My Onguard lock, that has served me well for over a decade (I have 2 of these, the other one has been in use for almost 15 years), had some of the pins stuck, preventing the key from going inside all the way. Oil didn't help so I disassembled the lock, cleaned the parts and found two pins that had some slight wear/sharp bits from use that lodged them in place. I filed the sharp edges off from the pins, reassembled the lock and now it seems to work ok. While at it I learned how to serialize these locks and read the serial number of the lock from the key.

The whole affair took about 2 hours because I missed one of the worn pins and repeated the procedure several times before finding the last culprit. It's a miracle none of the almost invisible springs got lost!

Yesterday I found a perfectly good 10mm socket on the ground! The tool gods must be pleased with their humble servant to provide such a gift! To keep them satisfied I later cleaned and reorganized the garage.

As so it happens my partner is changing offices and we'll be moving to Berlin this spring. We have 3 older bikes in the garage (-99 Suzuki GS500e, -97 Honda CB750 and -84 Honda VF500f) and we have to figure out what to do with them.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've understood that the laws are fairly strict regarding technical stuff and for example modifications need to be approved by TÜV?

Does anyone here have experience owning an older bike and dealing with the regular technical inspections? How strict are they? I read someone's story about a bike failing an inspection due to minimal play in a wheel bearing - sounds like an extreme case, but raises the question whether regular maintenance done by a "home mechanic" would be enough to meet the requirements in the first place?

I suspect there's no point trying to bring the GS and CB with us anyways - we've done some work on them and being "well ridden" they'd need a lot of parts to be replaced to meet the requirements. But the VF, once finished, will be pretty much stock parts. Then again it probably doesn't meet the exhaust sound limits.

Here in Finland the laws are quite liberal when it comes to motorcycles so I haven't got much to compare to. Basically unless there are radical changes to the power (if the "class" changes and the bike needs to be re-registered) you don't need to have it checked nor are there any mandatory regular inspections either.

Inspired by the owly calendar post, I got a cool book about the Boreal Owl in Finland as a Christmas gift! The book is heavily focused on nesting and what affects it (basically fluctuations in vole population), but there were some other interesting facts too! Did you know that fieldfares sometimes poop-attack boreal owls, smudging their feathers and making them unable to fly?

The book is written by Erkki Korpimäki, an ecologist, an owl specialist and a researcher. Having studied the Boreal owl for more than 50 years, he was awarded the Champion of Owls Award in 2018 by the International Festival of Owls!

I read the book through in one sitting and on the side finally decided to learn the names of our owls in English.

Last weekend was the midsummer's celebration here in Finland and we were at the family cottage. We use a composting outhouse there and it's really brilliant! I prefer the thing to a regular toilet: it's more private, the styrofoam ring is quite comfortable and I find the technology (if you can even talk about technology as it's basically nature doing its thing) interesting! Normally outhouses are disgusting and awful, so it's surprising how such a simple upgrade makes all the difference!

It's very common in here to have one of those at summer cottages. I wonder if these are used elsewhere?

Anyways, for those who don't know a composting toilet is basically a big plastic bin with a hole on top, simple ventilation, a drain for excess moisture and a hatch in the back to remove pre-composted waste. After doing your business you throw some compost litter (store-bought one is made from a mixture of wood bark chip and peat or dried moss or similar) in to absorb moisture and smells. It's usable during winter too, although the compost eventually freezes, but it will start again once the cake thaws.

When it's working as it should and the usage is within its capabilities the toilet doesn't smell bad and also the stuff coming out looks and smells like, well, pre-compost. Once removed from the toilet bin it needs to further compost in another bin for at least a year before it can be safely used for crops and such.

The maintenance is quite satisfying: open the hatch from the back and take out a few buckets of pre-compost. The stuff is usually packed well enough to not drop down even though some of it is shoveled off from underneath. Close the hatch and push with a log or similar through the toilet hole to drop the cake to the bottom. Add some litter. There shouldn't be any need to mix the insides etc when used properly, except occasionally pushing the tip of the shit cake to the side to make room in the bin.

This time however there was an ant nest inside the toilet bin, in the middle of the stuff, which was quite surprising. One would think that environment is pretty hostile for ants, but I guess they like the warmth and easy food source (bio waste from kitchen is also discarded in the toilet). It seemed that the pre-compost was unusually moist, which could be the reason for uninvited guests, so I made a batch of compost litter mixed with some bark chips and other chaff to see if that helps.