Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[Adam Ef]

Went to do TPS adjustment today. Warmed engine up. Dealer mode wire at the ready. popped up tank. Dealer mode on, restarted bike and went to undo the TPS bolt with one of my seven T25 torx tools. Only to see that it's a security T25 ! Looked through my tools and all seven I have are not security.


Pack bike back up and back into the garage and head out around local shops to get a security T25. A few shops later and I've had to buy a whole set of bits, so I now have three full sets and plenty of individual torx tools in various sizes. More money than I wanted to spend, but at least I can now do the job.


Back to garage, bike out, warm it up, tank up etc and loosen off the TPS bolt. The only thing I can get in there with is a small socket wrench, with 1/4" socket which holds the T25 security bit nicely, although it's not magnetic... at this point you might guess where this is going. A few adjustments back and forwards proving you only need really really small adjustments to make a big difference on the TPS. Whenever it looks good on the dash, doing up the bolt on the TPS seems to send it off again. So a bit of luck and guessing how much the bolt tightening affects it and I'm nearly there.. until.... you guessed it, the bit drops out of the end of the socket and dissappears down into the engine.


Engine is hot so I can't feel around. I've just spent the best part of an hour with a torch looking around through all crevices in the engine, trying to see where the T25 security bit has dropped to and I can't find it at all. Now waiting for engine to cool more so I can feel around inside. In short.... Aaaaaargh!

[maviczap]

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

You'd think that such long established technology would be largely foolproof by now. We lagged decades behind most of Europe and many other advanced nations with overhead power for trains but still it causes problems for a route that's only recently had them installed. You don't hear about it failing all the time on the c2c or SouthEast services, or the East Coast Mainline, so why is the GWR Mainline such a problem area?

Originally Posted by Red ones

ECM to Peterborough frequently has problems.

Obviously we've invested in the wrong type of overhead lines!

Mondays train was delayed getting into London by poor track conditions ( leaves on the line!) and an underpowered engine (an electric unit!)

[chris8886]

my dicky ticker's gone on the wonk again! so am sat in hospital in London again. on the positive side, it looks like the operation that I was due to have has been moved up in timescale to the next few days. just annoying that it seems to take something like this to happen to get them to do it!

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by chris8886

my dicky ticker's gone on the wonk again! so am sat in hospital in London again. on the positive side, it looks like the operation that I was due to have has been moved up in timescale to the next few days. just annoying that it seems to take something like this to happen to get them to do it!

i know exactly how you feel GWS

[BanannaMan]

Originally Posted by chris8886

my dicky ticker's gone on the wonk again! so am sat in hospital in London again. on the positive side, it looks like the operation that I was due to have has been moved up in timescale to the next few days. just annoying that it seems to take something like this to happen to get them to do it!

Hope all goes well and they have you sorted soon!

[Geodude]

Originally Posted by banannaman

hope all goes well and they have you sorted soon!

+1 gws

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by maviczap

Obviously we've invested in the wrong type of overhead lines!

Mondays train was delayed getting into London by poor track conditions ( leaves on the line!) and an underpowered engine (an electric unit!)

Did anyone see the documentary about the winter of 1962/3 a few months ago ? There were clips of steam locomotives traveling through deep snow without it seemed too much problem. Electric trains can be stopped by either snow on the track or ice and snow on overhead lines (it insulates them ). I hate to think how we would have fared in WW2 if we had been using either diesel or electric locomotives ( or even diesel electric ), it would either have meant using up precious oil ( that we did not have ) that was needed for war effort or if the enemy had just managed to hit one power station / or even a power sub-station supplying 25Kv to trains they could have bought railways to a full stop over large areas. Many countries around the world continued to use steam trains well after us because either their network was unsuitable to be electrified, the sheer cost, or they had plenty of coal and wood but no oil. Or they had resident pikeys that would nick the copper wires LOL

[punyXpress]

" Electric trains can be stopped by either snow on the track or ice and snow on overhead lines (it insulates them ). " . .
. . .or the sheer weight of ice & snow brings the lines down.

Mention of deep snow reminds me of attending the Dragon Rally in north wales.
The snow was above telegraph poles on the Horseshoe Pass:

" Riding Maicoletta scooters a pal and I went up the pass as it seemed the most direct route. We saw car roofs above the snow and then just radio aerials.

Eventually the only tracks were the trials sidecar in John Ebbrell's article so we followed them. When we reached the point where he turned round (he had more sense than us) we did another 20 yards and then had to turn back ourselves because the snow was above the telegraph poles and we would have no idea where we were.

When we got to the crossroads at the northern end after a long detour we realised we couldn't have got down anyway - the Horseshoe road was a solid wall of snow about 12 feet high! "
That was in 1963, so only 55+ year olds have ever experienced REAL snow !

[chris8886]

Originally Posted by punyXpress

That was in 1963, so only 55+ year olds have ever experienced REAL snow !

unless you've been abroad skiing/snowboarding?!

[Adam Ef]

Or have lived abroad.

Originally Posted by chris8886

unless you've been abroad skiing/snowboarding?!

Originally Posted by punyXpress

That was in 1963, so only 55+ year olds have ever experienced REAL snow !