While I was looking at how the seat was fitting I tried to imagine it covered in black. As I did that I decided there was simply too much black at the back and that the rear mudguard should be red. I am really close to budget now with only a few quid contingency, half of which went on yet another tin of Audi brilliant red. I think it was the right thing to do, to my eye it just looks better.
It’s only three bolts that require undoing to remove it so it’s no big deal.
Everything is pretty tight in the workshop at the moment, I thought with the lockdown people would be wanting bikes but that isn’t the case right now, I suspect everyone is either short of money, redundant or worried about becoming redundant. Whatever it is the market for bikes has dropped right off, as have parts sales too. Not to worry, I shall just carry on as best as I can and hope for better times. As this project draws to a close I have picked up the next one, it’s something totally different and not something I would have imagined getting involved in but I think it will have wide appeal, I shall tell you all about it shortly.
Meanwhile, it’s back to the dog, the rear mudguard has been cut back and polished before being refitted, I am very pleased with it, I think going from black to red was the right decision.
Sadly I didn’t get round to getting any exhaust pipe to make the section between headers and silencers – God knows where I am going to get some with everything shut down but I will come up with something, even if I have to do something temporary. I can’t run it as it is – it’s stupidly loud and our puppy doesn’t like it. The cat fucked off too last time I started it, we didn’t see him for 2 days.
I got the chain put back on and set the rear wheel so it is straight in the frame, while I was at it the tensioner went back on. I am still not really convinced I need it but it’s staying for now anyway. I did abandon the coil spring arrangement though in favour of the tension spring coming off the rear footpeg hanger mounting bolt. I have to confess to a cock up here. It appears that when I welded on the hanger bracket it got moved from it’s correct position. It was tacked on but when it came to pieces I fully welded it both sides to make sure it wouldn’t move. Sadly it had already moved and the bolts were way to close to the chain. The only way I could get any clearance was to bend it slightly. Don’t tell anybody, it doesn’t show unless you know about it and I’m keeping it quiet.
I am still waiting for the clutch cable parts so tomorrow I shall join the chain, make a bracket for the side light and fit it, wire up the rear light, connect the rear brake light switch and that’s it apart from the seat. I need to drop it off with my neighbour and show her the sort of thing I am after.
Actually as I write this I have just thought of another job that needs doing – I don’t have a bracket for the speedo sensor yet. The universal instrument pack has a Hall effect sensor for the speedo, it needs to be calibrated to the diameter of the wheel, two magnets glued to the rim of the wheel trigger the sensor each time they pass it. The sensor has to be securely mounted so the magnets are within about 5mm of the sensor each time they pass. It’s a simple enough thing to do so long as I can find the instructions for getting in to the set up mode. I found them on line and forgot to bookmark the page, which was pretty dim. Never mind, I shall find them again.
While connecting up the wiring for the rear brake light switch I noticed a slight cock up – an unusual one for me as wiring is my speciality. What I had done was to pick up a live feed for the brake light switches from a live feed going to the engine kill switch. It’s a lightly loaded circuit fused at 10 amps and the brake light is only 21 watts so it was just a convenient place to pick it up. What I had rather stupidly done is take it from the wrong side of the kill switch so if the switch is off the brake light won’t work. Dumb ass. It will only take 5 minutes to put it right but it was a really silly mistake to make, I guess I must be out of practice.
With that little error attended to I set about tidying up all the wiring, it’s all tested now so I can button it up and forget about it. Next time I should be just about done, so join me then for the conclusion.
Article provided by David Powell of Boston Bike Bits.
