Cletus's other projects

[63Ragtop]

Nice work man, stick it to the cert man!!

[cletus]

Wof done

Raised the rear a whisker

Made a spacer for the side stand so it doesn't lean on a big angle 

Removed the rear chrome trim things 

Put 150 miles on it today and it's so much better now, can go around corners with more enthusiasm 

[cletus]

Some pics for no reason,more of the same so don't look if you don't like pictures of this motor cycle 

 

[cletus]

Did a minor brake upgrade, 320mm disc and a caliper spacer on the front and a new standard size disc on the back, mainly because I wanted them to match, there was nothing wrong with the rear rotor. Pads are not that old so re used them 

 

Once they bedded in, it made a huge difference (on the front anyway)

Instead of the front brake being a gentle retardation device, it now actually works as a brake, that stops! How novel.

around town it's one finger on the lever to pull it up. Two fingers you could probably lock the front,if you wanted to fall off, which I dont.

I had thought about doing twin discs on the front but the parts are quite hard to find, and expensive

HD used to do a kit but that is NLA, the main reason for wanting twin discs was mostly cosmetic . I'll keep an eye out for the parts anyway but it stops good enough that it's not a must do 

 

[cletus]

Put a stainless hose on the front to replace the shitty bent rusty factory one

While it was on the lift ( this is very handy even for cleaning )  I was giving it a bit of a once over and found a big stone in the belt plus a couple of splits that were not there last time I looked at it. You can get away with holes in the belt if they don't go to the edge,I picked a rock out of it not long after I got it, which was near the middle and never got any worse but if its close to the edge, game over

 

It's probably the original belt so due for a new one anyway

Good thing it's only $580 for a new belt and you have to disassemble half the bike to get to it, great. I've been putting off fixing the sloppy shifter lever which is also behind the primary so I'll do it all at once 

 

 

[HighLUX]

Spend the bux and do a chain conversion? My mate has a big potato bike and hes done enough belts in the last 18 months that its cost him a conversion kit

[cletus]

I have thought about it , if it happens again that might happen 

I like the belt as there's no mess and seem to not need as much adjustment etc 

But yeah at 590 a pop plus the debacle of having to remove the primary etc it might be an option 

[cletus]

Primary cover is bent, I knew about that so had got a replacement a while ago

Turns out the clutch spring plate was bent as well which has been holding tension on the spring on one side 

Knocked it back to shape 

[cletus]

All fixed

Took a lot longer as it had a bent primary cover ( which I knew about)  , fitted a second hand primary cover that turned out to have a fucked drain plug thread so had to fix that  plus polish the outside. And fix the clutch spring plate thing. And replace some seals. And clean a bunch of shmutz off parts that had not come off for 20 years. And make a spacer to line up the shift linkage a bit better

Also put a ss brake hose on the front  

Fixing the sloppy shift linkage made a big difference, the lever that goes on the splined shaft into the gearbox has been loose the whole time I've had it 

 

I think that's all the mechanical stuff sorted now , the next job will be paint , which i still can't decide on a colour 

 

 

[cletus]

Forgot until this morning there was a motorcycle only drag day at meremere today, thought I'd have a look as it was free entry 

There was hundreds of bikes there but not many actually racing 

So had a go, did 7 passes. Best was 13.7@93

Good thing it was a mostly harley event so there were plenty of other slow bikes so I was not Mr turtle pants 

 

[igor]

Good stuff. 13.7 quarter isn't too terrible.

[cletus]

  a while ago I bought some cheap saddle bags off trademe which are very handy but looked like shit as they went saggy, and I didn't like how they attached- they velcro together over the top of the rear guard under the seat. Which doesn't matter at the moment but once it's painted I didn't want that to get damaged

There's a company in the states that makes a hard mount kit so I "borrowed " some design ideas from that ,did some scrawling on cardboard. 

Then @RXFORD kindly turned my gibberish into a proper CAD design with Bathurst spec speed holes added, and got them cut and bent for me by a local company. What a champ. 

Whizzed up a couple of spacers,bolted on and bingo, done

Comes off with 4 bolts so I can run with or without easily 

 

[cletus]

Ha

One this thing for over a year, never noticed until today that the tank badges have skulls on them.  

HAWG= CRANK'ED

GOGGLES SERCH BADACE SKULL,S HARBELY DAVISSON 

[Snoozin]

GOBBLESS HOSS KEEP TH3 RUBBER SIDE DWON WATCH OUR FER THOS DAM LIBRULS.

[hood]

Any updates on the Lilliput?

[cletus]

No updates, haven't used it for ages apart from occasional naps or somewhere to sit and have lunch 

[Thphantum]

Mmmmmmm Workshop naps.

[cletus]

Time for a new set of tyres 

I got 6000 miles out of the rear one and it was pretty chooched

Front was near new when I got it so that did 8000, it had some cupping wear 

I considered a better tyre, Bridgestone do a cruiser tyre that I nearly got, but i was worried they wouldn't stick as well

these are known for wearing fast but they are pretty grippy in the dry , and are cheap

 went for a quick tutu to scrub in the new ones, gave it a rev and a clutch dump to see if it would spin, but nope it just grips and did a wheelie  

It always amazes me how new tyres transform the bikes handling 

 

Battery is being a bit of a sad guy in the cold so thats probably next 

 

 

[cletus]

Oh and had a minor money wasting exercise 

The bike came with a crappy fiberglass  front guard 

I ordered a drag specialties replacement one , they have a chrome bracket which I didnt want , and the rivets holding it together were loose and garbage. And it comes bare steel so I dunno how you are meant to paint it fully without drilling the rivets out to get paint everywhere 

So I thought I'd get a stock original HD one, ordered from a wrecker in Hamilton,  asked for a straight one, for $195 i got sent a bent piece of junk , when I emailed to say it was bent etc he would not take it as a return , and told me a painter can fix it, so I guess spend another xxx amount on fixing it is my problem? So I'd suggest not buying anything off 'bears group/usa imports '

So then I had a look at everybody's favorite retailer of treasures from the orient, and took a punt not expecting great things , but its mint, better built than the drag specialties one, comes painted black, bolted straight up, good, problem solved