Brad The Bike Boy: December 2008

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Fitting Out The Factory

My cousing Alister came down yesterday for a fun day of office framing - a little work for him on his holiday - and Ivan the electrician was in this morning running a few wires so we can now plaster and paint the office and have it looking more like a going concern. All I need now are the benches and shelving and stuff out of boxes and completing the seemingly endless list of other things to do.
.

The photo shows the current state of play - a small factory in Oakleigh half full of (hopefully) most of the stuff you need for a motorbike workshop with things being moved around to give access to whatever it is we're trying to do on the day. With Ivan the electrician up a ladder and Finn chasing his Thomas The Tank Engine ball.
.

At this point of time I hope to be up and running around Monday the 19th of January, later than I'd hoped, but I'm not sure how quickly my shit will be getting itself together over the next couple of weeks. And with the exception of the dyno - it will happen at some point in the future, but it's not top priority right now.
.

However, in the short term at least, I'll be taking on fairly simple stuff just because it appears to be a bad time of year to be trying to find unusual parts and get sensible answers out of suppliers, both here and overseas. And I have to get a feel for doing it all myself - it'll definitely be different to the previous 17 years.

And I have to fix Minne too - the last time I rode her she failed to proceed several times on a very hot day. She came good with a full tank of fuel so I'm guessing it's vacuum fuel tap or fuel pump. Interestingly it'll be the first time I've experienced issues with either - just like the ignition coil that died many years ago now was the only 2V coil I can recall seeing fail.

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Moved in!

Well, in a fashion. A fashion of all the stuff needed to be a motorcycle workshop unloaded into a little factory in Oakleigh. Plus other stuff that will no doubt be thrown out once I come to the realisation that I really don't need all this crap.

Which leads me neatly into the award for sensational purchase of the week: a pallet truck. One of those things on the right. As I have nearly everything on pallets I can move it all around with this nifty little jigger. Which will be a real bonus as I try to remodel a factory that's about 2/3rds full of pallets with stuff on them. I'm enjoying it so much I'm sure I'll be moving stuff around just for the sake of it.

So now it's into getting set up for work. At this point of time I expect we'll be ready to go in the new year, but not before. More info and progress reports to come as the real work starts.

.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Progress - A location at last!

.
Without wanting to speak too early and give myself grief it would appear I have found a factory for the business. Hopefully I'll have the keys tomorrow morning and then begin the process of moving my stuff in and remodelling the factory as required.

Along with a bit of a drive on Friday to pick up a dyno. Woo hoo, a dyno. Of course, I have to build a room to run it in before I can actually use it, but taking possesion is a good start.

.

The 851

The 400SS

I bought this 400SS (genuine 93 model Australian delivery! Woo hoo huh.) after seeing it in Ebay for what was possibly an good price. As ever, good was too good to be true. Badly repaired and rusted out fuel tank, badly repainted side panels, lots of km (83,000 of the bastards), etc. You know, the usual. Purchased in October 2012, as of now (Jan 2014) I've nearly finished a major service. The cam timing is done with some of the Madasl adjustable pullies that have been drilled in 4 different settings for easy dyno testing. And I have some 900 headers to try a 40mm dual exhaust set up on it (ala M400). Not a great deal of progress for 15 months, so it's taking on a long term feel. There's an F1 endurance style seat base (more taper at the rear) and front fairing sitting around, which will require frame mods to fit. It's a bit of a mental sticking point as this time. But hey, it's not like I can devalue it much more.

The Mighty KR1S 250

How it looked the rainy night someone came to take it away. Painted all black when I bought it, at some point later I realised i could rub the black off and have much of the original colour scheme underneath. Although the main fairing was originally from a red KR1 I think, and definitely badly repaired more than once, so it stayed black. And the tail panel shown was bought to replace the one I smashed the only time I crashed it and the last time I rode it at a Sandown track day. A sensational little bike, holed pistons and frequently failing stator windings aside. The first bike I rode on a race track and the first bike I had my knee down on. And a great commuter too I found. It's sometimes nice to have a bike that won't wheelie past the city speed limit in first gear.