Big Value Buddy

Good shit! Top notch Russell!

Damn HHM, you write real good I'm finding it hard to suppress my wood I'm sitting here naked on my veranda Thinking of you getting massaged by Kung Fu Panda Hopefully soon we can cruise together I'm gonna wear my chaps of leather XOX

For sure, I'm surprised how fresh that 80's electric blue is. It cleaned up really nice. The gear lever is original. I'm getting the original factory brake lever through Boyle Kawasaki in Wellington. But I think they use Wellington Motorcycles, who are official Suzuki dealers. There was no stock in NZ, so it's coming from Japan. You can get most parts this way. Your local suzuki dealer should be able to get parts the same way. Factory brake lever is $22ish. So clutch should be similar. Let know if you get stuck and I'll ask the parts dudes up here. Cheers.

Yo! So, mega GC Russell hooked me up with the indicators from his AX, to help with my missing, cracked and bent ones. Also, when I picked them up, Russell fire jizzed on a left foot peg to my assembly, to replace the snapped and missing one. This was unexpected and ultra appreciated. OS is full of such great dudes! I'm waiting for the correct brake lever to arrive from Japan, but due to impatience, and after a chat with Hayholes Mum, I got a similar lever from Boyles and attacked it with a file. Success! Not a perfect fit but good enough til the proper one arrives. All this meant I took the AX for its maiden lap of the coast on Saturday and even picked Steph up and rode two-up home from town. Such fun! Coast. Harbour entrance: Two helmets for two-up: Points to note: It rides awesome! Still needs a good thrash and maybe a carb clean.It's more stable than I expected in the wind. The throttle sticks, which is great for no-handed riding. A 4-down gear change takes some getting used to, after riding a 1-down/4-up bike for ages. Only a couple of second to first by accident changes (instead of third) so far. Not sure why Suzuki put the indicator switch on the right, with the throttle and brake. Again, something else to get used to. First commute to work was on Monday and it made the start to the week much more tolerable. I'll go on some more missions (in between Road cycling, mountain biking, Booze cruising and general piss drinking) over xmas/New Year. Sunset from above Princess Bay last night (while solo road cycling/booze cruising) : (sorry if my photos take ages to load. I'm using iforce on my phone)

Ooooh, I hope we toast this build with a port on Thursday.

I think Beave has described it well! From memory it's a good and proper (level etc) gravel Road of not much length. Get us there safely to slam each others junk!

Otama Beach has a sweet camp ground. Simple and right by a choice beach. Had a night swim as a noisy thunderstorm approached last time. Short gravel Road though. http://www.otamabeachcamp.co.nz

This takes me out too. Hopefully catch up with folk for a beverage over the holidays. Cheers.

Yo Manu, I'm liking how this is looking. Plus the dude keenness is looking hot. A good way to traverse the Penisular is via the 309 Road. To quote the net "The 309 road is a 22‑kilometre long gravel road between the towns of Coromandel and Whitianga in New Zealand. The 309 winds its way from Coromandel, on the west side of the Coromandel Peninsula, over the ranges to Whitianga, on the eastern side". Last time we drove through we visited a tasty manuka honey place and picked up a smelly hitchhiker named Martin.

Nice work man. Vega wags and morris trailer is farkin cool.

Good shit Beave! Van life rules!

Slurp indeed, Mr sailing trousers.

Gidday mate, for now I'm keen to ride it as is and might do things like a round headlight and better looking bars. I do like a brat seat though. I'm unlikely to go to the lengths of you or LOW'N'SLOW for now. But you guys are doing great things. I like your disc front end conversion.Cheers about the forks, I might be keen, if your old man doesn't end up using them. Cheers, Richard

So, more small steps today. Put in a new spark plug and lead cap. It still starts, so success there. Main achievement was getting the lovely factory dash box back together, with the ignition. More success, as the newly cut key works. The headlight now works, as does the tail. The indicators on one side are fine and the other side should work once the missing one is replaced. Did a little bit of polishing, but have more to do. Boyles are helping source the correct brake leaver and researching if the factory foot peg assembly is obtainable. I did a celebratory local hoon, in the rain, with no foot pegs and back brake only. working lights made it safe! Pic for tonight is Garage Tetris:

Aw, thanks HHM! You've got such a way with words. It must be all those snakes you wrangle and dingos you dodge.

Hand shandy it is then!

Cool, I'll come grab them some time soon. Name your price! Yeah, Hayhole's saucy Mum was rambling on about sausages. Couldn't shut her up!

Yo Russell! Not sure if you've seen what I'm up to: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/46100-big-value-buddys-big-value-ax100/#entry1427395 But, are you gonna use the factory indicators? If not, do you feel like selling them to me? All good if not. Cheers. (your hog is coming along damn sweet too)

So, today's success was taking the ignition barrel to a locksmith and getting a key (two for good measure) cut. Success! The key operates the ignition, petrol cap, helmet lock and steering lock. Bonus! I can put petrol in now. In other related news, the brake lever I got doesn't quite fit and broke, where the cable hooks in. I will revisit this at Boyles tomorrow. No stress. I also took it for a thrash around the block and I can safely say that this small bike has reignited the joy of suburban riding. Everything is so loud(ring-ding-ding) and exhilarating. Also, this whip weighs 82kg dry, as opposed to the 253kg wet weight of the CB750F. Light is right! Anyway, everyone likes a picture, so here's a loosely related one of my tasty treats and Bruce. Cheers.

Get into it Al: http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.asp?id=816568510&cc=602&pid=341948408&hbc=&member_hash=&ct=title-link

Cheers Chris!

Fo' sure G. Bring it on!

All this led to a bike with straight forks with a much improved look and rideability. Cue more grin inducing test riding. The ‘ring-ding-ding’ two stroke goes awesome and has plenty of power, it is such a fun ride. After: Over the next couple of days I’ll get a key cut and visit Boyles to start sourcing the minor missing parts. Other than that, I plan to polish up the brightwork and make full use of the remaining WOF and Reg ; ride ride ride! I think it looks pretty snazzy for now in its factory black and highlighter blue. A massive thanks to Hayhole’s Mum, Hayhole and Chris. Such mega GCs for helping getting it running and straight. I appreciate the time, workshop space and tools. Youse some good khuntz. Cheers

So this afternoon I took the bike out to visit Hayhole’s Mum and within 10 minutes we had the ignition out and bypassed. And with the first kick, it fired up no worries! This was very exiciting, as I didn’t know it ran until this point. After a few laps of the street with the crooked forks, no left peg and back brake only I was going to leave it for the day. But then Hayhole (oldnrusty) started wizzbanging the front end apart and lassoing the bike to some vehicles. Before I knew it, Hayhole’s Mum and Hayhole were going at it with a steel pole, with extra tugging from Mathers. Dudes!

Yo! Thought I’d share some two wheel excitement. After getting my full bike licence, I’ve been rolling my exhaustive 8km suburban commute on my 1980 Honda CB750F. After a year or so of this, I’ve got a little bored of the big bike (and It’s running costs) and began yearning for something smaller. Distinguished CB750: After Russell’s (LOW’N’SLOW) birthday, where Wayne and Garth partied in on a sweet Suzuki AX100 (which he has since began a cool custom job on), I have been extra hot to trot. While not specifically wanting an AX100 (I would have happily had a GP125, CB125, YB100, etc), the stars aligned. I took a gamble on an Autobid on a damaged write-off on the Turners Auctions Auckland Trademe page and shit got serious. This 1988 Suzuki AX100 had some light visible cosmetic damage, but was mostly complete. More importantly it still had live registration and even had almost three months of WOF and Reg to go. Fate and my Autobid saw me win the auction for a sweet price and today I picked it up from Turners Wellington . Picking it up confirmed the things I knew (it was pretty tidy, but had no key, missing front brake lever and some bent or missing indicators) and the things I didn’t really notice with my quick auction look on my phone (snapped off left foot peg and pretty badly bent forks). Bent front end. Note the angle of the front wheel: