aermacchi-metisse

with ten minutes to spare before mr's b is serving up our evening meal i drift out into the shed, i'll just have time to remove the front mudguard, fuel tank and seat, the mudguard is a doddle, it just clip's to the fork-legs with jubilee clips, the tank, once you have undone the tiny jubilee clip's holding the petrol feed pipes to the twin pet-cock's, is easily removed, it's held on to the top frame rails with a rubber strap that fit's into a recess on the tank top, the strap has four stainless hooks rivetted to it that hook under two slim mountings welded between the frame rails at the rear of the tank and just behind the headstock, simple, like all the best ideas, just what you need at the track, mrs b puts her head around the shed door, 'it's ready, are you coming?' i note the mild irratation in her voice, 'i've just got to get this seat off and i'll be in' i reply, 'ill put your's back in the oven then' and she's gone, the seat is anything like a quick release item, there are three mountings on the seat, one off the back of the seat hump and the other two that attach the seat base to the upper frame rails, the mounting screws are fibreglassed into the base and have become loose, either through vibration or just wear and tear and are spinning as i try and remove the nuts, to add some comedy value i can see green loctite on the protruding threads, i eventually manage to get the seat pad off and the mounting bolts are revealed as plain head panheads, like a guttering bolt, which i suppose is what they are, i carefully sawcut a slot in the top of each bolt and tap a strike-through driver into the slot, at last it comes free and after an hour i can stand back and admire the naked frame, another fifteen minutes just staring at the bike and i'm in for yet another dried up supper, guess there's going to be a few more of those along the way......