As it was a nice day I thought I'd fit the hugger to the Bandy today... having cleaned and polished and checked it over (Thanks for the check list TC!) first of course.

Now, the nuts holding the new hugger were a little tricky to get at which meant I had to stand at a strange angle, grimmacing (that was for effect rather than anything else of course ) whilst peering between the can and the seat to see where the spanner met nut. Took an age to get the little bugger tightened up and as I neared the end the spanner slipped from my grasp accompanied by that usual "spanner falling" noise.

Quick look... can't see the little bugger. Stands up, walks all round the bike... nothing. WTF goes on I thinks... onto hand an knee to peer at the rear brake assembly thinking it's caught maybe on that. Nothing... so having dismissed alien abduction as the cause I though, I know, I'll move the bike back and forth to dislodge it.

So, I do. Noise of spanner falling onto metal. Bike back on the side stand and look for the spanner.... still nothing. So, I do it again... definitely a noise... after about a third of a rotation of the wheel!

Closer inspection reveals that said Bandit as "hollow" alloy rear wheel... with a hole in the fecking thing. Spanner is now INSIDE THE REAR WHEEL which is a great fecking help.

10 minutes later I've got it (finally, and thanks Womb... you made that look easy you bastard ) on the paddock stand and can retrieve the spanner.

Yippee I thought... now I can finish the job and pop the bike back in the garage. Turned to get the allen key (to use with spanner) and kicked the fecking spanner into the drain hole... luckily we had a visitor or something was gonna get killed (dog probably, usually her fault anyway)...

So now I have:
1/ A nice clean bike
2/ A nice matching red hugger
3/ A spanner missing from my set
4/ A sweatshirt covered in sh!te from reaching into the drain.

I love this mechanicking stuff  :cool:

Ahh BW, been there-done that-& got the covered in sh!te t shirt :p
This DIY stuff it great isnt it?

Errrr... no! We've got a tax rebate coming (bizarre, when you consider I only made £8.50 last year... of which £4.00 was reimbursement for postage costs ) so, there's a new shock, chain and sprocket on order... to be fitted by a mechanic

Think I'll stick to cleaning it, polishing it... oh, and riding it :buttrock:

Did you stick your tongue.  :p This is something which I seem to have started doing under extreme concentration.  :O I don't know where it came from, I've only started doing over the last few months. Maybe I'm getting old or something.  :verysad:

I'd say a quick visit to the doctor's in order mate... or your sex life is gonna take a dive (no pun intended...)  :laughcont:

I have grown to hate fiddling with any mechanicals these days.  If i can afford it at the time i always pay to have whatever it is done as this tends to produce a better result and i keep the precious skin on my hand and dont lose my temper.  I have found smoking helps with frustration as you can step back from the trouiblesome job and consider the problem while having a fag.  Swearing helps too.
Ultimately if I am forced through finacial constraint or just tightness to do some work myself than i try to get everything im going to need set up next to the bike first and if i encounter a problem or feel the blood boiling i step off and have a fag or two and then return a little calmer.

I have never fitted a hugger so cant help much mate but it is one of my hates that bike manufacturers cant find some means of protecting the shock/suspension linkages from the weather when they build the bike in the first place.