Alioth's Journal: So many projects, so little time...

So, the motorcycle project.

I've tried to do a little bit every day - it now has new front forks, a shiny new front brake disc, and new front brake pads. I was very happy to find the brake caliper seems all in good order once cleaned up, all 4 pistons work and no sign of any sticking or any other bad things. Next, do the back end. I have also (at long last) found a worthy substitute for LPS-2, which I can't get locally. Don't mistake LPS-2 for WD40. LPS-2 actually has lubricant in it, and I've fixed many things just by drenching it in LPS-2. A local parts store had something called 'Kent Super Lube', at the great sum of 49p for a small can, and it seems pretty similar. That alone fixed the stuck steering lock pin and half-seized ignition lock.

I also discovered a tool shop tucked away on the industrial estate where I work. It's a very dangerous (to the wallet) place to be in. It just sells tools. I had been looking just for a 28mm socket, but the car parts place told me about this tool shop... and I found the 28mm socket there, alright. Along with what I call "The Equalizer" (a 600mm long 1/4in drive socket wrench - just show it to your seized wheel nuts that were tightened by a gorilla at the tyre fitters with about 400 ft lbs of torque, and they give up there and then and loosen themselves), a torque wrench, and various 1/3in drive adapters.

That didn't help me much with the brake disc bolts though, they are allen bolts, so I had to struggle with an allen key and an improvised way of making the tool longer (the allen key was bending alarmingly with the required force). The threads surprisingly looked alright when I took the bolts out, on closer inspection it was just the loctite being rather stronger than I expected. (The actual torque specification for those bolts is actually pretty low, only 11Nm).

So, onto other projects.

I've also become a bit addicted to learning Spanish too which is a complete surprise, given how much I hated doing French at school. I was considering buying the Rosetta Stone software, but I noticed they had subscriptions so I went for an online subscription instead. Rosetta Stone doesn't teach with translations from your own language, rather, the entire course is done in the language you are learning, through images. It's very effective - because it's entirely done in the language you are learning, you have to think in that language from the get go. However, I'm glad I've also learned some grammar in the traditional manner because there are a few things that would have been definitely "learning the hard way" without.

I'm also reading as much Spanish stuff as practical, mostly BBC Mundo (http://www.bbc.co.uk/spanish). I'm very pleased that after only 3 and a bit months of learning, I can already understand quite a bit of the news. However, reading is 10 times easier than writing it, which in turn is 10 times easier than trying to listen and understand... I've also been reading a Spanish ZX Spectrum site and its forum (the Speccy had a decent following in Spain also) and I was quite pleased when I could understand a fair bit of an off-topic political debate in the forum. But it all gets thrown into sharp relief when I struggle to construct a few simple sentences myself! Perhaps in a year's time I might be able to start even writing to threads on the forum...