April Plus 2024

 

April Plus 2024

Some days things just don’t go right. It has been raining and I put off my visit to Snobbs for another day and this is my second attempt art writing April Plus the first one disappeared off the screen amid a full flow of writing inspiration. I have looked in temporary files and the directions given on the internet does not match mine. Today, technology is not my friend. That said it has been an interesting time with visits to Whitchurch to see Coops on the Buell and Kawasaki to help the progress of the El Cid hood. The most recent visit saw much progress with the project and I will be going again next week.

The visit last week on the Buell gave me a great ride out and almost all the way back. A few miles from home there was a tinny rattle which was annoying but didn’t sound serious. Arriving I noticed the side stand was at a funny angle. I kicked the stand down to rest the bike on it and let it down gingerly. The stand did not hold and I struggled to bring the bike upright. Not wanting to be pinned against the hire car. Worse still if I had damaged the bike or the car seriously dent the No Claims Discount. Taking a moment to breath I wanted to Alert Gita to help me. Beeping the horn didn’t work. I paddled the bike towards the front door and with some effort I was able to ring the door bell. With her help I was able to rest the bike on the handle bar end safely. In the manoeuvring the side stand leg fell off completely. I had the original refurbished one in the garage and set about finding it and fitting it. By this time it was dark and I was hungry. I found the stand and could only use ordinary spanners to get the bolts. There were three and the heads were not very big. I tried one and the spanner slipped. I would need sockets to get to them having to remove the silencer for access. A job for tomorrow. The bike was outside still and not safe to be left. A solution was needed. I had some 20mm dowel long enough to hold the bike away from a wall blocks of wood to chock and support. With Gita’s help we got the bike into the garage and a safer position. 

In spite of my trepidations it was still like that in the morning. That is when I worked on the side stand. Welding it back together. It was not a good fix as I was running out of gas and the oxy-acetylene flame was not right. The weld soon broke. I fitted the original leg instead. The Buell was now movable and I wheeled it out of the garage to fit the side stand spring. Something not easy to do wedged between the bike and garage wall. This was when I phoned Snobbs about the silencer strap that had broken again. The weather forecast was for rain but set off anyway using Public Transport to get me to and from. Early morning I dropped the Buell off and picked it up at the end of the afternoon. Great service, the same I could not say for the bus service. Having dropped the bike off I got the tube from Hangar Lane to Greenford to, catch the E6 bus home. The service had been suspended from Greenford Broadway for work on HS2. Why? Two other buses that take exactly the same route were still in operation stopping at the same stops. I had to catch one of these. I did the same going back. I did a lot of walking in motorcycle boots that day.

Sunday was a fun day out travelling to Walsall for Gita to perform a dance with a band at an Indian Cultural Festival. I have been to Assamese ones and they have the same format. Some snacks then local artists performing dances and singing including children and the event is completed by the professional band and a meal usually quite late to finish off. All in all it was well organised but did suffer from scheduling glitches and keeping to the program. 

I know the time it takes and this program ran on IST that is Indian Standard Time in the northeast there is AST in Assam there is something similar but best known as Assamese Some Time that I know well. In all it was a very enjoyable experience with great food and topped off  with a cracking performance by Gita. I think she will be doing it again.