Holidays!

Im actually going on my first proper holiday this year (woop!), but its with the missus (booo!), Cyprus for a week. First actual non-bike-related holiday! Though I will probably hire a scooter ;-P

So if anyone wants anything then get back to me from the 8th October for your tabs and bungs etc. Or get in touch sooner but you shall be waiting until then for a response!

Universal Fabrication Tab Sets

Alright guys Ive got some new frame tabs available for your pleasure....

Available in a 3mm set (£8+£2 P&P) or 6mm (£12+£2 P&P).

Ideal for budding bike builders like yourselves!! Get them now and I'll throw in a free sticker :)

Get in touch via my email address - holmevalleycustoms@hotmail.co.uk

The trip out...

Ok so once I got all that welded it was time for the trip out!!!

A bit (very!) wet on Friday morning but the hopes were high so we soldiered on regardless..



Not 100% in the tools that I need to take with me. But I basically take all the spanners, sockets and screwdrivers etc that I might need...



Anyways we (my dad and I) met TC on the A1 south, at which point it was still raining  but even so we carried on and got there in the end 



Most importantly though, I got a trip out sticker on my bike!! 



Yay!!!

Getting it ready for the trip out!

Right, in prep for the trip out this weekend I rode the little chopper over to my girlfriends (about 50 miles away!) and the rear brake went about 1 mile from her house...





As you can see its pretty well fubarred!! As far as I could tell it was down to the fixing bolt coming out of the rear brake stay arm. So the rest of the damage had been done as a result of the rear hub trying to spin around. 

So to get the bike home again I just took the rear brake pedal off it completely. This made for one tricky mornings work a-thon!! 

Even so I got the bike home that evening (Thursday) and had one night to get it back on the road. Bring it on! I thought... Hmmm, took quite a while in the end!

Stripped the rear brake down into its basic parts and decided that I needed to remake the linkage and the brake lever. So I stripped down the rear linkage rod and made a new threaded bung for some M6 thread to sit in...



That was before. After I had a new threaded and machined bung for both the 6mm bar and M6 bar to sit in. Next up was the brake lever arm. It was chewed at the ends but I figured that I could cope with it for now.



So as the original one was shaped like a banana I decided to remake it out of 15mm bar.



Tacked;



Welded;



So now the rear brake assembly could be rebuilt, with new fixing, washers, etc, and a couple of new parts.





Eeek!! What a little bugger! When you looked closely at the broken joint you could see that there was less room than originally thought. But as it was late on Thursday, I just decided to bodge it!

Bits and bobs..

Just been messing with little bits and bobs really. I needed to adjust my chain and as I had already moved the idler sprocket to the end of its travel, I slackened it off and adjusted the tension properly with the axle adjusters. I then realised that because the number plate bracket is secured to both the sissy bar and the rear axle... it didnt have any allowance for the axle moving forwards or back...!

So I ground out a slot in the number plate bracket to accommodate adjusting the chain...



While I was riding around I could hear the electrics rattling about in the fake oil tank. Mainly the Boyer box and the starter solenoid. Even though there is quite a lot of room inside the tank, i made the lid a bit too small, so its tricky getting in and out. Especially with the bulky 6 way fuse box. I think opening this up more and fixing down the components inside is definitely a job on the 'future modifications' list. For now though I just wrapped stuff up and padded the tank out with rags and bubble wrap to stop things shaking about.

To do this however, I had to remove the seat. Unfortunately though it seems that the welding has bust inside my frame and the bolt that provides the lower fixing point for the spring started spinning round.... :-/



Bugger! I had welded a stainless bolt inside a lug that I had machined to suit, and then welded this onto the frame. Thinking that I could never bust it, but I did, so now I had to grind and drill the old bolt out...



Then I cut a length off a new bolt and welded that in place. I also welded round the bolt on the other mounting point so they looked the same and for extra strength!



Sorted. Ive been riding around on the bike with +1 size on both the main and the pilot jet. Its been running great but felt a bit lacking at the top end, so I swapped out the main jet for a larger size. My jetting is now as follows;

BS34 CV carbs.
Main jet - #137.5 (2 sizes larger than stock) Large round type, N100/604 Mikuni type.
Pilot jet - #45 (1 size larger than stock) BSBS30/96 type.
Float height - 22mm (stock)



Took it for a little blast around the block and it put a big smile on my face. Whereas before I was getting upto 60mph and feeling like I needed another gear, now it was pulling well and I could easily cruise 60-70 in top gear. Sounded a little meatier I thought too. And I got a little more popping and banging under engine breaking. but I dont mind, it sounds good, pulls well, and made me smile  :-)



All ready for the trip out now. Im going to make the sissy bar a bit prettier, and If I get time I might try and make a side mounted tool bag on the hard-tail. (I hate that man-bag on the front!!).