the new - what have you done to your ped today thread.

Tyre swapped around now , so tomorrow is time to finish the engine room and swap the rear shocker for the new one before I put the engine back into the frame. I've applied the decals to the handlebar and side panels, so they need to be drilled for the chrome badges and have a final coat of lacquer, then they are complete. The front panel should have it's badges applied tomorrow too.

I need to find my hole punches, to cut nice neat clean holes for the needles in the new clock fascia. I want to get the handlebars and clocks ready as an assembly before I fit them to the bike. There's also the new rear number plate mount, light and number plate to fit as well. Oh, then there's the grab rail to remove and the rear rack to fit.

The to-do list is getting a lot shorter now...

 

New rings turned up for the Katana's piston, hopefully the gaskets will be here tomorrow. Might not get it done this weekend though, judging by the last few days of fixing everybody else's scoots.
The apprentices scooter needs a new crank, that upset him a lot. Especially the cost of it. £180 new. But made a call to PMTuning and they are sending me a used but good crank, main bearings and seals, and small end bearing all for under £100. Thank you PMTuning.
Then i told him what I'd done about it and he's happy again.
Might start a little thread about it, because i'm going to paint the engine while it's in two pieces. Already decided on the paint; it's not going to be the usual bright silver that i normally do. But have found a nice colour on the shelf that i forgot i had...................

 

It's not fully assembled and wired up yet, but this is proof that the rev counter fits and that it can be made to look as if it was factory fitted. I'm really pleased with that result as it looks the shizzle, with the matt finish retro black dials.

I still need to put in the screws for the new rev counter, fuel gauge and speedo dials, fit the needle end stops
and work out how to wire in the right hand clock illumination bulb, as the original twist socket bulb won't fit now the rev counter is fitted. I have the bulb from the Chinese rev counter that has a rubber bulb holder, so I'll most likely use that and come up with some way to secure it inside the clocks.

 

well ive screwed up on my engine mounting.
in my rush and excitement to get it done, I did it all by eyeball, well ive just measured it all out, and the engine needs to be pulled over to the right by 4mm. I ground at the FRAME and not the mount to get it to fit and the shock angle is all wrong. so because I had no patience ive potentially messed up the frame. going to go back to the shed, have a sit down and look at it, see if I can think of a way of sorting it that doesn't involve bodging it or if I should just give up with this frame and start again with another.

 

can it be corrected using a spacer washer? The thick thrust washer type i'm thinking about.

 

nope, ive been attempting to sort it out since 1:30pm, not doable, Ive tried to take 2mm off both the frame and the mount itself, to achieve the 4mm needed, stepdad even came over to help at around 5pm, its best I get another frame or even better a complete scoot with the original engine, he sujjested I cut the standard engines mount just before where it bolts to the frame, weld that onto a speedfight mount, brace it and do it that way.

shit. im LATE for work.

 

do look nice merlin..

 

Thanks, guys. It was a lot of measuring/re-measuring, Photoshopping, printing, laminating and fiddling to get it all to come together, but I've fitted the dial screws, added the needle stops and hard wired the clock bulb nearest the rev counter, as the twist socket had to be cut into to fit the rev counter. Five minutes with a soldering iron sorted that out.

It lights up nicely too.

 

going to have to attempt something like that for my vision...
how hard can it be haha

 

It's not as hard as I thought it was going to be, Scootz.

I even got a spare set of Speedfight clocks, just in case things didn't go as planned. Cutting the hole in the back of the binnacle was the most nerve-wracking bit.

 

So, got an sp125 in, and the owner wants the engine changed for a 180 he bought. But.........he needs silent blocks, replacement clocks, and a couple of other little things as well.
Thing is, he's short on the greenbacks at the moment so paying the labour could mean me waiting a week or two; not a problem, i trust him to pay.
So, i had an idea. He was thinking about selling the 125 engine anyway, so I suggested that i have the engine as payment. And the loom with all the bits on it.
We have a deal.
Then that got me thinking.
I have a Gilera Ice.
In bits.
I wonder what it would be like with a 172 in it.............................

 

I get £50 off my next policy with my insurance company so I just did a quote with them for a brand new directbikes 50 with certain mods declared. £120 tpft. so if I really wanted to I could buy a brand new scooter (yes I know its Chinese but unlike a lot of people I know how to take care of them properly), have it delivered, insured etc for less than £800. I might do it as a experiment + prove to people how you take care of them matters and for something cheaper to use to commute. I know I could get used for same price etc etc but would be kinda interesting.... see if I can make one last .....
or for £699 I can go out today and get a pulse scout and have it on the road within 3 days for near enough the same as what It would cost to have a directbikes scooter purchased, delivered and registered.... hmmmmm....

 

Replacement frame needed for this sp125, the area where the silent block fits is totally rusted through, so bad in fact that it is un-recoverable. Just told the customer and he is gutted.

 

not able to cut, fab a piece and weld it in? or is it really that bad?

accountant doesn't approve of the Chinese 50 idea, says if I want a cheaper way of getting to work I can get a push bike.....

 

No, its that bad. That area supports the entire strain of the engine through acceleration and braking, if it snaps the engine drops and takes out the plug then bounces off the rest of the frame. And on acceleration it'll wallop the bottom of the seat bucket. It's proper FUBAR.
But no worries, just collected a replacement frame and V5 for £50.

 

going to go and look at a wr400 tomorrow for £500, apparently its cosmetically tatty and needs tidying up but mechanically sound... don't know much about them but its gotta be worth a quick look if I can just tidy it up, ride it through winter and sell it for what I pay for it...

ive not told trumpalot yet. shell find out when she comes home to it in the living room if I buy it