Took the teenager's broken footpeg hanger (brake side) off and discovered... 1) The new second hand hanger has a different sized and threaded hole for the brake light switch so that'll now need sorting 2) The brake lever pivot has at some point been changed from the proper pivot pin to a normal bolt with loads of tape wrapped round it to turn a M8 bolt into a M8 bolt with a 12mm shoulder. Luckily it seems that the Cagiva part may be similar to some Ducati Monster ones so tomorrow's job will be to see if the one from my S2r fits and then trying to find a replacement. I love rare 15 year old motorcycles that have been 'maintained' by teenagers...
Bought 40 litres of petrol for my boat and the 748 - haven't got around to actually putting it in the tanks - maybe tomorrow
I’ve got a couple of similar stories re: the DT125 i bought for my 18 year old that had been “rebuilt” by a guy in his early 20s. The best/worst ones being a throttle cable with 2” of play and a speedo pickup mounted to the bottom of the fork leg without a lock nut fitted so it was slowing winding its way through the bracket and starting to machine the inner ring of the brake disc. Terrifying. And even more so that it had a fresh MOT!
Spent about 3 hours on the first can de catting it. Lesson learned, the second can took about 20 mins. Should be able to get them welded back up tomorrow.
Built some shelving in the workshop in order to clear enough floor space (once the bikes are wheeled out of the door) to hang a heavy bag. Then more fiddling with the DT175 but despite making the leaky exhaust gas tight last week it’s not running any better. Time to bite the bullet, junk the Chinese carb and get an OE one (again). I did buy an OE carb and a rebuild kit a few weeks back but it turned out it was for the wrong model. Oh, and the bike won’t go into neutral and the headlight doesn't work anymore either. And, finally, when test riding it i noticed that the bolts holding the top yoke were so loose they were spinning in their holes and when I got home and checked the others, only one was tight! And the mechanic who has tried to sort the carb and electrics out had supposedly done an MOT on it (the bike is exempt but given the way the bike’s condition was misrepresented, I wanted it checked). FFS .....good job I have a punch bag in my workshop Here’s son #1 making use of it
mothers day down the beach with her family. which of course was the perfect excuse for me an the lad to take the bikes down for a roart too. i kicked his ass. *smug*
Cans welded back closed, painted with Halfraud’s finest up to 800° and sleeves from my last set of cans fitted. Wanted to fit them back on the bike to hear the difference between catted and non catted but decided against this as I need to pull the rest of the exhaust off to fit the 18mm lambda sensor bosses and cut out the exup valve. Thinking I might paint the horizontal pipe black when I’ve finished.
I’ve had a chat with a mate about maybe going out for a couple of hours tomorrow. That’s if it stops raining.
Opened the garage door for the first time in a month. I haven't been dreaming, there is a bike in there... So booked accommodation for Corsica trip in September
I thought about how annoyed I am that the trader who sold the DT175 to me described it as "perfect" when it isn't (lockdown prevented in person viewing). I also thought about how annoyed I am that despite me giving it to a professional to sort out the problems (said seller of the bike has agreed to meet the remedial costs) that the bike was given back to me with most of the same problems not having been repaired, including them losing both the air filters I had sent there, and so 2.5 months later I still don't have a usable bike on which to go green-laning. Thank you for listening DFUK.
