...and she passed!

So the Monster sailed through the MOT today, no reason to believe it wouldn't but a relief all the same. Slightly concerned that the oil pressure warning light came on as I was on my way to the test but Ian at Beakey's thought it might just be low oil level and topped it up for me - fingers crossed.

Although in its interim winter-hack/mechnical proving state the Monster ain't looking to bad:

Bits of bling are helping it along:

The Remus can's are slightly scruffy but sound nice, not as nice as the Termi's on my S4 though:

Just got to pluck up the courage to tackle the bucket shims on the valves...or shall I let the Dealer do it...Hmmm....

Extra goodies for the Duck House

A Bike Lift is a wonderful thing, however it's only part of the story when it comes to true Bike fettling bliss. Having tipped my Monster S4 off the Bike Lift a couple of years ago by trying to lift the rear wheel using a paddock stand I went straight out and did what I should have done to start with: bought an ABBA Bike Jack. This is a safe and secure means of lifting the back wheel of the ground and is seemingly foolproof, however if you need to do work to the swing arm it does pose a problem as the ABBA uses the swing arm pivot tube to attach to the bike:

The answer therefore is to use a little Scissor Jack on the Bike Lift so that you can raise the Bike from beneath the engine. I picked up one of these at the NEC Bike Show a few days ago and gave it a tryout today - so far so good.

As you can see from the next photo the Duck House also boasts a fine collection of Tilley lamps and the like, mostly donated by my chum Allan Ford who seems to pick them up at Car Boot sales:

Unlike Cutter, I have exhibited true cowardice by putting aside most thoughts on customisation until the beast has proved it's MOT credentials...won't have an excuse for much longer though...