If you look closely at the last pic, you can see my 916 in there too And the wife was sat on the sofa between the two bikes
Its been a while since I updated this thread First thing of note, that dickhead son of mine, who this bike was for, got done 3 times in one week, speeding on the M1, average speed cameras, on his way home from work, he did some insurance quotes for this bike, nobody would quote him for it, so, a deal was done, my FZR400 3TJ for this bike In an earlier post, it was mentioned that the paddock stand bobbin lugs had been snapped off, and it was suggested that I get some aluminium bar, and weld it to the swing arm, after scouring the Bay of Fleas for a while, most used swing arms were around the £200 mark, then, one day, a new listing appeared, £40 buy it now, or best offer, I offered £30, accepted, the real bonus was, the seller was only about 10 miles from my house Collected on the Saturday morning, gave it a good clean and degrease ready to give it a rub down and a couple of coats of paint Once painted, and left long enough to dry thoroughly, came the fun of removing the old swing arm, got that removed, checked the chain, didn't look too bad, located the identification markings, then the real problem arose, apparently, that model chain is discontinued, and the new connecting link is no longer available New chain it is then New chain ordered, new (to me) swing arm fitted, rear wheel refitted, chain on, tensioned, then ran the bike in gear for a couple of minutes, chain retensioned, all good One of the broken parts was the gear shift lever, a new aftermarket one was ordered from the Bay of Fleas, when it arrived, the thread on the rose joint were wrong, it was standard thread, whereas, it should have been left hand thread, oh well, never mind Back searching the Bay, found a complete used lever and linkage set, and bit more than I would have liked to pay, but, needs must This part was fitted at the same time as the chain, as it needed to be removed to access the front sprocket
The old tail tidy and reg plate light were completely destroyed from the accident, so, a new aftermarket one was ordered, again, from the Bay Tidy looking piece of kit, the only issue, the mounting holes were not large enough, 10 minutes with the cordless drill, problem solved Ordered some new fixings from my local Kawasaki dealer, who are now also a Suzuki dealership, since completely motorbikes went bust, tail tidy fitted, wiring run through to under the seat pod, and to cut the plug off the old unit, and rewire it to the new one, as there was no plug on the end of the light wires Before you all start, I know the plate is on the piss The original bolt holes were too low for the new hanger, new holes were drilled, obviously in the wrong place Never mind, it needs a new plate anyway Next on the agenda, is to make this thing fit The link pipe is a larger diameter than the pipe on the bike My initial thoughts are, the part with the cone shaped end, cut off most of the cone part, then cut a small section out, and use it as a sleeve, using the remaining part of the cone to stop it sliding down the original pipe when fitting That's a job for another day
Bit of an update, funny how you get the best ideas when sat on the shitter The new link pipe is too big for the cat on the bike, tried tightening it right up, but it was still too loose, so, I had the idea in the above post, but, I've had a better idea now, the old link pipe is a nice fit in the new pipe, so, I cut the end off, and used that as a sleeve Loosely fitted all together, bit of fine tuning for the brackets, all is good Next on the list was the badly worn gear selector lever rubber, cut off, warm up the new one in a mug full of hot water, slid straight on Then, the real ballache if trying to refit the headlamp and panels Got it Loosely fitted, then gave up, time for lunch
Had a good day with the bike yesterday, first thing was to turn it round in the workshop, to give me a bit more room to work on the front end, Wifey had the idea to put it in the living room, as it would be warmer in there than the workshop The dog was keeping guard whilst i wasnt there Refitted the headlight and cowl properly, then the air intake tubes and white top cover panels Losing the will to live with those, fit them, remove them, refit them, remove them, all just to get some fixings in their respective places Once those were finally fitted, and fully secured, the main side fairings were next, and quite easy, after the fairings, there were just 4 pieces of the undertrim to fit, 3 for the fairing/nose cone, and the last piece was the V panel I did remove the exhaust muffler to apply some jointing paste, just to make sure it doesn't leak After a trip to Fosse Park this afternoon, I took the bike out of the living room, put it in the van, ready for (hopefully) taking it for MoT next Saturday If/when it passes, just need to do a bit of filler and paint on the left side engine casing, and the tank Pics of that to follow
Booked the bike for MoT at 9am Saturday 8th, checked all the lights, indicators, hazards, headlight dipped and main beam, brake light from front lever and rear pedal, all working, happy days, put the bike in the van ready, spent the week locked in the van in the works car park, then home again on the Friday, took it for test on Saturday, after about 15 minutes, the tester came out, "the brake light isn't working from the front brake lever" Me being me, argued that it was working 100% before I put it in the van, he took me to the bike to show me, the brake light switch had failed Switch removed, he asked the parts guy if he had anything similar that would fit (Kawasaki main dealer), they fitted a switch from a kawasaki, brake lights now working, MoT passed (failed first, then fixed issue to give it a pass) Pissed off about the switch, I had checked it multiple times during the rebuild, it worked every time, but not on MoT day Overall, very happy with it, as that was the only thing wrong with it I have spent the day getting it insured, ready for a blast next weekend, subject to the weather of course The only problem with me taking the bike for test, I'm being tempted by the new Versys 1100 to replace the 650
