My Blog List

Friday 24 March 2017

Polishing up a S/S Hex head...........

...........with just a flap wheel and wet n' dry and sometimes I do this and sometimes I don't.  These last couple have turned out not too bad at all considering each only took  5 - 10 minutes.  I know that you can buy them already machined down, but it's all extra expense and you really have to look quite close to see some imperfections.


Friday 17 March 2017

Slow progress.......

.............with the latest project. Although I'd taken the bodywork over to Andy at Ultimate Bike Paint I'd forgotten to cut out a small area for the linked brake operating rod so had to go and get back the r/h panel. I always prefer to get the side panels in as close as possible and so with this in mind I also made a slightly different angled m/cylinder actuating arm. A couple of hours in I had a thought that it might not be suitable, but continued  anyway and it turned out to be the case as it now fouled on the frame so I didn't bother cleaning it up too much. Anyway a lesson learned as it made me realise how maybe I should have shaped it.
   I have made my own brake lines up which I prefer to do getting a more exact length as I feel a lot of the ready made kits sometimes have too much line which can look a little untidy. I've covered mine in shrink wrap tubing so the matt black blends in nicely with the rest of the bike. I bled the front brake up in a matter on minutes but then spent 30 minutes cleaning up the old pot of brake fluid that I knocked over............oh yes I put what was left of the old fluid in a safer place and managed to kick that over too !
    A few other jobs have been achieved  - fitting the coils and Gammatronix boxes  in place, remaking more silencer brackets and yesterday started the process of bleeding the linked system. It really is all those seemingly little jobs that take all the time and I'm often left wonderin' where the day has gone.






Wednesday 1 March 2017

Guzzi Cafe Racer

Adam from 'Italian Motor magazine' came over 10 - 11 days ago to take pics of my Guzzi Special that I finished building last year. After the static shots the plan was to take it out somewhere for some extra on road pics, but the time ran out as Adam also has a two and half hour drive home plus the 40 minute drive back to my house and really, after over 4 hours,  I think we just wanted to get back somewhere warm as it was such a cold day especially when your just standing around.
    Adam did take the bike for a short spin just to get a feel for how it felt / went .
   Anyway here is a brief video clip of it running which Adam posted on his magazine Facebook page and Youtube channel.