Virago update

Been working on the Virago again, despite the weather (it was extremely cold in the bit too well ventilated shed where we build the Virago). Tried to solve the noisy start issues, but the normal remedy (a shim between two of the starter sprockets) only seemed to make it worse. We'll have to see what else we can try. We've done some minor other things that you won't see on the photo's and we rolled the bike outside to make some of those photo's and a short video clip. The bike is reffing very high in the clip because of an air leak in the intake manifold, we've pretty much solved that now.

Guess what my girlfriend bought

And guess who's going to have to install it on her bike....

Do cafe fairings get any cooler than this? I hope it'll fit on her CX500.

Also finished the throttle cable of the Suzuki this afternoon.

Bike building in HD

I had a small Olympus photo camera that I used mainly for filming, like the BMW clips that are on this site. I also used it to film the build of the Suzuki, but while doing that I managed to ruin the camera. I found a new one on marktplaats (the dutch equivalent of craiglist) for very little money. It's cheap, a bit flimsy, but it films in HD. I still needed to make a spacer (or however it's called) for the throttle cable for the cable to fit onto the twister (or however thàt is called...).

A good opportunity to test the camera.

I used a bolt:

Drilled a small hole trough it for the inner cable to go through, than a larger hole not all the way through to hold the outer cable. 

One of those days...

Some days nothing works, today was one of those days. Tried to make a new bushing for the rear axle, but couldn't get it to fit. Tried to disassemble the two spare sets of forks that I have, finally being able to find them back in the garden after the snow has melted. But the bolts are really, really stuck. I'll need to drill them out. I couldn't find tools I had laid down only seconds before so I called it quits for today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better...

Joe Bar

Found these on Perth Streetbikes. It's the only time ever that I've seen this great strip translated into english (In Holland you can get the Joe bar strip translated to Dutch at several stores). Joe Bar is a French strip, so most of the ones you'll be able to find on the net are in French. I love them and they are caferacer related, all the excuse I need to post them here:

I won't be working on the bikes the next couple of days, so there won't be any updates in that period. Merry Christmas and all that!

Rearsets part deux

Eventhough I liked the rearset I made (and posted on this blog) a while ago, I thought I could do better. I had to buy new threadcutters and I made some steps on the lathe.

and this is the result:

I like this look a bit better, so I'll make another one for the other side of the bike. As soon as the snow's melted I'll be able to roll the bike back outside and weld some mounts for the rearsets on the bike.

in-between updates

Didn't get much done on the bikes the last couple of days. Can't even find my spare forks anymore, they're somewhere in the garden, burried under the snow. So in the mean time: Check out this very radical CX500 that's being build by a kiwi:

http://cx500custombuild.blogspot.com/

Talking about CX's: as soon as the postal services over here start working again there'll be a very rare update on my CX500 caferacer. 

Snow!!!

Wanted to work on the Suzuki today, but the weater made that impossible. This much snow is highly unusual these days. It made the city really entertaining though. Lots of snowballfights with strangers :)

Against the odds

We worked on the Virago again today. After doing some minor modifications we decided to try and start it for the first time. expectations were low because:

The intake is home made

The Intake manifold is home made

The exhausts are home made

The carburator is of a Opel Kadet

And the weather wasn't exactly ideal either.

We would have been happy with any sign of ignition what so ever. This is what we got...

This is with a very cold engine. Later on it started running even better. That's all without any adjustments to the carb.  

rearsets for the Suzuki

One of the things that's still missing on the SP are rearsets. Saw some really nice ones on the swap market last week, but there really is no money for them (student, remember). So there's only one possibility: make 'm myself.

Started off by taking a wheel off of one of my rollerblades. I wanted the bearings. Found a bit of tubing that had exactly the right diameter.

did some cutting

Some welding

and some drilling

It took a long time. It's just too cold outside, so I had to go in and warm back up again a couple of times. I'll have to make some steps on the lathe and the other side, but I'm pretty happy with the look so far.