My achy-breaky handlebar....

Finally had the budget for a mid-end scram handlebar.
Found a good-looking one at a local shop here in Bukit Merah which I will not name and I swore I will never visit again.

I snagged a nice-looking GPR (not the Italian brand, mind you) handlebar which had a nice, low streetfighter profile.
$60 with installation.
The shop didn't mention it includes a disaster.

They tried installing it but couldn't get the tricky clutch lever bracket in. The mech kept trying to force it in with no succes (with me standing right in front of him). So I showed them a simple (and safe method in the right hands) to insert it in:
Use a screwdirver to wedge the gap opening a bit wider and slide it in.
Great, it works without much manhandling and forcing. But the mech slid it in too far into the handlebar's bend.
So with much gusto, he grabbed the bracket and tried to pull it back into position. With his bare hands. And no tools to assist.
SNAP!
There goes my bracket. Snapped into two.
The supervisor came over while we were fussing over it (and I haven't lost my cool yet), looked over the items and said, with his most confident voice, "Oh, the handlebar you purchased is slightly thicker than norm."

WTF? Thicker than norm? So these are guys are telling me they sell there's a new standard handlebar size outside the 7/8" thickness?
Or are they selling items with poor QC?

And here's the best part: they tried to sucker me into buying a replacement clutch lever bracket from them.

"Ok", I said. "I'll settle it with the boss."
Chaos reigns. Immediately everyone there said, never mind. We'll get you a new replacement.
2 hours later, I get a brand new one, courtesy of the mech who snapped it.

I swear to God, I'm not going back there, even for cheaper tyres.
In case, you wondering, they're the biggest and most prominent bike shop / service workshop in Bukit Merah.
You can figure out the rest....

Phew! Mr Morgan to the rescue...

Saved by the tool.
CarbTune Pro, that is.
This morning, I raised an SOS call-to-arms in the forum.
Luckily, an old touring friend responded and off I was in the early evening to his place.

He had bought a Morgan CarbTune Pro tool some time back and it was a lifesaver.
Since its a mechanical and uses stainless steel rods to indicate vacuum, no way in hell its gonna fail on me this time.

So now, its all up and tuned. The Ghost is running super-smooth with no bumpiness in the acceleration.
But I'm like dumping a ton of carbon & black smoke from the exhaust due to the earlier disaster.
So, I'm planning a high-speed "shakedown" run to my regular stretch to clear it out.
Plus, I just remembered I had some FP-60 fuel cleaner left in my storage closet. Well, time to finish it...

Argh!! Disaster! Get the doctor, quick!

What a day.
Ok, after getting all my items yesterday, leaving them in my bag overnight and getting all pumped-up and psyched this morning, I decided to install them.
As always, with proper tools and some help from the tech manual, all went well.
Spark plugs in, filter replaced, airbox cleaned out from the excess oil off the crankcase breather and inner chassis wiped clean.
So, I was staring at the four throttle body barrels and here I thought, "Hey, since I got them open, why not do that balancing thingy?".
For the uninitiated, what I was thinking of doing is termed "throttle valve synchronization". For non-EFI bikes, its often called carb-balancing. They have carbs, I have throttle bodies. Different parts, same concept. Essentially I'm trying to balance the air intake for all 4 TBs so the combustion across all 4 TBs will be equal. This will improve acceleration & keep it smooth. That's the theory anyway.
So I called up an friend who showed up with an electronic 4-port vacuum gauge. Instead of mercury like CarbTune or ball-bearings like the original Suzuki vacuum gauge tool, this one displays in a LCD.
So I was doing the thing, attaching the gauge, testing the tool and just spun a few rounds off 2 of the screws when the thing died.
Crap! The tool went deep-six on me.
All attempts to revive it failed. And here I was with the Ghost, coughing like an old man suffering from advanced stages of asthma and its ECG tool just died on me.
Sigh. Some wild guess on the balancing made it even worse.
So I'm now stuck with a bike that's running so damn rich, running it slowly on the road actually cools the bike to 80 degC, something unheard of.
Crap...

Time for some tune-up...

Pay's in.
So today, I decided to do some basic stuffs up for the Ghost.
Tyres were wearing out badly. Turns out I got the wrong replacements for the BT014.
I was reading about the Continental tyres and saw very positive reviews, especially for its durability and grip while maintaining a very reasonable price.
So I got them Conti SportAttacks Feb this year.
Less than 7 months later, I'm seeing the steel belt on the centre of my rear tyres.
What the hell?
Turns out, I got the wrong model. I should have gotten RoadAttacks, which comes in a dual-compound mode. Damnz. Wasted $300.
So, with the festive season (Ramadhan) around the corner, I decided to go tight a bit and get a lightly-used set of tyres any of the forumers are selling.
Enter the Michelin 2CT.
A kind soul was willing to part with his <2000km used 2CTs for $100. He uses the bike strictly for track and had only put on the 2CTs. But now he wants to try out the Power Race.
Checked out the tyres and found them in very good condition.
Done deal.
I also went shopping for spark plugs. NGK Platinum G-Power, recommended by some of my GSR buddies. They're only $1 more than the stock CR9E. Ok, done deal.
Stock Suzuki air filter. Damn these GST increase. I got them previously for $35. Now its $39. Oh well, I still can't afford a BMC yet. Maybe 2 months time.

Let's see how the installation goes tomorrow...