No, I am not blaming load shedding...

for the hiatus blogwise. 2008 just seems to have too few hours to get everything done... hopefully things will improve by the end of the month.
So to all out there... I am very much alive and enjoying life but wishing a day was 48 hours!
"Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life." William Faulkner

Do you hear me now?

Will fill in later but I needed a place to host the pics of Operation Penta...
The first pic is just after I had stripped the old tweety box off... it came down in buckets.Then as I was about to start with assembly it rained again!



Took a pic of the old box forlornly laying in the puddle. The retaining ring is reused when installing the new pipie!Then I took some pics of the Penta, showing all the adjustment points it has as well as the use of Cap Screws throughout except the two nuts on the sliding adjuster, I replaced them with Nylock nuts by the way.

Now the new pipe!




One can see that my bolts did come loose but I had caught them in time...

The inner mounting is not used on the Penta installation.


Here one can also see the heat shield fitted to the Airbox to prevent burn through if one loses the slip joint retainer bolt. (not if loctite is used!).

Notice my jury rigged header retainer bolt... lost mine cos I skipped loctite on it! Thought it was tight enough! Fitted a new 8mm cap screw while doing the rest.

Note that to tighten this joint it is best to remove the brake reservoir to get at the bolt comfortably.Now I start re-assembly!First I pre fitted the Penta to get al the bits in alignment. Then I tightened the 3 cap screws on the retaining ring followed by the bolt on the frame as well as the 2 adjuster nuts.

Some of the tools needed will be 12mm socket and spanner, 10mm socket, 5mm Allen key, 6mm Allen key, Phillips screwdriver. The nylock nut on the back mounting was 13mm so get out the 13 spanner as well.


The Penta fitted and all fittings tight.

When all bolts and nuts have been tightened one can fire up the motor...

Notice the ripples on the puddle behind the bike... lotta air being moved now!
After that one puts the rest back...

The side cover clearance is a tad eina... I will be watching for any melting but to date the Penta has been cooler to the touch than the old box... so this may not be an issue.

As you can see it kept showering during the whole operation but it did clear up later for me to be able to do a run... and scare the beemer cages... :-)

I also noticed how badly my pillion footrest had been bent when the bike lay down on it's left side last week... will have to take it off and do some re-alignment in a vice using a rubber mallet methinks.

Then I put old tweety in a safe place... just in case...

"Motorbikes, unlike kids, should be both seen and heard." Unknown