We've had some nice, hot days this week and a real lack of supervision at work, so I've been able to have a good, close look at the underbelly of the scooter. There's some work to be done down here as well, though nothing's out of hand as of yet.
The rear shocks look bad, and I'm struggling to get them to adjust as the terrible spray paint job is holding them in place. I think they'll clean up OK when I manage to get them off, but for the mean time I'm planning to swap them with the shocks off the newer bike.
That's just a gratuitous shot of the rear tyre and exhaust - note the missing end piece off the exhaust. I will shortly be pilfering the end piece from the other bike, again!
The belt cover isn't looking too smart, and has already had one (quite poor) respray. I can't see me getting it done before leaving in a few weeks, but I'd like to have it off, resprayed in a proper zinc primer and then with aluminium paint or black.
Base of the rear shock is, again, not pretty. The little bracket supporting the mudguard has started to rust, especially on the rear, so that needs to come off for the primer and paint treatment this weekend!
A better shot of the rear shock.
As you can see, the centre stand rubber is missing, which is a great shame, and there's been damage to the belt cover here at some point, which worries me as I can't see how it's been done. I haven't checked if the other bike has a centre stand rubber yet, but I'm planning to pinch the centre stand off the other bike, spray it up and swap it with this one as the rust has set in a bit. The stand lugs on the frame are also suffering with a light rusting, so they'll need wire brushing and some paint to keep them solid. After all this, I can apply ACF50 grease to this lower section of the frame to slow down any further deterioration!
See the little black cap in the top of this photo? That's the airbox drain. I pulled out the bung, expecting a few drops of water, and got my hands soaked with foul-smelling deposits of rusty, stagnant water with a tinge of petrol smell. It took me hours to get rid of the smell! It's clearly never been drained until now.
This is what the rubber bung is connected to at the other end. It's up at the airbox.
On the way home from work, I have to take a rest nowadays, so I stop by this duck pond in a village. There's been an ice cream van parked there recently too
The top box, unsurprisingly, needs some work as well, hence the bungie holding it on.
This is a gratuitous shot of where I grew up. I was down there at the weekend. The biking roads are amazing.
However, the Derbyshire lanes are also pretty cool.
Did I post pictures of the pannier rails and the luggage rack support getting a respray?
