Back in business - nearly!

I'm over the moon at the moment. Nearly back on the road! Brought the bike complete with rung engine mount (Sorry Tom!) down to TQSRacing and tasked Tom with fitting the R&Gs. Given I had rung the mount and it was probably welded in there from the last 13 years the bike has been on the road it was a big ask. I have to say, Tom never fails to live up to the title of being a decent skin. Aright, enough of the brown nosing... but if you're on the Northside of Dublin and ya need a mechanic for anything from servicing to fault finding or whatever bikewise he's the man to go to!

So got the bike back Wednesday the 22nd and after all the hours spent drilling the bolt out the total bill was very competitive! Even got the battery charged up before I collected it.

Between one thing and another I didn't get a chance to start the bike since then and haven't taken her out for a proper spin yet. So tomorrow morning I'll be down to the motor factors to buy a charger. Then a good clean and a carb sync is in order.

Still need to get down to the clutch to check the basket and replace the plates and springs with the heavy duty EBC ones I bought on ebay many moons ago. Then a service, new oil / oil filter and check the gap on the spark plugs at some point.

Hopefully will be out for a spin on Sunday morning with a few of the lads. Think Peter has a new GS since the last time I saw him. Should be good fun! Will update (promise this time...) with pics and some more progress soon.

Take 'er handy

*Sigh*

Ok, so I haven't updated the blog since February 27th. The bike has been off the road since January 27th... When I changed the Chain and Sprockets I brought the bike down to TQS Racing, got the fork seals and brake pads done and got the chain riveted properly (after the cheapo riveter breaking...).

Rear pads didn't need replacing, front ones I replaced with HH sintered pads. Tom warned me that the front brakes felt a little lumpy but it could just be a case of running them in. On a quick test spin back from his workshop I felt they were lumpy and immediately got the idea of replacing the disc. Bought an EBC disc for the front and changed it over a weekend (must check my camera to see if I took photos, don't think I did though) and thanked myself for having bought an impact driver and a torque wrench in Halfords last year!

Immediately when I took off the front disc and placed it on top of the new one it was apparent that the disc had warped. I hadn't noticed it with the old pads so I imagine that they had been worn in with the warp already present.

I also purchased a set of R&G sliders (which on the CB replace the front engine mount) so I set to work trying to get the front engine mount out. Bad idea! Firstly, the nut on the engine mount looked like a sabre-tooth something or other had a go at it at some point in the past. What was a 16 nut was rung. I overcame this by using a 15 which I hammered onto the nut with a rubber mallet. Took about a half hour to get the blasted thing off. Then I proceed to break a socket wrench belonging to my old man (which I replaced with a Draper socket for him! Thanks for being understanding dad!) and I bent another cross wrench. Headed down to Halfords and bought myself a breaker bar to see if that would do the trick. No joy.

In the process I managed to ring the bolt. So I left the bike sitting idle (I know, a sin, right?!) until I could afford to drop it round to Tom again. Dropped in the bike a week or two ago in order to give my stress levels a break and my wallet a bit of a workout.

Still waiting on the bike back. Can't wait to get out for a spin... Devil's work is in idle hands though so I have been toying with the idea of converting my DT from dirtbike to SM (although how Super can a 125 SuperMoto be?)

Will update soon with pictures of the work I've done (I know, promises promises) and plans for what I'm going to do to the bike. In the mean time I'm going to make the old disc into a clock which should be fun.