Love the attention to detail. I’m very much a paint it, then immediately pick it up to see if it’s dry kind of guy.... Lockdown is improving my patience though. I don’t know what others think (and you didn’t ask), but i wouldn’t waste your paint on that bikini fairing. I think bars, speedo and big light look is just classic.
things didn’t go well with the painting… the seat cowl had rattle can paint on it by the look of it... and it reacted badly to the base coat. going to have to do it all again. the other parts came out well though… two coats of clear on the mudguard and fairing, one coat on the tank before I put the decals on and then hit it with one and a half coats…
Painting is all finished and I am happy with the results... I love the way 2k just comes out with a gloss from the gun... here is a 25 second video... just ordered a new battery...
One of the few fabrication jobs I have done on this bike… I have decided to fit an ignitech ignition… Most people seem to fit them next to a smaller battery, or move the coils over, but I wanted to keep the unit away from the heat of the engine… So I made a bracket to fit it under the LH side panel. it just fits nicely…
well apart from a few snagging jobs, and replacing the rear brake hose which is too long… its finished. I need to tweak the ignitech unit and enable one of the output channels to limit the revs to 2500 when the stand is down… When I was 19 a good mate rode away from the pub with the stand down… just up the road he came off, and the accident resulted in him losing an arm… those things stay with you… I am going to keep this one... I was reflecting the other day about a day in 1994 when I went to work on My Laverda Jota...it was such a nice day I rode past work and went to Slater Brothers the Laverda importers at Collington. When I got there I parked next to a red 900 Monster... It was the first time I had seen one in the flesh... I was looking around it when Richard Slater came out with the keys and said take it for a spin! I was really impressed, much lighter and agile than the Jota... I have always wanted one since then! Need to find another project now! if anyone in the UK has anything... let me know!
Looks great, good point re the sidestand, both my M900 and 900ss have no sidestand kill switch but my other 4 bikes do, consequently I’ve ridden off on both and caught the stand, luckily it’s happened at low speed in car parks, even so it gives a hell of a jolt, if it happened at speed it would be a crash most likely so yes if you have that facility with ignitech it’s a must.
its one of the reasons I fitted it to be honest... the original units are OK... I dont have a bike that you cant ride off with the stand down, and the thought of just a light on the clocks put me off...
Yes, I don’t think I’ve ever looked at a bikes clocks as I’ve set off, ridiculous idea just having a light!
Brilliant mate, looks fantastic, and a great thread for the rest of us mere mortals to refer back to, many thanks!
well there is nothing else to do to be honest! If I didn't have this I would have been climbing the walls by now... They say a build is never finished… in some ways true! I am still finding little jobs to do like making some frame bungs as none came with the bike…
I was looking at the picture of the bike the other day and thought” those silencers are too long”… and its too quiet… Well I had the original silencers which were quite marked, So I looked at shortening them and removing part of the baffle… not a bad job… by removing the bracket I was able to slide the sleeve down enough to remove the end with a cutting disc. I then cut 100mm off the inner and sleeve (both ends to preserve the stampings) , and welded it all back up again. One thing I learned many years ago when welding exhausts is to clean the carbon off the inside… or it leaches through the weld and the joint cracks! They polish up really well…you just have to remove the original finish with a DA sander with some 120 grit, followed by some 400, then polish…
well my builds have come to an end for this year... and one bike must go to make way for a new project which I will hopefully start next winter. Not sure what it will be yet... time to think, and find something suitable...
Well here it is finished.. fitted a belly pan as I quite like them... roll on summer! I quite fancy doing an S2R next if anyone knows of a suitable bike...
