New ride a comin

Now I know any of the 3 people who actually read this probably wont care too much for this, but here goes anyway.

Following the recent trials and tribulations I've been having with the Bandit, now all I can hear when I ride it is knocks and rattles and I'm basically am waiting for it to die. As I still don't have anywhere to resurect it if that happens' combined with the cost of fixing it, the loss of my only working bike and my daily ride, I decided to part ex it in against a new bike.

This not a decision I've taken likely and have spent a good while thinking about it. About 3 weeks ago I went and test rode a KTM Duke 390, at 78 mpg I was curious to see if I could live with a much smaller capacity bike. As its a 390 engine in the 125 Duke frame, the whole thing was small, too small for me, it felt like riding my monkey, I didn't like the position of the pegs and my arse was in agony after only 40 minutes, and that was with the comfort seat fitted. Needless to say it was not for me, but what a killer little engine. So after a 2 hr ride I took it back and told em why it wasn't for me.

The sales man then say's "well I'm not doing my job properly f I dont let you take the 690 Duke out" as its still a sunny Friday afternoon  and it was another free ride on another new bike I thought fuck it why not. Straight away I knew I liked it. Great riding position,  brilliant engine and superb handling. I had it for an hour and loved every minute of it, but it was a bit vibey and not great in stop start traffic.

But I still couldn't get it out my head, and with 0% finance available over 2 years I've gone and bought one, possibly the last one thats coming into the UK this year as they're not making any more this year.

Bumper post

Ok I've been really slack on posting again, here's a bit of a bumper catch up on what I've been doing.

My daily 1200 Bandit has been giving me loads of trouble and taking alot of my valuable time thus there's been little work on the project bike.

I had to fit new front pads so while I was at it I decided to change the fork oil. In spite of my best efforst at the time, I then had a frustrating 2 weeks of sticking calipers.

Then I finally discovered why its been cutting out intermittently, 2 of the four terminals in the starter solenoid had snapped and were just manky green stumps rubbing against each other, thus the intermittent cutting out, then came a debacle getting a new one. I usually go for new parts but after a week of waiting and the wrong part arriving with no eta for the right one I went to a local breakers and got it for only £15 instead of £53 for the new pattern part I had first ordered.

I also fitted another chain and sprocket kit. no matter what I do I cant seem to stop it eating them.

Its also been running like a sack of shit so before going down to the bike shed show I whipped the carbs off. When I came back from the best show I've every ever been to I spent a day cleaning them. I expected to find them full of crap but they were clean as a whistle, so a day wasted and over £8 worth of float bowl screws as I had to muller them all to get em off and there was no change. What a bitch.
 I think I've now narrowed the issue down to the choke not shutting properly which is being caused by the higher rise bars I fitted after my off on the ice this winter, the choke cable is too tight and keeps getting pulled when I turn the bars alot.