Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged

Watched the last episode of ReGenesis, season 4 last night. Sad and inexplicable to witness the demise of intelligent and entertaining programming, fuck knows there's little enough of it about. Maybe the writing demands were becoming a bit much as I don't feel season 4 was as good as the first two, can't say about season 3 as I missed the first few episode, and it seems I'm going to have to wait until this time next year to get it on DVD?!

For what it's worth, I'd like to congratulate all concerned with the show, actors, writers, directors, production designers also it was an excellent idea to have a website running alongside which gave more detail of the scientific basis of each episode.

So as the lights go out at NorBAC, will anyone aspire to the standards they set?

I never realised I was such an outdoor sort of person? I've got three things that I ought to be doing, washing vehicles, cutting wood and trimming the, never to be sufficiently damned, leylandii but it's raining and I can't do any of them for the second weekend in a row. I guess autumn must be here.

On the brighter side I did find a guy locally who does bike bodywork, I found him when I did a delivery there through the new job, so I guess it has it's upside. I bought my bike as a Cat C write off and it has had a scuffed middle fairing and after pricing a new fairing and decals I decided I would live with it, but this guy is telling me he can get a set of decals for £25 so I might just put him to the test.

So, at a bit of a loose end at the moment, might see if there is any poker to be played.

Not my installation, but a visitor, 'Zac' has kindly updated an earlier post with his experiences. If you are considering upgrading to Windows 7 please have a look at Zac's comments on my post here;

http://wowbagger.blog.co.uk/2009/10/24/windows-7-upgrade-advisor-output-7235152/#comments

If anyone else has installed Windows 7 I would be pleased to hear how things went.

Beginning to wonder if I will manage to make a decision any time soon re Windows 7. I expected as much when I Googled 'Windows 7 installation problems', I got plenty of hits but on a quick look through some of them, didn't see a consistent pattern of problems, which I suppose is good but only if you are able to make an absolute assessment of what sort of percentage of those installing are having a problem, which, of course, I can't. I don't have any 'critical' data on my machine but I do have important data and already lost some of it when I formatted my main HDD about 6 months ago, I do have the capacity to back up my data but I've been caught out with that before as well.

I did see an article here;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/27/AR2009102703278.html

Which seemed to speak to my sort of level of competence, and if I could install to a new partition it would open up other possibilities; if Windows 7 installed to a new partition OK and I was happy with it, could I then try something else in the old Vista partition when I had finished with Vista? Could I install 64bit Windows 7 alongside 32bit Vista in a dual boot?

Is this what they call analysis/paralysis??

There's good news and, inevitably, bad news. The good news is that my Airmiles are safe for the time being as it would seem that the small purchase I made via Dabs about 2 months ago ahs finally made it's way through to the Airmiles people and it seems that single Airmile is enough to preserve the other 1800 I collected many years ago. I don't know how long this makes them good for now but I'll probably continue to collect more via Shell Drivers Club and see how quickly they go up, as I am putting a fair amount of diesel in the car at the moment.

And of course the bad news is that I don't get to splurge all the Airmiles, before they expire, on thrashing the DB9 around Silverstone.

I said I would post the results from running the Upgrade Advisor, though they are all a bit of a jumble in text form but are far more readable in the HTML that the report was originally generated. The gist of it seems to be that the machine spec is fine but there are a few surprising, at least to me, items it has thrown up;

It seems unhappy with my less than 18 month old Canon Printer and my less than 6 month old MS Mouse as it seems that Windows 7 will not support the version of Intellipoint currently installed.

Photoshop Elements 4 won't be happy, but it wasn't happy with Vista either but still ran, I would need to uninstall iTunes and NovaBACKUP 10.3 before installing Windows 7, though I think Nova have already released a Windows 7 compatible version but I haven't checked to see if it's a free upgrade. Windows Mobile Device Centre which I use to connect my Dell Axim PDA would also have to go but, like the others, can be reinstalled after the upgrade.

The advisor indicates that Outlook 2007 is OK but the Man from Aunty had problems and maybe ought to be added to the list of possible hiccups.

I don't suppose any of these represents a strong enough reason to dismiss the thought of upgrading but it does look like it might add another couple of hours to what the BBC report suggests is already a lengthy process.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Report
Computer Name: GATEWAYGM5048B
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Manufacturer: Gateway
Model: GM5048B
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
Memory: 3.3 GB

Information about upgrading to 32-bit Windows 7
System Details
Upgrade options available You can upgrade to 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate.
Go online to get detailed instructions on how to upgrade
Windows Mail and Parental Controls (Web Filtering) These features are no longer included in Windows 7. You can get similar programs for Windows 7 from other software manufacturers.
Go to the Microsoft website to learn more
More info from Gateway Gateway has a website that might give you more information about getting Windows 7 running on your PC.
Visit the Gateway website
Windows Aero support Your graphics adapter supports the Windows Aero user interface.
Go online to learn more about Windows Aero
CPU speed: 1.8 GHz Your CPU meets the 1 GHz minimum requirement.
3.3 GB of RAM Your PC meets the 1 GB minimum requirement.
128.2 GB free space available on C: Your hard disk meets the minimum requirement of 16 GB free space for 32-bit Windows 7.

Devices Status Details
Canon iP4300
Canon Unknown We don't have compatibility information about this device.
Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter
Broadcom Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
Canon iP4300
Canon Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
Dell Axim USB Sync
Dell Check Windows Update Check Windows Update after installing Windows 7 to make sure you have the latest driver for this device, otherwise it may not work.
Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II (26xxx)
Hauppauge Check Windows Update Check Windows Update after installing Windows 7 to make sure you have the latest driver for this device, otherwise it may not work.
Live! Cam Optia
Creative Technology Ltd. Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
nForce HyperTransport Bridge
NVIDIA Check Windows Update Check Windows Update after installing Windows 7 to make sure you have the latest driver for this device, otherwise it may not work.
nForce Memory Controller
NVIDIA Check Windows Update Check Windows Update after installing Windows 7 to make sure you have the latest driver for this device, otherwise it may not work.
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
NVIDIA Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller
NVIDIA Corporation Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller
NVIDIA Corporation Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
Realtek High Definition Audio
Realtek Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
USB Mass Storage Device
Compatible USB storage device Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
VIA Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.

Programs Status Details
Microsoft IntelliPoint 6.2
version 6.20.182.0
Microsoft Not compatible This version of the program will not work on Windows 7. Before upgrading, we recommend uninstalling this program.
Visit the publisher's website for a possible solution
Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0
version 4.0
Adobe Systems Inc. Known issues You may experience issues running this program on Windows 7. Before upgrading, we recommend uninstalling this program.
Canon UNINST
version 2.1.0.0
CANON INC. Known issues You may experience issues running this program on Windows 7. Before upgrading, we recommend uninstalling this program.
Visit the publisher's website for a possible solution
iTunes
version 9.0.1.8
Apple Inc. Reinstall after upgrade Before upgrading to Windows 7, we recommend uninstalling this program. It can be safely reinstalled after the upgrade.
NovaBACKUP
version 10.3.64065
NovaStor Update available We don't have compatibility information about this version of the program.
Get an update to a compatible version
The Sims 2 Known issues You may experience issues running this program on Windows 7. Before upgrading, we recommend uninstalling this program.
Windows Mobile Device Center
version 6.1.6965.0
Microsoft Corporation Reinstall after upgrade Before upgrading to Windows 7, we recommend uninstalling this program. It can be safely reinstalled after the upgrade.
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
version 12.0.6425.1000
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
version 12.0.6425.1000
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Microsoft Silverlight
version 3.0.40818.0
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
version 8.0.56336
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver
version 7.16.11.9062
NVIDIA Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Skype™ 4.1
version 4.1.141
Skype Technologies S.A. This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Trend Micro Internet Security
version 17.50
Trend Micro Inc. This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
version 2.0.3001.0
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Windows Live Essentials
version 14.0.8089.0726
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Adobe Reader 9.1.3
version 9.1.3
Adobe Systems Incorporated Compatible This program is compatible with Windows 7.
Microsoft Office Outlook Connector
version 12.0.6423.1000
Microsoft Corporation Compatible This program is compatible with Windows 7.

Information about upgrading to 64-bit Windows 7
System Details
Custom installation required You'll need to perform a custom installation of 64-bit Windows 7 and then reinstall your programs. Make sure to back up your files before you begin.
Go online to get important information about custom installation
Windows Mail and Parental Controls (Web Filtering) These features are no longer included in Windows 7. You can get similar programs for Windows 7 from other software manufacturers.
Go to the Microsoft website to learn more
More info from Gateway Gateway has a website that might give you more information about getting Windows 7 running on your PC.
Visit the Gateway website
Windows Aero support Your graphics adapter supports the Windows Aero user interface.
Go online to learn more about Windows Aero
CPU speed: 1.8 GHz Your CPU meets the 1 GHz minimum requirement.
3.3 GB of RAM Your PC meets the 2 GB minimum requirement.
128.2 GB free space available on C: Your hard disk meets the minimum requirement of 20 GB free space for 64-bit Windows 7.

Devices Status Details
Canon iP4300
Canon Unknown We don't have compatibility information about this device.
Hauppauge WinTV PVR PCI II (26xxx)
Hauppauge Unknown We don't have compatibility information about this device.
Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter
Broadcom Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
Canon iP4300
Canon Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
Dell Axim USB Sync
Dell Check Windows Update Check Windows Update after installing Windows 7 to make sure you have the latest driver for this device, otherwise it may not work.
Live! Cam Optia
Creative Technology Ltd. Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
nForce HyperTransport Bridge
NVIDIA Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
nForce Memory Controller
NVIDIA Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
NVIDIA Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller
NVIDIA Corporation Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA Controller
NVIDIA Corporation Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
Realtek High Definition Audio
Realtek Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
USB Mass Storage Device
Compatible USB storage device Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.
VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
VIA Compatible This device is compatible with Windows 7.

Programs Status Details
Microsoft IntelliPoint 6.2
version 6.20.182.0
Microsoft Not compatible This version of the program will not work on Windows 7.
Visit the publisher's website for a possible solution
Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0
version 4.0
Adobe Systems Inc. Known issues You may experience issues running this program on Windows 7.
Canon UNINST
version 2.1.0.0
CANON INC. Known issues You may experience issues running this program on Windows 7.
Visit the publisher's website for a possible solution
NovaBACKUP
version 10.3.64065
NovaStor Update available We don't have compatibility information about this version of the program.
Get an update to a compatible version
The Sims 2 Known issues You may experience issues running this program on Windows 7.
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
version 12.0.6425.1000
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
version 12.0.6425.1000
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Microsoft Silverlight
version 3.0.40818.0
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
version 8.0.56336
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
NVIDIA Stereoscopic 3D Driver
version 7.16.11.9062
NVIDIA Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Skype™ 4.1
version 4.1.141
Skype Technologies S.A. This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Trend Micro Internet Security
version 17.50
Trend Micro Inc. This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
version 2.0.3001.0
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Windows Live Essentials
version 14.0.8089.0726
Microsoft Corporation This program has earned Microsoft's Compatible with Windows 7 logo.
Learn more about the Compatible with Windows 7 logo
Adobe Reader 9.1.3
version 9.1.3
Adobe Systems Incorporated Compatible This program is compatible with Windows 7.
Microsoft Office Outlook Connector
version 12.0.6423.1000
Microsoft Corporation Compatible This program is compatible with Windows 7.

Contemplating upgrading to Windows 7, though not quite yet, I'm sure there are a few wrinkles yet to be worked out. I hear some good things, stability and less resource hungry, and very few bad things though I'm not overjoyed at the prospect of having to shell out for what some people claim is little more than Vista with most of the kinks worked out. The BBC have a good, common sense article here on upgrading;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8317005.stm

I would probably go for the clean install option in view of the problems the Man from Aunty encountered though I will be watching for other developments over the coming weeks.

And Amazon's offering of the Home Premium 3 licence Family Pack (I have two desktop machines and one laptop) at £130 looks like a sensible price point;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Premium-Upgrade-Family/dp/B002MT21N6

I will probably give it a month or so before deciding, even if it means that Amazon have pulled the offer and I have to pay the full £150 for the Family pack. I'm running the Windows 7 Upgrade advisor now and will post the results later. The advisor can be downloaded here;

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15

At least it was until today, which wasn't too special. Volume of deliveries has gone up by about 20% and my income per drop has gone up by 10p per drop so overall my gross take is up nearly 30% without much increase in costs as I still have to visit the same locations but have more drops whilst I'm there. Not too clear what the increase was due to at the beginning of the week but the Post Office strike has had an effect the last couple of days, quite a number of Amazon drops have appeared and others as well I suspect. We were all tapped yesterday to see if we wanted to work over the weekend, one day's worth off drops to be delivered sometime over the weekend, at the same rate mind you, but there weren't enough takers so it was scrapped. Whatever is coming into the system tonight, which caused them such concern, isn't going to disappear over the weekend so I guess it will land on my doorstep Monday morning. With more strikes due next week, it's likely to be busy all week and after that we are into November and Christmas volume will probably keep things lively through to the end of the year.

Things have got quicker and, discounting the admin at the beginning and end of the day, I managed 8 drops per hour yesterday but the rest of the week it was nearer 6-7. Not so reliant on the satnav but that can't be saving me an hour or more a day. But whatever it is I found time from somewhere, just hope that it doesn't disappear just as inexplicably next week.

The much debated decision has been made, the central heating is on. It's been raining just about all day and whilst it has not been as cold as the last couple of days, the damp seems to make it feel colder and so, the deed is done.

I know what the calendar says but I'm still not sure. I was out working on the bike this morning, in shorts but wearing a woolly hat, I lit a fire last night but haven't put the central heating on yet, small, and not so small children, have not been around begging for high sugar products but there is a shit load of Christmas products in the shops? Clarification needed.

Finally I have uploaded some data into the trial I signed up for in April this year and I have to say it's not all I expected. I have to assume that the people running the trial are going to be cutting the data a little more deeply than the basic graph that they make available via the website to the trial participants. I was also under the impression that the trial data would be made available, presumably in CSV or XLS format, for redownload so that the participants could use the data however they wanted and currently there is no option to do that. All that is available to me at the moment is a simple graph, no trend lines or moving average, which will only show a maximum of one month's data with the option to layer other months on top, whereas I would have expected to see a single continuous line for the whole period, maybe smoothed by weekly average, to give a clearer indication of how consumption was changing and only looking to layer data once annual data was available to account for seasonal variations.

The device is undoubtedly useful, I can tell when one of my daughters has left hair straighteners/curling tongs or other mysterious high consumption hair management things switched on, or if one of the CRT devices is on, or the cooker and do something about it but it will take a long time to recover the cost of the unit if this is it's only use. I was hoping the uploaded data would show me a little more to justify the price of the unit but so far it hasn't. I'm sure there is useful data in there but the trial operators are just not showing it to me with the interface they are currently using.

Got my side stand switch for the ZZR. It looked in good enough nick, certainly better than the one on mine, but, of course, it wasn't a straight replacement. If it came off a ZZR 600 then it didn't come off the E2 model, which mine is. The mounting is slightly different and the connector does not appear to be the original and would not fit with mine. Nevertheless the mounting points matched up and I got it in place, the plunger moves freely and the travel matches that of the nib on the side stand itself. The switch has one green wire and one black wire and my existing wiring has one green wire and one black wire, so now it's all wired up. And the engine will only run when the side stand is down!! So I will have to re-do the wiring, I put it on with Scotchlocks as I couldn't find anyone selling a push fit connector for the job, tried the local hardware shop, local bike shop and Halfords. Maybe it's just as well as I guess I would have had to crimp the connections and wouldn't be able to reuse it having fallen for the old matching the colours of the wires trick. Didn't want to use bullets or spades as the wiring is a little exposed to the weather, down by the front sprocket.

The part came through quickly, was clean and, if not an exact match, should do the trick perfectly well once the wires are sorted, the price was good, £5, and the p & p not bad at £3. I would definitely use them again.

http://www.desperatebikes.com/

The people at Airmiles keep telling me that my Airmiles will fly out the window (groan here) on 1st December unless I collect more before then. It's very good of thme to give me some warning I suppose but after I got the first notification I've tried a couple of times to collect a few, bought something via Dabs and joined Shell Drivers Club and opted for Airmiles as the reward, neither has contributed towards my Airmiles total. Still the good news is that if they don't get added to my total before 1st December I will have to splurge with them and use them for a couple of hours thrashing an Aston Martin DB9 around Silverstone, Bruntingthorpe or Rockingham. Could be worse I suppose?!

...but even by the end of the week it still sucked. I managed to get all my work done in the new job in about 4 1/2 hours yesterday, which is still rubbish for 24 drops, and we will see what Monday brings. The one thing that did not change, well not that much, was the mileage. I keep a spreadsheet with a tally of every drop that I've completed, and should therefore be paid for, and that tells me that I earned the princely sum of £101, for about 28 hours work, or put another way £3.60ph, this is skewed by Monday's shitfest but even my best day still only works out at £4.60ph. But the main worry is the mileage, I also keep track of the miles done to make the drops and out of the £101, I had to find £23 for fuel. I really don't want to calculate the effective hourly rate after this has been taken out of my income. I've asked my boss for some help with this, having sent a copy of my spreadsheet and I'm waiting to hear back. If you don't ask, you don't get.

Sucks! It sucked today, though less than yesterday and yesterday, it sucked less than Monday. But boy did it suck on Monday! According to my calculations I earned £22 on Monday and took 9 hours to do so, before my expenses which were £5+ in fuel and other sundries. There were always going to be a few start up costs and boiling things down to find the best way of working was going to take time but I didn't expect to be earning a net £1.50 an hour under any circumstances. Today I earned about the same but it took just 5 1/2 hours, still got about £5 fuel to cover but getting up towards £4 an hour, so still got a long way to go.

The support for doing the job has been a little lacking. I get an O2 XDA IIi PDA to do the job, the bar code scanner that logs activity with the parcels only works about 50% of the time, yesterday it packed in altogether and I have the feeling that using the paper may have been quicker? Didn't manage to send me a stock of labels or out cards until this morning, on the day when the PDA is u.s. the manifest was a complete crock of shit, every drop was duplicated, some I didn't have, some without addresses printed on the manifest, just on the parcel, some extras as well.

I'm beginning to wonder where enough time can be picked up to make this a job that either doesn't take up a full day or offers a return of a reasonable hourly rate? I've put in my fair share of full day's work and been paid a full day's wage in the past but it's not just about the money, if I'm not earning a full day's wage then I need to be doing my bit around the house to keep things ticking over and at the moment I can neither make the money nor keep the house in a reasonable state as things stand at the moment.

Not too sure of the precise definition of a McJob but think I may just have acquired one? It's part time, at least I certainly hope it is, doing deliveries from home for a well known delivery company, who I won't specify as they are already failing to deliver (geddit? sorry!) on promises to provide me with info to do the job. It starts tomorrow and I have yet to be advised of my boss' contact details, and as I can't remember his name I can't ring the depot and ask for the details either, I don't have a contract number for my run, and as this is used as the login for the monitoring system I feel it may be fairly important? I have yet to hear when the delivery of the bulk will be made to me. All of these details were supposed to be with me by close of play on Friday.

There is no help with car insurance, wear and tear or fuel and I'm a self employed sub contractor, with all the rigmarole that entails and lack of job security. The effective hourly rate is dependant on the number of deliveries made per hour as I'm paid a flat rate per item and after my costs I can't see it working out at much more than £6.50 - £7ph for, maybe, 3-4 hours per day assuming about 30 drops. Might be better than this leading up to Christmas, but what will the volume be like in January?

Nevertheless, as the highest bidder (only bidder!) for my services I though I had better give it a shot.

I did learn this lesson a little while ago but it bears repeating. It's always worth getting the price for the new part before going to breakers. Got another reply from a breaker this morning, wanting £25 + VAT + p&p for my side stand switch, making it more than the new part from Kawasaki.

I've got one coming to me, from another breaker, after they confirmed that wiring, connector and plunger all in order, £5 + £3 p&p. The internals could still be shot but I'm prepared to take that chance for a fiver.

After having a poke around with the junction box connectors without any joy, I cut the side stand switch leads and shorted the circuit so that I could take the bike out today. Did solve anything on the tricky fuel gauge either.

I put the switch in a breaker's search engine and got seven hits back, I don't think the guy asking for £20, plus postage and maybe VAT is going to do much trade. but got a couple offering the switch at £5 + £3 p & p so asked if wiring and connectors present and confirmation that the plunger moves freely? If the wiring is gone then someone may well have done what I have and cut it because the internals of the switch are shot, still waiting to hear back but if the answers are positive, I'll take a punt for £5.

I should have known it was too easy. I took the side stand off the ZZR, mounting bolts came off without problem, wiring connector separated fine and even the screws that mount the switch on the back of the side stand came away, after plenty of WD40 it must be said, quite easily and the problem was quite obvious. At least, so it seemed. The plunger that is driven in when the side stand is down was seized. So after sorting that out with Birmingham screwdriver, pliers and Copaslip I put it all back together fully expecting it to be working like new, or at least like it should do. So start it up, click it in gear, let out the clutch and it still cuts the ignition. I really ought to know better after doing these sorts of jobs over many years; my achievements seem to be in inverse proportion to my expectations. If I'd taken it apart, found nothing apparently wrong with any of it and put it back together again, it would have worked fine.

I priced up a new switch from Kawasaki, £30, or one from a breakers, £15, or cut the wiring and short the circuit, £0, and look like a twat the first time I ride off with the stand down and have it lift the back wheel at the first left hander. I'll have a look at the junction box, could be a connector there, it could be the cause of the fuel gauge problem as well, but if I want to trace back the wiring, guess what? The fuel tank will have to come off.

The ZZR wasn't quite so mighty on the way to the job centre this morning, got about a mile down the road and the engine started cutting out. I gave it a bit of a wash before I went out and I think some water got into the side stand cut out switch and every bump I went over made the engine management system think that the side was down and it cut the spark to the cylinders. A bit of wire wiggling and it sorted itself, pretty much, but going to have to strip it down and see what the problem is. I suppose I'll have to try to track down the wiring fault with the fuel gauge whilst I'm at it, there is some intermittent problem that has it reading erratically all the time, the tank is full at the moment and one moment the gauge reflects that, the next moment is shows empty, or some random interval between the two extremes. The trouble with this is that the problem is likely to be under the fuel tank and I really don't want to be going to all that trouble just for a broken wire, maybe I should change the plugs whilst I'm in there or balance the carbs? Or, more likely, make do with a trick fuel gauge for a while.