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LDU22 - Project Rusty Tomato (Pic heavy)


James306

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20 minutes ago, Tom Mac said:

I'd wait to see what arrives in the post before making statements like that 🤣

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Now I'm expecting something like this to show up, for the challenge of seeing if I can fit the things :lol:

Edited by James306
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So a big thanks to @Tom Mac who kindly donated me a pair of indicators after seeing my hillbilly repair work! I'm a bit happier that I'll make John O'Groats with them still attached to the bike now!

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Any keen eye's spot anything odd about them? :eusa_think:

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I had to leave them in until I'd fitted them! :lol: 

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I think I will have to ride with them on the bike somewhere for luck! :lol:

In addition to that I reassembled my cleaned up front caliper with the new seal

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Got her re-fitted with the new pads, refilled with new brake fluid and bled!

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Starting to look suspiciously like a bike again! still a way to go yet though!

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1 hour ago, James306 said:

had to leave them in until I'd fitted them! :lol: 

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I think I will have to ride with them on the bike somewhere for luck! :lol:

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  • 2 months later...

Long time no update, so this is going to be a bit of a long one!! Finally back home with a 4.5 week window to get the old girl ready so I felt I had a bit of breathing room. Here's how I left her!

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Decided to jump straight onto getting the rear brake sorted, seal kit, strip and paint! Pistons were pitted so these were replaced for new!

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Like new!

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Couple of new copper washers, new pads slipped in and she was fitted, bled and ready for some action!

Decided to try and fire her into life once more and realised I should have run the carbs dry and drained them before I left, I was truly amazed and how piss orange E10 fuel had gone after just 8 weeks!

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Fuel from left and right banks, the left bank was cloudy as Fooook! Fuel in the service tank wasn't much better! It seemed the fuel I had in the sealed jerry can was its usual colour so it shows much the air effects it, concerning considering how Hydroscopic it's supposed to be! Bye bye steel fuel tanks! 

Fresh fuel in her and she fired up on 3.5 once again! Not so concerned as  hoping a good blast will clear her through!

Next I decided while I was away to just order a fairing fixing kit as at £12.99 delivered it was cheaper than trying to source rubber rivets as well as fannying around making screws for the screen as I didn't have any wide head screws and machine screws and washers would look ridiculous where you can see them!

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Starting to look scarily like a bike again!

Having bought a front tank mount and also now forked out for a fairing fixing kit, I needed to turn attention to the rear tank clamp/seat post. Now at £297.98 spending another £10 just wasn't an option! So into the scrap bin I went armed with a photo from one of my fellow LDU XK riders!

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Length of flat bar and an old spacer...

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Bit of time with the hacksaw, file and I had these!

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Add a spin in the lathe and some beating of a hammer and I had the components I needed! Time to fire up the welder!

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As good as the original!

Next issue was the battery I robbed out the Fazer is still totally the wrong size... After failing to lay my hands on a used but ropey battery for free elsewhere and armed with memories of last time I rode JOG-LE plagued with starting issues, I decided to bite the bullet and dip into the £3-600 part of the budget I've been trying desperately to avoid! £25.99 later I could finally get the seat on and still be able to start the bike!

Bit of time spent getting the screen and tank fitted, now sh1t's getting real!

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Naturally this wouldn't be a proper LDU bike if the screen just went on with no issues...

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Nothing a 5mm drill bit and cable tie can't sort!

MOT booked and quietly confident, she emerges from the garage with the plan to ride her under he own power for the first time in 16 years!

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Time to fire her up and give her a run around the block to make sure she's good to make it to the test centre the following day!

Of course it's not going to go that smoothly... There's only fuel pissing out the front of the stop cock, rag under it to catch it while I test fire her up, won't start unless it's on prime... FFS!

Rolled her back into the garage thinking some grit and shit must have come from the inside of the fuel tank walls and choked up the stop cock, pull the tank off and drain out what's in there to see what's happening with the fuel cock! Schoolboy mistake! I saw the connection for the vacuum fuel cut-off and realised I'd just not connected the vacuum hose up (I'd assumed I'd disconnected it from the chain luber when I removed it and just plugged it with a bolt)

Removed the tap from the cock while I was there to address the leak, no damage to the o-ring so I greased it up with some silicone grease and put it back together, good as gold! Refited the tank, turned the fuel on and BAM! One running bike ready for the MOT!

MOT time, did the usual checks of all lights, brake lights, horn and off I go! Naturally by the time it's in for the test the rear brake light decided to stop working so it failed, but the MOT tester kindly lent me some allen keys, pair of pliers and after 5 minutes of ripping the fairing off and adjusting the switch/cleaning the contacts it was right as rain again! After being checked that it was sorted, she was issued with a pass certificate with no advisories! 

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The garage I took it to, Citycall Services in Burton Latimer also kindly didn't charge me for the MOT in the spirit of the charity, so I have put the cost of the MOT into the donation pot in their name! Top place, I'd recommend them to anyone!

Interestingly the tester said it was the first MOT the bike had ever had, he had to set up the test class at the start of the test! So it seems the original owner of this bike must have ridden it for its first three years, decided to give it a change of colour/restoration or had dropped it and wanted to repair it, started the job and then just ran out of time/motivation and hence her having sat for the last 16 years! At 29 years old and 3 former keepers, imported from Japan in 1995, tyres 25 years old with little use I do wonder what her full story is!

Either way, she's ready for the next chapter now! Time to put some proving miles on her! Next job is to sort out the lack of running on #2 cylinder and get up up to her full power and start kicking the fundraising into full swing ready for the big day!!! More updates to no doubt follow!

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm going to post a few updates of the week or two leading up to the ride as I had numerous issues to sort before the off and I wanted to get them in here for the history! Sorry it's a long one!

After the MOT I started using the bike to try and get some proving miles on her, and glad I did! 

First issue was to deal with that funky misfire! After a bit of investigation I found that it was a duff spark plug, so I robbed a plug out the Fazer!

Welcome to the party cylinder #2!

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Burning off more shite

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Starting to look like a potential contender! My little princess has her name down for next year also, her bike is under the £50 bracket so she's already well ahead!

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Then I made some stickers to get her branded up

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Gave her an oil change 

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Yummy Ribena!

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Then started using her!

Managed to get half a mile from home when the oil light came on, kill switch on and roll to the side of the road, call the wife to nip home and grab me oil (I'd just left the same time as her and didn't have my keys ^_^)

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Oil level was alright but topped it up a but more anyway, oil light gone for now... After this I set about thinking perhaps the fully synth oil I'd put in was a bit too thin, causing a lower oil pressure, although after some mild googling found the XJ have an oil level light rather than pressure... Anyway, more to follow on this!

Wondering where oil could otherwise be going, I decided to get round to buying a 10mm adapter for the compression tester and see what's going on, a week before the challenge and I find that 3/4 of the cylinders are down...

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Did the test again with wet bores (Squirt of oil in each to see if it's rings or valve hear/head gasket)

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Looks very much like a rings issue! Given that the bike was sat for around 25 years, the likelyhood of the rings being stuck in the lands was pretty high, I didn't have the energy to rip the engine apart with this long to go and try to source new head gasket, rings etc... so I made an attempt at a bodge LDU budget solve!

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Worked out how much is enough of sea foam into each bore to fully cover the piston crown at the canted engine angle, left it soaking overnight with some gentle rocking to get it into the krooks and nannies between the rings and lands and hoped for the best!

Next day I rocked it some more, squirt of WD40 into each bore, turned it over to blow out the unwanted sea foam, then put a little engine oil in each cylinder and turned her over (This would have washed the bores which wouldn't be idea at starting point)

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Whacked the plugs back in, put Darude Sandstorm on and had a rave with the smoke machine!

I didn't want to demoralize myself with another compression test so I just took her for a long test ride and she felt much nicer to ride! That may have been wishful thoughts but I rolled with it! By this point the fork seals were clearly leaking after going down a particularly bumpy country road...

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Planned to task her on an extended ride the following day, got to my friends and could smell petrol, checked and it was pissing out the fuel tap! On top of this the clutch had started slipping under hard acceleration... Back home it was then!

I changed the oil for a Semi-Synth in the hope it may help with the oil loss/blow by. Also this was planned as there would be sea foam in it still! This was my suspected cause of the clutch slip!

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Turned out to be a perished fuel line (Age or E10 fuel :eusa_think:)

Whacked a new fuel line on with a generous loop, changed the fuel filter (Left the old one on for two tank fulls to catch any shit)

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Then got the boss to come in and carry out quality control 

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By this point with 5 days remaining a friend had offered me his SV650 for £500 after hearing about the fork seals and the compression issue, so I thought a nice test ride would be to go look at it, it's been sat for 3 years with no MOT but how bad could it be? So I booked an MOT, he whacked it on charge and I went to meet him as soon as he got home from work... Turned out it was far more fucked than we both thought, seized brakes, seized gear selector, paint peeling, fucked battery, rusty chain, fucked fork seals, a real LDU contender! But not with 5 days to go! I kindly declined and set off home thinking about how good it would be for next years event if I had a year to sort it out! (Pics available if people are interested)

Got about 5 minutes into the ride home and total loss of power, another day another breakdown! Not the old killswitch either! Managed to get off the road alongside the A43 in a field entrance

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It was that generous bloody loop that had got hot and kinked...

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So another roadside LDU repair with what tools I had to hand... Oh look, a stick!

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And I was back on my way!

Clutch slip still present but way less frequent!

As soon as I got home I ordered a set of Fork seals!

2 days later and with 2 more sleeps to go until I leave, the seals arrived! I set about removing the forks as soon as I got home from bike night that evening (probably about 9pm)

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Bloody lovely!

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Got the forks stripped down to clean and give the stanchions a good polish

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Courtesy measure to see if the springs are withing range

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Then found for reassembly I needed a special tool from Yamaha to hold the damper rods which putting in the bottom retaining screw, at the cost of £50... 

Orrrr, an old 16mm socket, 24mm bolt and 5 minutes with the welder!

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Just the job

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One filled with oil, new seals in and reassembled!

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I only had enough oil to hand to do one, so at 2am I sodded off to bed.

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Up in the morning to make a terrible mistake... After only riding the XJ since it got an MOT I jumped on the Tiger to go get some fork oil... why did I do that? What was I thinking taking that XJ up there when the Tiger is so much more comfortable, quick, reliable, everything the XJ isn't! 

Last fork back together, everything back on and she was ready to go!

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Aside the clip that holds the speedo cable to the mud guard, I know where I left it but where the hell is it?! Spent the best part of an hour searching before I gave up and put the wheel on/tourqued everything... What's that I hear it the wheel when I spin it?!

Oh, that would be my little princess 'helping' by posting various cable ties and my speedo clip into the wheel hub!

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The face of someone who knows exactly what they're doing!

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I think by this point the bikes about as ready as it's going to be! With no major shakedown ride completed I had no idea how she would be running by the time I got to Lands End for the start, but what's the worst that could happen?! :eusa_whistle:

Write up of the events on the trip down and on the day to follow! But it'll take me a while, spoiler, my hands are still recovering from the ride and typing is at about 1/3rd speed of normal!

 

 

Edited by James306
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So I nip out to buy a few last minute bits, cruise throttle, fit my quad lock (I have trust issues still) litre of oil for the journey, new tank bag on a Sunday morning!

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When you heard quadlock is the best thing since sliced bread but still have trust issues... Simple answer to a simple problem!

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But after a bit of fannying around I had her loaded up and ready to go! Just to roll her into the garage and get some sleep for a 6:30AM departure!

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By this point the Riders Whatsapp group is alive with people leaving for their journey to Lands End and I'm jealous and getting itchy feet, while eating my fathers day fry up (at 6pm, better late than never) I went online and grabbed a last minute room at the Weston Super Mare Holiday Inn and set off to meet some of the others who were there for the night as it was about half way for me!

After a trouble free ride, this was a welcoming sight! A group of sketchy looking bikes (Not at the Travel lodge, no names mentioned!) By now all the clutch slipping had subsided, she was running like a dream(ish)!

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9:30 arrival and I throw my gear in my room and off to the Bar to meet the others!

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Up early and got the gear loaded onto the bike, lent a hand fingering a light clip on for Paul and we were all about ready for the off! Curtesy glance at my sight glass and it's about half way, good enough! Off we set! About half a mile up the road I get the same oil light issue I've had a few times, stopped and gave her a quick squirt and we were off again!

Decent paced ride towards lands end and I was thinking to myself, is my 3/4l of oil I have on me enough for the day, maybe I need more, don't want to be diverting for oil mid trip (I totally didn't realise how prepared the pit stops were at this point) so we diverted to Halfords so I could grab a bottle just in case!

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Met a random bloke in the car park who turned out to make stickers for bikes! He seemed pretty keen to load us up with whatever brand we needed for our bikes, obviously I had to put anything but Yamaha on mine!

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Off we go again, bound for Lands End!

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Made it in around 2:30, in plenty of time to finally match some faces up to the bikes I've been watching be prepped on the whatsapp group over the last 6 months which was fantastic, already felt like I knew quite a few of the lads!

Roll over for the Ceremonial start

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Then off to the Hotel for a battle to the petrol station, followed by an evening of bike chat, cokes, beers, prize giving and some grub!

I don't think anyone I spoke to managed a good nights sleep with all the excitement, trepidation and a constant flow of bikes going past the hotel!

3AM various people were up and about, the ground floor of the Premier Inn had a strong smell of Petrol, because a can of fuel was worth more than half the bikes outside at this point!!

Got a shower and loaded the bike up ready! 

4AM hits and we all depart! A few ahead of me managed to forget the speed camera 2 minutes from the hotel, I'm hopeful the fog blew out the picture with the flash but I'm sure we'll find out in the next few days! Despite knowing the oil level was fine, slightly overfilled even, the oil light returned! I knew I was fine for level and ignored it to continue making headway, after 1 minute it went off. I finally had some time while cruising the A30 to think about what's happening, I believe the oil is so viscous when she's not warmed up (the previous 3 oil light incidents were all after cold starts on cooler days) that it's just not flowing fast enough back down to the crank case, so the level is dropping below the level switch minimum to scare the shit out of me!

First leg was like a scene out of the IOM TT (Amateur hour) at the front of the pack, people working their way through traffic to get some miles covered early! I lost the pack in Bath when they took a different turn to me and I headed into the city centre. This was the first of my issues, I'd pushed the bike so hard in the first hour to maintain a pace with the front runners, she now dropped onto only two cylinders below 5krpm, this had me sat in morning traffic at red lights holding the bike at 5krpm to keep her running with commuters wondering wtf is wrong with me... It got me through Bath and making progress again though! 

Pitstop 1 reached! 

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Straight away the guys were brilliant! Straight away someone's in to lube the chain, I'm offered food, drink, another is cleaning my visor and checking the oil while I leg it to pee in a bush (Time is critical here, I have a target in mind for the ferry) and after a splash of oil, I'm out to the fuel station, filled up and gone! 

On the way out I noticed all my misfiring issues had gone! Bad fuel, or sucked something through? No idea but I was glad it was gone! I ignored the satnav at one point and followed another rider as he looked like he knew where he was going! Turns out neither of us did! A quick check of the map and we're both off towards P2  again, This was Simon on his VFR800 and we very much had matched pace and were making great headway picking through the morning traffic! This made for a pretty quick and uneventful run to P2, picking up a lad on his speed triple towards the last few roundabouts to P2

Pitstop 2 reached!

Again another fantastic pit, bike on the stand, another squirt of chain lube and a splash of oil while I ran a smashed a banana and mini bottle of water, Simon agreed we were at a good pace and we decided to stick together for the time being! Splash and dash at the petrol station and we were on the road again! Navigated our way through Liverpool to the Mersey tunnel, paid the toll before a bloke ran over and told me there was a bike lane, no time to argue over giving you money, we were off again! Missed a turn in the tunnel because my speed was a little above the no signal satnav speed... soon back on track once out!

Pitstop 3 reached!

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What a place Guys Thatched Cottage is! Again super organised pit crew, checked in and to the pit, oil added, chain lubed, visor cleaned and checked in! Food here was on form with all sorts of pastries, scotch eggs etc! I grabbed a scotch egg and threw it in my face while offloading some more water and we were pretty quickly back on the road!

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The run from P3 all the way past Kendal was brilliant! Winding roads, fantastic scenery and it was easy to make progress with this distraction from the fast growing aches and pains! I was leading and too a wrong turn, again listening to the SatNav which took us on a service road alongside the M6, missing Longtown where a friend of mine was waiting to cheer us on as we passed! Aside this we continued to make good time all the way towards P4, or so I thought! At Kilmarnock my SatNav once again did something funky and I made a last minute swerve top follow it, Simon did not! I got back on the A71 on the next roundabout and hung about for 5 minutes to see if he had stopped but he had carried on so I got going again. Followed the ShatNav to the ferry terminal, didn't see the fuel station on the way tough so I looped back to one on google maps to fill up. Back to the ferry terminal to find the reason I didn't see the fuel station (I was told I wasn't the first), I was at the wrong bloody ferry terminal! 8 minutes back to the right one so I got going.

Pitstop 4 reached! 

Got in just as the others were leaving on the ferry. Gave me 15 minutes to eat a sausage roll and have a drink, again more oil, shock! Again fantastic pit crew, offered various foods and of course, a stack of Irn Bru! Wish I'd thrown some in my bag for later! Paul Berryman and Simon Hindley arrived not long after also having missed the fuel station! I loaded on to the ferry and realised the real reason everyone loves the ferry! Bit of time to throw the liner in my jacket, walk around and best of all, use the toilet without it impacting my journey time! 

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Off the ferry, the roads were amazing from the moment I left the terminal! I went back to working the bike very very hard through some of the best roads of the trip trying to make up some time with the others! The bike was absolutely singing and we had a fantastic ride through Glencoe as the sun was dropping into Golden Hour up to Fort William for another needed splash and dash for the trip to Inverness

Started to have some incidents with wildlife on this leg, two small finch looking birds swooped in front of me, one making it past my wheel, the other going through the front wheel and coming out the other side in a cloud of feathers (Sorry birdie) and further up the road, a bird of prey took off as I flew round a corner and flew just over my helmet, causing a bit of poo to come out of me! Was a hell of a wingspan when it was 2ft from my head! This wasn't the last run in with wildlife for the night, but nothing more until past Inverness!

Pitstop 5 reached!

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For some reason my ShiteNav took me to North Coast Customs, so again another 6 minutes waster going back to Haggis tours, another warm welcome from a fantastic pit crew! I could smell the food on the road in, by this point it was around 10pm and I was so ready for something warm ahead of the last slog! I had a cup of warm soup, a lucozade sport and took 10 minutes to chill knowing the next leg was going to be the worst! I set off once again, complete with my goodie bag with Whiskey and Scones for the arrival about 5 minutes after the Broom Wagon left! I quickly caught up with the broom wagon and wasted no time passing them and trying to reach John O'Groats by 12:30 knowing the rest had left around 15 minutes before I arrived at P5. This is the point my Quad Lock failed me after about 1200 miles under it's belt, looked down to see my phone dangling from the handlebars by my bit of emergency string! Never mind, it's only two roads from here! The first part of this leg went well, then the fog hit... As soon as I was riding into the fog, I could feel my jacket cooling down, the stiffness really started to set in and this just bogged my remaining energy and enthusiasm! This point I started to think back to Johns earlier comments about how this leg becomes worse than the entire journey until now put together! I took some comfort in knowing the Broom Wagon was only a matter of minutes behind me at this point and wondering if they'd spot me in that field over there if I didn't make this corner etc... Had a few close calls with Rabbits here, a few ran out into my headlight beam but no point did I feel the bubum of them under the wheels, so that's a few less animals day ruined by the now Crusty Tomato! 3X the cast of A Bugs Life that were now encrusted on the front of the bike are another matter entirely!

I started to really struggle to concentrate, tunnel vision setting on watching out for the next corner with my shite standard lights, stiff fingers and fading brakes from all the heavy braking. Hallucinations started to kick in which was just another mental thing to try and block out, I'd pulled right back to cornering at 30/40mph where I'd have been doing 70 just half hour earlier! This really started to make the leg drag, especially not being able to look at the phone and see the miles drop. Instead waiting for the signs to count down which seemed to drag so much more with no time scale! About 2/3rds of the way I just had to get off the bike for 2 minutes to reset, stretch my legs and question my life choices! This made the world of difference and off I set again with a new found enthusiasm! I managed reach Wick and see that holy grail that is John O'Groats 16 miles! Brilliant! Home straight! Brilliant, I drive on! About 20 minutes later I finally came to a John O'Groats sign, 16 miles! :eusa_wall: I'd sailed straight past the right turn to JOG in my tired state and was now 16 miles West of JOG! On I continue, very demoralized! Finally I reach the sight, deserted at this point so I roll up to the sign to get a photo then message to see where everyone is. By now those who had got in before me were warming up in one of the lodges and having a much earned beer! Seemed silly not to immediately join them! Wishing I'd just sat behind the Broom Wagon the whole way and saved myself about 25 minutes of misery... 

John O'Groats Reached!!! 

13:30 I rolled up to the sign, 21 hours and 30 minutes from the start feeling an enormous sense of achievement! Felt like a walk in the park until half way between Inverness and JOG!

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Overall on arrival it was great to see everyone ahead of me had made it safely and were in good spirits, Including Dave Lushman who had an off on some gravel and was later found to have broken his collarbone, yet still picked up the tank of an R1200RT and complete the trip! Beer down me I went off to my cabin to pass out for the night!

I'm absolutely amazed the Rusty Tomato made it with relative ease, considering half way to P1 I was wondering if it would even make it there! Shows just how bulletproof those engines are that even went in a poor way, they just keep going (as long as you give them their fix of oil)

In the morning everyone slowly gathered around the burger van for a much needed breakfast, then we all got together for a debrief where we thanked everyone involved, found out we'd made over £50,000 towards Cancer Research and then made our way to the sign to get a photo of everyone before people started to slowly make their way home!

Edit - Some statistics from the ride!

Total raised so far for my ride = £1787.35 + £225.56 in Gift Aid - Total £2012.91

1404 Miles travelled on the bike, door to door + 405 Miles in the van!

£269.15 on petrol for the bike which is approx. 142 litres (£94 in diesel for the van)

Averaging 44mpg across the whole trip on the bike!

Oil Consumed - 1.45litres, or 1.033ml/mile :eusa_dance:

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Of course, the trip wouldn't be complete without yet more evidence of the oil consumption the Crusty Tomato has an addiction for!

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How hard were these brakes being abused?!

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As for the trip home, the lad who amazingly tackled the journey on a 125 happened to live in the same village as me, so I suggested after going through the pain of dragging myself out of bed that morning kicking and screaming, that I was thinking of hiring a van if he was keen as his bike wouldn't even start at this point! With his bike loaded into the Broom Wagon to be dealt with later, he jumped on the back of Shauns XJ600 and off we set towards Perth, which was the closest available van, for the worlds most boring scenic road I've ever had the displeasure of riding along, the A9! Spotted by the Broom Wagon En Route to Inverness too!

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Check out all that unburn oil dribbling from the tip of my pipe!

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Bikes loaded into the back of the Van, we took a chilled 6 hour drive back home to get some much earnt rest!

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Oh, and for those curious on the Compression issue, I did a compression test this morning to see if the rings ever blew out the lands, can confirm they did not! Everything got worse!

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There may be an investigative autopsy video at some point! 

Thanks for following my adventure!!

Edit: I keep thinking of bits I wanted to include in this post, but the most important bit is the MASSSSSIVE thank you to John, Joe, all the pitstop crew and all those working away behind the scenes to make this event run! Everyone worked so hard to make sure the riders had a fantastic experience, some longer than the riders were out themselves! Its made some memories I'll have for life and I've met some fantastic friends along the way! Honestly, hats off to you all! I can see why people get onboard to help, even not as a rider it's great to just be involved with the whole thing! 

I also want to thank all of those who have donated towards my ride and to the whole event! The money raised will help make a difference in the fight to beat cancer, a cause that affects all to many of us! 

Edited by James306
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@James306 - that's an excellent write up. Definitely caught the spirit of the event. Fukkit, i need to do this again! Well done indeed.

@Lushman - fack. Very much hope you're okay & comfortable now? Take care dammit.

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