Friday, 30 December 2011
December 30th 2011
Back in Sydney - Just picked up a Suzuki Dr200 for the daily commute. Planning project, early stages, ans shall update as I can.
Sunday, 28 August 2011
A Sad End for the UK W650 project
Time has conspired against me... too much on with study, kids and work to complete.
A new job starting in Sydney means this project is not going to be completed. Project will be put on Ebay asap or passed back to mates if asked for..
Looked at shipping it across to Oz but it's just not worth the time and effort.
last pics here of where it got to so yuo can see where it was heading.
Ciao for now - new posts with a new project in Oz I suspect (already found a bike that might be worth doing)...
A new job starting in Sydney means this project is not going to be completed. Project will be put on Ebay asap or passed back to mates if asked for..
Looked at shipping it across to Oz but it's just not worth the time and effort.
last pics here of where it got to so yuo can see where it was heading.
Ciao for now - new posts with a new project in Oz I suspect (already found a bike that might be worth doing)...
Saturday, 9 July 2011
July 16th 2011 - Go the Reds!!!!
off on holiday - travelling whilst the mighty Qld Reds face the Crusaders in the Super 15 rugby final.
A few friends either watching in Brisbane or at the game at Lang Park so lets hope the good guys get up (although you can't not want the Crusaders to also win after the terrible year that town has had).
Mind you the buggers have won the title a million times bfore so fairs fair - it's our time!!)
Mighty Qld Maroons whipped the hopeless arseclown Blues once again much to Shaneo's joy - is there any point to State of Origin anymore? Always nice to see Tricky Ricky upset and nice to see Darren Lockyer get a good final game.
Have a good one
A few friends either watching in Brisbane or at the game at Lang Park so lets hope the good guys get up (although you can't not want the Crusaders to also win after the terrible year that town has had).
Mind you the buggers have won the title a million times bfore so fairs fair - it's our time!!)
Mighty Qld Maroons whipped the hopeless arseclown Blues once again much to Shaneo's joy - is there any point to State of Origin anymore? Always nice to see Tricky Ricky upset and nice to see Darren Lockyer get a good final game.
Have a good one
Sunday, 3 July 2011
July 3rd 2011 - is the end in sight?
Snails pace progress continues but...
Steve managed to get the carbies working as the slides had seized. Slides now fully open and inside of the carbies looked good. Let's hope this bodes well.
Gave the carbs a good cleaning upon return (see pics) and have now reattached the carbs/throttle cables etc so in theory, with a new battery and some fuel we know have a functioning motorcycle. The front brakes just need new pads/fluid/reattachment so with a bit of luck we might be good to go by end of month/early August. the pan is to get it running and then off to the shop for a service and some advice re how much needs replacing for an MOT.
Thanks to Saunders Motorcycles in Knebworth for the advice re carby repair.
http://www.saundersmc.co.uk/
Watched MotoGp - Lorenzo wins so it looks like Casey Stoner won't have it all his way this year. Spies looks good and Marco S continues to impress with his haircut and ability to annoy everyone else. Rossi not making much progress with the Ducati it seems..
Mighty Qld Reds made Super 15 rugby Final - unbelievable.
Dean, Craig, Matt & Shaneo all made the BrizVegas Saturday semi final game in various capacities and report that it was awesome. Have just realised that I'll be driving to Cornwall whilst the final is on so will be relying on drunken (and hopefully happy) texts from Oz to keep me up to speed.
C'mon the Reds and the Maroons this week!!!
Steve managed to get the carbies working as the slides had seized. Slides now fully open and inside of the carbies looked good. Let's hope this bodes well.
Gave the carbs a good cleaning upon return (see pics) and have now reattached the carbs/throttle cables etc so in theory, with a new battery and some fuel we know have a functioning motorcycle. The front brakes just need new pads/fluid/reattachment so with a bit of luck we might be good to go by end of month/early August. the pan is to get it running and then off to the shop for a service and some advice re how much needs replacing for an MOT.
Thanks to Saunders Motorcycles in Knebworth for the advice re carby repair.
http://www.saundersmc.co.uk/
Watched MotoGp - Lorenzo wins so it looks like Casey Stoner won't have it all his way this year. Spies looks good and Marco S continues to impress with his haircut and ability to annoy everyone else. Rossi not making much progress with the Ducati it seems..
Mighty Qld Reds made Super 15 rugby Final - unbelievable.
Dean, Craig, Matt & Shaneo all made the BrizVegas Saturday semi final game in various capacities and report that it was awesome. Have just realised that I'll be driving to Cornwall whilst the final is on so will be relying on drunken (and hopefully happy) texts from Oz to keep me up to speed.
C'mon the Reds and the Maroons this week!!!
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Bugger bugger bugger
pics of the srx600 from brisvagas/Australia attached. looks bad, lots of water from the flood and no way to get back to home to fix it....
deeply disappointed - probably just needs a solid clean but don't have bodies on the ground.
Tank is ok - that was saved by dad - have lost cafe seat and rear cowl and I think that held my LED taillight. figure water has probably gone through the exhaust to the engine?? Christ knows if it will ever go again...
bugger
any volunteers to wash the poor old girl?
deeply disappointed - probably just needs a solid clean but don't have bodies on the ground.
Tank is ok - that was saved by dad - have lost cafe seat and rear cowl and I think that held my LED taillight. figure water has probably gone through the exhaust to the engine?? Christ knows if it will ever go again...
bugger
any volunteers to wash the poor old girl?
Friday, 29 April 2011
April 29th 2011
Apparently some german bloke is marrying some english bird today?? How anyone can possibly give two shits about this is beyond me but I got a day off so I managed to clean some of the bike up. Parts below plus a couple of reprints to show you what it looked like at the start...
Am straying from the bobber idea to a cafe racer style bike - closer to my heart but we'll see how that develops.
Successfully cleaned and stripped the brakes. The brake pad pin had rusted tight so a fair amount of swearing and WD40 applied to get the thing off. Am going to repaint the brake body once we get closer to running.
carbs still with Steve so we'll need to wait for that to progress before jumping in any further.
Am straying from the bobber idea to a cafe racer style bike - closer to my heart but we'll see how that develops.
Successfully cleaned and stripped the brakes. The brake pad pin had rusted tight so a fair amount of swearing and WD40 applied to get the thing off. Am going to repaint the brake body once we get closer to running.
carbs still with Steve so we'll need to wait for that to progress before jumping in any further.
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Cafe Cowboy - Cool Short Film
About Dustin Kott, the Californian bike builder who makes custom British style Cafe racers out of old japanese bikes by Bendict Campbell
Cafe cowboy from benedict campbell on Vimeo.
Sunday, 10 April 2011
April 10th 2011 - IT'S ALLLIIVVVEEEE !!!
bloody hell - the thing is actually alive. Steve (o' knowledgeable one) came over, we replaced a few fuses. connected up a battery,put the plugs back in, got some spark and ignition lights, reattached the tank with some old fuel and....the bloody thing started. Needed a lot of choke but we've got the old girl going. Ticked over very nicely indeed. Didn't even need the kiskstart so my hope is that this means the major electrical parts are all ok.
sounded good - engine is tight, but with no airbox it wasn't exactly smooth. We then took the carbies off in the hope of giving them a quick clean but a number of bolts are stuck solid so further work will be required. Also, one of the slides appears to be stuck shut so it may need a professional strip down and reassemble but...there is light at the end of the tunnel.
sensational.
Reds top of the table so I feel like I'm back in the eighties....
sounded good - engine is tight, but with no airbox it wasn't exactly smooth. We then took the carbies off in the hope of giving them a quick clean but a number of bolts are stuck solid so further work will be required. Also, one of the slides appears to be stuck shut so it may need a professional strip down and reassemble but...there is light at the end of the tunnel.
sensational.
Reds top of the table so I feel like I'm back in the eighties....
Sunday, 3 April 2011
April 3rd 2011
little progress - my theme song but have been very busy with other things.
key other thing - been to Bologna Italy and convinced the missus that a visit to the Ducati factory was essential. Nice little museum and the factory tour was quite cool. Simply a product line with assembly workers bolting the relevant parts on plus the testing rooms. Saw the manager of the MotoGp team drive into the factory and impressed the tour guide that I knew who he was (I think) - also topped the class in tour q&a so again my ego feels I've achieved something this year. The number 46 was plastered over everything in sight and the guide suggested tour number were up 200% on 2010 which says all you need to kow about why Ducati closed down it's WSB efforts to secure Mr Valentino Rossi's services in GP.
Lovely part of the world, great coffee , food and really friendly people. Small enough to be comfortable (unlike Rome I'm told) with very limited tourist presence. Worlds first university and still a lot of students which means that there are some cheap eats scattered in that quarter of the city. Nice architecture and it has the requisite amazing cathedrals and art that goes with that part of the world.
Images below are the 72 Hailwood, Paul Smart Imola and various WSB winners
Took the TL1000S out yesterday as spring has finally arrived - great to be back on the bike. Hopefully some work can be done on the W650 soon...
MotoGp warming up nicely - Stoner all the way this year is my call.
Caio.
key other thing - been to Bologna Italy and convinced the missus that a visit to the Ducati factory was essential. Nice little museum and the factory tour was quite cool. Simply a product line with assembly workers bolting the relevant parts on plus the testing rooms. Saw the manager of the MotoGp team drive into the factory and impressed the tour guide that I knew who he was (I think) - also topped the class in tour q&a so again my ego feels I've achieved something this year. The number 46 was plastered over everything in sight and the guide suggested tour number were up 200% on 2010 which says all you need to kow about why Ducati closed down it's WSB efforts to secure Mr Valentino Rossi's services in GP.
Lovely part of the world, great coffee , food and really friendly people. Small enough to be comfortable (unlike Rome I'm told) with very limited tourist presence. Worlds first university and still a lot of students which means that there are some cheap eats scattered in that quarter of the city. Nice architecture and it has the requisite amazing cathedrals and art that goes with that part of the world.
Images below are the 72 Hailwood, Paul Smart Imola and various WSB winners
Took the TL1000S out yesterday as spring has finally arrived - great to be back on the bike. Hopefully some work can be done on the W650 soon...
MotoGp warming up nicely - Stoner all the way this year is my call.
Caio.
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Feb 6th 2011
Good and bad news.
The Bad - word has come from my folks place in Brisbane that the SRX was basically 80% underwater during the recent floods in Brisbane. I've lost the seat and the custom made cowling that sat over it giving it the cafe racer look. Also lost battery, helmet, manual, some tools, leather jacket (plus all of their stuff) to the water. Without seeing images I'm told that the rest of the bike looks ok and needs a clean. I'm hoping the fact that I had covered the bike in water resistant coating for the storage period may have helped. Won't be able to tell until I see images of it I guess. Some friends of the folks are keen to clean it so it may turn out that with a clean and a bit of work (plus parts) we can get it back on the road.
To be fair - many many people lost much more so I can't complain as a bike is way down the list but bitterly disappointed to lose the 6 years that went into it and feel especially hopeless being 10,000 miles away and not being able to help. Luckily the Vet shop son of satan recruitment latte sippin arse clown sea eagles supporting bloke has promised me AU$2K in a drunk moment to fix it.... what a guy!! Have kept the email which a lawyer has advised is binding.
The Good - had a visit from Steve (code named - as 'he who actually has a fu cking clue about bikes) which has given me great hope that the W650 project may actually have more than a 5% chance of succeeding it had whilst I was wrecking things. God forbid - maybe even a ride in summer 2011....
40 odd days to Motogp, still haven't been for a ride but i reckon I'll tax the bike at the end of the month and get the TL out and about.
hope all well at your end of the swamp.
The Bad - word has come from my folks place in Brisbane that the SRX was basically 80% underwater during the recent floods in Brisbane. I've lost the seat and the custom made cowling that sat over it giving it the cafe racer look. Also lost battery, helmet, manual, some tools, leather jacket (plus all of their stuff) to the water. Without seeing images I'm told that the rest of the bike looks ok and needs a clean. I'm hoping the fact that I had covered the bike in water resistant coating for the storage period may have helped. Won't be able to tell until I see images of it I guess. Some friends of the folks are keen to clean it so it may turn out that with a clean and a bit of work (plus parts) we can get it back on the road.
To be fair - many many people lost much more so I can't complain as a bike is way down the list but bitterly disappointed to lose the 6 years that went into it and feel especially hopeless being 10,000 miles away and not being able to help. Luckily the Vet shop son of satan recruitment latte sippin arse clown sea eagles supporting bloke has promised me AU$2K in a drunk moment to fix it.... what a guy!! Have kept the email which a lawyer has advised is binding.
The Good - had a visit from Steve (code named - as 'he who actually has a fu cking clue about bikes) which has given me great hope that the W650 project may actually have more than a 5% chance of succeeding it had whilst I was wrecking things. God forbid - maybe even a ride in summer 2011....
40 odd days to Motogp, still haven't been for a ride but i reckon I'll tax the bike at the end of the month and get the TL out and about.
hope all well at your end of the swamp.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Happy New Year
no further progress
cricket a disgrace
middle of winter so snow/rain/cold and no heater in garage
have abandoned all hope until it gets warmer or I get off my arse and buy a heater for the garage...
have a good one!
cricket a disgrace
middle of winter so snow/rain/cold and no heater in garage
have abandoned all hope until it gets warmer or I get off my arse and buy a heater for the garage...
have a good one!
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