Signs

A favour was called in yesterday, the caller, who shall remain nameless,  asked me if I could give them an hour of time to apply some decals to a customers vehicle for them.

How could I refuse, an hour is not a lot of time..... if the things are prepped and ready before arirving that is.
They weren't.

An hour became several but hey-ho, the overall result was good and it was pretty much a fun morning getting the tape and pencil out instead of the laptop and spreadsheets, laughing with garymac at Lead Balloon, drinking Bobbys coffee..... and then getting soaked on the ride home!

Signs

I was in the local and went outside for a sneaky smoke, I was staring at the sign in the garden when I had a flashback that it was us that made it a few years ago!

There as a very old and weathered wooden one before that the owner rightly wanted to keep in style with the remake, after hours of scanning and tracing this is what we made up for him.

Think its pretty cool... brand spanking new but an exact replica of what once stood there for decades before computers arrived.

Jetset

After a few days in London last week I arrived home to be greeted on the driveway with Jetset and a gift of a framed poster from days-gone-by!!!

It now has pride of place on my office wall at home....

Awesome to be home x

GT550 - Next on the list

Next on the list is to attack the single tiny split pin that has yet to be rmeoved form the bike.  This annoying little thing is solely responsible for the delay in getting rid of the big 'n ugly centrestand.  Come tomorrow night its having it.  If the weather is good I iwll also wire up the nice new rear lamp and the indicator I broke.

Once Barca is done the search is then on to get the front end 'thinned'.  Needed for this to begin with is...

• Risers
• bars
• small speedo
• bates style lamp
• new grips.

Once these are bought and fitted I will then invest in some little micro switches for the electrics on the bars and also get a new barrel to have the ignition neatly tucked away somewhere. Along with some footpegs to get rid of the chunky rearsets, some new rear shocks, tyres and a thinner tank it is then ready for stripping and TLC applied to paint and metal.

Helmets

While the rain has been pouring I have been playing with my helmet and some paint.  Caught a video on Youtube (I will tag it later if I can find it) showing some painting and thought I would give it a go, broke out the old brushes and spent a couple of hours doodling.

Pretty pleased with the result and the cling film/firm brush trick to get a very weather beaten look seems to have been a good one.

This is a cheap helmet for playing about with and after a few more practice runs I will grab a lighter US version for daily use.

GT550 - New & much thinner seat

I am in the luck position of having a friend who does the leather upholstery work for Morgan cars who has offered to re-trim the new seat base for me.  An offer like that cannot be refused so today has been focussed around getting the base unit made up for drop-off before I disappear to Barcelona.

Several hours later, with glue all over my un-gloved hands the finished panel is done.  4 layers of dense foam bonded together to a 4mm dibond composite sheet gives a very light but strong replacement.

The criteria was it had to be thin (off course), comfortable enough for a 100 mile trip, fit the curve of the frame and leave room for two.

More importantly it will cover the entire rear frame to remove the need to chop it and re-weld it and also have enough room to cater for Jetset's perfectly formed ass.

GT550 - So far...

This is how it currently looks (up until this morning anyway).

 To give an idea of what has been done so far...

• Stock (huge) indicators removed and replaced with much neater units.
• Rear fender & tail-light unit (again huge) have been removed and replaced with a small lamp/number plate holder
• Side-panels and front mudguard resprayed
• Tank resprayed and fuel cap replaced with chrome version
• Rear rack removed, this has saved approx half a ton
• Seat and all the rubbish underneath it removed an temporary panel seat in place.
• Both of the huge wing-mirrors removed, small under bar mirror fitted to right side only
• Heavy bar-ends removed and grips replaced

GT550 - Rear frame et al

Next was the very thick and dense seat to come off (after half an hour working out where the bloody catch was!

Seat removed the grinder was then bought out to cut off all the unnecessary rubbish that the seat was hiding, including the seat latch, mounting panel, helmet lock, etc.

A temporary seat was quickly knocked up to test how it now felt on the road, and the tank given a lick of gold to get an idea of the final look.

The pile of bits on top of the box in the back ground of pic 3 are the sum total of what has been removed so far, there was so much crap attached to this bike it was unreal

GT550 - Painting

A few weeks ago I removed the mulitcoloured panels, broke out the masking tape and bought some rattle cans.

GT550 - The Collection

Due in part to the shit British weather I have done nothing all day, so here is the start of the long awaited photo diary of the 'cut your teeth, find out what your doing'  project  Kawasaki GT550 so far.....

Bikes as bought in April including rust, heavy tat attached, multi-coloured panels, etc, etc,

It has been christened today too. The Runner.

Goodbye Frame...

So after 3 days on ebay it goes to a guy called Dave from Liverpool.
Collecting this afternoon so goodbye Frame...

On a happier note, hello room for Sportster in the next few months!

Bank Holiday Monday

Lunch was done, tidy up was done, what left to do.... sit in the garden with Jetset enjoying some brillaint reading material c/o GKM via the guys at Vintique Cycles , beer and smokes... a quality afternoon.

Re-address the balance

What a couple of months they have been.  Work has been so busy its unreal! no time for fun at home or bike research which has put me in a shit mood, up until now.

Got to get the balance re-addressed (again!) and as of two weeks ago it has been so roll on the next bank holiday, and roll on the summer.  Hopefully going to pick up the gt550 tomorrow for a couple of months summer fun... this needs to jkeep me occupied while the Sportster fund builds up.

So, it aint gonna be no bobber or cafe racer but it might blast away a few cobwebs and im going for a three day turnaround from shit-to-hit.  So.... collect tomorrow, basic strip and clean friday followed by some fender cutting, Saturday sees some rattle-can 'n vinyl action to the tank & fenders (cream and orange) and away we go..... WOOHOO I cant wait.  the thought of a beat up old cruiser, sun, Jetset on the back and some shopping on her lap really does remove the miserableness once and for all, Get the fuck in.

Frame on Ebay

After lots of personal debate and heartache, advice from a top bloke called Benny & many more, tooing & frowing, bouts of depression, sleepness nights and long gazing looks... the fucking things got to go be going.

goodbye frame, its been emotional, bring on the sportster.

Wombles, Horses & Sportsters

What a week so far, gone from home to Park Royal to Islington to Stoke Newington and now Wimbledon Been cursed by the common dwelling beelzebubs that are the wombles by meeting my sis for a sandwich at lunch and opting for the roll covered in olives.  Those bloody wombles cursed me and I have been tasting the vile olives with their annoying theme tune in my head ever since I left Tower Bridge & saw the sign for Wimbledon, bastards.!

The bike is back in one piece as a garden ornament and even the promise of full on hospitality at Cheltenham this Friday cant take my mind away from it...... AARRGGGGHHHHHHHH I want two fucking wheels for the summer and im pissed of with myself for jumping the gun.

Maybe a few small £10 punts at the races will somehow magic me the finds for the sportster.  My OCD brain is going to explode.

Mug of the Week

To save me going insane over thinking about how this bike is going to work out I will now add a Mug of the Week.

Apologies for the poor photo but the lucky winner of this weeks prestigous 'Mug shot' title goes to the idiot at the hotel i'm in tonight, Holiday Inn Gatwick, who has prised off his lovely jag badge and defaced his (or propably her judging by the playboy badge) very expensive motor with this...
Well done...... your a mug mate.

The Rules: No 1

Rule No 1 - cheap shit parts and components have one place... it is not here.
Lesson learnt.

Can you go to Jersey

the answer was of course 'Yes boss' so now on my way to Jersey later this week.  Bike bits and evening reading will have to wait until Friday.

Cold Pizza, Tea from a metal pot and Sofas...

....  a hangover Sunday makes.