Bye bye Cubbie...

...as of yesterday, Cubbie is on holiday. How long for, I cannot say, but hopefully not too long. The MoT, tax and insurance are all due, and it needs a little spot of work for the MoT. So now I don't have a bike to ride, I can get cracking with a few jobs on my much neglected MZ Skorpion. The last tax disc is from 2008, but I don't recall riding it much that year, so it's probably about 3 years since it was on the road properly. It just needs a couple of bearings here and there, a new chain and a tidy up and then the pennies I could have spent on Cubbie's legal requirements, will be put towards Skorpy's new lease of life. Maybe the Cub will be ready for the autumn and then I'll take Skorpy off the road for the worst of the winter. Who knows, the best laid plans and all that.

One of the things stopping me from doing the jobs on the Skorpion was a lack of shed space. Ok, so I had a shed in which to keep the bike, but there isn't enough room in there to swing a spanner, never mind actually work on a bike. So over the last few days I've been rearranging The Shed. Unfortunately the hospital bed that was going to double as a bike lift had to go outside. There just isn't enough room for it - Slick gave it to me, and I don't want to throw it away, so if anyone out there who has a big shed, would like it, you're most welcome to come and get it. The Bultaco trials bike is now sitting on the small and once forgotten hydraulic bike lift that I bought from Costco or somewhere equally unlikely, a number of years ago. I put it under the sideboard in the front hall and forgot all about it, because I didn't have a shed to put it in. It takes up much less room than the bed, but I don't think it will be as versatile. Although I'm not yet so old and decrepit that I can't kneel on a cushion when working on bikes. The lift has a couple of 'legs' that fit into slots and take the weight, so I presume it's ok to leave a bike sitting on it for a while. Cubbie is by the shelf unit, the trials Cub project is spread out in various corners, along with Terry the Terrier's bits, and the 250 MZ (awaiting the creation of a sidecar) is just inside the door on the left. The 3 spare wheels that were in there are now in the old Skorpy shed, along with the strimmer, and it's just occurred to me that I could move the chain saw over there too. Filthy dribbly thing that it is. This leaves a nice big space slap bang in the middle for Skorpy.

After sticking the battery on charge for a couple of hours and draining the carb to get some new fuel through, Skorpy fired up and ran beautifully smoothly. Mrs BC assisted in manoeuvring it around the plant pots and up the ramp into The Shed, and I spent a happy 10 minutes removing copious amounts of thick sludge-like oil mixed with road dirt, grit and mud. It's amazing how much of the stuff was stuck to the suspension linkage.

Time for a new chain and sprockets too. And maybe a repaint on the swingy army bitty. If I get time.

A couple of posts on the very best MZ Skorpion forum in town www.mzskorpion.phpbbhosts.co.uk/index.php, run by our very own UN will provide the necessary information that I need along with instructions on how to do all the little jobs that have to be done. This is almost as exciting as working on Cubbie. Sleep tight little ones. PS, Darrell, Mrs BC says you can have 2 bowls of lamb stew for leaving nice comments like that.

Ooh, by the way, I found me another blog to read, thought you might be interested too. Pop over to http://www.myroyalenfields.blogspot.com/ to meet Jorge, a bagpipe playing Professor of Physics from Baton Rouge with a passion for all things Royal Enfield.