I (Graham) am not sure I have ever seen the XS500 TX500 engine in the bike but of late it has been mounted in an engine stand and Amantis has been hard at work restoring the engine.  He has removed all 8 valves, cleaned them up and checked them as well as giving the cylinder head a thorough internal clean before reassembling it. When I first took a keen interest in the engine the cylinder barrels had been removed.  On closer examination I found that both piston rings (The compression rings not the oil scraper) on the right hand piston were stuck soundly in their grooves.  With some careful use of a thin screwdriver blade (A poor alternative to thin feeler gauge blade) and a lot of patience I was eventually able to ease them off the piston.  It was only then that the realisation  dawned that a piece of the piston’s skirt was missing.  Now you can’t just sew on a piece of material as if it were your wife’s skirt, it means that a new piston is required. ...

Previously the carburettor had been removed and taken for cleaning by club mechanic Phil Howells.  It had now been cleaned and returned.  Dylan, and the two Graham’s worked on the bike. The first issue we faced was re-installing the throttle on the end of the cable.  The throttle cable fits in a small slotted hole in the throttle slide.  The spring that closes the throttle surrounds the cable and the bottom end of the spring seats on a flat metal plate.  The principle purpose of the plate is to prevent the throttle needle from rising up.  Initially I managed to thread the throttle cable through the wrong hole in the plate.  However this quickly became apparent and ten to fifteen minutes of patient cable waggling saw the throttle slide attached to the cable.  Dylan then worked patiently to fit the carburettor into the openings of the engine and engine air-filter hoses both of which had hardened a little and shrunken over time.  Now it was time...

Prior to Saturday December 11th 2021 the workshop had been equipped with proper workshop flooring to protect the floor beneath and from impacts and spillages.  Tool chests containing basic work shop tools had been purchased. Irfon had kindly retrieved a number of filing cabinets that had been thrown into the skip as rubbish.  These proved useful to store away consumable items and parts removed from our project bikes.  Work benches had also been purchased and Mark had kindly located/donated a sofa to provide a comfortable seating area on the stage.  Saturday December 11th proved to be the day when our motorcycle lifts arrived in the workshop.  Irfon sent out instructions to Dave, Amantis and Graham to arrive at John Morgan Tools in Carmarthen at 8am (Yes 8am on a Saturday morning!).  Using intelligence allied to brute force (Or was it brute force allied to ignorance), plus two estate cars we were able to convey the motorcycle lifts to the club’s Water Street...

Much work has already been done to strip down this rather weary looking example of a Kawasaki 550 but if memory serves me correctly it was heard to be running earlier in the year, before the strip down began in earnest. Because the frame is in very poor condition and bits have been cut off it, a replacement frame has been purchased for it that now awaits powder coating. Today the serious work of removing the engine from the old frame began.  Jon, Jack and Cory took the biggest role in this but were frustrated by corroded engine bolts. Most notably the two lower front engine mounting bolts.  Although each bolt is quite short its location and that of the nut securing it, leave it exposed to spray from the front wheel.  At some point in the past someone had clearly had similar issues because the aluminium fin in front of the right hand bolt/nut was broken.  With careful use of mole grips to twist the head of the bolt back and forth and a liberal spray of GT85, the offsi...

26 members of the group attended our Water Street venue to listen to an extremely interesting and inspirational talk by Louisa Swaden.  Telling us of her decision to take life by the horns and set about breaking speed records, despite her very limited prior high speed experience.  It was a truely enthralling talk and for those that missed it  some of its details can be found via https://www.existentialbiker.com/.  The talk was followed by a spot of socialising accompanied by a massive and very tasty buffet supplied by Henley’s of Tumble.