Sunny Sundays, worth getting up for, the aftermath...

Just a few pictures to show off the extent of the insect slaying mission carried out on the May Tenterden to Brighton ride-out.

It must also be mentioned that it did take a week of contemplation to get the courage together to clean off this mess, which as feared did take quite a while to get off!

Mirror bashers, the bolt on miracle for bikes, just think all that crap would have been on my gloves mmm, nice.

That's all very well, but look at the rest of it, squashed and baked on bugs, and I thought trying to keep a bike clean during the winter was a hassle......

If you look closely at just under the seat, there is some exposed frame, which is the area that would be covered by the busted plastic.

I mentioned in the first ride out post about a small trim panel that had decided to give up the ghost and start flapping around. Well after getting the bike home I popped the offending plastic off completely, which is only a two minute job with two fixings holding it to the frame. The two separated pieces where cleaned up and re-bonded as they were a clean break with a two part industrial super glue. This was used as the moulding is made from ABS, which is a plastic used greatly for it's ability to be moulded easily, but is also renowned for it's ability to refuse to bond with most glues.

Photos showing the inside and outside of the newly bonded panel clearly highlighted by the excess glue and painfully parted editors fingertips, ouch!

Once the two pieces were stuck together, and myself generously donating most of the skin from both fingers and thumbs, the panel was left overnight to cure completely, (finish bonding and harden). I then polished off the excess glue residue with 800 grade wet and dry, and two minutes simply remounting, and voila!

All done, just waiting for final polishing, and then job done. All ready for the next time something decides to break it, hopefully not my arse like last time.