Spring ride

I wanted to take the BMW for a short spring ride yesterday, but I just couldn't stop, so it became a long ride. It's just such a great bike to ride and it really was beautiful out there. Went along the the twisty levees of the river Rhine for a while and past about a dozen castles. I really needed this after a stressful period. 

Great build by DTT member Troybilt

I think many of you have seen '360 beat the clock' already. It's a bike build by Do The Ton member Troybilt. You can find his build thread here.

Besides making a fabulous bike, he also mad a great video. Enjoy!

So what are they for?

And 'they' are the aluminium tops I posted yesterday. They're for the choke. I removed the choke cables a long time ago and I've been operating the choke by turning the levers on the carbs with my hand. Those levers are a bit hard to reach, especially while riding, so using the alu tops and a stainless steel bicycle spoke I made choke controls on the carbs this morning:

They look pretty good (imho) and they certainly make pulling the choke in or out a lot easier.

Indication

This semester is finally over, had my last exam last friday and that means I finally have some free time. We did some work on the Virago last night, but I don't have photographic proof of that. Today I (lazily) worked on the Suzuki again. The cam chain tensioner wasn't really making anything tense accept for the rider (because of all the unusual noises), so I fixed that. and from this:

to this:

to this:

I'm not finished with the wiring yet, but I'm pretty sure it'll work this way. Had some trouble finding a decent spot for the rear indicators since all the higher-up spots where I could place them were blocked by the license plate on the left side. So put them on the swingarm. Maybe not the best of places, but I think it's the best compromise.

These are for the BMW. Took me less than 5 minutes on the lathe. I'll show you what they're for tomorrow....

Inspiration

Inspiration > Not to be mixed up with the meaning of 'worth copying'. Inspiration puts you in the right mood, copying will never lead to something new .

Some of the pics and bikes that inspired me:

Motivationals: sometimes they do get it right.

Too much?

Or not enough?

My Girlfriend wanted to go for a ride, so I took the bikes out of the shed. Quite a collection. It was a very enjoyable tide.

F**** the uni

I'm a bit fed up with how the university treats us. The best distraction: Leave the desk and start building.

It's got a brake light now, I made a bugspoiler (I know, not the prettiest, but at least it's not dripping oil all over the kitchen floor now anymore). Painted the frame some more and tied up some other loose ends.

 

In motion

Been working way too hard lately, so it was time for a little break. Good opportunity to experiment a bit with the camera. The technique still needs some tweaking ;)

 

Found some cool BMW cafe foto's on my hard drive.

Don't remember where I found them on the net, but they're definitely worth sharing!

Been riding

I needed to be at a lot of places all around my home town yesterday. The schedule was a bit tight and the weather bright and sunny. Didn't take me very long to decide to take the BMW. I was scared that the battery wouldn't last since a lot of the places I needed to be were only a few hundred meters apart, so I used the kicker all day. Never took me more than 3 kicks :)

Wish I could find some more time to finish the Suzuki. While the BMW is a LOT of fun, riding the Suzuki should be cheaper.

Yesterday's photo's are of the cylinder and engine that came with the bike. Not very good news obviously. I have two very crappy spare engine, but I manged to combine the cylinder of one of those with the piston of the other one and put those back on the first one. Lo and behold: It works AND the smoke is gone!

And my girlfriend's been riding it. She liked it a bit too much, I'll have to live with sharing this bike.

Oh crap....