Today, I think will turn out to be expensive. I took advantage of some mildish weather and some all day sunshine to ride upto Oxford to meet a friend. I had toyed with the idea of taking the car as I was feeling a tad apprehensive about the journey. I used the Ninja as the Ducati is still in bits in the garage and this trip was the longest on the Ninja since a trackday at Rockingham last year. As soon as I fired the engine I could tell the bike sounded different. There was a hint of a rasp coming from the exhaust, which as the ride and the day progressed only got worse. When I stopped I had a look at the exhaust and found a 4cm crack on the pipe just before the end can. I've known for ages that the mild steel exhaust system wasn't going to last forever and there is the option that I could patch the crack, but that would really just be a temporary fix. As it stands the Ninja needs alot of work. There's the problem with second gear, the shock is going to die fairly soon and now I'm looking at replacing the downpipes. Its rapidly becoming an economically non viable prospect, but the annoying thing is that I have a lot invested in this bike, financially and emotionally. If my situation changes and I don't need the bike to get to work, then it could be the perfect excuse to turn it into a project
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