Dear Diary,
Well, that went well. No sooner do I say that winter hasn’t really started and I wish it would get on with it, than it did.
Winter has now properly arrived in the Midlands. Snow, ice and freezing rain. The sort of winter that turns breath into fog and makes you deeply consider the choice to ride, even if the KEIS heated kit is on gas mark 6.
Riding today would be grim. The wind chill would bite, finding that annoying gap that you only notice when you are already on your way.
So today is all about a time-in-the-garage, and even then, it isn’t without thermal challenges.
Garage Time
The garage is cold in a very particular way. Not brutally so, but insistently. The concrete floor is cold, although I did wimp out a few years ago and put an old knackered carpet down. I wonder if anyone has designed a spanner heater.
Garage cold is the kind of cold that sneaks up through the soles of your boots. I flicked on the heater anyway, knowing full well it would do little more than stir the cold air around, then stood for a moment just looking at the bikes.
The GSX650F—Screamer—sat patiently on the stand, waiting for a fork rebuild. Fork stripping and rebuilding is something I’ve read about, watched videos of, mentally rehearsed… but never actually done myself.
It’s funny how certain jobs reach a mythical status in your head.
Thankfully, they are not complicated. The 18-year-old Showa damper rod suspension doesn’t have any of the fancy stuff like rebound or compression damping. It is just a spring, an oil damper and a preload spacer.
Still, winter is the right time for firsts. It isn’t as if the clock is ticking on good weather being wasted.
And the universe wants me to do this job: it pointed me at Facebook Marketplace and an unwanted scissor jack, just a few miles from home, to help support Screamer while the forks are out.
Winter Maintenance
Next to Screamer, gleaming in a way that feels almost unfair, is the Suzuki GSX‑S1000GX. On loan from Suzuki, and looking like it barely belongs in my scruffy, oil-stained garage. Modern lines and a sense of restrained violence waiting behind the starter button. If only it weren’t freezing – in the literal use of the word.
It doesn’t need much, but it’s never really just maintenance. Winter riding in the UK means road salt, filth, and corrosion if you look away for too long.
I gave it a thorough rinse earlier in the week and followed up with XCP Salt Remover, which felt like an act of kindness as much as care. Spraying it on, watching the residue loosen and wash away, I couldn’t help thinking how brutal winters used to be on bikes before all this clever chemistry existed. Steel didn’t stand a chance back then. Now, at least, you can fight back.
Once dry, I worked around the GX slowly—chain cleaned and lubed, fasteners checked, tyre pressures nudged back to where they belong.
Moaning
I do have a complaint, though. What is it with the trend of not fitting centre stands? One is available for the GX – it is part number P/N: 42100-48830-000 – but it doesn’t come as standard. Cleaning and lubricating a chain isn’t the most enjoyable of activities at the best of times, but when you have to do it a segment at a time, it is worse than listening to me sing.
By contrast, Screamer is perched on her (very non-PC) centre stand, which came as standard back in 2008. The forks, however, are still mocking me, unimpressed by my procrastination.
I have taken a step in the right direction and ordered all the parts from WeMoto.com. As Screamer has covered only 12K miles, I’m not expecting to find anything worn. To change the fork oil, the damper has to come out because it retains oil, so I may as well fit new bushings and seals.
Andalucia
It also doesn’t help that I need to rebuild the forks in time for a track day in April, when I will spend 3 days chasing Roger around Andalucia. As we all know, there are 56 days in January and 47 days in February. Plenty of time. [Yea right ~ Ed.]
Time seems to behave differently in the garage in winter. An hour passes without any real sense of it moving. Outside, the light fades early, but inside, the tasks provide their own focus. Time feels more measured by mugs of tea than by the hands on the clock.
The weather evidently will warm up again in a couple of days, with the lofty heights of 11°C and a low of a barmy 6°C on the forecast.
There are only 46 more days of January to go.
