weimieman

I've always been a right side down nodder. Seems more natural than the frontal nod as I'm not too good at that. I tend to come off like one of the bobbly head dolls on a car dash. I flicked a nod to an L plated biker at the weekend and the poor sod nearly fell off trying to decide whether to nod back or wave! Must have been the first time they had been acknowledged! I must have made them feel like a God for a few seconds cos thats how I felt when I first got acknowledged by a larger bike back in the day.

After a break in the weather (of sorts) and remembering to bring the photos in with me, here are some updates. I finally accepted on Saturday that English weather wasn't going to allow me to continue working on the Yam in the back garden so I'm afraid the Wing got kicked out of the garage and in went the good ole' DT. This is the pic of the new forks on. Very clean with no pitting but they will require a good polish before the master unveil in a couple of weeks. Uploaded with ImageShack.us As you can see theres nothing fancy here that you haven't seen a million times before but the fact that the fork lugs had been snapped off so I couldn't put the disc cover on really bugged me. £50 for some lugs seemed a bit excessive but things really annoy me when I know they should have been there in the first place. Next, the bloody wiring ... Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us Uploaded with ImageShack.us It does look far worse than it is but it does the job. After disecting the wiring from the Haynes book and drawing a much more simple plan in a notepad, I had the basics of what to do and then the hero that is NEV came along with his idiot proof wiring diagram and within a couple of hours I had some nice blinking lights at all four corners. In the mood for a little bragging, I shouted my wife into the garage to proudly show off my hours of work aaannnnndddd you've guessed it, only one side worked. I wiggled wires here, there and everywhere but to no avail. Maybe the battery's gone a little flat with all this messing around I thought. Booster pack connected and the working side was a little brighter but still nothing from the left. Bugger. When I switched the left side on it made the lights flash on the booster which couldn't have been good. Long story short (and much head scratching later) one of my new spade connectors was touching the frame and shorting out that side. Simple. A nice bit of insulation tape and some heat shrink tubing and I was back to bragging again. Next job was trying to fabricate a new headlamp bracket for the non standard set up. As the website where I got the unit from had some very handy links to buy their brackets starting at £9.99 I was kinda determined to make my own. After several varied attempts failed miserably, I hit upon the idea of smacking the existing bracket into some kind of shape for the new lamp. The sides were easily manipulated into the new sockets but the bottom hole was something else as neither hole lined up with the other and were about an inch apart. I found an old shelving bracket that the previous owner had screwed the number plate to (I knew it would come in handy) and I elongated a hole so I could bolt one side to the bracket and slip another bolt though the opposite side and bolt to the headlight. Crude I know but it worked. Using two bolts even gave me full control over the headlight adjustment, it wasn't planned that way, I just got lucky. I think fate was paying me back for the bird dung incident from last week. Here it is, it's not it's final resting place but it'll give you some idea of the finished thing. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Heres the little dinky indicators on the back. They are cutely called "Wibbly Wobblys" (No I didn't make that up) Uploaded with ImageShack.us So I reckon a good ten hours should see an end to all this. A bit of tidying on the wiring, insulate a few more wires and heat shrink them, connect the new indicator wiring to instrument panel (self cancelling indicators on a Goldwing make you soft after a while so I need a blinky light to remind me!), and reassemble all the body panels, fit the new performance air filter then, okay, maybe a bit more than ten hours but certainly within a week. Finally this is the cleaned up swing arm. I didn't remove it and it was really just surface crud but a quick lick of primer and paint brought it up a treat. Finally the Mono Cross decal and it's taken years off the old girl. It's not a perfect job but I'm quite chuffed with it. I should have spent a little more time masking up but it's done now. Uploaded with ImageShack.us Hopefully the next post will be some nice shiny complete pics .....

I would imagine nowadays, the funnier the shape, you more welcome you'll be made!!! Welcome and enjoy

Welcome Maybe you good take some pics and post in the projects section and let us know how you are getting on in Motor City Best of luck

All the best with the test. And on a side note, ya jammy sod ending up with a dragstar as your first bike!!!

Hi Mat Well after eight years of waiting you don't want to go rushing in unprepared! As previously mentioned, the highway code is your friend. If my memory serves me correct, the CBT was all about balance and control for the most part and then finished off with a nice gentle ride around some quiet roads. On your tight turns, keep your revs up and don't let the bike stall or over you go. It easily done. I did it many years after passing my test. One of the biggest things the instructor looks out for is your "lifesaver" glances. A quick nod over your left shoulder so to speak. He/she will be looking out for them as you are slowing down approaching junctions/traffic lights etc and again when you are setting off. You really can't underestimate the importance of that glance in the millisecond it takes. It does make you safer. Best of luck and let us know how you get on

Hi Scoops What sort of budget are you looking at?

Yep I'm a nodder big time. The only exception I make is to the 16 year olds on their twist and go's. A 16 year old on something thats one down and five up is different though for some reason! Go figure

Well I'm back and I've been tinkering quite a bit. Not as much as I'd have liked due to the weather and the ongoing garden build but I managed a good six hours on Sunday and it was even quite sunny. Must have been sunny as my thinning scalp felt a little burned in the shower later on! Firstly, apologies again as I haven't brough the photos in to upload but I will get them done before the end of the week. The first job on Sunday was to remove and swap the fork legs. There was absolutely nothing wrong with them as they have had very little use (11K over 25 years) but the lugs for the disc cover had been snapped off. AndyDTR kindly supplied me with a disc cover at a great price and imagine my dismay when the postie brought it and I rushed out into the garden to find there was nowhere to attach it to! A bit of hunting on evil-bay and a good set of forks arrived with no pitting whatsoever. A quick swap over and on with the disc cover. I took advantage of cleaning up the wheel spindle and regreasing it while it was out. A quick visual check on the brake caliper and it looks tip top and the pads look like new. Now onto the wiring. Dark green and dark brown for the indicator wires. Cheers for that Yamaha. The loom is chopped and butchered so I think it will be best to start again for the indicators. I'm going to use the rule that I have used all my life when it comes to colours. Blue for the left (theres and L in blue so thats left) and red for the right (Yep you've guessed why). They are two friendly colours that don't confuse me too much. I carefully trim all the wires to length, tape together, bullet connectors and spade connectors everywhere. It was great fun then bang, I hear a noise from around the rear of the garden. My beautifully sprayed tank has blown off the wall and dropped about three feet. Fortunately there are about three or four layers of shrink wrap still on it so the grit from the garden hasn't got to the paint. No wait, whats that - A FRIKKIN DENT!!!! I spent ages rubbing down the tank to get to bare metal so I could fill the existing two dents and then due to my own stupidity (or cheapness) I put one in it myself. Was I cheap because if I'd have put more fuel in it it wouldn't have been able to blow over or just stupid for putting it on the wall in the first place. Let the voting commence. Anyway I figure after this I'm due a break. Bending over to fix up the indicator relay and, what felt like the worlds largest bee, smacked into the top of my head! I casually went to rub my head where I'd been hit and the awful realisation of what had happened hit me. I'd been shat on. By what appeared to be one of the lesser spotted albatrosses that flies over these parts. I took this as positive good luck to come and all that. After about two hours of wiring and connecting, ignition on and ....... nothing. Not a peep from the left indicators. Turning on the right only gave me a solid light on the instrument panel. I scratched my chin for many minutes whilst allowing the albatrosse's last meal to dry more in the mid day sun. It was like a poor man's hair gel consisting of berries and nuts. I checked and re checked all the wiring and couldn't see a fault with it so thats where I'm at at the mo. I've got a day off tomorrow and I'm planning on a good few hours out in the garden, weather and aerial assualts permitting. One great bit of news though that after all these weeks of being in bits, it only took half a dozen kicks to fire into life so I could ride up and down the drive. God that smell took me back 20 years. It also took away the smell of bird crap in my hair ...

Thanks for the update on the indicators I'm going to post on my project page about the ongoing struggle with them!

Not a lot to report this week I'm afraid. Couldn't touch the indicators as the relay was missing and that only arrived yesterday. Only thing I actually got done was the swing arm. After much debating, I didn't go down Nev's route of removing and powder coating (I was tempted but this whole bike is supposed to be about a bit of light green laning and beach fun) so a good scrub with a wire cup and it was de crudded in less than an hour. Last months birthday cards came in handy for masking up around the swing arm and, to a certain extent, did a good job and stopped paint going everywhere. Two primers and three top coats and it came up great. Not perfect but just good enough for me. Apologies as I've forgot to bring the pictures in of them but I'll update those next week when I've hopefully got some good news about the indicators. A few hours drying time and I managed to get the "Mono Cross" decals on and it took another step towards looking like it should. No more dodgy Renthal stickers on there for you!! Be back online next week when I've got some more news and pics as I'm covering holidays at work for the next 11 days now so online time will be very limited. Take care all and talk soon

Yep I was right, no indicator relay. Got one delivered yesterday so I should be able to post something in the projects page with an update after the weekend. Thanks to all those who replied

Glad you got sorted in the end. You were right about his dimwitted view and if, godwilling, the calls are monitored for "training and quality" purposes, I hope a supervisor picks up on his small minded views and he gets his a55 chewed. Aviva is a good policy and one of the best for not wriggling out becuase of the small print so at least your money is in good hands. Just be patient a few more years as the conviction will just become a distant memory to the insurers

After much head scratching later and sussing out the colours that I need to be looking for, there is no sign of life from the indicator light on the dash. As far as I can gather from the bible that is Haynes, each indicator has an earth and a live, the lives go to the switch gear and the also branch off to the indicator relay. I'm now suspecting that:- 1) Mr genius who put it back together (and he who created the engine stop horn) has removed the indicator relay 2) after following the wiring into the cluster behind the speedo, the wires then don't go anywhere 3) the indicator relay is past it's sell-by Worst case scenario I'm planning to replace the dark brown and dark green original live wires with bright blue and bright red wiring so I can see them and as I don't plan to sell the bike it's not going to offend any concours specialist. Would I be correct in assuming that I can simply start afresh with my wiring and put it into the female side of the block and run it through the bike from scratch? Sounds simple but experience is teaching me that it rarely is!!! PS I've found a really cheap please for the indicator relay if that is the culprit www.pattern-parts.net

You truly are a Yam Fan!

Well done! Nice bike to be jumping onto to start with. NOw the fun begins but as the old cop show states, "let's be careful out there..." I remember how the rules were different in my day. I turned 16 in 1989 and was just able to jump onto a 50cc no questions asked. I passed my car test a year later and I was legally allowed to take my L plates off my 50cc as obviously passing my car test made me a perfect bike rider!!! Bought a DT 125 at 17 and had to put the L plates back on. Wanted to take my bike test but the whole CBT thing had come into play so first of all I had to ride around some road cones in a school playground with some others whose first day on the road it was! Everybody passed that of course. Part two was more interesting as the damned ear piece kept cutting out and I couldn't hear a word the examiner was saying. In the end he asked me to do a U turn and an emergency stop (it was raining so my bum cheeks were grabbing the seat for fear of skidding) and nothing else as he said that every time he'd given me a command and I couldn't hear him, I pulled over safely and in a safe place to ask him what he'd said. Maybe thats a tip for new riders, pretend you're ear piece isn't working!!! (not recommended!!) It doesn't feel that long ago to me as I refuse to grow old but I remember shortly after all those damned cc and bhp restrictions came into force so I felt pity for eveyone a coupld of years younger than me. It always seemed like a mine field that you could ride this but no that, you can have that but you must derestrict it etc. Thank god then for the old days. (Sounding like my Dad now) Mind you, if memory serves me correct, when my Dad was young, I think they could pretty much ride anything as long as you had L plates on. Makes you wonder what will happen to the next gen of riders.....

Truthfully, if it was me (and thank God you don't have to be) I'd leave it well alone as I'm the old fashioned if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Maybe a few months ago I'd have dabbled but after I've sunk so many hours into getting my Honda back on the road, I'm grateful for a little smooth running so think yersel' lucky!

Ya jammy begger!!! Looking forward to seeing some pics and also seeing someone else tear their hair out with a good ol' DT!!! Tee hee, you don't know what you're messing with

Fortunately I had my 1100 Pan before I met my wife so that was never a problem. She was never happy about my getting the 1300 model though! A warm glow comes over me when I think about that fuel tank on the 1100, the only bike I have ever been able to break 200 miles without a fill up. Ahhhh, memories. Probably only cost about £11 to fill up as well but let's not get started on fuel prices!!!!

I watched a couple of parts of that video and I was really disappointed it didn't have a good ending 1 - They both fulfilled their death wishes without harming any innocents 2 - Someone got some cheap GXR parts from a breakers yard from what was left No wonder the few ruin it for the many

[scratches chin] Hmmm, clever ....

Oh and by the way, as for the rinky dinking, that depends on the damned rinky piggin electrics

As always, any advice is greatly appreciated. It's okay to use a lawnmower tank but c'mon, where's the excuse to drink a bottle of Tesco's finest driveway cleaner! The theory worked well as I used a tube off a compressed air duster which was a good tight fit into the bottle top and the other end's nozzle fit perfectly into the carb tube. After 40 or so kicks, I don't think I had enought petrol in it though! D'oh As for the tank, I was a bit heavy handed and it ran a little as it had been years since I'd laquered and whilst my spraying technique is pretty damn good (if I do say so myself), I'd forgetten how much more runny laquer was. I was almost at the stage of saying bugger it and leaving a couple of runs on there as I was getting terrified of taking even 1200 near the decals. I know they're only £16 but my money tree is in the same sad state of growth as yours Do you reckon T cut would remove a couple of dribbly runs as it's only a couple of coats on there at the mo?

Hold onto that policy my friend, never let her go!!!

Oh by the way, yes I now can talk about the old days as I am no longer bound by client confidentialty in case you thought I was being a blabber mouth!!!!