Fathers Day

Back In the Winter I noticed that the trickle charger connected to the Honda was displaying a fault light and, despite frequent power resets, would not charge. Consequently it was unplugged and ignored until the weather improved…

… Today I finally headed out in to the garage to perform a diagnosis. My investigations were going to target both the battery and the charger since either could be at fault. It was a few minutes work to unclip the side panels and as I stood there with the ignition key in my hand I had an "I wonder …" moment and turned the key in it's slot. The bike's dashboard lit up but the realist in me knew that I would need far more power to get her running than was required to illuminate the neutral, oil pressure and side stand lights.

I rotated the choke lever, pulled in the clutch and thumbed the starter button. The engine turned over easily suggesting that there was little wrong with the battery after standing neglected for four or five months. It took a few more turns to flow petrol to the carbs but she eventually started and I left her warming up in the sun as I removed the saddle to access the battery compartment.

The good news is that the battery is fine but I need a new trickle charger. However the Honda will need to remain partially dismantled until the replacement arrives as I need to connect a pair of leads to the battery to allow easy connection to the charger when the bike is not in use.

Having had a minor success in the garage I headed back in to the house for a spot of DIY. This morning's objective was to make a repair to the skirting board that runs around the base of the meter cupboard in The Hall. This had suffered some localised chewing a few years back following Marauder's arrival at The Pile.* The repair involved the removal of two sections of timber. Replacements were cut and planed to size. These were then dowel jointed back in to the original timber and a couple of screws were inserted to reattach it to the cupboard frame. It is a great repair but I will need to get a little artistic with the Dremel once the glue has dried as the dutchman will need to be aged to tie in with the rest of the cupboard.

This brought me up to lunchtime and this was followed by an early afternoon walk around the Three Miler with T&M whilst TP mowed the lawn.** A snooze was then taken on the sofa before BMS and SMS joined us for dinner in the evening.

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* in her defence she states that while she was told many things upon her arrival including, sit, stay, do a wee and who's a beautiful puppy, at no point was she ever told not to chew the corner of the meter cupboard!
** I used the Father's Day guilt trip on him to get this done.