Shed time

Yeah, I know, I've been lazy with my posting.  Maybe after I get this wee one done...

Yesterday was maintenance/farkle time for the T7.  I started off by absolutely spoiling the bike by cleaning it (leaving clumps of mud all over the place where said washing took place) and then swapping out the oil and filter.  Easy stuff.

Next up was a wee upgrade.  Glen (and quite a few guys) had recently upped his front sprocket by a tooth to drop the rpms a tad when cruising.  He reported that the bike was still fine with the slightly higher gearing and after riding with him a few weekends ago I decided to give it a whirl too.

I new that it'd be interesting getting the sprocket nut off after changing one on the WR and needing to borrow an impact driver.  This time around I had to borrow a 30mm socket from Ken who lives just up the road.  I then proceeded to try to loosen the nut myself.

Yeah, that wasn't going to work.  I couldn't hold enough rear brake on and lean hard on the bar to loosen the nut.  Using a tie down to hold the brake on didn't work either - I didn't have enough weight on the bike and the brake wasn't on enough to stop the wheel from turning.  Luckily Ken was just up the road...

With Ken holding the bike and standing on the brake I was still not getting anywhere.  Time to get serious...

Yeah, it's nearly as long as the bike...

Eventually, the super bar extension finally cracked the nut and we were in business.

Out with the old and in with the new.

A bit of loctite and some peening on the nut dohickey and hopefully it's not going anywhere.  Then everything was back together and the chain adjusted to suit,

For the oil change I had to remove the standard skid pad but couldn't find it in me to stick the same one back on so slapped on a new plastic Acerbis one.

It's quite a bit bigger and offers a bit more protection to  some of the critical bits and bobs and is designed to try to help keep crap off the shock which could damage that too.  Looks good too - Colin and Andy never noticed it today...