Stuff to do this week.

Since my UK Tiger has been sitting in a shed, doing nothing for nearly 3 years, the question has arisen - does it work. Well the battery will be dead  so I've ordered a new one, the engine? Well hopefully it will be OK but I've been reading horror stories of seizure and the like. Anyway, having sought advice from others on a few websites, I'm going to perform some needed maintenance before I try to start it.

1. Remove all old petrol & replace
2. Replace battery
3. Remove spark plugs and put a bit of oil in each cylinder
4. Turn it over by hand
5. Put it all back together and press start button

Hopefully this will do the trick. sounds easy, but I've been practising on my bike here. It takes about 4 hours to do all this. The spark plugs have been embedded into the soul of the machine it seems. I felt as if I'd carried out heart surgery. First take all panels off around the tank, secondly remove tank, hoses, connections etc. Remove air box, nuts bolts etc to expose the top of the engine. Now I can see what looks like three plugs, remove them and somewhere deep down a black hole is a spark plug. No wonder I didn't do this before I left last time. Id have never had the tools or the time.

So later this week I set off back to UK for a few days of maintenance and fitting all the bits my bike will need for the trip. 
Some things added, heated grips, hand guards, centre stand (why don't they fit this as standard?), headlight protectors, bigger screen & engine guard. I've also managed to repair the lock on my panniers which I'm taking over as well. I'll take some photos when its all set up.
Today I'm going to replace coolant in the bike here in oz and have a go at cleaning brakes. Better get on with it then Steven ...