week….. It failed…..but only on the rear brake light switch, which had seized up. Hardly surprising given it had been stood for the best part of four months! A week later and I’d got a replacement fitted and a re-test. This time a pass! 

Hopefully this means I can start using it again. There are still loads of things that I want to do to her, but for now, at least I can go for a ride…