Kimjon

This edge banding is brilliant. Such a simple addition, but makes such a great improvement: The ramp slides effortlessly on the concrete now. It protects the ramp and it gets rid of the horrible noise it used to make. Sweeeeet!!!!

There's only about 15m run up to that "jump" so its full send, but just 2nd gear. It is what it is unfortunately. Need to buy a bigger property and/or get a digger...hmmmm????

So lame...but still fun for someone as old, tired and shit at riding bikes as me. In my mind it was much higher...expectations v reality?

Im such a product whore. I've always wanted one of these stands, so went shopping today... Gives the bike some street cred, and is actually pretty handy getting the wheels off the ground for maintenance etc. I already sorted a binding issue with the front end, where the forks where too close together on the axle. And identified the front brake is always rubbing, but yet to fix that problem.

Got the bike up on the hoist, so nice to work on when up at that level. My son wanted to be lifted up as well, so he joined in on the ride. I managed to extract this broken bolt. Then broke the new bolt off in the same fucking hole!!! Take 3, and you wouldn't fucking believe it...I snapped the bolt a third time!!! Finally I found a grade 8.8 bolt, retapped the thread size to suit and that worked great. Days like this are just ridiculous, I wanted to push the bike into the sea and leave it there... #bikelife #bikesarefordicks #fuckbikes #bikesareshitcunts

Its from Machinery House. Its still Chinese made, but the fundamental difference is the design of this one is a much better concept. The action of the new one (Machinery House) works like a scissor lift, where one end is a pin joint, the other is free to move on rollers. The safety pins go into the roller channels, so if it were to fail...there's 2 more than adequately sized pins that block and stop the rollers. The TopmaQ deathtrap has a guillotine action, and the arm its trying to stop has a huge amount of leverage on it. The "safety" pin has a huge gap between contact points, which creates a massive bending moment in the pin itself. I ran some calculations and found it woefully inadequate. The force on the TopmaQ safety pin is 6x that of the Machinery House pin, and that's in share force, then there's the huge bending moment acting on it which is the main cause of failure. The Machinery House hoist has negligible bending moment and share force due to superior design. But I don't need to show the calculus...this picture speaks for itself.

Think we need an old school "shit bike" trail ride up Thompsons track in the kaimais or similar.

And exciting news...got rid of that deathtrap from TopmaQ. And brought a decent hoist. I got a refund, but only after reporting it to worksafe. Honestly don't buy one of those TopmaQ lift platforms like I've posted previously, it's simply an accident waiting to happen. No good will come of it, just you losing a limb or getting crushed to death!!! This new one is sweet. Very safe, with proper well thought out safety features. It even has 2 safety pins in different locations for extra redundancy, I'm very happy with it. Oh and its red, so my ocd is satisfied too, my universe is in balance again.

Todays efforts, DIY chain slider made from hard plastic landscaping edging. I've ordered one from ebay for $19 as honda nz wanted $89 for the same part. This will last years, so I'll keep the new one as spare when it arrives.

Sweet new toy, well new to me...about 30 years old, but doesn't look a day over 27?? Introducing the 1991 Honda XR250R: Its so cool, like cooler than cool!! Ive been on and off it all day, getting to know it. I don't have a bad word to say about it...its lawnmower reliable, it just works, no bad attitude, just does what it should When it should. Its so perfect for me; old, so slow, reliable and cheap...ticks all the boxes.

What a line up of pure Americana...America, fuck yeah!!

It worked...sooooooo LOUD!!!!!

Air horns plumbed up. The kit comes with about 800mm of hose, so thats less than 200mm per horn. Im not sure how anyone could make that work, especially in a car situation? But anyway, bunnings sells a similar sized product in 10m rolls for $10, so fingers crossed it works?

Yeah buddy!!!

Small amount of progress. Clutch turned up (last one was missing). And I'm trying a shortcut here, bolting a split sprocket directly to the original sprocket. Think its going to work, but its on the edge, as there's not a lot of overlap. I'll just send it...see what happens???

Got air horns...yes I do!!

Added a cool RAM phone holder, just so I don't miss any updates on oldschool whilst riding at 200kph... I cut down this adapter. I put a long bolt through it, which in turn goes through a 50mm long bit of fuel tube with a nut on the other end. When tightening, it expands like a dyna bolt does in concrete and it's well stuck in the hex head hole now. It can sit/pivot plus or minus about 50mm each way. Ive positioned it a little closer since these photos were taken, so I can read my guages better. Its a fucking sweet product. Top quality.

Resurrection from the dead...upcycling this old motor that's done 4 years on another trike. Its now going to get a second chance to make wheels spin for someone else.

These paddock stands are awesome. I was probably a bit critical of the build quality. They're perfectly functional for what they need to do. I also discovered this: Best day ever!! Works so good. In the past I used blocks of wood and an axle stand, which wasn't secure and a rather optimistic amount of faith to hold the rear end off the ground. It would have looked right at home on a worksafe "what not to do" training video. Paddock stands for the win!!

Cool new addition to the shed. Paddock stands: Let's just say, you get what you pay for. Mine were cheap and the quality (lack of) represents the price point. I had to manually stretch them out by standing on one end and pulling up on the other end, to fit my extra wide rear-end (thats not a flex). However price/quality aside - do they work...hell yes, they work great! Pretty handy for doing brakes, wheel changes, wheel bearings, stuff like that. I can even put the bike on the hoist and use the paddock stands under it as well...sweeeeet!! Also great way of storing bike when not in use. Keep tyres in better shape etc...

I had to Google that to get that image above. Work phone... Just waiting for my boss to email me concerning breaching of my code of conduct.