John Grant at the Bath Forum

Following on from Turin Brakes, at the end of October we went to see John Grant at the Bath Forum. I've been a fan since his first solo album 'Queen of Denmark' and I've bough each follow up album since. Since his first album he's introduced more songs with a 80's electronic beat and although I have a preference to his mellower songs the whole gig was brilliant. He played for approx 2 hours and live the electronic beat just totally worked, along with great lighting and at times visuals on a back drop.

   He's touring the UK again in 2019 

Turin Brakes at the Cheese & Grain

Back at the start of October we went to see Turin Brakes at the Cheese and Grain in Frome, Somerset. I'd liked Turin Brakes since buying their album 'Ether Songs' all those years ago and although on the strength of that I bought two of their earlier albums I wasn't a avid follower and Madelyn really hardly knew their material at all. I bought their latest album 'Invisible Storm' just a few days before the gig and although I liked it, listening to it on the way to the Frome Madelyn wasn't overly impressed (Admittedly a cheap car stereo isn't the best way of listening to any music) Anyway what a Great band to see live and we are both looking forward to their next tour as for certain we'll be in the queue.

  The Cheese & Grain is a really good venue too so we'll be keeping an eye on any future gigs there.

And ..........more brackets

Made some progress - the GSXR forks are apart,dropping the sliders and yokes (cleaned up the casting marks etc) off for powder  coating and I'll be fitting some progressive springs when rebuilding. The caliper arrived a few days ago and have made a bracket to suit - probably try and give it a better look - and had the disc carrier machined down. Shear plate (support between engine and frame) virtually done though needs tidying up.

Guzzi project

Virtually all the brackets I made are now in place although the l/h rear side panel bracket is a whole hole width out so I'll have to cut that off and have re-welded back on. Of interest to some maybe, the modified frame weighs approx 3.75 kgs less.

The thin flat plate is for the proposed
Elektronik Sachse ignition box

850T / 750S look-a-like

Finally got round to looking at the 850T last weekend and was pleasantly surprised when I got a reaction out of it (a few months back there wasn't even a click from the button) No idea what changed as I was expecting to spend a hour or two chasing a fault. Anyway, after a couple of new plugs, realising the correct position for those old style square bodied taps it fired up and within minutes settled down to a nice tick over. I took it for a very short spin and all seemed well even if the engine did seem mechanically quite loud though I wasn't too concerned. Yesterday I decided to check the valve clearances and onto the l/h side I was a little puzzled by being able to keep tightening, to get a correct clearance on that sides inlet. On closer investigation I soon realised that I could see a broken valve spring. Took it all apart to find the outer spring in two pieces and the inner in three pieces. Luckily I have good amount of spares and soon had it back together fired the bike up and as expected it's a whole lot quieter. In my haste though I'd forgotten to put back the stepped locating washer that locates / centralises the springs, so this morning had it all apart again then back together also fitting three 6 mm  helicoils for the rocker covers and all by 9 am.