F
flak monkey
Guest
After selling my Vmax I couldn't really decide what to buy next - while the max was good fun, I just wasn't getting the use out of it due to it having a lot of bare polished ally which was a nightmare in the wet. It'd got lots of modifications etc, as I normally have custom stuff. This is what it looked like, and that's my other toy lurking behind it (1000s of hours of work in the resto of that one)
I decided that I wanted to do a bit of touring next year, probably 2 up as well. And also wanted something I could use all year round for commuting to work. Looked at a few different bikes and finally settled on the Bird.
Picked up a '98 with 29k miles on it fairly local to me for a shade over ?2k - got a reasonable amount of history with it. It was completely stock except a double bubble screen. Needed a few things doing to tidy it up so I made a start on them today.
Did the obligatory oil and filter change. Plugs were done 1000miles ago according to the receipts I've got and Iridium ones fitted.
The exhaust had a hole in the collector, so I got a stainless one off a 2000 bike. Swap was pretty simple, most of the header studs came out with the nuts but all came undone easily which was a relief. I hindsight I probably should have bought new studs and nuts too.
While I had the panels off I noticed that one of the engine mounting bolts was broken, looks like it was being held in by the side panel. A bit odd - all other mountings were fine. The remnant of the bolt was jammed in the engine - only one thing for it, drill it out and fit a new bolt. So I machined up a bush to fit in the frame hole to guide the drill otherwise it's very easy to miss the centre of the bolt and damage the engine cases.
Making the bush took all of 5 minutes on the lathe, I made it a tight fit in the hole in the frame and drilled out the broken bolt with a good drill (I always use Dormer ones). Retapped the hole and fitted a good quality bolt with a new spacer.
I decided that I wanted to do a bit of touring next year, probably 2 up as well. And also wanted something I could use all year round for commuting to work. Looked at a few different bikes and finally settled on the Bird.
Picked up a '98 with 29k miles on it fairly local to me for a shade over ?2k - got a reasonable amount of history with it. It was completely stock except a double bubble screen. Needed a few things doing to tidy it up so I made a start on them today.
Did the obligatory oil and filter change. Plugs were done 1000miles ago according to the receipts I've got and Iridium ones fitted.
The exhaust had a hole in the collector, so I got a stainless one off a 2000 bike. Swap was pretty simple, most of the header studs came out with the nuts but all came undone easily which was a relief. I hindsight I probably should have bought new studs and nuts too.
While I had the panels off I noticed that one of the engine mounting bolts was broken, looks like it was being held in by the side panel. A bit odd - all other mountings were fine. The remnant of the bolt was jammed in the engine - only one thing for it, drill it out and fit a new bolt. So I machined up a bush to fit in the frame hole to guide the drill otherwise it's very easy to miss the centre of the bolt and damage the engine cases.
Making the bush took all of 5 minutes on the lathe, I made it a tight fit in the hole in the frame and drilled out the broken bolt with a good drill (I always use Dormer ones). Retapped the hole and fitted a good quality bolt with a new spacer.