Goodbye, daily driver : (

Bad news folks, some bastard stole my Sportster.

Looked out the window to where I normally park it and it was just gone. I reported it to the cops, but I know I'll never see my bike again. It's probably in Naples or somewhere in eastern europe by now anyway.

Joke's on you though you a**hole, the bike is in pretty rough shape! The brakes are shot, so is the gearbox, suspension, etc.

I don't quite know what to do now, I feel a bit numb... I guess it's one less bike to take care of? not much of a consolation.

Gathering momentum?

I'm hoping the two small things I managed to do the other day are prelude to more substantial and pressing matters that need attending in the garage.
The exhausts are back on the Rising Star, as is the carburetter. The latter is a bit of a long story, but suffice to say that the bike should either be fitted with a 1" Monobloc, or a 626 Concentric. I had fitted a 930 Concentric that I had built up from assorted Amal parts I had lying around, but it was replaced with a 32mm item, far too large for a standard engine, and not my choice (but we won't get into that...).
I gave that 32mm to Gianluca for his Dominator, and have refitted "my" 30mm one back, which I'm sure will work just fine.

There is one more job left on the bike, and it's a fairly big one: the fuel tank mounting tab at the rear of the tank broke off because of vibration. That is itself due to the fact that the fixing point on the frame was not done in the smartest possible way and needs to be redone. In the photo below you can see the fuel tank has simply collapsed at the back, and the tab is only held on by that brass nut.

As it is now, there is a bolt that was welded into the frame, which is crude and just sticks out like a sore thumb. Yes, there is a thick rubber washer to absorb some vibration, but only vertically, which was clearly not enough.

The proper way to do it will be to cut off the bolt, drill into the frame again and weld a threaded bung, like this, which is what we should have done in the first place. I'll do you one better actually, and fit a rubber silent block, so vibration is dampened both vertically and laterally. Of course it could be years before I get around to it, but in the meantime I'm excited about my chopper all over again, and that's good.

!!! DAKAR 2015 !!!

Hey! I hope you all didn't let the new year festivities (if you subscribe to the Gregorian calendar, which I personally do not) distract you from the fact that the Dakar rally starts TOMORROW!
Head on over to the official website for all the updates and GO HONDA!

(the trucks are also hella cool)

Upgrade mode.

The Apline White GS is resplendent in the winter sun, and gets a couple of neat upgrades all the way from the North Pole: thanks Santa!

First is an extension for the rear brake pedal: better purchase, safer braking:

Then this clever bracket, which should address a problem common to all Paralever models, i.e. the left pillion footrest is bolted directly to the exhaust silencer and supported only by the luggage subframe. It transmits an awful lot of vibration through the exhaust, making for an unpleasant ride for the passenger. With this mod, the footrest should have much more support and be bolted to the frame rather than the exhaust. However, it may require some modification to the bracket itself as we're also rocking non-standard footrests... we'll see.

A whole loada nothin'...

Well, hello everybody!

Look, I know. What the hell happened to the blog?! The simple truth is that I have not been to the garage in a very long time. 

Things have piled up there, figuratively and literally. There is so much to do, on all the bikes, but I don't know when I'll get around to it all. This situation is also felt by the others at the moment, with virtually all bikes laid up for the winter and in need of maintenance at the very least.

Take the Sportster for example. Badass though it is, it is waaay past time I serviced it. The brakes are shot, the suspension has become so vague it's not even funny. The transmission is screaming bloody murder and the whole thing could use a wash and a polish. I actually have all the spares, tools and chemicals I need to get to work, all I'm missing is some time to do it.

After that, here's what should be coming up:

1) the Rising Star gets its exhausts back, as they were before. We had them looked at by a specialist to see if they could be silenced but he said there's just no room for baffles or insulation. I've also rebuilt a 30mm Amal and will be fitting that. Finally, a fairly major repair is needed to the rear of the fuel tank/frame attachment.

2) I have to take the cylinder head off the Norton again and find out what went wrong. I suspect a dodgy valve guide but there's only one way to find out. Whatever happened, I'm inclined to send the whole thing off to SRM and have them rebuild it this time around. Partly to secure a properly executed job, partly to save some precious time.

3) I've been gathering a few parts for my Honda, I would like to change a few things and make it into more of a scrambler, but that's probably for next winter, we'll see.

4) Dad is working on the Yamaha Tricker and has made some progress there: the frame has been sanded and touched up in those spots that were starting to rust. The bodywork, mudguards, airbox and carburetter are off the bike, inspected and cleaned. There was something amiss with the carburetter: some new spares and it's good to go.

5) the Interstate needs a new rear sprocket/brake drum and a chain, I need to get a few spares.

And to top it all off, the others have plenty to do on their bikes so we really need to win the lottery so we can spend a few 12-hour days in the garage and get things done. And what about next year's trip? Where will we go? Will I be able to go?

So much to do...