BLIZZO Posted September 24, 2019 Author Share Posted September 24, 2019 couply hours in the shed and the GP looks like a bike again, should be doing ring dings again later tonight if i can get an hour or two in the shed once the kids are in bed. Tight timeline for DGR but gunna make it! 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLIZZO Posted September 30, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 30, 2019 So this bad boy is all finished just in time for DGR, had a pretty lush day filled with a few ales and some quality @My name is Russell banter. tried to find some penguins to club, couldnt, so got a photo instead when i got home i packed my tent, themarest, sleeping bag and a shit load of clothes into my 40l bag to see how it will sit for east cape, perfect. Gunna be lush to be 100% self sufficient this year yea rad 14 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLIZZO Posted January 7, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 7, 2020 a wee while since the last Blizzshop update as i havent been up to too much other than work and painting the bloody house. Had great fun for a wee bit on the wee GP from above then promptly sold that on for some good coin. Have a new small bike project replacing it which i will put some info up about when i pick up the rest of the bits later this week. I have been getting over staring at one of my favorite bikes i own that is by far also the ugliest bike I own, so i have started de-uglyfying it. The grot rattle can canary yellow RD04 XRV750 Africa twin is yellow no more. previous photo for reference lawl So first up I stripped it down, paint stripped the Fuel tank, etch primed it and started bogging up some dents, still got some more work there to go. The only mechanical issue the bike had was being very hard to start from cold. When not used often these bikes have a notorious habit in which the choke plungers get jammed on (enriched). I dont know what happened to this one but one plunger was disconnected and some numpty had jizzed half a tube of RTV down the plunger hole to block it, after picking most of that out i found a partially drilled out and extraction attempt of a now mangled choke plunger. Unfortunately for me the idiot mangled the wall of the carb while drilling it out, so the carbs are now junk. $400 later i landed a new set from Austria. Fun fact, the rear carb runs a richer main jet than the front carb to compensate for the hotter running temps of the rear cylinder in the V formation, i wonder how potatoes get around this issue with only sucking from one carb, but then again they probably dont go fast enough to get airspeed to cool the front cylinder. Anyway, the replacement carb has slightly richer getting than my factory one (118/122 opposed to my one at 115/118) on doing research the richer jetting is stock for this model of bike. I will run it like that anyway as mine was a bit lean with the straight through muffler on it. so hopefully that all fixes the starting issue. Next on the agenda is to sort out the horrendous lack of side covers are i threw the even more horrendous checker plate in the trash. I borrowed some RD07 later model side panels but didnt like how they fit, especially once they will be painted white so am going to pick up some XPS foam and have a crack at making my own fibreglass plug / mould / glass side covers which will be a fun project as i haven't worked with glass before. i have a sweet little tail section on the way which will get rid of the big monstrosity thats on there are the moment and i also got some lush as frig but slightly damaged adventure spec soft cordura panniers for cheap. These are currently with @64valiant getting some repairs done, once thats sorted ill make up some racks to hand them from this thing. Plans at this stage is to finish this body work, repair the cracks in the front fairings and then paint it all white and get the lads a watermark to do some sweet rothmans livery. will re do the dash setup and make a few other small changes but wont dig too deep. once this is all done ill ride it for a year and then probs fully strip and powdercoat the frame and do all the bearings and shocks and stuff. oh also need to do a preventative mod to the fuel pump. These things have a small mitsi fuel pump to supply fuel when the level drops below carb level (about 1/4 tank) and the points are notorious for welding themselves together. There is a wee mod to add a diode into the pump which through electrical magic reduces this sparking and stops the pumps from clagging out all the time. Looking forward for some adventure times 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLIZZO Posted January 28, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 28, 2020 In my attempt to make the africa twin look nice again i have been playing with / teaching myself how to fibreglass. the RD04 was missing the stock tail section and side panels, of which are stupid money to aquire, so i wanted to make some that look alright and also make the bike slimmer than the stock once so panniers arent too wide. I watched a few youtube vids on how to make plugs / molds / lay up glass then headed down to a local composites workshop and had some sweet yarns with the barry that owned it who preceded to sell me all the bits i need, worked out so much cheaper than buying smaller kits. first up i needed to make a tail section, so i could then have that piece finished to make sure the side panels fit up to the tail nicely, and its the smallest piece so probably the best bit to learn on. first up i brought a sheet of XPS foam from bunnings, this stuff is pretty cheap and being closed cell sands nicely to get the shape of your plug. bit of mucking around and i got this- Next up was to lay one coat of fibreglass cloth over it. Please note that you need to use epoxy resin for this, not polyester as it will eat the foam. The reason for the tin layer of fibreglass is so you dont accidentally sand though the bog process and muck up the shape of your plug. once that i set i covered the entire plug in about 3mm of body filler/bog and left to cure. once cured i sanded it down to a nice finish. next step was to spray a coat of dark etch primer onto it, as seen in the photo below, once the etch primer was on i brushed on 3 thick coats of high build thinner primer. this gives a good surface to sand back to an immaculate finish. the reason for the dark etch primer is it lets you know when you are sanding though the primer filler before getting to the bog. sorry i didnt get a photo of the high build primer filler. once the primer filler is left as your final surface, i rubbed on and let cure 3-4 coats of release wax, and then brushed on a thin layer of PVA, pretty much a special PVA glue that helps release the mould from the plug, the fibeglass barry reccomended this stuff and it sure makes life easier. once the plug is all ready i brushed on 2 thick coats of gel coat, this was the first one that was too thin, around 2mm is ideal. after the gel coat i built up two layers of chop strant matt using polyester resin. this gives the mold which when released looks like this, the plug got a bit stuck and damaged in the process here. Once i had the mold i then repeated the process of wax / PVA / gelcoat and then layed up a final piece using a layer of cloth, 2 layers of chop strand mat and then another layer of cloth. once popped out the final product looks like this im pretty happy for my first try, next time i will use a lighter grade chop strand matt for the mold, i used too heavy of mat and there was airbubbles present between the gelcoat and glass which made this defect, but i will give it a sand back and paint anyway. with the right practice and finesse, you can easily get a part that pops out as a finished product, but man it sinks up some time. Just had this sweet little XR style tail light turn up that will get mounted on this guard next up is the side panels, the blank cutout is shown here but there is lots of shaping to go on still to make it look good. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLIZZO Posted March 10, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 10, 2020 sooooo have hard a good push on this old girl to get it sorted well in time for the brass monkey in May. I dont want to be embarking on a 3000km journey on a super fresh build. One of the many problems i have in this tidy up is super thick grot yellow paint. I did some research and the plastic used in these fairings is ABS. i did some more research on how to chemically strip paint from ABS plastic and many places suggested brake fluid. Believing the internet i tried this on one side fairing and yea sure enough, it bubbled the paint and didnt seam to harm the plastic, so i tried a little more and stripped the entire piece, then bang, like 4 massive cracks in that one bit that i just put brake fluid on. sooooooo, more research and yes, brake fluid upon contact with ABS plastic causes catalytic embrittlement and internal stresses in the formed plastic part make it crack like fuck. gutted. at least its fixable, the whole part will now be more brittle but hey, ill try to always drop it on the right hand side. So that brings me to the next stage of repair, plastic welding. For those that know me, know that I'm fucking jewish. not the fun kind of jewish with the funny little hats and nipple tassles on my forehead, but the kind that hates giving away my hard earned shillings and six pence. I decided commercial plastic welding was too spendy, and these guards have heaps of plastic weld repairs on them already, like a fuck tonne, i dont know why exactly, but its probably got something to do with this photo the previous owner sent me: actually, its because it got ridden into the side of a garage, then written off, repaired, and re complied, but that photo is too good not to share. so i found a really handy hint on the interwebs, poor mans plastic welding. Lego is made of ABS, the same material as the fairings, and ABS melts like fuck in acetone. So take a $6 blue lego duck and jam it in some acetone: mmm lego slurry. just add more lego or acetone to get the consistency right, similar to golden syrup is bang on. then just V out the cracks and dab in the slurry. the acetone in the slurry instantly starts eating / bonding to the ABS in the fairing and makes a super strong bond, like full on two become one Gerri Halliwell show me ya tits bond i have found the best way to do it, similar to bogging, is to layer it up with thin layers, doing 2 layers to fill a crack. it shrinks a bit and forms a skin as it dries which makes the middle take way longer to dry, so thinner the better. it also gets quite a few air bubbles if you slap it on too quick. Its also handy for making entire new pieces and tabs and shit, took a bit of progress but got there in the end: So yea, just chipping away at that. Have also got the plugs almost sorted for the side covers, foam plug is finished and then layered with one layer of woven mat. I'm currently bogging these up to get to the desired finish before I prime and then lay a mold off it. Simply fizzing and the bung to see this thing come together and be a full on adventure barry. 22 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingbrick Posted June 9, 2020 Share Posted June 9, 2020 I had sunscreen leak onto a dewalt battery and the same thing happened- the battery case builds stress and becomes brittle then fails all over. Mine looked like it been run over by a Cool project man! Cant walt to see it in the final color scheme Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIZZO Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share Posted June 26, 2020 so in true blizzshop fashion i got sidetracked with another project before the Africa Twin was finished. With the Brass Monkey being postponed until next year i lost a bit of motivation to finish the twin, and with East cape not too far around the corner again i thought i better hurry up and build a bike for it. I had purchased an old Xl100 to build up a while ago, plan was to throw an XR200r engine and a Cg125 tank on it and send it. Delving further into the XL frame tho, there was some nasty as shit repairs, it was a bit bent and the swing arm was wonky, and it wasnt going to fit the XR200 engine that well, so i shit canned that idea 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIZZO Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share Posted June 26, 2020 When looking for an XR200 engine this CT185 popped up on here. grabbed it for the engine which was supposed to be an XR200 but was actually a lame mishmash of Xl185/ATC200 parts with boring cam and compression so that went under the bench, but thought i might try work with the frame, which was worked out alright, just needs a new rear section. Rear hoop and stays got hacked off, new one getting made this weekend. to make the front end work with the CG tank without smashing the shit out of it / having no lock i needed so offset triples. after oodles of searching what would fit nicely i found some 80's CB125T triples, snapped them up and whacked them on and was golden. good lock and no knock. You can see here i have whacked some classy golden boys on as well. 3.5-19" front and 4.0-19" rear. front only just fits, but ive got a bit of a plan here to get some more clearance and will run incise dust caps. 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLIZZO Posted June 26, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 26, 2020 this was sorta the look i was going for this has a different front end off i dont know what, which gives it an 18" wheel, but ill stick with the 19 to keep things simple. the fact the 3.5" tyre bit was a bonus, i didnt think it was going going so was a bit of a risk. I picked up this haggard but good running 2002 XR200r for $300 Whipped the engine and loom out, then promptly sold the rest of the bike to a bloke for $550, good old PPSC special, buy for cheaps, sell for heaps. once i get the hoop made and whip up a fibreglass base, then hope to smash together a black suede seat Still deciding what to do with the engine aesthetically. either paint black with stainless bolts and polished fins on the head only, or go out and do some polished side covers as well, currently unsure, i do think this looks petty rad: . Will update once the rear hoops done this sunday hopefully 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLIZZO Posted June 28, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 28, 2020 smashed some progress, on this today, thanks heaps to @Mitch.W for doing almost all the work while i stood around, talked shit and drunk beer. Mitch spent ages on the tig and fabbed up this lush new subframe on the bike. thicker rear stays in the same spot as the stock one but the thicker pipe looks way better. a nice flat frame with a wee kink at the end that all ties in nice and level with the tank to give a lush flat backbone to the bike. I cut the mounts off the swingarm for the shocks are remounted them on the inside of the swingarm to narrow the shocks up which also helped heaps with the bikes aesthetic. Nice wee tank mount, unfortunately theI cheapo chinese CG tank isnt level so the left side drops below frame, might grab a Jap CG tank if one ever pops up. m super stoked how it all turned out and cant wait to make a seat base for it. I might still shorten the rear guard out as i dont know if i like it out that far but will see once the seats sorted. 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIZZO Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 Leading up to east cape I have been putting a bit of work into the CT185 again. Building two bikes at once (this and the vespa) has its challenges but i'm getting there finally with both of them. As this will be running full electrics I wanted to make a nice discreet electrics tray for under the seat to hold the CDI, flasher, Battery (capacitor) and the bulk of the loom. Thought the easiest way was to make it out of fibreglass so I whipped up a wooden mould and laid one out. couldnt be bothered doing the whole plug and mould situation to get a nice finish so rough fibreglass will do. Tuned out alright i think and is fit for purpose. will be painted black to blend in with the black frame. Then up next was the seat. Easiest way again was fibreglass. I Wrapped everything with glad wrap after pre drilling mount holes. i started by laying 2 layers of cloth and layer of chop strand mat. let that dry then put it the seat bolts which are joint together with a piece of steel to stop them turning in the base. I then whacked another 3-4 layers of cloth so it gave me a nice strong thick base that the upholstery rivets will go into nicely. Greg was in the middle of moving at this stage so I decided to share the love and sent the base down to Lewis at Tinwald Canvas and upholstery. Lewis also does amazing work. I gave him an example of what I liked the look of a said fill your boots, I just wanted black suede for that classic rally look and tuck and roll top pattern. i was not disappointed and he did a superb job. The matty B finish looks really good against the honda red I reckon. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIZZO Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 I was then at the point of "what should I do" with the XR200 engine. It ran fine but was a tad smokey. I could have just given it a buff and a coat of black paint but it would be a shame to make the bike nice without giving the engine a once over. I decided to give it a good birthday without splitting the cases and i'm glad I did. After pulling the rocker cover off its quite evident something has gone on. The inlet valve had been munched against the inlet tappet screw and made a bit of a mess. really weird as the exhaust valve was fine. The cam also had a decent amount of wear. Luckily the cam journals in the head are pretty bloody good a well as the rockers. I put in an order with Malcom at Anaconda, new cam, gasket set, inlet valve, tappet screw, rings, , full oil seal kit and full gasket set for less than $300, bargain! I also grabbed a new timing chain, new timing chain guides, clutch plates/steels/springs to put in it too. While i'm waiting for al that to turn up I got the head and cyl bead blasted. gave the cylinder a good hone and it come up really nice. the exhaust valve seat had a bit of pitting on it so I gave it a cut, did the inlet too while I was there. Once the valve turns up ill give them both a good lap in. Couldnt help my self to attack some of the rough casting in the ports. I dont have a proper dome sanding toon to smooth it all out but shell be right, better than what it was factory, especially the exhaust port which was hugely restricted by the casting around the valve guide. Got the frame back from the sandblasters here in palmy. flicked that off to mitch to finish a few tig welds that we left until it was blasted to get nicer welds. Once that was done gave it a good going over with some brakeclean and whacked a couple of coats of etch primer on it. Just need to get onto painting it now and sticking it all back together. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLIZZO Posted October 20, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 20, 2020 so the cam on this thing was a bit farked, so I ordered a good second hand XR200r cam off a reputable honda parts supplier Quick look at the lobes you can see it has less duration so must be a limp dick cam from an XL or CTX200 or something, he took it back and refunded my money anyway which is lush. went to the local cam shop and old mate spun an XR200a profile which is the most agressive of stock cams onto my cam, so thats sorted now. I used 3x cans of VHT urethane "Wheel paint" for the frame as its supposedly very hard wearing and has a nice satin finish. its not quite as hard as id like and wish i just forked out the $250 odd to powercoat it, oh well, done now. Retired washing line goes hard for a painting rack. I went to throw the engine back together on the weekend and on inspection of the little end of the rod a piston its a bit farked. dumb. Looked at getting a conrod kit / splitting crank / new piston kit and couldnt be bothered smashing $400 odd bucks at it, so went and saw my motor machinist and get honed out the little end and piston to spec, then used the crank grinder to machine down an oversized gudgeon pin to fit all spic and span, cheap option to achieve the same result as the big end seems all gravy. Because I had to take the crank out I decided to give everything a good clean up and then paint all the cases etc while apart. man there was a lot of gunk inside / in the centrigugal oil seperator / filter thing. good to get it all clean and asses the gearbox which appears mint. one main bearing was a bit wobbly so ill replace that while im in here. Started throwing it all together which im starting to be quite happy with GN250 front guard with the mounts cut off for the rear fender and ali tail light. unsure how ill mount number plate yet but likely a nice custom tucked in mount off the top shock bolt. Still waiting for my modified offset rear sprocket to make the 2002 XR200r engine work, but starting to look like a bike again Speedo mounted up, I like how the controls / bars have all come together Pushing on pushing on east capes calling 14 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIZZO Posted December 3, 2020 Author Share Posted December 3, 2020 got bloody busy trying to get this thing finished in time so didnt do any updates, might as well fill ya'll in now. So i went to put the engine back together and noticed the little end of the rod and gudgeon were toast. Rather than do down the rabitt hole of getting a new rod i took the crank to my local machine shop and for a mere $50 they honed out the little end and the piston, then machined an oversized gudgeon pin and she was all hoki mai. That meant I could get stick into throwing it all together. When doing so I also noticed the gear shift spline was coozed, so ordered a new one through anaconda ex japan that was going to turn up 3 days before leaving for east cape, heeeeeaps of time. Aliexpress LED looks lightly out of place on a classic styled bike but jeeebus does she throw some lumens. Resident palmy GC matt cut me out some exhaust flanges so I could make a sweet full stainless pipe and get mitch to tig it all up. Threw the engine in just wihtout the right side cover and clutch as needed to wait for gear shift arm/spline to turn up for that. stocked with how the black come up Rolled her out for some sunbathing I tried a side number plate mount but it ust wasnt gunna work with panniers so ended up going off the rear guard This jigsaw puzzle took a while Alloy taped it so I could drop it around to mitch to buzz up 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BLIZZO Posted December 3, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 3, 2020 End result was good other than it drooping a bit during welding. Turns out although the muffler looks cool it sounds like a TRX350 ie shit, so will be getting a nice small stainless one from overseas long boi air filter sorted and started playing around with bag positioning, wanted to get them as far forward as possible bent up some 16mm tube in my little bender that i got specifically for making pannier racks Buzzed them up with my poo MIG then dropped at powdercoaters added a wee tool box that i picked up from an old bike shop selling off some shit. fits a kids pencil case full of tools perfectly. Took for a test ride, it ran rich as fuck, the clutch slipped like crazy and the tail light fell off. took a day off before the ride and pulled the clutch out and scuffed the new steels, adde some HD springs and put some preload on them with some 1.4mm washers. Rich running condition was from me not getting the carb angle quite right, so cut and had mitch re weld the inlet manifold to get it back to the factory angle, then riveted the tail light on and jobs good. I got 28km up and down my street of shakedown while trying to jet the thing right, never seen gravel before and all on a brand new engine. Sounds like time for a 600km gravel ride to me She actually worked a treat. no issues, took it easy on the revs on the first day to run it in, did a drunken oil change at 1am the next evening / morning then sent it for the remaining 2 days. engine went swell. Bike handled like a bucket of shit though, really heavy in the steering and very skittery on gravel, hard to lean over and just wanted to stand itself up all the time. im going to ditch the 400-18 on the rear and go to a 350-18, this should help some of the rubbing issues. going to ditch the 19" front rim and 350-19 front tyre, i think this just had too much rotational mass and was what made it hard to get over. will go to a 300-18 set up on the front, hopefully the mBike boys can get me one in. Fingers crossed I get those things sorted for the molesworth ride 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anglia4 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 This was looking so good at Te Uruweras. I was very impressed with the pannier racks, nice fab work. I found similar handling issues, (comparing with my massively uncomparable bike), and I put a lot of that down to having so much weight on the back with gear loaded up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tortron Posted December 4, 2020 Share Posted December 4, 2020 thats why i was going for just a tank bag this year oh well but it did handle better like that on the grat barrier ride i went on at the start of the year. You may find adding some weight (tool bag or something) to the front fender will hel[p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mop Head Posted December 4, 2020 Share Posted December 4, 2020 As per the description:I said it rode well. It did on tarmac. But Blake says it was crap on Gravel. NEVER TRUST THE MEDIA MATE. 6 gears was lush though. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIZZO Posted December 4, 2020 Author Share Posted December 4, 2020 7 hours ago, anglia4 said: This was looking so good at Te Uruweras. I was very impressed with the pannier racks, nice fab work. I found similar handling issues, (comparing with my massively uncomparable bike), and I put a lot of that down to having so much weight on the back with gear loaded up. Yea I made the panniers as far forward as I could, the weight is all forward of the rear axle which shouldn’t make it too bad. Dunno I’ll try the smaller front end and see how I go, might get a few ponies back without ass much tyre weight anyway 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLIZZO Posted March 2, 2021 Author Share Posted March 2, 2021 man this is some picture heavy shit. must be due for a new page surely Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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