Fozzie

I want to say good afternoon as it's 6, but it's dark outside... I wish they'd scrap daylight saving. Working a bit late, and doing some prep work, as I'm sticking my head in the door of another job with an interview. I don't expect to get it, I just want to see how well I fit with the role as it would be a big shift.

It's getting there, I just need it reliable and riding for a bit so I can begin the scrambler conversion. The RD400 was a barn find my Dad bought and did up, it has a slight patina, but it is absolutely mint mechanically. Soon to get electronic ignition as well. I had a small ride on it over the weekend, and it's a little rocket... Brakes a bit weak mind I had a set of 6 pots apart earlier this year from a Ninja (might even be in this thread somewhere as I've posted other jobs) and they are evil. I've got the 4 pots on the SV650 and they aren't much better, they'll be stripped down this winter and refreshed. That whole camshaft was particularly badly pitted. The bike had stood for a while, so I'm guessing repeated dry starts across its life have chipped away at them, or as you say floating chips of metal in the oil. As I took the engine down to bits and split the cases, it became clear that the engine is a Frankenstein of multiple engines. The head on it in particular is a bit battered, and might be beyond what a skim can sort, so there will be a new engine in this bikes future. But for now, it is running using a camshaft I bought from our resident ER5 specialist: @fastbob

Been a while since I updated this, after a string of little jobs that I didn't pap, I got the bike running. The bike idled very well, revved up ok, but under any load it struggled. It was running very lean due to the new stainless exhaust system, and spotting the GPZ500 carb setup, I moved the ER's towards it as that bike too has a more free flowing exhaust. It worked, and I've been running the bike up tarmac trails that wind up a local hill. I gave it its first hard pull the other day, and it is very smooth up to 8000rpm where it splutters, but from the overrun pops, it's now too rich. So this will be easily tweaked out. There was also a little bit of white gunk in the oil, and a sign of coolant escaping near the water pump. A quick research later, and it looks like the mechanical seal has let go, and some in the ER groups report these gaskets are a pain, so I'll be using a very small bead of high temp gasket in combination with a fresh gasket. If it turns out the head gasket isn't sealing, I'll drop the engine and bring it home where I'm nearer shops that can skim the head, and I'll paint the engine. In the meantime, I've cracked on with small jobs. This weekend I refreshed the front brake with all new rubbers, seals, pistons, and a new stainless brake line. Corroded, worn, partially seized. This is why I use my dads workshop... Compressed air. Still took over an hour to get one piston out. It needed a rubber mallet to tease it out. Toast... And the slider was seized as the rubbers had broken, letting the elements in. Before - New equipment - After. I used a dremel with various steel wire brushes to clean the exterior and all the grime. And a brass wire wheel to clean out the slots for the seals. As it was a recent topic. Big can. Tiny amount needed. You just need enough to shine up the seals all over. Same for the pistons, but just their outer sides, not the back face that slots into the bore. The kit came with a small sachet, but I have my own tin. When installed and back together, no excess grease, all went together firmly but smoothly. The slider has red rubber grease on the metal pins that sit inside the rubber boots. And multi-purpose grease where there's metal to metal sliders. In the pic below you can see where I put a blob as the pad pin was very seized. All loose paint is off too now, I quite like the rustic look... But I'll paint them at a later date. If I don't upgrade to an ER6 brake system. Learnt one too many times, check the length before you install the new line... Saves a lot of swearing. And now it starts, goes quite well, and stops exactly as it should. I've got a new rear drum brake ready to go on. But the current one feels ok, so will get some use out of it first. Hopefully ready for an MOT in a couple of weeks if I can get back over. But all hinges on the new mechanical seal working.

Good evening, On the road and did 300 miles today up to Sunderland and back to Manchester. Was good to do some proper practical stuff, measuring up large kit to fit into a room that is way too small. Going to have to mix some of the old school methods with the new, a rare bit of what I feel is "real" engineering today. Less and less of that as of late.

Good morning Is it Friday yet? I'm feeling fairly done with this week already Girlfriend is going up Snowden this Saturday with my mum and sister, and it dawned on her that while I've had a lot of 1 on 1 time with her family over the nearly 5 years we've been together, she's never been left alone with my mum and sister, so she's now more nervous of that than the hike itself. Which I find odd given what could go wrong with the hike, vs what could go wrong socially. I'm debating if I need to be local in case someone sprains/cracks something and needs carrying back down.

Good afternoon Got a lot of things going on at the moment that are causing a lot of stress (all of them work related). But I'm hoping to get a weekend away soon where I can resume working on my Kawasaki project. Thing is running and riding, but I've been bad at updating. Spent the weekend in the gym, seeing my brother for a takeaway, and unfortunately studying up on regulatory codes for large scale solar installations.

Looks like you're down to the last bits, and you've got a fully operational Aprilia Tuono for next to no investment. It's a lottery win for a biker! Can't say I'm not jealous, but I bet half of people will be congratulating you through gritted teeth

Every time I've had it, I've found the meat a bit bland, same with pheasant. But some people love the "gamey" taste. I'd season it well, and cook it with a sauce (few recipes online). That will probably get the most out of it. Possibly hypocritically, I've kept rabbits as pets a few times during my life so far, but I always justify it as they are very different from the farmed variety, which I assume are very different breeds. Not much of an excuse though

I was going to make a comment on this along the lines of feedback I'd give if I was the lead engineer, but it's easier to sum up this bike with the following. "Design rejected - It appears to be off the shelf items put together, with multiple unknowns for their use in this application, and housed in bodywork that requires redesign" It's a good effort, but the charge time could be 2-3 hours on a 230V mains supply without getting anywhere near stressing the battery. I'd have a fast and slow charge method, so that battery life can be extended through slow charging. I think the design was limited to the off the shelf inverter/charger they used, if like the monitor it's a Renogy model. Unclear whether those components are up to being used on the road, as they are more often found in motorhomes, and off grid structures. And that headlight cowl is just going to sap range through poor aero. I want to see one that has been ridden for a few months in all conditions, as I'm dubious on the IP rating of some bits...

Need any electrical engineers? I'll take that job!

My kwak did this with a new exhaust, was just running too lean. I increased the jet sizes to balance it out but it has a less used carb setup, as there's no dedicated pilot jet for the idle. Not sure if there is one on the old SV, but if you've cleaned it out and it still has the problem, you could try to increase the size of this jet and see if it cures your start/idle issue. The jet sizes are usually in the manual. Jets are usually quite cheap, so if there's no improvement, at least it won't have cost you too much!

Good evening, Anyone on here able to recommend a decent engine paint? I usually use a high temp enamel, but it's never clear if you need to use a lacquer with it. Some boast that you don't need to, but I've seen them change colour with just a bit of aging. So could do with some tips?

I read about this bike a couple of years ago, it's crazy that someone made a 50cc 4-stroke to me. As it only produces just shy of 3 bhp. My old RS50 had about 8BHP for reference, and would do about 50-55mph with the standard derestriction. In short, it's not restricted from what I can tell. There's a 70cc kit online, that comes with a new carb and appears to be really cheap. But no one here can condone that route, as it would be illegal if you're only 16. If you're older, then that's the route to go, but it will likely only see you get to 40mph. And it will be a lot of effort unless you're quite mechanically competent. Would suggest just getting a bigger bike when able.

Good morning! Back from the Isle of Wight, where I've been for a week. Ended up doing a bit of work, but it gave me a break from babysitting my girlfriends niece and nephew. Back to the grind now though! Least I don't have any e-mails to catch up on.

16 Years old from what I've read. And based on the playbook kids work to these days, it will have likely been to show off on Tiktok. And probably how he was caught as I doubt CCTV is particularly effective in that area. Hope the empty internet validation was worth it, as even if he gets a light sentence, I suspect him and his family will have dirty looks from the locals for the rest of their lives.

Currently got one of these, and have owned a couple of others. Is the choke working? They will not start for love nor money without it, Rennie is right about the really slow to transition. They need to warm up for a few minutes before you can take them off it. Stupid question, but is the HT lead on the spark plug properly? I remember one where it wasn't quite secure, and the owner had been trying to push start it for ages. I spotted it sitting at the wrong angle after a minute or two of looking about, and it fired right up. Sticking with the easy stuff first, it was running and stopped. Don't want you to spend money.

Good afternoon Things are going well today, DVLA has written to say the V5 for my CBR125 project is being issued. I can look at swapping all the good bits into the HPI clean frame at last. Also means I can start to do some proper shopping for bits for it.

A very obviously stolen Honda CBF500 in black, with two teenagers on board, racing down streets wearing all black and balaclavas. Raced the wrong way through a set of lights, barely seconds after kids had been crossing, and it was on the other side of a small hill crest, so they didn't see them. It was just luck. I feel like wearing a balaclava in the street got you pinched by the police not even 10 years ago? I don't even know if I want the police to do anything about them, as whenever one of these louts gets killed running from police, the "community" calls the police murderers, and the boys "little darlings that were just having a bit of fun". I now ride around a bit to make sure I'm not followed when I come home, not that it will do much good, as it will be bike jackings next.

Good morning! Ended up under my girlfriends car yesterday, it was making a nasty grinding and banging noise. She said she thought it was the brakes getting noisy as she doesn’t use the car often, and drowns it out with music. I was driving and when I heard it I quickly killed the engine thinking it was chewing itself to bits. Restarted and listened and realised it was coming from the back. Exhaust heat shield was snapped off in two places. Big hole in it so guessing she hit something to smack it off its mounts, and a piece of it had clearly been striking the floor and sending sparks flying. Made up some shims to fit the blown open mounts, and got it back on. Don’t know what she hit, but hoping it wasn’t alive. If it was dragged along crying for help she’d have only whacked the music volume up to drown it out I think

Grease can cause some fights on other groups. Copper is corrosive to aluminium so using copper slip can cause “debate” among some people. I’ve built up supplies over the years. But I mostly use a marine anti-seize I pinched from an old garage. Suitable for ally into steel and the other way round which does me nicely!

Playing Starfield Hike with my girlfriend and two of her friends. Sneak into the garage and spend a few hours building a parts list of all the little gubbins I need on my 125 project as lots of stuff has arrived suddenly. Write some chartership stuff down and build some evidence.

Happy(?) Friday First week back since nearly a week off, although it was partly for work. Just found out we are losing one of our other lead engineers, I really liked working with her, and it furthers a lot of my frustrations with my company. Vented my frustrations to my team principle. Also found out I work well with a few contractors a lot of people in my company call "difficult". What makes it odd is it's for reasons that in the past have caused me to really bang heads with people. The "my way is the best way" people, who turn a shade of purple when you pull out the regs on them. Wonder if I've finally become someone worth sucking up to

Just to add to it: https://www.frentech-uk.co.uk/useful-information/ They do a handy demonstration of what happens when you use the wrong grease. Another reason it's likely not in Haynes manuals, some people tend to think any grease will do.

Worth noting, the red rubber grease is more for the assembly process, than ongoing lubrication which the DOT4 provides to the main seal (and why it's a good alternative). The advantage of the grease is that it offers ongoing corrosion protection to the areas DOT4 doesn't reach, and pistons being reused can often have defects that grease is better at protecting the seal from during assembly, especially as the forces applied to the piston are often not perfectly square. If the seal is healthy and goes in cleanly, any dust sticking to the grease after this will be caught on the outer side of the seal, preventing direct contact, and can be easily cleaned off. Once debris can breach the seals, it's very quickly game over with or without grease. Although grease is very good at catching debris, and preventing deeper penetration when outer seals fail. The problem with using it is it invites problems when you use too much. And that's why DOT4 is the suggested, as it's hard to get it wrong. So while I would likely suggest DOT4, the red grease is not without its advantages. It's used all the time in industrial settings for large hydraulic brake builds/rebuilds.

Happy birthday fella!