Hello

I was going to start this blog telling you all about my diet and how successful it’s been, but I won’t.

I’ve not been in the best form this past few weeks, seems like months, no like years. As old followers will know my main summertime passion is riding my bike and as mentioned previously the alternator went down on it a couple of months ago, no worries I thought as I soon got it sorted by a local shop all for the sum of £50, not a bad deal or so I thought.

I reckoned I’d saved about £150 on that deal so as this was an amount I thought I had to spend on the Dragon I decided to spend it anyway and ordered some saddle bag guards from the States, I paid the same for these as I would have for an alternator so wasn’t disappointed at all with the deal, mind it meant I had to get out of bed at 4 in the morning to catch the auction end, time difference you see, did this for a week and eventually got a winning bid in, happy.

Got a phone call of my mate Fred asking if I fancied a ride over the Pennines to collect a couple of metal detectors he’d won on eBay, never the one to give up a chance for a ride I said I would, next day we’re away on a nice 200 mile round trip, motorway there but back over the snake "here" Not as exiting as US129 but never the less a nice road. So all should be well? No, you see a few miles into the ride, I notice the volt meter only registering 12 volt again and not the 14 it should when charging, I wasn’t overly concerned as I’ve learnt from past experiences to be prepared and never trust a repair straight out the box, so I’d strapped the 12 volt power pack to the rear carrier, long story short, on the return leg about 10 miles from home bike starts miss firing and batteries dead. Get off hook up battery pack and home.

So next day it was alternator off and back to shop, left it for checking and sure enough it was shot, in fairness they offered a refund on repair which I gladly took but now had the dilemma as to what to do. This dilemma stayed with me for the 10 minute drive home, when I got in I was straight on eBay and ordered the alternator from the states should have done that in the first place.

So I’m now without the bike and waiting, I’ve got a tracking number and every couple of hours I clicking ups and tracking my parcel, (both of them). First one to arrive at customs was the guards followed 4 days later by the alternator, there they sit, languishing in a warehouse somewhere for over a week, then they are on there way again this time the message is “attempted delivery, fees to pay, awaiting payment”. I wait, two days later I get a letter telling me I have to pay customs duty prior to deliver. This is not a problem; I was expecting and had allowed the cost of duty and VAT.

So off to the depot I trot with cash in hand, I hadn’t had a letter about the alternator but that too was showing released from customs, so I asked anyway if it was there, sure enough it was so now I’ve got all my goodies and am happily driving back home to get them on the bike.

It was getting a little late so decided I’d tackle the alternator tomorrow and maybe bag guards the day after, so it was to bed and once more contented sleep knowing my Dragon would soon again be whole. Next day, and it was a day, I put the alternator back on, unfortunately when they assembled the alternator they put the rear housing on one third out,later discovered this being for a Goldwing that’s how it is so once on the bike although I could hook all the wire up I couldn’t get the trim surrounding alternator on. I did consider leaving it off but decided I’d remove the alternator and turn it a third (clock it), before I did this I did fire up the Dragon and can confirm volt meter was showing 14 volts, jobs a good un. Not the easiest thing to take off and put back on these alternators, but after a little cuzin and f’in an’ jeffin it was all done.

The weather up to this point had been really nice, wall to wall sunshine, perfect for riding, unfortunately the day after it started raining, never mind it will clear, so I got on with putting the guard rails on. 4 days that took me, just finished now, see the problem was my bags aren’t standard and I’d put them on where I thought they looked the best but when I came to offer up the rails they wouldn’t go around the bags, so I had to take the bags off and re mount them where the rails would work.

I put the rails on then offered up the bags, figured where I thought they’d need to be, altered the mounting brackets to suit then patched the old mounting holes with fibreglass. The first bag went on a dream and looked the business I must say, unfortunately it wasn’t the case with the second bag, seeeeeeeeeeee………………these rails are after market and not 100% and unfortunately the other side was out, only by a fraction of an inch but enough to make a difference. So I had to modify the bag mounting brackets to take the bags nearer to the bike, having done this it moved the mounting holes, only a little but a little is enough that the bags wont fit, soooooooooooooo I filled the holes with fibreglass and when set re drilled new holes in correct location.

The bags are now on the bike, I’m going to have to give the Dragon some real attention this winter and I’ll take the opportunity to sort out the paint and the back of the bags but for now it’s not too bad, when the rain stops I’ll go for a ride and maybe get a picture for you to see, until then, if you can, ride safe.