A rare treat

Washed the bike for the first time in 9 months yesterday (somebody might need to explain that concept to Rosco) and it's first set of plugs in three years today (the centre electrodes on the old ones were almost gone.. ).
Tomorrow it'll break down from shock. 

(It got another minor wash today as well, the sweat was lashing out of me for the half hour it took to change the plugs.  ............<where's the melting into a greasy spot emote?>

Wooster wrote: where's the melting into a greasy spot emote?>

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best I could do at short notice m8

That's the one.. 

added to library  

Wooster wrote:... and it's first set of plugs in three years today...

What plugs did you fit, NGK CR9E, or the other super expensive ones that I can't afford.

I was looking for the Iridium ones (NGK CR9EIX?), but just went for stock CR9E's since they were available at the time.
A local factors (Watts) could have got some Iridiums in for me that day, but the mechy at Hamilton Motorcycle Services said that the Thundercats were pretty good with plugs and I couldn't say he was wrong.

The Iridium ones are meant to last for about 16,000 miles, but I reckon the old CR9E's I removed had about 12K on them and were only now starting to sound a bit lumpy.

Pah, cleaning is overated, I've just done my wheels and swingarm and it's taken me nearly a week to recover   .

I just used normal sparkies on the Thundercat, serviced it every 4k and changed the sparkies every second service I think, just check and regap on the middle one service

Come on, give us some pics

I cleaned the swingarm a bit as well, used Super Servisol since it was all I had handy.
It worked a treat, but exposed all the rusty bits and paint bubbles..

Pics of what? The old spark plugs? 

Wooster wrote:The old spark plugs? 

Maybe not as interesting as your clean bike  

Problem is it's not clean anymore.
Was too hot last night and took a run out to Edinburgh and back via the A70 etc. So it's plastered in dead bugs again.

Here's a pic from last year to tide you over.. 

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How often do you change ya plugs ?? I ain't done mine since I've owned it (2 1/2 years ) done 30000 miles and not had any problems

It depends Steve, mine are usually changed around the 20k mile mark, that for the normal plugs. The Iridium's are supposed to be good for that on a carbed bike like the 'Cat and double on Fuel Injected machines. I'm hoping that they can do 40k as I have one stuck in there and it could cost half the value of the bike to get it out.

I believe it's the rich mixture (choke on startup) which reduces the plug life

My old plugs had a spark gap easily twice what it should be, once changed the response from the engine was immediately apparent.

Changing them from the sides is a bit footery, but far less hassle than removing the fairing, and only takes half an hour with the trusty old (cheap) Halfords 65Pc Socket Set.
..the NGK plugs were £30.

Don't know if these will work for everyone, or only those on Google+:
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The Photosphere one doesn't work in Internet Explorer, but does in Chrome. (Can't check Firefox since I'm currently signed in on it)

Very nice. Loving the photosphere :-)

I took about ten of them and that was the best one.  
It seemed to have a huge issue with the shots taken from under the Forth Bridge, which was a shame.
This one should have been good, but for some reason it couldn't stitch one side of the pier with the other.. 

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SteveCat wrote:I have one stuck in there and it could cost half the value of the bike to get it out...

Some people do tend to over tighten spark plugs (could just be corroded, of course). I put a smear of copper grease on the threads and then do them up finger tight first, then a third of a turn with the plug spanner. Never had any problems with them leaking or vibrating loose.

Lol, loving the view of the Forth Road Bridge!

Is that why they're building a new one? Too many steps in the old one  

Think I'll have a play with PhotoSphere myself  

If you are after some stitching software, hugin is a good one, quite intuitive and a free download for mac and pc, some of my Peru vistas were made using it and I know Ross used it for his vistas from the euro trip

Dave