Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

No wife to worry about :)

Long term I should really look in to getting a garage though!

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Put my faith in Chinese manufacturing and Mr Northeast's recommendations and fitted new front eBay discs and fresh front SBS pads as well as giving all calipers a full strip down, clean and rebuild, front and back. Only had a brief low speed test round town but everything feels smooth and good.

That said, anything would feel good as the old discs were thinner than Walkers crisps and had bluer ridges then the mountains of Virginia but after over 60k miles I don't think I can grumble! spent the last two weeks commuting using innefectual back brake only as the front was binding so badly. Breaking a rear brake bolt added an unexpected yet predictable complication to my task but all resolved before the Monday commute.
Attachment 16142

Attachment 16143

Attachment 16144

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Nice!

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

I bought the V-strom 650 guards, they include all bolts and washers and seem to be a straight fit onto an SV (and many other models apparently).

I say they "seem" to fit as I'm still waiting for some oem levers as the span adjusters on my folding levers stop the guards from fitting properly :)

[edit] Bought mine on ebay from a bike dealer (Lincolnshire I think they were based). 50 quid including postage, so they're not exactly cheap, but if they keep my hands a bit warmer then I'll be happy !

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Today I have been mostly tinkering with me CV. My client decided to call it a day on my reporting contract a little early.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

The joys of self employment eh?

Good luck.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Just look on the bright side Trev. More time to yourself. I had 2 periods of 1 year without work when I was contracting. It prepared me for retirement.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

I'm not too fussed. It was interesting to work for a much smaller company than the big corporates I normally end up at but they were so unsure about what they wanted it was disconcerting. I've billed for over nine months of the year so I'm not too worried if it takes a little while for the next one to pop up, although Lady Poppy hates it when I'm not earning. It's all part of the contracting experience so it does not phase me.

A good ten years yet before I think about retiring so if this is indeed good practice then I've got plenty of it left :)

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

My Manfrotto tripod 550 decided to fall to bits, no idea why. Spent about 20 minutes trying to get all the bits back in the right place as it's one of those you can flip to 90° and that was the bit that had come apart. It was like being on the Krypton Factor but I worked it out eventually with only several swear words, per minute.

Re: What have you tinkered with today?
 

Trev, my last contract at age 55 was in 2003 in Germany after IR35 stalled contracting. As I was financially secure and pretty much tired of the work by then I just took another year off and then worked as an insurance claims handler until I retired. I had been a programmer then an analyst and system designer.