A Little Tinkerin', A Little Drinkerin'

[Leigh]

Oh look.. Leigh has actually done some work on his bike. Will wonders never cease?

Pfft. It's been one of those weeks, ya know?

So this is how it's gone.
(shakes head sadly at this point)

The back end was stripped.
I took the wheel down to the shop and they swapped old Shooda Bin Hung tyre for the freshly buffed Metzeler.
One of a pair that a mate has kindly donated to the project.

I got back the next day to pick the wheel up and the mechanic grinned in that "I know something funny about your bike" kind of way.
"You know that Chinese piece of crap was a tubed tyre?"
"Yeah", says I.
"No tube" he grins back.
"Maybe he likes filling tyres a lot" I offered by way of explanation.
$22 later and I wandered out with a modern looking tyre on an ancient looking rim.
Plus I got to keep the old Chi Pee Shi Tah.
I wouldn't even use it to make a swing.

Fast forwarding a few days, well, to tonight exactly.
As a distraction from the iron fist of the last week, I toddled out to the shed with cans and a plan.

I had already removed, greased and replaced the swingarm.
It hardly needed it. There was plenty of good grease in there and no slack in the arm. A win!

Time for those beaut black shocks to go on.
The problem was the eyelets, they are a lot bigger than the mounting stud.
Great..
Thommo suggested punching the rubbers out of the old shocks. I had already thought about that.
The mechanic at the shop agreed too.
So that was the plan.
After banging away on a socket into the rubber for a while I realised the rubber was halfway out and not going further.
Did you know the inside of the mounting eyelet on a Showa shock is tapered from both sides into the centre?
I didn't.
A smaller socket, one tap and it fell out.
Eventually I found it and opened the Progressive box to compare eyelets.
Hmm. That wasn't going to work.
I checked in the box to find some instructions for a clue.
The paperwork was under a bag with some washers, spacers and small metal tubes.

This is where the rest of you can start shaking your heads too.

The final result?
Sexy blackness holding my bum off the floor.

Plus my first poser sticker for the bike.

 

[Guest]

Aaaaaah nice work!

Don't worry, I've had many d'oh! moments over time... always the simplest things are so obvious, but always looking for the hard way because it can't possibly be that easy...

I had an impact driver for years that I never knew you could pull the tip off to convert from screw driver bits to a socket driver... turns out I never read the little piece of paper provided with it...

Now you can say you've got a nice pair

 

[Leigh]

If I go around claiming to have a nice pair there's going to be some trouble..
Yeah, ok, why not?
I might get a t shirt made saying "I have a lovely pair"


Nice work on the impact driver, too. Hehehe

 

[Guest]

Yeah yeah, didn't have the slightest bit of embarrassment when I found that...

I found you a couple of shirts...

 

[Leigh]

Hahaha.
Can we get that in Suzuki blue please?

 

[Guest]

Oh I'm sure we can organise something... haha

pity though the good one now is just a little red X for me... bugger.

 

[Leigh]

I have a bike on 2 wheels again.
I am very happy. To say the least.
We had the 4 days off down here in Melbourne for Cup Day.
So it naturally poured down like Ragnarok was coming.
I swear the old bloke next door was herding a pair of each animal into his big boat.

Well, that meant the lawns and gutters were off the list. I set the kids to the housework and disappeared into the Bat Cave.
First up was the rear wheel with it's sexy Metzeler attached.
Polishing, greasing and painting.
Have I mentioned how much I hate polishing? I may have, once or twice.
The radio was cranked up on the oldies station. (It saves me from hearing the three brothers fight over who is washing, drying and putting away).

I tried buffing wheels, cotton wheels, sisal wheels.
The result was crap, to say the least.
Aaah well, back to the old ways.
An old t shirt and the Autosol.

It didn't come up too bad at all.
A lick of paint on the centre and flat black for the spokes.

I had to leave that sit for a while to dry.
I took to the tank with cut & polish and carnauba wax.
It proved just how bad I really am at prep & paint.
I don't care, it's going off to the pro painter mate next Winter. It will look prettier then.

I was dubious about the el cheapo tank pads I had scored off eBay but they surprised me.
Nice and flexible and stuck like a fat kid on a muffin.

Tank..

Knee..

I left it there for the day as I was waiting for the wheel to dry.
The next day was... fun.
I seem to have a springloaded swingarm.
Getting that wheel back into place was a mongrel job.
I figured out which way the spacers went and lined it all up.
Working from the left, I slipped the axle into the wheel and then lined up the hub to brake spacer.
Easy.
Then slipped the axle through that combination.
the remaining gap from brake to swingarm was less than half the width of the spacer. Hmm.
That took a while of levering, lifting, wiggling, cursing, smoking, walking away etc etc.
I'm sure you blokes know the drill..
But eventually, this..

Hooray for me!

I did a bit more polishing and tinkering around the bike for the day.

I went back on the Monday and stringlined the back wheel into position..

All i have left is a final polish on the side panels and to paint the headlight ring in the same blue as the body.

Since I still had a can or two left and the Canon was in the shed, I spent some time being a bit arty-farty.

So, please indulge me as I get all high-panted with some photos.

 

[Leigh]

Now..
I hope some of you can help me with the next bit.

Firstly, who had the cafe'd up bike with the small square mirrors?
Pete I think we spoke of them.
Here are mine. The same arm and base but with small round mirrors instead.

Secondly, who was it that was looking for a way to mount up their rack? (ooh err, Matron)
I remember someone had suggested hose clamps.
Mine is mounted off the shocker bolt and then clamped off the frame under the pillion seat.
An L bracket is welded to the rack and a U bolt goes around the frame and through the bracket.

This is from underneath looking up into the gap between rack and frame.

If someone can let me know who this was I'll move the relevant parts over to that thread..

Cheers

 

[Guest]

Mate that's lookin' good! See I have wheels on mine too but I don't think it counts if your front tyre is 15 years old and your rear tyre is bald... not to mention having no motor in the frame

That blue is looking schmick indeed; I don't care how bad your prep/paint work was.

Wheels are looking good too.

Now, I did have a peek around and managed to dig up what you were looking at for your mirrors. It's in Scottychop's mega build thread:

Post #140

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=163012

 

[Leigh]

Thanks, Pete.
Yeah, that was the little cafe I was thinking of.
Same arms on the mirrors.

I can't wait to get the bike out into the daylight and get some good shots of it.
With a good road underneath it. Hehe.

The trouble is, I am tied up for the next few weekends so that's going to delay the launch a bit more.

 

[Guest]

I can't wait to see it out and about either!

The length of time mine's taking, I keep having to live vicariously through other's projects, so delays are no good

I do know what you mean about the weekends though, I can't seem to get any time either at the moment which is just the pits... oh well... that's life for ya

 

[Leigh]

Indeedy..
It's forever getting in the way of fun.

 

[Leigh]

Did I mention distractions?
Sheesh!
I've been out to the shed twice in the last couple of weeks.
Here is the biggest job I did to the bike..

Distractions? I have them..
I am getting so itchy to ride because it's so close and I can't get to it.
I feel like a junkie that's drying out.

 

[Guest]

Mate you're much closer than me!!!!

It's lookin' good, and I really like the colour of that coat...

You've got to your shed twice in the past two weeks... last time I touched mine was 31st October

Don't worry, I'm sure you'll have it on the road before you know it

 

[Leigh]

Yeah, I know, Pete.
It just feels like the week before Christmas and I'm a 10yo kid.
hehehehe
It's the loooongest week ever!

 

[Guest]

I hear ya'! Never mind, Santa will be here soon... just don't forget to put out the milk and cookies

 

[Ricko19]

Coming together nicely Leigh! Like the colour

 

[Leigh]

Thanks guys.
I'm a little paranoid at the moment.
I was cleaning up around the back of the bike and I found this under a rag..

What is it and where does it belong?
It had a thin film of old grease on it.
That makes me suspect it's part of the back wheel assembly.
I don't remember seeing it before but when the back wheel came out the spacers dropped before I could catch them.

Is it even off the bike?

 

[Leigh]

I suspect it's the cush drive spacer.
I had a look at the exploded diagram Pete put up before.

This one..

Oh Yay.
I needed that.
Back to the shed for me.

 

[Guest]

Hmmmm it could be, although the one on my 450 doesn't have the tapered bit, but of course they'll more than likely be completely different beasts anyway.

Best to check it though as without that spacer there, I think you'll have a lot of unnecessary lateral pressure on your wheel bearings...