Sunday

Been an interesting day today, I've ridden three different bikes.
As it was such a nice day I thought I'd take the SV out for a run, after riding the Hongdou for three weeks it felt like a MotoGP bike. Also the novelty of being able to go faster than 60mph and having a back brake that actually works was quite nice too.

I had a bimble up to J&S at Kimberly to look for a new lid but there was nothing I fancied. I have actually purchased a new Shark RSX Intense of the internet. It look great in the pictures but not so good in the flesh . I shall have to give them a ring tomorrow and see if I can return it.


When I got back I decided to adjust the preload a little on the Hongdou, as the back end was rather stiff, this coupled with the soft forks made for quite an interesting ride.
However the Hongdou didn't seem to want to be adjusted. I couldn't really get any purchase on it with the C-spanner as access was a little restricted, so I decided to whip the shock out and do it on the bench. The bolt on the dog bone and on the bottom of the shock are metric and presented no problem. Unfortunately the bolt on the top of the shock is no spanner size that I possess (Chinese cycle thread No. 5 ?)

Strong language, violence and scenes of an adult nature followed.
The preload was adjusted.

I had a quick blast round the block and jumped it over a few speed bumps as a test.

As I was clearing up the post preload adjustment carnage (putting my big hammer away and filing the end of my biggest screwdriver flat again) my recent new neighbour pulled up on his SV1000S (red with lowers) which was previously stored elsewhere.

Anyway he insisted I took it for a blast. What a hoot ! A lot more grunt than I was expecting and the steering felt quicker than on mine. I would definitely get into trouble with one of these, I think I'll stick with the 650 for a while.