The iconic Suzuki XR69 —

No she isn’t pulling a trailer although she has enough ‘grunt’ to do it. That’s the starter behind her which works by driving a motor driven rubber tyred wheel against the rear tyre of the XR69. Get up to speed – engage gear on the XR69 and Bingo! She will fire up!

But only if the clutch clears and this one didn’t. The motor in the XR69 hadn’t been run for five months and we were unable to free the clutch sufficiently to get the thing going. So – clutch was pulled apart and both steel and friction plates cleaned of oil. The oil level was dropped because the heavy when cold Silkolene 10-40 grade was reckoned to be the main problem causing stiction between the clutch plates —

With the oil cleaned off the clutch plates and the level dropped below the lip of the clutch basket so she wouldn’t pickup any more she fired up first time and the job’s a good un:-)

Well not quite – running a 190 section rear tyre in this bike brought it’s own issues —

Namely – getting clearance between the final drive chain and the edge of that wide 190 tyre.

No worries – the ever-resourceful Buffalo turned up some neat spacers with his lathe down in the corner of the workshop and this baby is ready for the truck to go testing down in the warmer climes of southern Spain some time soon 🙂

Ok – Jessica – just for you – the ‘cheesy grin’ —

I don’t expect to have the overalls on again for a while – but – Aldo has promised me a couple of fresh brown trout so I could do with that recipe you promised me 🙂

No that I’d ever thought there would be a special recipe for trout. I’ve been salting them – peppering them – coating them in oatmeal and throwing ’em in the frying pan since I was a kid. Doesn’t come simpler than that. On one memorable occasion I cleaned ’em and fried them on the riverbank without the oatmeal and condiments. I think they were the best 🙂

XR69