The adventures of Michel's C3 Picasso and Yamaha MT-09

[CitroJim]

I'll be up in Huntingdon tomorrow morning about 10am picking the thing up. Perhaps I'll call on Jim, if he's about on my return..

Unfortunately I'm not at home tomorrow Mike - I will be riding a bike around the New Forest...

[Michel]

I'll be up in Huntingdon tomorrow morning about 10am picking the thing up. Perhaps I'll call on Jim, if he's about on my return..

Unfortunately I'm not at home tomorrow Mike - I will be riding a bike around the New Forest...

I probably meant today.. Friday, not Saturday! Am in Huntingdon now..

[CitroJim]

Not home today either... Only just seen this Mike... Sorry...

[Michel]

I wasn't there either Jim. Was tired and only stayed 10 mins or so in Huntingdon before driving the Renault Scenic back home. Nice vehicle as it happens, going to get a man to look at the AC to see if it will be an expensive fix, and if not, fix It, stick 4 tyres on it and sell the Picasso.

[CitroJim]

Hopefully the A/C problem will be minor Mike...

The Scenic is quite a useful vehicle... It should meet your needs a treat...

[Zelandeth]

Just don't lose stuff in it...

Main thing I remember about them from back at the garage was that there were dozens of cubby holes, several of which always seemed to get forgotten by the previous owners.

[Michel]

Now down to a 4 vehicle family again after a nice gent turned up this morning and bought my 125. He came in a van, obviously a dealer. Gave me cash and left. That's how a vehicle sale should be.

[CitroJim]

Perfect Always nice when a deal goes smoothly like that

[Michel]

The new free acquisition..

It was very grubby even I picked it up...

[CitroJim]

I like that!

[Michel]

The Scenic is now looking and smelling much better courtesy of the mobile aircon repair man. The condensor was knackered, as were the seals in the accumulator. It's all been replaced and regassed, and is now working fine. I also sourced a good alloy to replace the damaged one, and stuck two new tyres on it as well. I've ordered little bits like a new cap for the towing eye cover on the rear bumper, and parcel shelf hangers to finish the job off.

Nice motor, cleaned it up inside. I will now put an aux cable on the stereo. Fortunately I can just activate the port on the back by pressing a few buttons on the headunit, rather than messing with Lexia

It's not as terribly thirsty as I thought it might be for a 1.6 petrol auto. So far, it's averaging 37.6mpg according to the fuel computer. Not sure I'm a fan of the key card thing, or the push button start, but.. it's a Renault, and as yet, it's not caught fire on me.

It is, however, for sale. I've only advertised it on Facebook Marketplace for now, for a slightly optimistic £1450 (hey, it had £260 worth of a/c work, and £100 worth of tyres on Friday!)

The Grand Picasso is also up for sale for slightly more, but not a lot more. It's just too big for us, and it's beginning to annoy me now!

My Suzuki is also up for sale. I've come to a conclusion that motorbikes are a rubbish mode of transport. If you wear the right protection, they're too hot in summer, still just about too cold in winter, and I have to dress up to ride it if I want to be sensible. They were *brilliant* when I was young, and didn't have a car, but I'm not and I do...plus, it took me less than a week to get back into "nutty biker mode", I thought I was sane, but I'm still not to be trusted with a machine that can do 0-60 in 3.2 seconds (as fast as the McLaren F1 supercar!) and 0-100 in 8.. as noted by myself over the last few days. I've found myself wringing it's neck in the lower gears and thinking "is that all it's got?". then looked down at the speedo....

[CitroJim]

Shame to hear motorcycling is not for you any more Mike

My memory may be playing tricks but I can never recall a problem with being dressed in full leathers even on the hottest of summer days... It's remarkable how much the air cools at 50-60mph... I notice it at 20mph on a pushbike...

The Scenic looks like a good buy - best of luck with the sale of all your wheeled devices...

[Michel]

Shame to hear motorcycling is not for you any more Mike

My memory may be playing tricks but I can never recall a problem with being dressed in full leathers even on the hottest of summer days... It's remarkable how much the air cools at 50-60mph... I notice it at 20mph on a pushbike...

The Scenic looks like a good buy - best of luck with the sale of all your wheeled devices...

It's also a self-preservation thing with the motorbike Jim. I've proven to myself I can still do it!

As for leathers - well, perhaps they've got heavier or linings have got better over the years. My leather jacket isn't too bad, but if I wear the textile jacket I have, which is hi-viz, I can wear just a t-shirt under it and still be too warm even when it's 6c outside. Helmets too - I've got an *expensive* lid I've had for some time, but man, is it noisy! I wore it yesterday to compare it to my considerably cheaper almost new flip-front lid. Yes, it's a bit lighter, but in every other way, the cheaper, much newer lid is far, far better. Amazing really!

I still wouldn't mind riding up to see you if you're about one day this week but not today or Friday!

[CitroJim]

I can understand the self-preservation thing Mike..

I still wouldn't mind riding up to see you if you're about one day this week but not today or Friday!

I'll be around Thursday from late morning on and would be delighted to see you...

I'm in all today, stuck here in fact awaiting a call from the medical profession at their pleasure

Bloody annoying as I need grocery shopping and I badly need a new pair of running shoes... I'll now have to do all that on Thursday morning... Good job Aldi and Decathlon are almost adjacent

[Michel]

Well, the Picasso has gone to a new home. Got less than I'd have liked, but not by much considering I'd lost the service history and it needs a couple of tyres soon. Lady with 3 kids bought her mum and dad to look at it. He crawled over it with a fine-tooth comb. He says.."Discs look like they're getting thin".... I say "hold on, I'll go and get my micrometer out and we can measure them". He decides not to bother trying it on any more.

Much as motorcycling sometimes annoys me, I went out for a 2 hour ride yesterday and loved it. Nice to potter along through the countryside and also nice to be able to overtake a line of traffic simply by looking, indicating and cracking the throttle open in 2nd , and dispatching 4 cars and a tractor in no time at all. A move totally safe on a 'bike but impossible in any car, unless you want to spend a few hundred grand..

The 107 continues to do what it's supposed to do. I'll be taking some pics and putting it up for sale shortly.

The Scenic. Well, I discovered why my sis-in-law gave it to me with a duff N/S headlight bulb. What an arse of a thing to replace. There is *no* way to get at it from the top - and that's from me, who can do a 107 bulb with relative ease without removing anything! Apparently there are 3 ways - 1) battery out, do it from the top. 2) Bumper off, remove lamp unit. 3) Remove arch liner and go in from there. Have to do it all by feel though, as the lens is frosted and the bulb can't be seen from the front. Here's me doing an impression of a vet attending to a cow's innards...

Why that is upside down, I have no idea. Perhaps a mod can fix it please?

Then I decided to do the air filter as I had one, and I know it's not been changed for at least 5 years..

The air filter is here...

Why put it there?

All this lot has to come off to get at It!

Grrr

Then you can finally change It..

Found It

After all that I then gave it some new wiper blades to replace the at least 5 year old ones that were on it. I also installed an aux-in cable to the back of the standard head unit and routed it to my little Bluetooth receiver box, so we now have streaming music via Bluetooth/Spotify/Internet Radio. There's just the timing belt to do if I can get a decent price for doing it. I'll leave it a couple of months and see of we still like it. I also want to do a dreaded autobox fluid change....

So, after all that, I needed to go and blow the cobwebs off...

Hambleden on a V-Twin