johnnyfive

Yeah vin number isn't in the system, blue wing were a little ambiguous with what they were willing to say. Might still be sufficient but need to hurry up and actually try it sometime. "Blue Wing Honda have imported and distributed new motorcycles into New Zealand since 1973. We cannot confirm that your 1995 XR250RS with the VIN Number JH2ME0697SM000024 was imported by Blue Wing Honda. This VIN number does fit within the VIN range (JH2ME069*SM000001~) imported by Blue Wing Honda. We can confirm at the time of new sale this motorcycle would have met all of the required regulations in order to be able to be registered for on road use, therefore should be able to be re-registered at this time. An inspection of the motorcycle may be required to confirm the vehicle is in near original condition."

As far as I can tell it was an NZ new bike that had all the hardware for road use but was never registered at new.

Oh this was one of the clutch plates, somehow. They were all well outside the minimum thickness but were coated in a black layer and glazed to shit, so I think its been hot, and badly serviced. Seems healthy enough though. IMG_20210221_164025_1 by John Bell, on Flickr

Oh, hey, 1 year. Have not been up to much, though have done a minor amount to the 250. Tyres and wheel bearings, front forks freshened up, front and rear pads, clutch plates and cable, speedo drive replaced, chain and sprockets, replace damaged original headlight with pretty convincing UFO copy, Brazilian seat cover (which kass kindly fitted) and tank cover (to hide the yellowing tank) and fender tool bag, set of white bar guards, aliexpress big footpegs. IMG_20210306_183151 by John Bell, on Flickr IMG_20210306_183217 by John Bell, on Flickr Things I'd like to do still, purple sticker for above headlight and sidepanels, possibly pull swingarm and rear shock and look at doing bearings. Still trying to figure out if getting it registered is viable, as I understand, due to the new ABS rules, and this being a '1st time' registration it won't be possible after a certain point later in the year (or possibly already isn't). Oh I picked up an XR100 recently also, its a bit of a sack of shit, so will start collecting parts.

Fitted an aliexpress cam cleat on one side to try keep the rope from going in the water and doing a mischef. IMG_20210306_191922 by John Bell, on Flickr Pretty keen on some aliexpress sponsor stickers tbh

Oh here are some aliexpress handrails on the front, and aliexpress mirror mounts, and aliexpress mirror. I had two motorcycle mirrors and it looked very stupid (stupider than usual) so will just try one for now as proof of concept. IMG_20210305_145906_1 by John Bell, on Flickr

These photos are terrible, it was getting dark, fuck you.

So heres a picture looking up the ass. IMG_20210304_181654 by John Bell, on Flickr Notice the hunks of plastic on the mounting bolts, thats to try and recreate the geometry of the back of a jetski. These spacers were probably a little thin, and the mounting bolts were deforming (and cracking in one place) the back of the boat when tight. Add to that a wear ring that sticks out a couple extra mm, and me adding an adhesive neoprene sealing ring thing that would add a couple extra mm, and that made it worse. IMG_20210304_181706 by John Bell, on Flickr IMG_20210304_181757 by John Bell, on Flickr I wasn't quite sure of the best way to bodge this. Got some big washers and bent them a bit to try match the shape they tighten onto. IMG_20210304_181815 by John Bell, on Flickr Then needed to try get the spacers the correct depth between the pump and the boat. Spotted 1/4 of a plastic drum that was containing some Lister parts. Boat = plastic, so same same =/=? IMG_20210304_191741 by John Bell, on Flickr Test bolt everything to boat, looks OK, I'm a little worried that a might not have the sealing ring compressed enough, and it might suck in. But on removing the pump again it looks pretty well compressed so. Just gonna see what happens. Refit the pump again after this with blobs of sealant all around the water pipes, bolt holes and trim motor holes, plus actually attached the stuff you need to drive. Might find out Sunday if I've done something horribly wrong. IMG_20210305_091040 by John Bell, on Flickr

So turn your attention back to the boat, here is a picture to refresh. IMG_20210303_173657 by John Bell, on Flickr Disconnect and remove the trim motor, disconnect steering cable, plus x2 bilge sucky hoses and x1 cooling pushy hose. IMG_20210303_174201 by John Bell, on Flickr Notice that the wear ring in this one has started to deteriorate somewhat, also, this impellor looks a bit fancy, lets remove it to see. IMG_20210303_175025 by John Bell, on Flickr Drain oil and so on, gross. Not much and not nice. IMG_20210303_180718_1 by John Bell, on Flickr So it turns out the Donor banana-ski had a aftermarket impeller along with the tunepipe. I was tempted to swap over the SKAT-TRAK 17-26 SUPERSLIM, impeller, but it looks to be intended for maximum speed, which I doubt this hull is for. Also the other jet unit was all buttoned up. I'd like to try something like the 17-22 SWIRL for better acceleration, but I'm sure the OE impeller and an intact wear ring will be fine. Also, who the fuck names these products? IMG_20210303_181509_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Screenshot_2021-03-03-18-16-38-671_com.android.chrome~2 by John Bell, on Flickr For reference, the part number on the OE impeller translates to 16-23. IMG_20210222_155207_1 by John Bell, on Flickr And thats where I got to before dinner. Hopefully the refreshed jet unit can offer some increased performance and won't grenade itself after me touching it.

So new bearings and oil turned up. Once again disassembled my spare pump, pop out seal, bash out bearings. IMG_20210303_165928 by John Bell, on Flickr Remove bearings from freezer, bash one into each end, plus a seal in the front end. IMG_20210303_165958_1 by John Bell, on Flickr IMG_20210303_170141 by John Bell, on Flickr IMG_20210303_170318 by John Bell, on Flickr New thrust bearings and washer (?) IMG_20210303_170430 by John Bell, on Flickr Impeller back in, this cone thing back on with some locktite, and expensive stupid oil added. IMG_20210303_172344_1 by John Bell, on Flickr IMG_20210303_171506 by John Bell, on Flickr Nozzle and the direction maker thing go back on, ready to swap into boat. IMG_20210303_172842 by John Bell, on Flickr

Chucked a couple hooks on the the ute tray, if I can secure things, I might actually put stuff back there. Want to get my hands on some outboard style tote fuel tanks for extra capacity, as they sit a bit flatter than jerry cans. IMG_20210228_185605 by John Bell, on Flickr Put some snappy clip things for the emergency paddles to sit in. IMG_20210228_183643 by John Bell, on Flickr I also fit some Aliexpress grab handles on the dash, then fitted some Aliexpress motorcycle review mirrors to that, as I thought it would be better than looking backwards all the time. I can also use it to mount my GPS on because 7/8th round(ish) bar. It looks terrible and I didn't take pictures cause the mirrors might not stay. I ended up ordering bearings and seals for the blender unit, waiting on the courier. May try and get a freshened up pump on there before next weekends outing. Still need to fit towing eyes to the rear, and cam cleats to keep the tow rope out of the intake.

Also here are two terrible photos of the bottom of Matahina Dam. Sploosh. IMG_20210208_125236_1 by John Bell, on Flickr IMG_20210208_125232 by John Bell, on Flickr

This is looking out the ass of the nozzle thing, fairly well sandblasted, but seems sound. Note the two syphon holes for drawing the water out the bilge. IMG_20210222_171103_1 by John Bell, on Flickr I don't have bearings or seals right now, so gonna just give it a go with a mind to doing the lot at a later date. Put the dicer back on, put all the other bits on. Then realise you'll have to pull it apart again to put oil in it when you get some. IMG_20210222_171857_1 by John Bell, on Flickr There is so little to these things its laughable. Can only find bearings and seals on Aliexpress for the later models, disappointing.

I also had the finest Aliexpress parts delivery turn up, in the form of a replacement wear ring. It was cheap. Then the other day the a splined tool for removing the impeller turned up, and I had a few mins so had a fiddle. IMG_20210209_182308 by John Bell, on Flickr Here I will badly document some of the process, what lived inside these was a mystery to me before now, so thought it might be interesting for some. IMG_20210222_152844_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Undo these, that comes off. IMG_20210222_152923_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Check in here for oil, smells like bad gear oil mixed with ocean smells and bad. Also mostly empty. IMG_20210222_153135_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Undo these IMG_20210222_153234_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Secure this end IMG_20210222_153712_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Insert tool into impeller IMG_20210222_152827_1 by John Bell, on Flickr This didn't work IMG_20210222_153721 by John Bell, on Flickr This didn't work IMG_20210222_153832_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Put in vice, impeller unscrews IMG_20210222_154907 by John Bell, on Flickr A seal on the front of the shaft, note wear ring with missing material. IMG_20210222_154933 by John Bell, on Flickr A shaft with a thrust bearing IMG_20210222_155100_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Two needle roller bearings in the housing/stator. IMG_20210222_155126_1 by John Bell, on Flickr OE prop for documentation purposes IMG_20210222_155207_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Put the new wear ring in the freezer #meatflexing IMG_20210222_155359_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Get your favourite builders chisel and hack the old one out IMG_20210222_165844 by John Bell, on Flickr Admire your handywork in garking up the housing (its plastic too (its fine)) IMG_20210222_165821 by John Bell, on Flickr Bash the new one in with a piece of wood IMG_20210222_165956_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Its slightly longer than what was in there, so sticks out a bit, better than the opposite I guess. You get what you pay for I guess. IMG_20210222_170343 by John Bell, on Flickr

Looks like a nice place to sink. I must have put these bits in the general jetboat thread, the other week we travelled from Thornton boat ramp up the Rangataiki river through Edgecumbe and TeTeko to the bottom of the Matahina dam. 8-2-21 by John Bell, on Flickr VID_20210208_141549_exported_18697_1612755261877_2 by John Bell, on Flickr That was nice.

That's doesn't look like a KTM? Did I miss something?

This has to be some kind of child endangerment. A+ though

The cows appear to have an increased vigour. I am confident I will be slowest now. A+ well done

Yeah I might have to try that, I haven't had a very good success with using heat on motorcycle plastics, but may have a play sometime if it starts to bug me

Have pottered about with this thing a little bit. Things looked at in no specific order. Put a pair of latches on the front of the lid, hopefully wont fly away in the bumpy stuff, I should probably put a latch or hinge on the rear. With the lid on the engine bay is virtually sealed off aside from a couple vents under the dash and a drain(into the engine bay) in the footwell. I think this thing is pretty buoyant, but I have a fear that if the lid weren't on a decent wave into the engine bay would swamp it perhaps. IMG_20210123_184257_1 by John Bell, on Flickr Put some strappy guide things on the sides of it, as the back of the hull tapers in and down ever so slightly, and I kept having tiedowns slide off the back if I tied it onto the trailer using intended hooks. IMG_20210123_185737 by John Bell, on Flickr Found an engine mount on the other side was about ready to separate, had another spare left over from the donor jetski. In theory I should be aligning the motor to the jet unit/hull using an alignment tool, but its expensive, so yeah. IMG_20210123_143454 by John Bell, on Flickr Fitted a China GPS speedo and a tacho/hour meter, haven't tested speedo yet, we'll see. Gauges and controls are a bit of a mismatch, but going for aesthetics with this thing is a bridge too far. Didn't have the correct holesaw at hand, so ignore the gark in the plastic where my stanley blade broke and hooned across the front. IMG_20210123_184019 by John Bell, on Flickr I think someone had asked about the hull detail underneath, I found it hard to capture this in a photo, but even harder to describe. There is a raised ridge on each side that runs most of the length of the flatter section. The bottom side is pretty flat once it gets past the initial pointy bit at the front. I think compared to other boats the front isn't very sharp or deep though, and I found when hitting bigger rapidy things, it would often push the nose sideways unless you were at 90degrees. Times like this you'd end up at full lock and throttle to get the nose pointing back upstream. Again I don't have much to compare this to, but it was managable. IMG_20210102_112220_1 by John Bell, on Flickr IMG_20210102_112133 by John Bell, on Flickr Also there are plenty of garks and marks all over the bottom, but otherwise it still seems to be the correct shape. I guess if you hit something hard enough it could split? There is a large long line of plastic weld that runs lengthways, hard to get a good look at it as its close to where it rests on the trailer. I'm probably going to pretend everything is fine until water starts to come in from somewhere. IMG_20210102_112144 by John Bell, on Flickr Managed to squeeze the fuel filler neck hose back on for now, but its been cut too short, and will pop off again I imagine. So if anyone knows a source of cheap 54mm (2&1/8inch I think) fuel safe hose, I'm open to options. Picture of the filler not being attached. 2021-01-17_08-23-27 by John Bell, on Flickr

So yeah, went motor boating this morning with @keltik and @Vintage Grumble. Started off from Matahina dam, completed a return trip to Aniwhenua hydro outlet. Out and about for around 4hrs, only moving for around 2:45 of that. Covered around 56km, this may not be completely accurate. Used about 38L fuel. My maths may not be correct, but I believe this to be nearly 68L/100km (LOL). Plus a bit of twostroke oil I guess. Matahina, Aniwhenua return by John Bell, on Flickr Really pleased with how it went, banged into a couple bits of wood and maybe a few rocks, had a rapid or two over the windscreen, and didn't sink. Didn't conk out, although I still don't find the motor gives a lot of confidence, though that could be twostroke trauma from another life. As far as operating though I was quite surprised at how forgiving it seemed, I have no idea what I was doing and kept getting away with it, I found some of the angry water quite intimidating but seemed to get through ok, although I don't want to try anything much more aggressive than that. Only causualty for the day for me was it seems my fuel filler neck has popped off in the rough stuff, the neck is hard and not very flexible anymore so might look towards replacing that. I took basically zero pictures or video, so hopefully the others caught a bit more of something. Here is a picture of a poopy fuel filler neck. 2021-01-17_08-23-27 by John Bell, on Flickr

We plan the first one, like 3 months out. 10-11 months feels excessive lol. Gotta give you jokers some time to save your pent up spam power too. But yeah nah yeah, I'll see what I can do.

That's exactly the kind of info I've been meaning to look for! Cheers, will have to study it

Shrug, walking or boat launching access?

picture work? Tricky