Kickstart

Slowly getting there. Problems with the forks / fork buses so can't do much with those for now. Found out the rear wheel I had powder coated was the wrong wheel....... Doh! But now got the actual rear wheel powder coated (and a spare of the later size just in case tyres become readily available again). Wiring loom in place. New tyres titted and front disks. Rear wheel in place. Clocks stripped down and cleanup out thoroughly. All the best Katy

Suspect it is 90kmh matching a common continental speed limit, and then cars being tweaked to give their best consumption at that speed All the best Katy

The FZR is now just starting to go back together. Engine in, swinging arm in, suspension linkage roughly in (shock will be changed) All the best Katy

I noticed it at the port where they are bording a train. Mind you, set in 1918 and Steve Rogers escapes in a Fokker Eindecker Terrible for such a historic film 😉 All the best Katy

There is the Swiss Ecomobil, and its derivatives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecomobile All the best Katy

The indicators I had were a mix of original Yamaha and pattern ones. Strangely, the original Yamaha ones had the reflector and bulb holder holders held inside with small self tapper which had no slot for a screw driver, etc. They came out with pliers (fortunately). The pattern ones had a conventional Philips head on these self tappers which are far easier. The numberplate mount on the back hadn't cracked, but the nut holding the indicators on was well and truely stuck (I had to cut the nuts off with a Dremel). Definately getting copper slip on the threads at reassembly! All the best Katy

I hate most of the cheap and nasty aftermarket indicators. They look awful, horrible quality and barely noticeable flash on them. The Aprilia side stand leaves the bike very close to upright. Hence it falls over to the right easily and breaks the front indicator. But the front stalks on the front seem to survive. The rears for some reason seem to just break with age - not sure if a different plastic. The FZR had rear indicators which were the same design but 2 different lengths of stalk. I had a spare broken indicator with the right length stalk, and managed to split the stalk and head. Nut on one was badly seized, but managed to get it off without damaging the bit I needed. Then clean everything up with a toothbrush, reassemble and replace the terminals on the wires All the best Katy

Hiya A friend gave me a 3D printer yesterday (this is the friend who gave me the NS125, and who I gave it back to once mechanically rebuilt) I was looking at random files to print to try it out and found some indicator stalks that fit on my early Aprilia AF1s and the Gilera NGR250. The originals have a habit of breaking. These indicators are a modular design from CEV, with several different styles of indicator bodies and half a dozen different stalks (2 different fitments and a few different lengths), They were used by a few different makers (Gilera, Aprilia, Triumph, Moto Guzzi, Yamaha, etc). The indicator body used on the Honda NS125F and the one used on various 1990s Triumphs are relatively easy to buy as pattern parts, but the stalks are too long for the front of the Aprilias, and the rear (along with the NGR250) use the other fitment. Found an STL file for the shorter stalks with the needed fitment. So far 3D printed 3 stalks. Will see how they survive. Spent a bit of time yesterday sorting out 4 indicators (from about 6 in variouis states) for the FZR600. Probably would have been cheaper to buy replacements than use that much time! I swear I bought some matching mounting nuts for them ages ago (M10x1.25 thread) but can't find them so had to order some more. All the best Katy

The Gilera CX (which the front end came from) was from 1990/91! Basic idea was nabbed from aircraft landing gear. To be honest no real advantage for this setup over normal forks . The brake hose is routed through the fork, and is a pig to put back in place. All the best Katy

Powder coating collected All the best Katy

If I may, I think automation stopping skills is common to many things, including driving. But how it effects people probably varies. Some people if you put them in a boring monotonous situation will have their mind wander and with pretty much nothing they are able to do about it, others can maintain a decent level of concentration. Possibly closely related to those who can react well without a plan, and those who need everything planned down to the smallest detail. All the best Katy

As to played with Vincents, a local guy built this It is a Vincent Comet, but using the single sided swinging arm rear from a VFR400 and the single sided front fork from a Gilera CX125 A way to scare the purists! All the best Katy

Hiya Bit more done on the FZR600. Wiring loom now taped up again. I have useds a non adhesive tape for most of it. Very thin and sort of sticks to itself under tension, but non self amalgamating tape. Just used a few short sections of insulating tape to locate the ends. Also go over the insides of the fairings and used some hot staples to hold the cracks together. This was a cheap kit from ebay, but has worked pretty well. I have painted the footrest hangers, etc, with Smoothrite. Not a great job to be honest. The spray gun became intermitant, and I swapped to another unit in a hurry. Some bits are OK, but the tank (it is a metal tank that lives under a plastic cover) has a load of nasty runs. All the best Katy

The FZR I am working on at the moment - frame and wheels dropped off for powder coating. Most of the brackets are now blasted clean, and I have painted them with rust converter, then I will blast them again. Idea is the rust converter will neutralise any rust hidden in areas the blasting can't get to easily. Then I will spray them with Smoothrite. I have been working on the wiring loom. The main wires from the stator to the regulator / rectifier were not great (connector at the stator end slightly metlted so stuck together, and at the RR end one of the terminals were rather crispy). And one of the connector blocks (to a complex relay - 10 terminals) was a corroded mess so replacing that (fortunately the connector block and terminals are available from Kojaycat). Replacing anything else in there that looks suspect while I am at it. Pictures of the loom as it current is (outer covering removed, small cable ties used to hold it together and keep the branches in place). Bag is wire that has so far been replaced. All the best Katy

Swept capacity of a rotary engine is a bit weird to calculate. With 3 chambers on a single rotor, each sweeping the same "cylinder" at the same time, is is the swept capacity, or 3 times the swept capacity, or a fudge and double it. Most racing had settled on the double it fudge. But on the WSB stage, twins were allowed more capacity, and is the Norton a twin, or with 2 rotors each with 3 chambers is it a 6? Would still love an F1. All the best Katy

Afraid with VAG groups cars, the similarity is too obvious to me. Whether a Skoda SUV or a Bentley SUV, the basic shape is very similar - almost like the same car duplicated in a couple of different sizes with different lights on each end. Same applies to other segements. Fiat managed platform sharing with way more differentiation 30 years ago, and VAG is closer to BL style badge engineering. All the best Katy

Hiya Sundays job was stripping the FZR down. Bit warm! Only 2 bolts were a real pain. And then because they went into a square metal nut which sat in the plastic mudguard. Plastic couldn't stop it turning and not enough access to hold it stead, so just Dremeled the head off. Connector for the regulator / rectifier wires was a bit melted and couldn't easily be pulled apart. I cut the wires and will replace the connector block and the wires to the RR. Will have a fair session cleaning up and checking the loom All the best Katy

Didn't the City Rover mk2 have the dubious distinction of being the only car ever launched after the selling company had gone bust? As to VAG, watch American Youtube channels and they have a far lower opinion of VAG cars. My only experience of them has been an old Audi 100 which put me off ever touching one again - plus fixing a neighbours modern Audi tail light (the earth terminal on the connector for the tail light was under spec and had burnt out) All the best Katy

Its still has a main jet? All the best Katy

Need a plentiful supply of empty cardboard boxes to drive through All the best Katy

Hiya A bike returns I had this FZR600 for quite a few years. It was my cheapy commuter bike. I do have a bit of a soft spot for it, but I tried to rationalise a few years ago. Decided if I sold it then I would get peanuts for it, and someone would just break it for spares and I didn't want that to happen. So I gave it to a friend on condition it was to be restored. ~6 years later they have decided they won't get around to it so I have it back! Intention now is to strip it, powder coat or paint the frame (undecided) and getting it OK mechanically. Cosmetics will barely be touched (might try the tool to melt "staples" into the plastc to repair a few cracks). I had forgotten how many spares were with it. One of the spare wheels is an earlier rear which is a 3.5" rim rather than a 4" rim. The 4" rim used to be favoured, but rear tyres for the 4" rim are now hard to get. The blue spare levers are some cheapy spares I picked up when I was about to do a track day. There are 2~3 spare new clutch cables in the box - they tended to last about a year before getting very heavy. Oh well. All the best Katy

Probably true. But I should be safe from that for a while! I can’t find the log book for one of my bikes. Have the old blue log book but not the red one. Not certain the dvla ever sent me up updated one. Hoping they reissue them again before I actually need one! Aprilia badged it “Dynamic Air Box”, but as above it is just an air intake taking air from a passage in the fairing. Honestly doubt it does anything useful (it isn’t sealed, so the most it will do is get slightly cooler air to the airbox), but gets in the way and makes getting the airbox lid off more difficult. As an aside, it is a 1988 bike. All the best Katy

Well, Sunday in the heat I dropped the engine out of the Aprilia. 50 miins from starting work on the bike to engine on the floor (fairing, exhaust and top end of the engine were already off from last weekend). Not too bad, except one bolt that came undone easily but then had pretty much no clearance to come out. Then toothbrush and degreasant time. Take advantage of being able to get at areas normally hidden. Engine will be stripped in a week or 2 when I have got another job out of the way (blasting clean and painting various bits for a friend) All the best Katy

But an iconic bike to learn on All the best Katy

All my Aprilias are 2 strokes! That said, Sunday I was going to the Crich classic bike day on my Aprilia AF1 Sintesi. Set off in plenty of time. Slow section on the way to Uttoxeter where the road had been surface dressed and it was running fine. Possible slightly noise on certain throttle positions, but thought that was just my paranoia. Once out of the surface dressed section it wouldn't rev out. Then cut out when I let the revs drop. Then behaved oddly on the starter. Got trailered home and took the Striple to Crich instead. Last night I had a look at the Aprilia. Flywheel cover off and flywheel off and no damage to that (which was my biggest fear). But the engine wouldn't turn over smoothly turning the flywheel. Drain coolant and head off revealed some debris in the embedded in the head, a score on the barrel over one of the ends of the gudgeon pin. Barrel off and a matching score in the piston. And several mm of vertical play in the con rod. So presume the big end failed, and a fragment of big end cage scrored the barrel. Can't complain, the bottom end hasn't had any attention. Time to drop the engine out and split the cases for a crank rebuild. Will do the other major bearings at the same time. All the best Katy