Should I consider 1 litre of oil to 20miles (approx) excessive, that what I managed on my D Comet yesterday morning, mind you that was with the exhaust valve tappet cover missing, lost somewhere on route, I have never seen such a mess in all my days of riding Vincent motorcycles, it is a very strange phenomenon, once I become aware of the problem, when my right right foot slid of the footrest, about 20 miles from home, not long after riding past Chequers, I thought to myself "and I think I have problems"
I had no tools with me, K1 spanner etc. stupid really, if I had, would swapping out the valve spring cover have helped things, I don't know, but my first job was to purchase a litre of any oil I could find from a filling station, top up, and then top up again on route, but back to the mess, by the time I rolled back onto my driveway my tyres were both liberally and dangerously well oiled, along with my boots, jeans and saddle, and the entire bike, front to back was dripping in oil, even the underside of the headlamp, any suggestions on how to remove oil from relatively new tyres?
Why did this happen, I can only imagine that the last time I was checking the bike over, at least 6 weeks ago, I forgot to tighten the cap up after a tappet check, this has never happened to me before in 57 years of Vincent ownership, try never to be distracted when in the middle of doing something, even a stupid incoming joke on WhatsApp is sometimes enough. So now the big clean up begins, Sue informs me that my jeans are not to go into the washing machine for fear of contaminating every subsequent wash, forever!
Most of it is just tedious boring work (in the blazing sunshine) but the tyres are of concern, is it unwise to use any solvent on them, or should I stick with detergent, which does seem fairly ineffective.
I had no tools with me, K1 spanner etc. stupid really, if I had, would swapping out the valve spring cover have helped things, I don't know, but my first job was to purchase a litre of any oil I could find from a filling station, top up, and then top up again on route, but back to the mess, by the time I rolled back onto my driveway my tyres were both liberally and dangerously well oiled, along with my boots, jeans and saddle, and the entire bike, front to back was dripping in oil, even the underside of the headlamp, any suggestions on how to remove oil from relatively new tyres?
Why did this happen, I can only imagine that the last time I was checking the bike over, at least 6 weeks ago, I forgot to tighten the cap up after a tappet check, this has never happened to me before in 57 years of Vincent ownership, try never to be distracted when in the middle of doing something, even a stupid incoming joke on WhatsApp is sometimes enough. So now the big clean up begins, Sue informs me that my jeans are not to go into the washing machine for fear of contaminating every subsequent wash, forever!
Most of it is just tedious boring work (in the blazing sunshine) but the tyres are of concern, is it unwise to use any solvent on them, or should I stick with detergent, which does seem fairly ineffective.
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