TRX850

Pimp my tank

TRX850

This has been my comutter bike for the last 6 months. It ran out of insurance and tax, so I'm now using the bicycle. Never thought I'd say this about a Yamaha, but this is a brilliant bike (the gearbox is not included in the compliment) to ride daily and for the twisties. I managed to survive the North London traffic come sun or come rain with no wing mirrors, indicators, speedo, rev counter, warning lights or temperature gauge. Havent changed tyres since I got it and it "runs like a champ".

Kempton Park jumble

 

Pyke van!!

Loot

 Great day out. Kempton Park on my own, stood in queue from 9 to 10AM and left at 3pm. Lots of time to appreciate this long time pilgrimage and enjoy the great food the burger vans have to offer.

 Might have been the last one, in a long time. Time will tell.

The longest rebuild

For the past 3 months I've been rebuilding this little XR250 engine as as way to fill my time and keep in touch with the "real world". A world where the correct parts are ordered, the correct parts arrive and the correct parts fit straight in without having to grind, cut something off or even remake a whole new part because the ordered one was rubish. Oh, the wonderful world of metric tolerances and neatly machined parts...  Not my weekday world , though.

This engine, bought in the land of the "that'll do" was taken to a workshop because it wouldnt start. Someone threw the piston in the wrong way around and that made it touch the exhaust valves. In the process of solving this (in theory, a pair of valves would be enough) I found a badly pitted and worn out cylinder sleeve, clutch basket teeth randomly removed and later found at the bottom of the sump, worn out camchain and tensioner, stripped M10 cylinder head threads and many, many other annoying little problems.

I do like to get things done at first time and I do spend time trying to find causes for future problems. In other words, fixing things that aren't broken. We'll see how long this one will last without breaking down.

1973 Tiger 100

I found it at the National Motor Museum today, part of an exibition on vehicles that have been ridden or driven around the world.
I can now die a happy man and richer of old and new tools I will one day use to build the bikes the world will bow to ............................................
What...?

The Eurojumble

"Now...wich one fits my Triton?"

Brass is the new gold, apparently.

 

 

The eternal fish and chips

 

Amazing Friday and Saturday visiting 2 of the biggest jumbles in Europe. The Eurojumble and Beaulieu International Autojumble. Thousands of people came from all over the world for these 2 events located 10 miles away from each other. This is the reason why I got to photograf not only British bikes but also American , French, Dutch and German bikes. Words can not create images of things that I've seen and unfortunatelly the camera battery died before the end of the day. Absolutelly amazed with the culture and history this country has to show and offer when it comes to petrol and steam powered vehicles.