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May 15, 2017 23:30:18 GMT
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So, if any of you have read through my Frontera thread you may have seen me mention this bike a couple of times. So this is a bike my friend purchased a couple of years ago in this condition; It got him to and from college on a daily basis with no real issues to report. As time went on I think it had an issue with electrics, sprockets were rather worn and fork seals were ruined and thus the front was too soft and was sitting too low. As these problems arose they were dealt with, replacing the forks with a rather cheap good condition pair off eBay. It provided plenty of fun too. Anyway, after replacing the forks (a couple weeks after) he was on his way to work when the rear wheel locked up on the dual carriageway. I think he was already planning to replace it anyway, however, the replacement had to come as soon as possible now. And that's where this bike comes in. Another 125, actually amazed how much taller this bike is though. Believe this has treated him well so far too which is good. And best part of a year on and he's put a down payment on this lovely 800 Kawasaki. And in all that time storage of the GN was a bit mixed up, owner had it at his but then needed the space, another friend then took it on and has since ended up in my nans garage. But now it's up here we've started the work on it. Plan is to strip it down to get the engine out of the frame and then see if we can free up the engine. If the engine isn't completely dead then we will revive it and "Cafe Racer" it. And to be honest think this frame does lend itself well to that cafe racer style. So here's to hoping that the engine isn't knackered, and that we will have many more updates for anyone who is interested.
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Last Edit: May 16, 2017 9:21:45 GMT by charles97
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gavs1
Part of things
Posts: 571
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Il be interested in this, done a few 125 builds now so always up for seeing other ideas
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stevietuck
Posted a lot
Never argue with idiots,they drag you down to their level then beat you with their expertise!
Posts: 1,348
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May 16, 2017 14:18:12 GMT
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I'm in
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May 16, 2017 23:47:36 GMT
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Thanks for the interest and comments guys, appreciate it! So the work began on the GN a couple of weeks ago after a Sunday morning spent at a local car show. So the first thing to do, we thought, was take off everything that's just going to be in the way. So off came the seat, then the tank, tail tidy, rear lights and mudguard. Resulting in this... After this we disconnected the throttle cable from the carb and the clutch cable, cracked all the bolts that held the engine in and left them so they could be undone by hand ready for us to come back next time. There was also a bolt that I had to go back and do another time as at the time we didn't have the right tools. This bolt is a single larger bolt that goes through the rear of the transmission casing and into the frame, it also is the but that the swing arm actually swings from hence it being so much larger. Also poking around looking at the overall condition of the bike and it looked very solid though surface rust was beginning to show through the frame and the bright work. Gave the front mudguard a polish just with some Brasso wadding and it improved it to looking decent from about 10 feet away, it may be saveable if I put some proper effort in but we shall see. Also flaked off a whole load of rust from the exhaust which has improved the look of that too. The pile of rust can be seen under the exhaust in the attached photo. That really is about all we got done this time round, however there will be another update tomorrow.
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Last Edit: May 16, 2017 23:50:10 GMT by charles97
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May 17, 2017 12:29:11 GMT
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Looking forward to future updates...
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May 17, 2017 15:03:23 GMT
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Ah pistonpopper I've been expecting you. Saw you post something about bikes the other day so thought you may end up here! Again we spent a Sunday doing some work to the bike, this time on the drive in the sun as we had a load of stuff in the garage used for putting my nans fence back up. So we wheeled the bike back out from the garage onto the drive and looked at getting the engine out. The carb was still connected to the engine one side and the air box the other, so we set about removing the air box as we knew that the engine wouldn't come out with the air box connected. So off that came and looking at it, realised the carb would have to come off too. That was a bit more of an issue as the screw in the jubilee style clip was rusted in and wouldn't turn, and then I rounded the head. So we had to come up with a new way of getting it off, luckily it turned out the clip was very soft metal and we managed to cut through it with a couple of strokes of a hacksaw blade. Off came the Carb! Also as can be seen in the photo above we took the chain off just sliding the axle forward to take out all the tension and take it off the sprocket. Also drained the oil whilst we remembered. We then set about taking out all the bolts that held the engine in and got it sat on the jack, we also had to disconnect the exhaust so moved the engine down and out to the side to get to the other bolt that holds the exhaust to engine. Another issue of rust holding that bolt in tight. So we move down the exhaust to a bolt that holds the exhaust and a rear foot peg to the frame, and that really was locked with rust. It was almost like the nut was welded to the bolt and there was no getting that undone. We thought about cutting the frame for hanging the exhaust and foot peg off of the main frame, however the foot brake also bolted in here so that was a no go. We think a new exhaust is going to be going on anyway so we decided to cut the exhaust right next to the weld between the pipe and the silencer, thinking if we don't get a new exhaust this will be the easiest to weld back together and hide. Now the reason we decided to cut the pipe was because we're not that well equipped here and my nans garage, a couple of socket sets, spanner set and a pair of hack saw blades were what we had at our disposal. Then I remembered we had a drill that came as three piece set for something like £20 new from our local Co-op, my dad tells me. I had already blown this up on one of my college projects the year before and it didn't have anywhere near enough torque to overcome even the slightest bit of grip from whatever the material you were drilling was so I wasn't all that hopeful. But what did give me hope was a box of brand new drill bits that belonged to my grandfather. Welder by trade so thought they would be good - and they really were. Drilled out the bolt in what felt like 10 seconds flat. And that was it, the engine was freed from the bike! You can see just from the picture of the engine how crusty the exhaust was. We also had a little visitor come along to see how we were doing. And that's all up to date now, hopefully many and regular updates in the near future.
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Last Edit: May 17, 2017 15:22:25 GMT by charles97
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Davey
Posted a lot
Resident Tyre Nerd.
Posts: 2,163
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May 18, 2017 10:43:01 GMT
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Look forward to some progression on this. Looks like a great project.
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