Work has continued apace on the cafe racer. Last time I was trying to decide whether to fit indicators or not, I decided I would go for it – all the wiring was there, the relay was there so connecting them up was a pretty small task. I will need to make some sort of mounting bracket at the back, at the front they will mount on to the headlamp mounts, which brings me on to another subject. Last time I said I had found some mounts but when I fitted everything up the headlamp bowl was too close too the wiring and the brake distributor so I had to make longer arms to put the bowl further forward. A proper pain in the arse as it was a couple of hours work I could have done without but the end result looks ok.
I also got round to modifying the rear sub frame and side panel so that I can make an adapter to fit a fuel tap to the awkward sized Triumph hole. A couple of minutes with an angle grinder and a squirt of paint was all that little job needed, I will make the adapter once the fuel tap has arrived so I can be certain I am making it the right size – having to redo stuff soon saps your enthusiasm, I am on the home stretch with this one now and very pleased with how it looks, the next job will be to fit a front mudguard and then it’s just some minor tidying. It should get good money, it’s bang on trend and a very nice looking job, in my opinion. I would say that, though, obviously 🙂
Work has also continued on the GT250, that effort is described in the separate series that I am writing as I go along.
I still have a few jobs to do on the Honda XL1000V Varadero that I picked up the other week – mainly I need to sort out the wheels, both of which need to be removed and cleaned up before being either polished or repainted. I need to sort the leaky valve stem on the rear one while I am at it.
I also need to sort out the Beeline SMX50 – why they didn’t just call it “the shameless copy” I don’t know because it is an exact copy of the Aprilia SX50, even the engine is a copy of the Minarelli AM6 2 stroke. It will be interesting to see if it goes as well. It has lots of broken bits to sort out, both master cylinders are shot, it has no chain, will only run on easy start and the starter motor is knackered. It kicks over ok and with a shot of ether seems to run quite well, I suspect the auto choke is not working, I need to take it all to bits and have a proper look. Parts for them are dirt cheap and I think I already have a chain for it so it’s worth getting it running as a cheap off roader. It is road registered so I may go the whole hog on it, someone should have a lot of fun with it.
One job I really don’t want to get on with but know I must is the breaking of my 9900 mile GSX600F. It’s a really clean bike and it runs perfectly, it has 6 months MoT on it but nobody wanted to buy it. I dropped the price right down to 850 but still nobody wanted it. I know I can get a lot more than that in parts so breaking is my only real option. It’s a real pain when a massive chunk of time gets wasted like that but the economy in rural Lincolnshire is well and truly on it’s arse at the moment and we can post parts out of the area whereas we can’t post complete bikes.
Back to the Cafe racer, the tap arrived so I finished making the adapter, fitted it and checked it fits on the bike, which it does.
Also seen in that photo is a bracket I had to make to secure the rear of the fuel tank, it’s another one of those jobs I either hadn’t got to or had lost patience with a couple of years back. It was a real pig of a job to measure it up as it’s difficult getting any measuring device in the right place. It all worked out in the end though and I am pleased with the result – it is sturdy, looks ok and makes the tank very easy to fit and remove.
With the side panels back on it’s looking very bike like and getting very close to being done. There are now just a few minor jobs, the front mudguard needs a mounting bracket making and any bugs will need to be ironed out before it’s mot time. Bye for now.
Article provided by David Powell of Boston Bike Bits.
