Well this has arrived... its a 2004 XB12R... I really didn't need another project just yet, but when this came along at a bargain price it was simply too good to miss! its done 12k miles and is in really nice condition! lots of aftermarket carbon parts on it, plus all the original parts as well! Not sure what I will do with it yet, I am tempted to just ride it for a while! We will see...
Another victim of vibration...I lost a seat bolt…. No problem I thought, bound to be one on Ebay…. there was… sold for £100!!! seems its now a rare item! I measured the thread and set the lathe up to the pitch of the thread… been a while since I did any screw cutting, so I had to get the book out, which is the original one that came with the lathe! there is even a commissioning sheet, dater May 1959! I love making stuff like this!
its something that bugs me... no one to pass my knowledge onto... or my tools... I actually have had nightmares about it all going in the skip! I did say this build would sit at the back of the garage until the end of september when we come back off holiday... But there is not much riding weather of late so I couldn't resist doing a few jobs! I have however been doing quite a few miles on the last Buell... and I have to say that I love riding it! I love the wall of torque, pin sharp handling, and the sound! My ideas are starting to form in terms of how this one will look… one thing for sure is that the clip ons have to go, so the first job has been to make a new top yoke. I drew it up in CAD and sent the file to the water jet cutter along with a 25mm billet of aircraft grade alloy, it came back perfect! I had to machine a recess in the top, and this needed a bigger lathe than mine so I popped in to see my mate… Nice and easy job but I did come away with Lathe envy!
