A Boxing day outing on some (not so) green lanes and yes, you guessed it, the popular routes infested with walkers but what a pleasant surprise!! Plenty of smiles, friendly waves and and generally good vibes An extra big thank you to the young blonde lady runner with the magnificent, sprayed-on-lycra covered thighs and booty who held the gate open for me on Houndkirk road. I love you! Some completely deserted routes still available though. Dirtlow Rake devoid of humanity... On the down side, quite a few sizeable trees brought down by the high winds in exposed areas, plus the water damage caused by the perpetual feckin' rain is off the scale. Bretton lane, recently regraded and flattened with hardcore now completely washed out and sporting. 12" deep rut which at least makes the route more interesting! Vehicle damage is nothing compared to this.
Next project purchased for youngest yesterday, Yamaha TZR 50. He's 16 in January so we've got this as a rebuild exercise and first road bike. He's ridden my street twin and is quite accomplished at riding especially seeing as he's been on motorbikes since the age of 4. The crank rod bearing has gone so the engine needs to come out and be rebuilt but with it being a Minarrelli AM6 engine, parts including tuning items are plentiful. Apparently some people have got these 50cc engines into the 20+ bhp figures
So a bit of father and son bonding time yesterday working on the TZR after him being rescued by dad because he'd locked his keys under his scooter seat We took the engine out of the TZR bike and totally stripped it the other week, then parked it awaiting time and parts etc. Yesterday the focus was on preparing the crankcases ready for the rebuild, especially now as the new crank, seals and bearings have arrived. The first issue was someone had previously thrown the chain, no doubt, and knocked a chunk out of the stator housing. I've seen a few of these cases (AM6) with this type of damage and some are much worse, obviously a poor design. The missing piece of casing allows the chain to throw mud, oil etc. straight into the stator plate area with little chance of escape. Youngest cut and formed a new piece whilst dad cleaned up the weld area. Once formed, and using a soldering crocodile grip stand to align the piece, it was tacked in place. The flywheel runs quite close to the casing so very little weld could be placed on the inside face. To give the casing a better chance in future, we decided to create a fillet to hopefully clear the front sprocket whilst strengthening this obviously weak and vulnerable area.
Finished cleaning up the new Bullet, fitted a Hitchcocks lift handle, final wipe over with a rag and out for a spin.
Here is a better view, it is a 2015 Bullet 500 UCE, bought it two weeks ago with 3000 on the clock, runs like a swiss watch.
It is, the idea was that the Bonneville is for sunday best and the Bullet was for all year round run about, I have had four Royal Enfields in the past and am familiar with their shortcomings but like them anyway. I had intended to look for a low price old banger, but this low cost low mileage one came along, bit of battle damage on one side but I have sorted that and cleaned it up, it had been sat for a while and the auto de-compressor had jammed in open, but fresh oil and a good run has cured that, it runs perfectly. I gave it a good clean, touched in the scratched side panel applied ACF50 and a polish, it is like a new bike.
I've had a pair of Oxford heated grips sat on a shelf in the garage for a while now, waiting to be fitted to my Guzzi Breva. As the currant bun decided to come out today and the temperature here is a heady 13 degrees I thought it was time to sort them out. The Guzzi does have the wiring already in situ under the tank for heated grips, there is a control switch on the LH handlebar and an icon on the dash, so all I needed to do was get the tank off, find the aforementioned wires and crack on. Sure enough the connectors for the heated grips were easy enough to find once I'd removed the tank, but I suppose it was asking too much for the OE wiring connectors to be plug and play with the Oxfords, so after a bit of wire splicing the job is done. The set up works great and has the advantage the system switches off when you take the key out, but remembers your settings for the heat when you switch the bike back on again.
Today I did a 200 km ride in the pre-Alps. The weather was nearly the whole distance sunny. Only at the highest point at about 1.200 m I had some fog due to low hanging clouds. Temperature range was from 1 to 14 degrees. Depending on the altitude. It was a great ride.
My Bullet has the twin seat and therefore I can't fit a rack easily. I overcame the problem by modifying a Hitchcocks tail bag that I had fitted to my Himalayan, I used the two bolt holes in the seat, the bolt hole on the mudguard stay and used a P clip fitted to the frame, it is a firm attachment and takes a "get you home" kit, I have a few spanners, tye wraps, a foam aerosol to fix punctures and some tape. Looks ok, it is out of the way and does the job.
Pulled the fireblade out of hibernation and did the oil and filter change. A new air filter was all ready to go but the one fitted was still like new, so just gave an air duster blow over. Still SORN until the salts all gone but fingers crossed that won’t be too far off
My fairings for the Fireblade are at the polishing stage now.......can't wait to collect them and have the bike back together, it's going to look gorgeous .
Lol surely that's usually, stereotypically, a single mans living room @Mrs Visor A proper use for the settee My mate keeps his bike in the dining room despite having a garage.
I believe that he is married; I have not met her but my impression is that she must be an exceptionally tolerant lady!!!
I don't normally venture out on 2 or 4 wheels at Easter. Being retired, I prefer to head out mid week if going out on the bikes as its much quieter, especially living near the coast and seaside holiday towns. Today however its been too nice not to go out, so the mobile smoke screen aka the NS400 was pressed into service and much fun was had on back lanes fairly close to home. At one point the indicators stopped working. As I was only a few miles from base camp I headed back and had a look to see what the issue was. When I stopped on my driveway the Neutral light didn't seem to be working either so after taking off my gear I switched the ignition on again and everything electrical had decided to have a day off. Lol. Suspecting the main 30 amp fuse which is atop the battery, I stripped off the side fairing and was rather amused to find the bolt holding the live cable to the battery had worked loose and disappeared somewhere en route. I guess I was lucky I didn't stop the engine as I might not have been able to restart at the roadside. Delving around in the garage I came up with a replacement and once fitted everything was hunky dory again, indicators included, so I went off again for another blast. Its such a fun bike to ride I really must ride it more often, but I've had several bolts and screws go missing due to the motor vibrations. You really do need to check the obvious candidates before setting off. The fairing bolts are prone to going missing, but I'm loathe to tighten them too much as they might crack the fairings themselves.
Lovely bike @johne and I recall looking at them enviably alongside the RD LC's etc at Squires etc back in the day. Power to weight plus the handling will show many modern bikes which is top dog
