Everything has stopped (well, it certainly cant start!)

Manurhin things seem to have slipped a little lately.  I've been away for work, I had a daughters 21st Birthday party to prepare for, and I went to a conference in Italy that ended with me on a 3 day drive back  over the Alps and through France in an old London taxi (but thats another story).
Actually, small things have been happening on my scooter whenever I can grab 10 minutes in the garage - but none of those things seem significant enough at the time to report on.

I am hoping to soon get back to the garage in earnest,  So heres a little summary of where I am at right now;

new cables

I reported a few blog posts ago that my brake and speedo cables were both too short.  Well, I decided in the end to just get new ones made.  Fortunately, I found the perfect cable company only an hours drive from me in the heart of Warwickshire farming country.  JJ Cables don't have a website (no, really, they dont!) so you have to do it the old fashioned way and phone them (01926 651470)..... but its worth the effort, they have a fantastic cable capability and make any cable to any spec - by comparison to most of the stuff they do, my cables were childs play.
Within the week - 4 cables (throttle, speedo, front & rear brake) - £40.  OK, so they might not be original stock, but they are all brand new, modern materials and made to fit my scooter :-)

I have also been working on the scooter electrical circuits.  This is taking far longer than I had imagined it would - I am a bit frustrated that I dont have the correct handle bar switches, but I can live with that.  I will report on the electrics when I have something more to say than 'why have i made this so much more complicated than it looks in the circuit diagrammes??'

I did manage to get to a position a couple of weeks ago where I had rigged up all the electrics and was in a position to test them - which meant starting the engine.  Because the scooter is on a bench in my garage, I decided that in order to prevent me dying of carbon-monoxide poisoning, I would rig up an extraction system that would pull exhaust fumes directly out from the exhaust pipe.  With the aid of several lengths of flexi ducting and bits of drainpipe, I created quite an impressive adaptation of an old shower extractor fan.  The engine seemed reluctant to fire up - and every time i did get a hope of a start, I found that the engine seemed to smoke profusely - i was a bit anxious (I certainly didnt want an engine fire in my garage).  It took me about an hour of nervous engine adjustments before I realised that I had installed my extractor fan in back to front!   Doh! so instead of sucking the exhaust fumes out of the engine - I was blowing them back in!  what an idiot.

So with the fan turned round I enthusiastically attempted to start the engine again....... and promptly pulled the starter cable right out of the starter mechanism (exactly as I had done when I first started the engine several months ago) - clearly, I am unable to fit a tight enough nipple to the end of the cable.  So I gave up for the day....... and this is how the bike has remained for the past 3 weeks - though I have ordered a properly nippled starter cable, and I do have plans to get back to the garage this weekend - so hopefully a little more progress to report in the forthcoming weeks