Old Bob's Blog Stuff
12/08/2010
The CM91 passed its MOT, so I've been out and about some more. It's become obvious that the gearing is too high for the little engine to pull me about. Compared to the C90C (the blue one) the CM91 is pulling much lower RPM at the same road speed. The options for change are limited. The early CM91 engine uses an unusual spline for the front sprocket, the later 6V engines have a similar arrangement but the splines are a little shallower. Discussions on C90 Club revealed that a CBR125 rear sprocket would fit and that at 42 teeth would give me a lower ratio than the 40 tooth standard sprocket.
Here's the CBR sprocket under the CM91 sprocket, the boss and mounting centres are the same but the bolt holes are for M10 rather than the original M8. Here's a CM91 bolt rattling around in the sprocket.
Time to break out the lathe. Here's a length of 12mm OD HE30 aluminium rod I had in stock
Using a drill to bore an 8mm hole up the centre
After that I turned the OD down to 10mm and then used a parting off tool to snip off the 4 sleeves, here's the last one being cut
Here are the finished sleeves
And here they are in the new sprocket
Here's the sprocket carrier it bolts to
And here's the new sprocket back in the bike
The problem is that the chain isn't long enough now, so I'll get a couple of links from the shop tomorrow and join them on.
I was out on the Fazer the other day, it's still making me smile, here it is at Sutton Scarsdale
I picked up some Renntec crash bars I'd ordered, they're certainly big
The fitting was straight forward, all fasteners supplied and everything lined up perfectly. Once fitted I think they'll do a brilliant job if I ever drop the bike, the thing looks like it'd just lie on it's side on the crash bars!
I'm waiting for my new bike to be delivered - quite looking forward to going for a bimble on this:
05/08/2010
The NOS stator arrived for the CM91
It produced a good output and cured the charging problems at a stroke.
I finish work at 15:30 most days, normally I cycle to work but since I was a the Fear Factory gig in Sheffield last night (what an awsome display) I went in on the C90C instead. After work I went for a bimble, up Cutthorpe hill to Robin Hood and Baslow. Then on to Bakewell and I hit the A6 to Buxton. On the steep dual carriageway climb up to Taddington there was a lorry carrying Shire Horses and it was doing 26MPH, I overtook it, lying flat with my chin on the speedo doing 28MPH. The driver looked like one of the clan (shaved head and beard) and he beeped his horn several times when I'd cleared his front bumper - smiles all round and this at less than half the posted speed limit....
The only downside to the procedure was that I got a couple of whiskers caught in the headlight surround and it hurt like hell when I sat upright at the top of the hill.
Taddington is the highest point on the Buxton road so having "defeated the mountain" so to speak I turned off on the Tideswell Road and had a nice run down through Miller's Dale, TIdeswell and to the junction with the A632. Across this road at a staggered junction was the road to Bradwell. There's a dangerous 'Z' bend and then this view of the Dale
Overhead the gliders from Abney Glider Club were circling on the currents
There are two in this photo, that's an electric cable in the top of the photo.
After Bradwell I went down the mad mile to Hathersage then up to Foxhouse and back home.
I run the C90C at 40MPH maximum (downhill) and I cruise at 38MPH, you wouldn't believe how much fun it is. The bike returns over 100MPG.
Child / Wife duties followed and then it was time to take the CM91 out for a run.
It started out quite well, but when the engine heated up it was clear that it was running a little rich. For some reason all C90s and derivatives seem to run rich when they've done a few miles. I stopped and whipped the carb top off. The needle was on the second from top clip, so I dropped it to the top clip (the same position as I run the needle on the C90C) and then it was much better. All was going swimmingly then BANG! The back wheel locked up at 35MPH. There followed a 3 mile push home up some very steep hills.
Once back I surveyed the damage
You can see the top chain case has a big dent and a split on the top
The uper chain case shows the damage as seen above and the lower one has a piece folded inwards at the front. The chain is there, looking OK and what's left of the split link lies next to it. I had checked that the split link was fitted the correct way round so it must have just failed. Oh well, the chain looks alright so a couple of quid for a 428 split link and a few hours panel beating should sort it.
I'm being philosophical about it, what could be more authentic as a vintage motorcyling experience than half and hour's riding followed by 1 hour's pushing....
22/07/2010
It didn't go entirely to plan in the garage tonight. I went in there to strip and grease the rear suspension linkage bearings on the Fazer. All was going well, the linkage came out OK, the bearings were in good condition:
So I re-greased everything and started the reassembly. Then, the bike just fell on me! It was on the centre stand with a jack under the engine to bring the rear wheel into contact with the ground (to make the removal of the linkages easier) and it just bloody fell on me. You may think you know your bike, alll the miles you've ridden, all the work you've done, but it becomes a lot more intimate when it's bearing down it's full 180KG via the rear footpeg into your ribcage. Especially when it's lying just on the two ribs you broke crashing your SLR650 a few months previous.. I extracted myself and then the bike was lying fully on its right side.
You know that scene in Pulp Fiction where Butch (Bruce Willis) realises his girlfriend has forgotten to pick up his father's watch and he just bounces around screaming "F***, F***, F***!"? Well I re-enacted that in my garage..
At this point the wife appeared in the garage door, presumably about to tell me off for making a racket just when she wa trying to get the youth to sleep. I informed her that if she thought she was about to have a go at me she'd be better served by getting F***ed Off pronto, she knows me well enough to realise when I'm serious so she did in fact duly F*** Off.
So now the bike's up on its wheels, but the rear suspension isn't connected, there was no way I could lift it onto the stand so I resorted to my trusty 500KG chain hoist (a fantastic bit of kit):
Look at how far up under the rear wheel arch that back wheel is.
With the chain hoist in place I winched it up, reasembled the linkage and then put it on the centre stand.
The damage was limited to a snapped RH wing mirror and considerable pain on my part, still, could be worse.
Work continues on the CM91. I got it running and it runs very well, but I found that the alternator had a dead coil:
Here's the offending artical. I've ordered a NOS one from Z power for £28, not bad.
19/07/2010
Back from a week in North Wales. It's biking nirvana.
The road from Bryncrug to Tal y Llyn, this is why I go to Wales. That's my Fazer and my mate on his FZR1000 EXUP streetfighter.
Parked up at Tal y Llyn (Llyn = Lake)
Parked up at Llyn Celyn, North West of Bala, just after Llyn Celyn there's the B4391 to Ffestiniog which has to be one of the best roads on the planet. No-one on it, smooth tarmac, long straights and deadly corners - keep your concentration up and it's heaven.
A quick stop off at Dolwyddelan Castle
On the A5 from Capel Curig to Bangor. A great road, it was wet and the level of concentration required really focused the mind. Single pointed concentratiion as the Buddha would have said.
The mountains in the distance are just to the East of Morfa Nefyn.
On the Nefyn Road
Nefyn Beach was just below this parking spot, those are the same mountains from the other side.
Nefyn Beach
The garage at the B&B - that's what you call biker friendly :o)
06/07/2010
The French trip went very well. I went down through the tunnel and then to Bayeux. Problem is, it's a bloody long way and it was very hot (too hot to be wearing armoured bike gear), so I booked a one way fast ferry from Cherbourg for the trip home which saved about 200 miles.
On the first day I went to Vierville, or Omaha Beach as it's better known. The beach was fantastic and it was about 35 degrees so swimming was called for.
Here's all my gear on the travelling rug whilst I was swimming. This being France it was all still there when I came back to it.
At the campsite, big tent, inflatable armchair, beer etc... God it's a hard life.
The next day was a ride down to Mont St Michel, what a singular place - very definately worth the 150 mile round trip from the camp site.
In the bike park. I took the big bag so I could stuff all my riding gear in and wonder around in shorts and sandles (it was very hot). Once again, all my stuff was still there when I got back.
The Scottoiler on the bike seems to have two settings; no oil at all / dump all the oil in 5 minutes. So the chain ended up dry. This bike shop in Percy (on the way back from Mont St. Michel) supplied some chain spray. The owner spoke about as much English as I speak French, but we got by.
Next day was time to come home, I called in at Carentan on the way to Cherbourg. It's a place I know from the story of the 101st airborne at the time of the D-Day landings.
On the way into Cherbourg the road drops down out of the hills and gives a good view of the town and the harbour. You can't see it at this resolution but the fast cat was on its way in when I took this shot - I had to get a move on!
Ready to board the ferry for the trip home.
The bike performed really well, I did 80 to 90 most of the way and it returned 60MPG on average. Hooning around the empty french lanes was a blast once I'd dumped all the luggage off the thing.
If I was doing this again I'd use the ferry both ways, it was too far from Calais to Bayeux, especially in that heat.
27/06/2010
I was out on the Fazer at 7AM today, dry roads, not too hot and no coppers or weekend warriors. The Fazer was going great guns, it amazes me every time I ride it. The handling is superb (the bike is much more talented than I am), I've started to wear the toes of my boots away, must remember to put my toes on the pegs when entering the twisties....
I bought a new bike yesterday:
I wanted a runabout with more range than my C90, this bike was on Ebay and I rode it back from Cannock via Uttoxeter and Ashbourne. The weather was smashing and the CG was happy to chug along at 55MPH, which was enough to catch and overtake a few dawdling cars on the back roads. The only problem was severe vibration, I couldn't feel my fingers by the time I got home. The cause was oil that looked like black water, tappets you could slide a slice of bread inbetween and a loose head hanger bracket bolt. I've taken the rack off because I don't like racks and I've got to sort the rear cush drive which is shot (as usual on these), but other than that it's a sound little bike that I can use to go anywhere.
20/06/2010
With the trip to France looming I spotted this luggage system on Ebay:
It's HUGE but it fits securely on the bike and you don't even notice it's there. I've speed tested it (ahem) and it doesn't affect the stability of the bike at all. They're german made and cost 300 Euros new, so I think £85 was a bargain.
Liking the Darth Vader vibe from that fairing :o)
17/06/2010
Fazer 600 Wahahaaaaaarrrgghhh! Jeez this is a cracking bike. I was out earlier this evening, the only limit to the handling is the size of the rider's balls. I crested one hill, banked over, 3rd gear, nudging the redline, 3 figures on the speedo and the bars were wagging violently in my hands - life is good :o)
*disclaimer - all speed / handling tests were performed on my private off road test facility in Estonia*
13/06/2010
Right, it's June, it's peeing it down are you surprised? I'm not, I'm a keen observer of the weather; Mainly born out of motorcycling and cycling all year round. Basically it seems to me that we're developing a tropical weather pattern. Whether your a climate change disciple or sceptic is up to you (my own beliefs are for myself), but if you think about it whenever it gets hot here it rains. So the nice wheather is to be had when the temperature is middling, Late March to April and Late September to October; You can basically write June, July and August off as rain.
Anyway, between the torrential downpours I went out on the C90 and did a fair old ride round the peaks. I went through Sheffield centre and out on Manchester road, I was highly impressed with the little 90, on the climb up to the Strines it was holding 40MPH with me lying on the speedo with my elbows and knees tucked in! As I turned left across the bridge at Ladybower resevior a WWII bomber stormed towards me, did a 90 degree turn and flew over the dam, there's something you don't see everyday! I understand there's a TV re-enactment going on as part of some Dam Busters rememberance, so I assume it was something to do with that. I'm not sure what the plane was, it had two engines so it wasn't a Lancaster or Wellington, but it still looked good to me!
Carrying on I went up Shatton Moor, that is the half of Shatton Moor that the Rambler's Association haven't had downgraded to a Restricted Byway (there is a special level of the inferno reserved for these people). The little 90 pulled well up the rock strewn 1:5 slope to get me to the easy going wide trail on the saddle of the hill:
Overhead there were half a dozen paragliders circling on the currents, a couple of them came low over the trail, presumably to have a look if that was actually a C90 they were seeing!
I pushed on past Abney and Eyam, up the trail to Foolow and on to Monsal Head where I decided to drop the jet needle another clip (it had been a bit hesitant when opening the throttle). The needle adjustment worked wonders, the little bike was flying! It all looked good until I found the indicators had packed up, then the horn didn't work and neither did the headlight. Fortunately the CDI is powered from a seperate circuit so the engine never missed a beat. I was fearing total electrical meltdown as the lights and battery charging are on seperate circuits (as is the ignition), as it turned out the culprit was a bad connection between the battery negative and the frame. That would explain the failure of the battery powered stuff (indicators, horn, brake light), but the headlight had simply blown. I guess it was some sort of feedback from the battery coil to the lighting coil that "spiked" the headlight bulb. With a new headlight bulb and a re-made earth connection all is well. C90's are briliant.
I picked up the FZS600 Fazer on Saturday and took it for a blast, what a weapon! Light, powerful, nimble handling and awseome brakes. It's good to get back to riding like a w**ker again :o)
04/06/2010
I've got a new bike! I've been struggling for space in the garage, 5 bikes (one with a sidecar), 9 spare engines and a lathe in a single garage was getting ridiculous. The XJ900 was bought to go on long distance runs and the NTV600 was for hooning around the Peak District. Anyway, I decided I needed one bike to cover all jobs. Down at Manhattan Motorcycles they had an FZS600 Fazer, the MKI type (and the best in my eyes). A test ride saw me grinning from ear to ear:
That's 95HP into 180KG and a top end of 138MPH, that'll do me!
The NTV and the Divvie are going.....
24/05/2010
Just to continue on with the puncture theme, I rolled the '83 C90 out for a ride to discover.... a flat back tyre - Arse!
23/05/2010
I took the Divvie 9 out for a run on Saturday morning. I felt the back end get all squirrelly on the Cromford Road. I'd picked up a lump of metal in the back tyre (which has only done 500 miles since fitting), I hit the hazard switch and limped to the petrol station at New Haven at 10MPH. Of course, that knackered the tyre by chewing the sidewalls up, but it already had a great tear in it so I though why not. A sausage roll and coke breakfast followed while the recovery truck came.
On the up side I've just scored this little beauty on Ebay:
That's a 1966 CM91, the foreruner of the C90. This bike was 4 years old when I was born! It's got a black and white number plate, no indicators (weren't rerquired back then) and it's tax exempt :o)
I've been fancying a vintage bike but i didn't want to shell out a couple of grand for an old oily sack of pap that keeps breaking down. This is the £500 solution, it's not that much slower than many of those work-a-day pushrod brit singles and it'll be a lot more reliable.
That brings my C90 stable up to 3 - I need medication....
16/05/2010
It's been said that a C90 can go anywhere. A spot of off road was called for. Here's the Roman Road over Houndkirk Moor
It's a fairly easy run most of the way, a few rock steps here and there but lots of rolling sandy trail
Stopping for a rest, that's a view over to the South of Sheffield in the backgrounf
Well, that was fairly easy so I decided to go for broke and tackle Stannage Edge, this is a climb up an escarpment face. The early part is fairly easy and because we haven't had much rain the deepest water was only a couple of inches deep.
Looking back down the hill
Stannage gets pretty gnarly higher up
I went up Stannage a while back on my F650 BMW, it was very hard work. The BMW had the ground clearance and the power but when it got stuck I was faced with lugging 200KG of bike out the rocks. The C90 only weighs 68KG, but has very limited ground clearance. It suffered a bent gearchange lever and footpeg and some bruising to the chainguard, but it got me home without problems.
While I was chugging along a couple of KTMs came blasting past, they bounced over these rocks at 20 or 30 MPH and flew off up the hill, very impressive machines.
14/05/2010
I had to revisit the repair work I'd done on my '96 Cub. The inner mudguard had rotted away and I'd welded in a new one from 1mm mild steel plate. I'd used 3 plates to do it and had over simplified the shape a bit, resulting in the trye hitting the new inner guard on big bumps.
To ease the work I stripped it down and stood it upside down like a push-bike
Here's where the tyre has been rubbing on the (flat) inner guard I'd made'
I sliced the inner guard with the angle grinder and hammered it into the required curve
Then filled in the spaces with 5 plates that were shaped to form the curve
The job was finished off with copious amounts of hammerite and the bike thrown back together. Sorted
07/05/2010
The Divvie 9 is back on the road!
The full list of work done:
New rear brke pads, rear brake caliper rebuilt, suspension linkage bearings replaced, silencer mounts welded in, new exhaust clamps and gaskets, new exhaust nuts, oil and filter change, fork oil change, front calipers stripped and greased, headstock bearings re-packed with grease, fork gaiters added, plastic welding to fairing mounts for headlight, new fairing mounting rubber rivets.
Still to do:
valve clearance, carb balance, air filter, spark plugs.
I went out and did 70 miles tonight, the bike is very nice with oodles of low end torque. It's a bit heavy to chuck around the twisties, but that's what the NTV600 is for...
03/05/2010
Me and Dave went to the Into the Valley Rally, T''was a good do (as MAG rallies always are). The only downside was a bunch of monkeys who pitched next to us and decided that the done thing was to stay up all night talking and shouting and then go to bed at dawn. I may be getting old, but what's wrong with going to a rally, having a few beers and then going to bed so you can repeat it the day after?
I continued on with the Divvie rebuilld, the back wheel bearing was Kaput
This looks like water ingress. I think that this would have failed catastrophically if not fixed, there was a full 1mm of play between outer and inner races
23/04/2010
Contiuning on with the Divvie refurb, I'm working from the back to the front. Tonight it was suspension linkage bearings, when this collection of rusty kack left Japan 11 years ago it was a pristine set of rising rate linkage bearings:
So how to you get from pristine linkage bearings to rusty pile of kack? You don't service them, you just can't be arsed that's how. Okay it's a bit of work, a couple of hours at most but now I'm looking at £80 plus for the new parts. The bolt for the bearing in the frame was siezed in place. I got it going with a breaker bar and worked it backwards and forwards and worked it out. Fortunately the sleeve was more siezed to the bearing than it was siezed to the bolt otherwise it would never have come out! I extracted the bearings from the suspension knuckle using the old small socket, big socket, vice and blowtorch techinique.
Also I welded new mounting points to the silencers, it turns out that the captive nuts in both silencers had worked loose. They had used those "clinch nuts", rubbish, you got to all the trouble of producing a stainless steel copy of the original system and then you use clinch nuts for mountings.
I just scored a spare engine for this bike on Evil Bay for £56, hah hah old Jap bikes are the way forward. To put this in context, last week I had to replace the rear wheel, srockets and chain on my push-bike, that was £99.....
22/04/2010
It was time to make a start on the new Divvie 9, with a view to getting it sorted for the French trip.
I knew it needed a new gasket on No.3 down pipe and that the side panels had got cracks in them. Following my investigations the full list runs to:
Back brake pads down to the metal, one piston seized.
Right hand silencer mounting bolts have worked loose and worn holes in the silencer.
Lower headlamp mounting points snapped out of the fairing
Left side panel cracked right across (held together with gaffa tape).
On the up side, the engine is strong, the electrics work and there's no rot. Looking at it's MOT history it did very few miles from new up until last year. I guess a change in keeper then led to it doing 20000 miles in one year. That keeper was obviously not too bothered about looking after his bike. I'm assuming it didn't get an oil change or anything else in that time. What sort of person rides round with the brake pads worn down to the metal?
I'll get it sorted out, it can now look forward to a life of mechanical pampering, one thousand mile (full synth) oil and filter changes, coppaslip everywhere, valve clearance adjustments, suspension bearing clean and grease. I probably still won't clean it though. If I've got a couple of hours to spare I'll spend them repacking the headstock bearings, not polishing the paint. Good looks don't get you home.
21/04/2010
I'm going to rant now, so apologies for the negative karma.
Tonight I went out for a ride on my C90 Cub, in the company of an Enfield Bullet 500. We often ride together round the back roads and lanes and it's nice to pootle. Anyway at one stop I noticed my tail light bulb had failed. It was getting dark so I headed straight to the nearest garage, a Tesco in Chesterfield. In this shining palace of wonders I could not purchase a tail light bulb as they didn't sell them. I could have bought a basket full of freshly baked rye bread, fine wines from around the globe, toilet rolls, household light bulbs or feminine hygene products, but no effing tail light bulbs!
A garage is a place where vehicles go to get the consumables they need, that starts with fuel and extends through water and air to oil, fuses, bulbs etc;
Obviously Tesco didn't want to devote a shelf to bulbs and fuses and oils because they probably hardly ever sell any of them, therefore the rye bread wins. If a company wants to run a motorway services they have to provide certain services, free toilets, free parking, petrol and vehicle consumables. The same requirements should be placed on ALL petrol station operators.
The outcome of all this was I had to ride (in the dark now) to the next petrol station, a "Total" franchise. This petrol station had a small kiosk, it's primary purpose being to sell fuel. It had the 21/5W tail stop bulbs I needed, it also had engine oil, gearbox oil, brake fluid and various other consumables for vehicles. Now I'm certain that the Total station makes less profit than the Tesco station, but sod you Tesco, you're not serving the motorist - use some of that £3Bn profit to fit an extra shelf for vehicle consumables in your petrol stations !
20/04/2010
I set the tappets on the NTV600 yesterday. The rear cylinder is easy; fuel tank off, airbox off and you're there. For the front cylinder it's fuel tank off, airbox off, drain the coolant, remove 3 hoses from the thermostat, remove the thermostat, remove a trim panel, remove the coil for the front cylinder, remove another trim panel, remove the radiator and then you can get the valve cover off. On my bike th exhaust valve tappet was noisy, I bet there's a few NTVs out there with noisy front cylinder tappets....
After doing the job the bike felt revitalised, better acceleration, smoother running and more torque at low revs. I love it when a bike really responds to servicing, you feel like it's all been worth it.
12/08/2010
The CM91 passed its MOT, so I've been out and about some more. It's become obvious that the gearing is too high for the little engine to pull me about. Compared to the C90C (the blue one) the CM91 is pulling much lower RPM at the same road speed. The options for change are limited. The early CM91 engine uses an unusual spline for the front sprocket, the later 6V engines have a similar arrangement but the splines are a little shallower. Discussions on C90 Club revealed that a CBR125 rear sprocket would fit and that at 42 teeth would give me a lower ratio than the 40 tooth standard sprocket.
Here's the CBR sprocket under the CM91 sprocket, the boss and mounting centres are the same but the bolt holes are for M10 rather than the original M8. Here's a CM91 bolt rattling around in the sprocket.
Time to break out the lathe. Here's a length of 12mm OD HE30 aluminium rod I had in stock
Using a drill to bore an 8mm hole up the centre
After that I turned the OD down to 10mm and then used a parting off tool to snip off the 4 sleeves, here's the last one being cut
Here are the finished sleeves
And here they are in the new sprocket
Here's the sprocket carrier it bolts to
And here's the new sprocket back in the bike
The problem is that the chain isn't long enough now, so I'll get a couple of links from the shop tomorrow and join them on.
I was out on the Fazer the other day, it's still making me smile, here it is at Sutton Scarsdale
I picked up some Renntec crash bars I'd ordered, they're certainly big
The fitting was straight forward, all fasteners supplied and everything lined up perfectly. Once fitted I think they'll do a brilliant job if I ever drop the bike, the thing looks like it'd just lie on it's side on the crash bars!
I'm waiting for my new bike to be delivered - quite looking forward to going for a bimble on this:
05/08/2010
The NOS stator arrived for the CM91
It produced a good output and cured the charging problems at a stroke.
I finish work at 15:30 most days, normally I cycle to work but since I was a the Fear Factory gig in Sheffield last night (what an awsome display) I went in on the C90C instead. After work I went for a bimble, up Cutthorpe hill to Robin Hood and Baslow. Then on to Bakewell and I hit the A6 to Buxton. On the steep dual carriageway climb up to Taddington there was a lorry carrying Shire Horses and it was doing 26MPH, I overtook it, lying flat with my chin on the speedo doing 28MPH. The driver looked like one of the clan (shaved head and beard) and he beeped his horn several times when I'd cleared his front bumper - smiles all round and this at less than half the posted speed limit....
The only downside to the procedure was that I got a couple of whiskers caught in the headlight surround and it hurt like hell when I sat upright at the top of the hill.
Taddington is the highest point on the Buxton road so having "defeated the mountain" so to speak I turned off on the Tideswell Road and had a nice run down through Miller's Dale, TIdeswell and to the junction with the A632. Across this road at a staggered junction was the road to Bradwell. There's a dangerous 'Z' bend and then this view of the Dale
Overhead the gliders from Abney Glider Club were circling on the currents
There are two in this photo, that's an electric cable in the top of the photo.
After Bradwell I went down the mad mile to Hathersage then up to Foxhouse and back home.
I run the C90C at 40MPH maximum (downhill) and I cruise at 38MPH, you wouldn't believe how much fun it is. The bike returns over 100MPG.
Child / Wife duties followed and then it was time to take the CM91 out for a run.
It started out quite well, but when the engine heated up it was clear that it was running a little rich. For some reason all C90s and derivatives seem to run rich when they've done a few miles. I stopped and whipped the carb top off. The needle was on the second from top clip, so I dropped it to the top clip (the same position as I run the needle on the C90C) and then it was much better. All was going swimmingly then BANG! The back wheel locked up at 35MPH. There followed a 3 mile push home up some very steep hills.
Once back I surveyed the damage
You can see the top chain case has a big dent and a split on the top
The uper chain case shows the damage as seen above and the lower one has a piece folded inwards at the front. The chain is there, looking OK and what's left of the split link lies next to it. I had checked that the split link was fitted the correct way round so it must have just failed. Oh well, the chain looks alright so a couple of quid for a 428 split link and a few hours panel beating should sort it.
I'm being philosophical about it, what could be more authentic as a vintage motorcyling experience than half and hour's riding followed by 1 hour's pushing....
22/07/2010
It didn't go entirely to plan in the garage tonight. I went in there to strip and grease the rear suspension linkage bearings on the Fazer. All was going well, the linkage came out OK, the bearings were in good condition:
So I re-greased everything and started the reassembly. Then, the bike just fell on me! It was on the centre stand with a jack under the engine to bring the rear wheel into contact with the ground (to make the removal of the linkages easier) and it just bloody fell on me. You may think you know your bike, alll the miles you've ridden, all the work you've done, but it becomes a lot more intimate when it's bearing down it's full 180KG via the rear footpeg into your ribcage. Especially when it's lying just on the two ribs you broke crashing your SLR650 a few months previous.. I extracted myself and then the bike was lying fully on its right side.
You know that scene in Pulp Fiction where Butch (Bruce Willis) realises his girlfriend has forgotten to pick up his father's watch and he just bounces around screaming "F***, F***, F***!"? Well I re-enacted that in my garage..
At this point the wife appeared in the garage door, presumably about to tell me off for making a racket just when she wa trying to get the youth to sleep. I informed her that if she thought she was about to have a go at me she'd be better served by getting F***ed Off pronto, she knows me well enough to realise when I'm serious so she did in fact duly F*** Off.
So now the bike's up on its wheels, but the rear suspension isn't connected, there was no way I could lift it onto the stand so I resorted to my trusty 500KG chain hoist (a fantastic bit of kit):
Look at how far up under the rear wheel arch that back wheel is.
With the chain hoist in place I winched it up, reasembled the linkage and then put it on the centre stand.
The damage was limited to a snapped RH wing mirror and considerable pain on my part, still, could be worse.
Work continues on the CM91. I got it running and it runs very well, but I found that the alternator had a dead coil:
Here's the offending artical. I've ordered a NOS one from Z power for £28, not bad.
19/07/2010
Back from a week in North Wales. It's biking nirvana.
The road from Bryncrug to Tal y Llyn, this is why I go to Wales. That's my Fazer and my mate on his FZR1000 EXUP streetfighter.
Parked up at Tal y Llyn (Llyn = Lake)
Parked up at Llyn Celyn, North West of Bala, just after Llyn Celyn there's the B4391 to Ffestiniog which has to be one of the best roads on the planet. No-one on it, smooth tarmac, long straights and deadly corners - keep your concentration up and it's heaven.
A quick stop off at Dolwyddelan Castle
On the A5 from Capel Curig to Bangor. A great road, it was wet and the level of concentration required really focused the mind. Single pointed concentratiion as the Buddha would have said.
The mountains in the distance are just to the East of Morfa Nefyn.
On the Nefyn Road
Nefyn Beach was just below this parking spot, those are the same mountains from the other side.
Nefyn Beach
The garage at the B&B - that's what you call biker friendly :o)
06/07/2010
The French trip went very well. I went down through the tunnel and then to Bayeux. Problem is, it's a bloody long way and it was very hot (too hot to be wearing armoured bike gear), so I booked a one way fast ferry from Cherbourg for the trip home which saved about 200 miles.
On the first day I went to Vierville, or Omaha Beach as it's better known. The beach was fantastic and it was about 35 degrees so swimming was called for.
Here's all my gear on the travelling rug whilst I was swimming. This being France it was all still there when I came back to it.
At the campsite, big tent, inflatable armchair, beer etc... God it's a hard life.
The next day was a ride down to Mont St Michel, what a singular place - very definately worth the 150 mile round trip from the camp site.
In the bike park. I took the big bag so I could stuff all my riding gear in and wonder around in shorts and sandles (it was very hot). Once again, all my stuff was still there when I got back.
The Scottoiler on the bike seems to have two settings; no oil at all / dump all the oil in 5 minutes. So the chain ended up dry. This bike shop in Percy (on the way back from Mont St. Michel) supplied some chain spray. The owner spoke about as much English as I speak French, but we got by.
Next day was time to come home, I called in at Carentan on the way to Cherbourg. It's a place I know from the story of the 101st airborne at the time of the D-Day landings.
On the way into Cherbourg the road drops down out of the hills and gives a good view of the town and the harbour. You can't see it at this resolution but the fast cat was on its way in when I took this shot - I had to get a move on!
Ready to board the ferry for the trip home.
The bike performed really well, I did 80 to 90 most of the way and it returned 60MPG on average. Hooning around the empty french lanes was a blast once I'd dumped all the luggage off the thing.
If I was doing this again I'd use the ferry both ways, it was too far from Calais to Bayeux, especially in that heat.
27/06/2010
I was out on the Fazer at 7AM today, dry roads, not too hot and no coppers or weekend warriors. The Fazer was going great guns, it amazes me every time I ride it. The handling is superb (the bike is much more talented than I am), I've started to wear the toes of my boots away, must remember to put my toes on the pegs when entering the twisties....
I bought a new bike yesterday:
I wanted a runabout with more range than my C90, this bike was on Ebay and I rode it back from Cannock via Uttoxeter and Ashbourne. The weather was smashing and the CG was happy to chug along at 55MPH, which was enough to catch and overtake a few dawdling cars on the back roads. The only problem was severe vibration, I couldn't feel my fingers by the time I got home. The cause was oil that looked like black water, tappets you could slide a slice of bread inbetween and a loose head hanger bracket bolt. I've taken the rack off because I don't like racks and I've got to sort the rear cush drive which is shot (as usual on these), but other than that it's a sound little bike that I can use to go anywhere.
20/06/2010
With the trip to France looming I spotted this luggage system on Ebay:
It's HUGE but it fits securely on the bike and you don't even notice it's there. I've speed tested it (ahem) and it doesn't affect the stability of the bike at all. They're german made and cost 300 Euros new, so I think £85 was a bargain.
Liking the Darth Vader vibe from that fairing :o)
17/06/2010
Fazer 600 Wahahaaaaaarrrgghhh! Jeez this is a cracking bike. I was out earlier this evening, the only limit to the handling is the size of the rider's balls. I crested one hill, banked over, 3rd gear, nudging the redline, 3 figures on the speedo and the bars were wagging violently in my hands - life is good :o)
*disclaimer - all speed / handling tests were performed on my private off road test facility in Estonia*
13/06/2010
Right, it's June, it's peeing it down are you surprised? I'm not, I'm a keen observer of the weather; Mainly born out of motorcycling and cycling all year round. Basically it seems to me that we're developing a tropical weather pattern. Whether your a climate change disciple or sceptic is up to you (my own beliefs are for myself), but if you think about it whenever it gets hot here it rains. So the nice wheather is to be had when the temperature is middling, Late March to April and Late September to October; You can basically write June, July and August off as rain.
Anyway, between the torrential downpours I went out on the C90 and did a fair old ride round the peaks. I went through Sheffield centre and out on Manchester road, I was highly impressed with the little 90, on the climb up to the Strines it was holding 40MPH with me lying on the speedo with my elbows and knees tucked in! As I turned left across the bridge at Ladybower resevior a WWII bomber stormed towards me, did a 90 degree turn and flew over the dam, there's something you don't see everyday! I understand there's a TV re-enactment going on as part of some Dam Busters rememberance, so I assume it was something to do with that. I'm not sure what the plane was, it had two engines so it wasn't a Lancaster or Wellington, but it still looked good to me!
Carrying on I went up Shatton Moor, that is the half of Shatton Moor that the Rambler's Association haven't had downgraded to a Restricted Byway (there is a special level of the inferno reserved for these people). The little 90 pulled well up the rock strewn 1:5 slope to get me to the easy going wide trail on the saddle of the hill:
Overhead there were half a dozen paragliders circling on the currents, a couple of them came low over the trail, presumably to have a look if that was actually a C90 they were seeing!
I pushed on past Abney and Eyam, up the trail to Foolow and on to Monsal Head where I decided to drop the jet needle another clip (it had been a bit hesitant when opening the throttle). The needle adjustment worked wonders, the little bike was flying! It all looked good until I found the indicators had packed up, then the horn didn't work and neither did the headlight. Fortunately the CDI is powered from a seperate circuit so the engine never missed a beat. I was fearing total electrical meltdown as the lights and battery charging are on seperate circuits (as is the ignition), as it turned out the culprit was a bad connection between the battery negative and the frame. That would explain the failure of the battery powered stuff (indicators, horn, brake light), but the headlight had simply blown. I guess it was some sort of feedback from the battery coil to the lighting coil that "spiked" the headlight bulb. With a new headlight bulb and a re-made earth connection all is well. C90's are briliant.
I picked up the FZS600 Fazer on Saturday and took it for a blast, what a weapon! Light, powerful, nimble handling and awseome brakes. It's good to get back to riding like a w**ker again :o)
04/06/2010
I've got a new bike! I've been struggling for space in the garage, 5 bikes (one with a sidecar), 9 spare engines and a lathe in a single garage was getting ridiculous. The XJ900 was bought to go on long distance runs and the NTV600 was for hooning around the Peak District. Anyway, I decided I needed one bike to cover all jobs. Down at Manhattan Motorcycles they had an FZS600 Fazer, the MKI type (and the best in my eyes). A test ride saw me grinning from ear to ear:
That's 95HP into 180KG and a top end of 138MPH, that'll do me!
The NTV and the Divvie are going.....
24/05/2010
Just to continue on with the puncture theme, I rolled the '83 C90 out for a ride to discover.... a flat back tyre - Arse!
23/05/2010
I took the Divvie 9 out for a run on Saturday morning. I felt the back end get all squirrelly on the Cromford Road. I'd picked up a lump of metal in the back tyre (which has only done 500 miles since fitting), I hit the hazard switch and limped to the petrol station at New Haven at 10MPH. Of course, that knackered the tyre by chewing the sidewalls up, but it already had a great tear in it so I though why not. A sausage roll and coke breakfast followed while the recovery truck came.
On the up side I've just scored this little beauty on Ebay:
That's a 1966 CM91, the foreruner of the C90. This bike was 4 years old when I was born! It's got a black and white number plate, no indicators (weren't rerquired back then) and it's tax exempt :o)
I've been fancying a vintage bike but i didn't want to shell out a couple of grand for an old oily sack of pap that keeps breaking down. This is the £500 solution, it's not that much slower than many of those work-a-day pushrod brit singles and it'll be a lot more reliable.
That brings my C90 stable up to 3 - I need medication....
16/05/2010
It's been said that a C90 can go anywhere. A spot of off road was called for. Here's the Roman Road over Houndkirk Moor
It's a fairly easy run most of the way, a few rock steps here and there but lots of rolling sandy trail
Stopping for a rest, that's a view over to the South of Sheffield in the backgrounf
Well, that was fairly easy so I decided to go for broke and tackle Stannage Edge, this is a climb up an escarpment face. The early part is fairly easy and because we haven't had much rain the deepest water was only a couple of inches deep.
Looking back down the hill
Stannage gets pretty gnarly higher up
I went up Stannage a while back on my F650 BMW, it was very hard work. The BMW had the ground clearance and the power but when it got stuck I was faced with lugging 200KG of bike out the rocks. The C90 only weighs 68KG, but has very limited ground clearance. It suffered a bent gearchange lever and footpeg and some bruising to the chainguard, but it got me home without problems.
While I was chugging along a couple of KTMs came blasting past, they bounced over these rocks at 20 or 30 MPH and flew off up the hill, very impressive machines.
14/05/2010
I had to revisit the repair work I'd done on my '96 Cub. The inner mudguard had rotted away and I'd welded in a new one from 1mm mild steel plate. I'd used 3 plates to do it and had over simplified the shape a bit, resulting in the trye hitting the new inner guard on big bumps.
To ease the work I stripped it down and stood it upside down like a push-bike
Here's where the tyre has been rubbing on the (flat) inner guard I'd made'
I sliced the inner guard with the angle grinder and hammered it into the required curve
Then filled in the spaces with 5 plates that were shaped to form the curve
The job was finished off with copious amounts of hammerite and the bike thrown back together. Sorted
07/05/2010
The Divvie 9 is back on the road!
The full list of work done:
New rear brke pads, rear brake caliper rebuilt, suspension linkage bearings replaced, silencer mounts welded in, new exhaust clamps and gaskets, new exhaust nuts, oil and filter change, fork oil change, front calipers stripped and greased, headstock bearings re-packed with grease, fork gaiters added, plastic welding to fairing mounts for headlight, new fairing mounting rubber rivets.
Still to do:
valve clearance, carb balance, air filter, spark plugs.
I went out and did 70 miles tonight, the bike is very nice with oodles of low end torque. It's a bit heavy to chuck around the twisties, but that's what the NTV600 is for...
03/05/2010
Me and Dave went to the Into the Valley Rally, T''was a good do (as MAG rallies always are). The only downside was a bunch of monkeys who pitched next to us and decided that the done thing was to stay up all night talking and shouting and then go to bed at dawn. I may be getting old, but what's wrong with going to a rally, having a few beers and then going to bed so you can repeat it the day after?
I continued on with the Divvie rebuilld, the back wheel bearing was Kaput
This looks like water ingress. I think that this would have failed catastrophically if not fixed, there was a full 1mm of play between outer and inner races
23/04/2010
Contiuning on with the Divvie refurb, I'm working from the back to the front. Tonight it was suspension linkage bearings, when this collection of rusty kack left Japan 11 years ago it was a pristine set of rising rate linkage bearings:
So how to you get from pristine linkage bearings to rusty pile of kack? You don't service them, you just can't be arsed that's how. Okay it's a bit of work, a couple of hours at most but now I'm looking at £80 plus for the new parts. The bolt for the bearing in the frame was siezed in place. I got it going with a breaker bar and worked it backwards and forwards and worked it out. Fortunately the sleeve was more siezed to the bearing than it was siezed to the bolt otherwise it would never have come out! I extracted the bearings from the suspension knuckle using the old small socket, big socket, vice and blowtorch techinique.
Also I welded new mounting points to the silencers, it turns out that the captive nuts in both silencers had worked loose. They had used those "clinch nuts", rubbish, you got to all the trouble of producing a stainless steel copy of the original system and then you use clinch nuts for mountings.
I just scored a spare engine for this bike on Evil Bay for £56, hah hah old Jap bikes are the way forward. To put this in context, last week I had to replace the rear wheel, srockets and chain on my push-bike, that was £99.....
22/04/2010
It was time to make a start on the new Divvie 9, with a view to getting it sorted for the French trip.
I knew it needed a new gasket on No.3 down pipe and that the side panels had got cracks in them. Following my investigations the full list runs to:
Back brake pads down to the metal, one piston seized.
Right hand silencer mounting bolts have worked loose and worn holes in the silencer.
Lower headlamp mounting points snapped out of the fairing
Left side panel cracked right across (held together with gaffa tape).
On the up side, the engine is strong, the electrics work and there's no rot. Looking at it's MOT history it did very few miles from new up until last year. I guess a change in keeper then led to it doing 20000 miles in one year. That keeper was obviously not too bothered about looking after his bike. I'm assuming it didn't get an oil change or anything else in that time. What sort of person rides round with the brake pads worn down to the metal?
I'll get it sorted out, it can now look forward to a life of mechanical pampering, one thousand mile (full synth) oil and filter changes, coppaslip everywhere, valve clearance adjustments, suspension bearing clean and grease. I probably still won't clean it though. If I've got a couple of hours to spare I'll spend them repacking the headstock bearings, not polishing the paint. Good looks don't get you home.
21/04/2010
I'm going to rant now, so apologies for the negative karma.
Tonight I went out for a ride on my C90 Cub, in the company of an Enfield Bullet 500. We often ride together round the back roads and lanes and it's nice to pootle. Anyway at one stop I noticed my tail light bulb had failed. It was getting dark so I headed straight to the nearest garage, a Tesco in Chesterfield. In this shining palace of wonders I could not purchase a tail light bulb as they didn't sell them. I could have bought a basket full of freshly baked rye bread, fine wines from around the globe, toilet rolls, household light bulbs or feminine hygene products, but no effing tail light bulbs!
A garage is a place where vehicles go to get the consumables they need, that starts with fuel and extends through water and air to oil, fuses, bulbs etc;
Obviously Tesco didn't want to devote a shelf to bulbs and fuses and oils because they probably hardly ever sell any of them, therefore the rye bread wins. If a company wants to run a motorway services they have to provide certain services, free toilets, free parking, petrol and vehicle consumables. The same requirements should be placed on ALL petrol station operators.
The outcome of all this was I had to ride (in the dark now) to the next petrol station, a "Total" franchise. This petrol station had a small kiosk, it's primary purpose being to sell fuel. It had the 21/5W tail stop bulbs I needed, it also had engine oil, gearbox oil, brake fluid and various other consumables for vehicles. Now I'm certain that the Total station makes less profit than the Tesco station, but sod you Tesco, you're not serving the motorist - use some of that £3Bn profit to fit an extra shelf for vehicle consumables in your petrol stations !
20/04/2010
I set the tappets on the NTV600 yesterday. The rear cylinder is easy; fuel tank off, airbox off and you're there. For the front cylinder it's fuel tank off, airbox off, drain the coolant, remove 3 hoses from the thermostat, remove the thermostat, remove a trim panel, remove the coil for the front cylinder, remove another trim panel, remove the radiator and then you can get the valve cover off. On my bike th exhaust valve tappet was noisy, I bet there's a few NTVs out there with noisy front cylinder tappets....
After doing the job the bike felt revitalised, better acceleration, smoother running and more torque at low revs. I love it when a bike really responds to servicing, you feel like it's all been worth it.