In lieu of my MIA return….a couple of bike projects during my leave.

[Exuptoy]

 

[Exuptoy]

Decided to polish the speedo drive, probably made a rod for my own back.

Next up was for the bearings and seals for the front wheel. Stuck the bearings in the freezer to try and easy their fitment and when I was waiting I polished the spacer. I love having access to a lathe. It make those silly jobs accessible.

Next up it was time to make a captive spacer to ease fitment of the front wheel whilst trying to juggle the spacer, wheel and speedo drive.
Just replicated the original spacer with a 1mm x 0.8mm shoulder to slot into the bearing seal.

Fitted up and checked. Looks great.

 

[Exuptoy]

Decided my OCD couldn’t cope with two different coloured wheels, however close it may have been, so dropped off my rear wheel to my tame powder coaters for fresh powder along with the brake discs which will get dipped to strip the finish off ready for fresh paint.
Then popped off to M&P over in Swansea to pick up a pair of Pirelli Angel STs and get them to fit the front one, so at least it’s heading in the right direction. Don’t need track day rubber on an old sports tourer. Just one pic today of my fresh rubber.
Bit of a wasted day really.

 

[Exuptoy]

Back offshore for 2 weeks, so no progress for a little while.

 

[Morrisman]

Back offshore for 2 weeks, so no progress for a little while.

I spent 23 years doing that. 5 weeks offshore grind, then 5 weeks at home. Time seemed more precious then, I was up early every day, out in the garage working on something....8 + hours a day.....

Now I'm retired, 7 years already, and I barely do an hour a day in the garage. Life has lost its urgency, I feel aimless....

 

[addjunkie]

Back offshore for 2 weeks, so no progress for a little while.

Couple of weeks in the Betty Ford Clinic to decide the next stage of your projects.

I spent 23 years doing that. 5 weeks offshore grind, then 5 weeks at home. Time seemed more precious then, I was up early every day, out in the garage working on something....8 + hours a day.....

Now I'm retired, 7 years already, and I barely do an hour a day in the garage. Life has lost its urgency, I feel aimless....

I left my job on the 22nd February 2018, life has lost its urgency, but still not enough hours in the day, things seem to take much longer. It doesn't matter what you do in retirement, but you need to do something even if its just cutting the grass, which I hate btw even when doing it with a tractor!

 

[Exuptoy]

Haha, cheers guys.

I got a little respite as the barge has been moving for the last few days so I got home. Heading out again tomorrow for 4 Days.

Got my fasteners back from the platers after 8 weeks and still not done. Decided to tidy them up myself. Hit them with the wire wheel before polishing them on my old Creusen polisher. Not half bad. I also managed to source the last 4 in the U.K. from the Mansel Collectioni in St Helier, Jersey, and a mate is checking his local dealership in the states.
They’re currently soaking in Bulldog BDX.

Also got my discs back from the dip tank so decided I’d polish the centres.
I like it but feel it’s gonna be a lot of work keeping on top of them.
I’m not gonna lacquer them, I’ll just see how it goes. Still got one to do.

 

[addjunkie]

Good job your not too traumatised from living on a barge……unlike others well not mention!

 

[Exuptoy]

It’s offshore Life init? You’re either living in rig accommodation or on a jack up or flotel. It ain’t the ritz but then it isn’t permanent. That’s their problem they want a permanent place but there’s not a working bone in their body and they think they have a right to it!
I’ll stop there before I get on my high horse!

 

[addjunkie]

It’s offshore Life init? You’re either living in rig accommodation or on a jack up or flotel. It ain’t the ritz but then it isn’t permanent. That’s their problem they want a permanent place but there’s not a working bone in their body and they think they have a right to it!
I’ll stop there before I get on my high horse!

I can only imagine the comments in the TV/ rec room when the news is on! No matter how bad it is, with industrial prostitution, “smile just keep taking the money”.

Which one you doing up at the moment?

 

[Exuptoy]

We’re on a wireline/coil tubing interventions just now mostly in the NL sector.
Doing a little fabric maintenance whilst there just to take advantage of any downtime. A little blasting/painting and a few spot repairs.
Interesting work actually as I’m no longer an electrical tech, I’ve got a position on the operations team and as trainee RPE. Seeing all sorts of different scopes of work, isolations, process, wells, RPS for breaking of containment etc.
This next rig is a 30 day project pigging the lines across to another rig.
I love it.

 

[Morrisman]

It’s offshore Life init? You’re either living in rig accommodation or on a jack up or flotel. It ain’t the ritz but then it isn’t permanent. That’s their problem they want a permanent place but there’s not a working bone in their body and they think they have a right to it!
I’ll stop there before I get on my high horse!

I had everything from palatial private cabins, with a tv in, to 6 man portakabins strapped on the back deck of fairly small work boats, housing guys on several different shifts, so not a lot of sleep for weeks on end.

 

[Morrisman]

Meanwhile, back on the topic of bikes, a guy dropped off a huge pile of magazines at my local cafe today. All in excellent condition, some nearly as old as me. I borrowed a few to read at home. It's agonising looking at the prices of bikes and equipment back in the day.

 

[addjunkie]

We’re on a wireline/coil tubing interventions just now mostly in the NL sector.
Doing a little fabric maintenance whilst there just to take advantage of any downtime. A little blasting/painting and a few spot repairs.
Interesting work actually as I’m no longer an electrical tech, I’ve got a position on the operations team and as trainee RPE. Seeing all sorts of different scopes of work, isolations, process, wells, RPS for breaking of containment etc.
This next rig is a 30 day project pigging the lines across to another rig.
I love it.

Your talking my language there. The ops team is where to be, ops guys are needed all the time…..giving a far better long term future. The ops sparky will be last on the bus when its decommissioned.

 

[Exuptoy]

Your talking my language there. The ops team is where to be, ops guys are needed all the time…..giving a far better long term future. The ops sparky will be last on the bus when its decommissioned.

Haha. I like that. Of course being barge construction and commissioning along with wireline etc puts us in the frame too for all the decommissioning work that is inevitable, so hopefully a few years left there yet.
Just did 4 days with no wifi! Almost wanted to throw myself over the side and swim home! Bloody server shat itself, still waiting for a switch to be loaded up and sent out.

 

[Morrisman]

Haha. I like that. Of course being barge construction and commissioning along with wireline etc puts us in the frame too for all the decommissioning work that is inevitable, so hopefully a few years left there yet.
Just did 4 days with no wifi! Almost wanted to throw myself over the side and swim home! Bloody server shat itself, still waiting for a switch to be loaded up and sent out.

We once went a whole week with no wifi, and it was over xmas and new year. So, no phone calls home, no xmas messages etc, no way to alert the family why we were suddenly out of contact.

I did spend stupid amounts of time surfing on the PC normally though, if we weren't busy, and after several days incommunicado I found myself going out and finding stuff to do, little jobs, cleaning up, or actually reading a real book etc.

 

[addjunkie]

Haha. I like that. Of course being barge construction and commissioning along with wireline etc puts us in the frame too for all the decommissioning work that is inevitable, so hopefully a few years left there yet.
Just did 4 days with no wifi! Almost wanted to throw myself over the side and swim home! Bloody server shat itself, still waiting for a switch to be loaded up and sent out.

By a whole 4 days with no wifi, was there talk of strikes and possible hardship bonus? Ive spent longer at a darts match……when I was much younger and much dafter I did just over 6 months on a gas tanker without setting foot on dry land, but back then the internet was still a figment of someones imagination. A brilliant too thats become an addiction for many.

I used to quite like commissioning interesting, but you can keep all that messy wellhead malarky, wireline, coiled tubing and such. In fact anything anywhere near drilling mud and drillers. With FPSOs its a far cleaner working world, unless you get yourself stupidly involved with tank inspections. Incidentally one of the best ops guys Ive ever met was an ex sparky, he seemed to have a better eye for attention to detail, unlike some of the ex chemical plant supposedly formally trained ops guys.

 

[Exuptoy]

The well interventions are just workovers so no big mess, just breaking of containment checks and checking for LSA Norm, Benzene and Mercury.
Anyway, back to todays progress.

Got my second disc polished then mopped my front mudguard before bolting it all back up, but not before the calipers got a strip and clean. Ordered some SBS Sintered 624HS pads for both ends while I was at it.
Also got my rear wheel back from the coaters.

 

[Exuptoy]

Now, you guys know I like a project and rarely finish anything, , however whilst being bored offshore I started perusing eBay and somehow ended up with an identical tornado red non running T595 for the princely sum of £500!
The pics are shall we say ‘complimentary’ haha, and it’s been garaged since 2018 but at 5 bills I’m not expecting it to put the 2000 mile T5 in the shade. If I can get it running I’ll maybe flip it or more likely street fighter it as I have a brand new set of CNC slab yoke and risers which will not go on the original low miler. I quite fancy a matching T509 Speed Triple.
Watch this space, although if I can get it running then it’ll go away for a bit until I’ve done the 1st one.
Anyone want an FZR600 4JH with 9months mot for a grand? I need space!

 

[Exuptoy]

So, yesterday I got some garage time, first thing was a dump run to get rid of a few large items cluttering up the garage. Audi TT dash, caddy plastic bumpers & original caddy seats all gone, so a bit of extra room here.
So I stripped the fuel pump from the low mileage T595 and replaced all the rubber pipes which were perished and fitted a new in line fuel filter. It was looking a little tired.