Long Vehicle, Short Vehicle

By now I was getting Yellow Peril sussed, I had done a whole bunch of ‘stuff’ to it (which I’ll talk about elsewhere – it’s not of interest to everyone) one of the key things being Locktiteing the timing cover screws – not just with Locktite either these were special and expensive screws with a plastic insert, so this journey isn’t about something that went wrong. Shhh, don’t tell anyone! 

I was heading across the A303, it was a lovely day, and I got stuck behind a yellow trailer, a very long one with Long Vehicle Signs on the back. Yes, I was immediately struck by the irony of the situation, a yellow long vehicle being followed by a yellow short vehicle. Well, who wouldn't be?

So was the guy in the mini metro who overtook us both, deliberately preventing me from overtaking by the way. How very rude! 

I saw the pointing and the laughing as this family went past me, especially the laughing, so it was no surprise to me after I’d got past the trailer – and I got further delayed by the scorpion tank which was not far beyond, when I saw this same car stuck on the side of the road, with the driver changing the wheel as I passed him. I gave him a totally non-ironic ‘cheery wave’ as my Short Vehicle left him in my dust. It confirmed what I’d always thought, my bike was possessed, but once more it gave me Justice!!  Yeah, baby! 

And yes, the other part of that journey was having a very hard time getting past the Scorpion tank which was on some sort of exercise (I am sure it wasn’t supposed to be on the road but I won’t tell anyone if you won’t.)   Those things are pretty quick! Those guys gave me a thumbs up as I went past so I am pretty sure they didn’t break down later! 

Just for reference, I saw quite a few tanks on the A303 – this was the first one however that was under its own power, the rest had all been on trailers and were mostly Chieftains. Those things were so unreliable that they gave Yellow Peril a solid run for its money and that's saying a lot.

Rebuilds and Mods

The list of things I did to Yellow Peril is quite extensive – by the time the bike did its last miles with me I’d replaced almost all of the Philips screws with Allan heads, and all the key ones had been coated with locktite. The Timing cover screws had been replaced as I’ve mentioned with special screws with a plastic insert which did a fine job of holding the points in place, a considerable relief let me tell you. 

 

In addition, I’d replaced the seals on all the shocks, and when a Haynes manual says some force may be required, what it actually means is a bloody great mallet and a lot of cursing, or more sensibly, don’t try this at home folks! 

That was just some of the small stuff I did. I’d also coated the downpipes in Zinc (not the nice plating either) because did I mention the finish wasn’t great? and chemically blacked them myself which was in reality some sort of high temperature spray called chemical blacking. 

I’d rebuilt the top end twice. Every 12k miles,  although the second rebuild was minor by comparison, reground the valves (twice), decoked the head, found that the tappets and camshaft were too soft on the first rebuild and with dads never failing help stoned them clean and had them case hardened. 

I'd also replaced the cam chain tensioner. I should probably have fitted needle roller bearings to the cam, but given what happened to the bike it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t. 

There’s more, most of it being small stuff like more locktite on many key bolts (which I didn't replace with something better, new and better headlight bulbs, plus all the usual exigencies of bike maintenance back then – not forgetting boiling the chain regularly in grease and causing a massive stink in whatever place I was in, which wound everyone around me up, especially mum who was a saint about the whole thing. Did I mention replacing the cam chain tensioner? The list went on and on and included replacing wiring, and as I've said already plug caps, those being the simplest thing I did.

In the end, I did get the bike working reliably, but on balance, while I learned a lot it so wasn’t worth it. I think back then it was something you just accepted if you were going to put any sort of miles on a bike!

Thor, Love and Thunder. In Review

 

Most of you who read this will already have decided whether you’re going to see this or not, so I’ll confine myself to saying that if you like superhero movies you should go and see this, and see it on a big screen with a good sound system. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and while I had concerns when I saw who was directing it, I have to say that everything he did worked, and the first act flowed seamlessly into the last and set it off perfectly. One day they’ll do a bad one of these. Really.

If you want the wordy version of the review here we go! 

I’ve got to tell you all that I had pretty strong doubts going into this film. While Thor Ragnarök wasn’t by any means bad, it was tonally uneven and the Guardians of the Galaxy bit felt grafted on, even forced. Given that the films share the director, you’ll understand my concerns. However, I was so utterly wrong to be concerned.

I and finding it quite hard to write a meaningful review and keep it spoiler free, so I’ll confine myself to saying that like Thor Ragnarok the film is indeed tonally uneven but in a good way. Many parts of the first act and a half are laugh out loud funny, the interactions between the various characters are great, the Guardians of the Galaxy part was, in its own way awesome, and Russel Crowe totally stole every bit in which he appeared, especially in terms of his general campiness.

However.

This all serves to lead into the final act and  the contrast is all the more marked for what gone on before, As the adversary Christian Bale was lacking only in that I don’t think he got enough screen time, and the way his ‘stuff ‘was handled was just visually and conceptually amazing, while the way it ended was better than I could have hoped for.

While this film was literally a tale of gods and monsters, in the end it was a human story, and was all the better for it. Go see this.