Mods, apologies, I wasn't sure where to put this. Feel free to move as you see fit of course. For everyone else, I've not been here much - howdy, hope you're all well (and in a much better mood than me). It's not that I don't like you lot - just life keeping me busy.
Last December, I put the bike through an MOT and that ended up costing me 2K GBP (new SMC, forks plus a load of other bits & pieces due to age and the fact that the bike lives outside in Wales, etc). While I was there, I spotted a used Triumph Trophy and very nearly part exchanged the ST. The only real reason I didn't, was that the numbers didn't quite work out for me.
Since then, I've been off globe trotting for work, and the bike has had maybe 800miles put on it because I've just not had the time or reason to get it out. Yesterday, I knew that the bike had sat still and that the clutch needed a flush/bleed, so being my first day back from overseas, I figured I'd take it to the garage I use. I did the usual POWER checks because it's not a daily ride anymore, hit the starter (was slightly amazed that it fired right up, I was expecting a dead battery because of our recent cold spell and it sitting still for weeks)... and I walked away to let it warm up while I geared up.
Luckily, I decided to be kind to the locals, ST's are quiet bikes, but reverberating around brick structures in close proximity makes things louder. So I decided to shut it down, it can warm up between my house and the public roads while rolling just as easily.
Why is that lucky, you say? Well... for anyone that has pulled a sump plug out and seen the flow rate of oil coming from an engine... that was happening... only the engine was running at the time (not recommended, please don't try that at home!) Luckily I hit the kill switch before the engine stopped magically by itself. Having looked briefly at the bike (I've not bothered removing tupperware), the sump plug is still intact, and the oil appears to have been coming from the rear of the engine, quite high up (but can't see the source if you take the seats off).
I figured I'd post here, because having searched (and even looked on Google)... this appears to be an extremely rare event on an incredibly reliable engine, so the technical folks might like to speculate, and I'm going to find out regardless. As a little spoiler alert... it might be similar to something that Bob has seen before... I don't know yet.
The options I'm considering:
- I have a magic number in my head, no, it's not a guessing game.... if the repairs cost less than X, the garage will be repairing it and I'll continue riding it like I stole it... until either the next expensive problem or it spits oil onto the rear contact patch in an NSL.
- If the repairs cost more than my magic number: I'm done. It's going to a scrap yard (though, at that point, if a UK member with a van or a trailer would like to call dibs on it... you're welcome to it for free, gratis, no strings attached - other than maybe if the garage want to charge a storage fee until you can collect it from North Wales).
I've already spec'd a brand new BMW RT1250 SE with extra bells and whistles, and booked a test ride for next weekend. I'll be looking at other manufacturers for recent touring bikes (not necessarily brand new bikes, but recent, so things like the Triumph Trophy).
So if anyone wants to speculate about what happened to make it vomit all over the floor, or recommend bikes that I might want to look at, feel free. If you'd like to call dibs on the bike please do so in this thread - first come first serve, and if we get to that point, we can arrange details privately. Brand new anti-dive with under 800 miles, 2nd hand forks that the garage said were in "perfect" condition, helibars riser on it, down pipes were replaced a year ago for delkavic's (but the rest of the exhaust is stock)... I can get pictures for the interested party. Lots of signs of age due to being kept outside most of it's life.
(watch karma bite me just for that emoji!)
