Saturday workshop update for January 27th 2024

The session was well attended and as usual some good work was done.  Here is a summary of it…

The Jiailing Trials Bike Project…

Andy, Levi and 1st time attendee Curtis worked to strip the bike down to its component pieces. The intention being to allow us to improve the appearance of the engine and frame.  They removed the engine from the frame and also removed pretty much all of the ancillary components.  Much of the frame is currently bare metal and beginning to attract our friend  ‘Corrosion’.  As our pockets aren’t deep at the moment the intention is to hand paint the frame with a hefty layer of red Hammerite type paint to inhibit any further corrosion and give it a resilient finish.  The exterior of the engine was also showing its age.  To make it appear fresher we aimed to remove loose corrosion and flaky paint from the exterior of the engine and then give it a good coat of heat resistant silver paint.  Other components such as the wheel rims will also get a freshen up.  Meanwhile Andy continued work to paint its fuel tank. Some further filling and sanding of filler/primer was required and by the end of the session it was starting to look ready to be sprayed with its top coat.  Andy is a perfectionist so watch out for some more rubbing down.

Kawasaki KZ550 Limited...

KZ550 Limited nears completion

Kawasakimeister AJ along with Jack and John continued to make progress towards the glorious day when the engine could finally be fired up.   Annabelle had taken the rear wheel to Preseli Tires in Carmarthen because we could not get it’s new tire to seat in the correct position on the rim.  Luckily the man at Preseli Tyres has an excellent working knowledge of motorcycle tyres and was able to get it properly inflated for us and didn’t charge for doing it. In addition to re-fitting the rear wheel a number of other small steps were made for kawasaki kind.  New speedo and rev counter cables were installed.  New throttle cables (Opening and closing) were installed along with a new clutch cable and a number of bulbs in the clocks as well.  A fresh issue that we faced wass making the existing fuel tank fuel tight.  Once work had begun to rub the tank down in readiness for painting it became apparent that the tin worm had been busy inside the tank, leaving lots of small holes in the lowest part of it.  Having regard to cost it was concluded the best temporary repair would be to fill the holes with metal epoxy filler and then treat the tank with what I shall call - fuel tank sealer.  Fuel tank sealer is a two part product and once its two constituents are mixed together  the resulting liquid is poured into the tank and sloshed around until it coats the inside of the fuel tank forming a lining.  Once the sealer has dried it is impervious to petrol.  In the long term of course, once funds permitted we hoped to purchase another fuel tank. AJ faced a number of mechanical challenges during the session but was able to overcome each and every one. In the mean time John was busy polishing up the new  second hand genuine four into two exhaust system and applying heat resistant paint to a few concealed areas where corrosion had started to take an interest in the metal. 

Piaggio Velofax...

The Velofax is finally coming together

The engine was now back together and reunited with the frame.  It has been fitted with a new piston and ring set and the new Carbon Fibre reed valve petals that Graham had managed to get especially manufactured for it some time ago.  The engine had excellent compression and was likely to be a good runner.  However whilst the bike had been laying around in a stripped condition a number of parts had gone missing.  These included the exhaust pipe, the twist grip, a piece of trim and most importantly of all the slide (or throttle) from the carburetor.  During this session club mechanic Phil Howells noticed an exhaust pipe laying under one of the work benches that turned out to come from the Velofax.  Jess kindly stepped up to the plate when someone was needed to remove all the rust from the exterior of the exhaust pipe.  Typically it then turned out that our friend the tin worm had been busy inside the silencer eating lots of little holes in it. Once again two part epoxy metal filler will come to the rescue.  Jess also helped out by coating the silencer with Kurust to turn all the remaining red iron oxide into black iron oxide to reduce the amount of corrosion in future and get the exhaust ready for painting.

Kawasaki Z250...

Kawasaki Z250 Scorpion awaits its wheels.

Chairman Phil and his ace tyre fitter Steve busied themselves refinishing the wheels using nothing more than black spray paint, a piece of card and cloth.  The bare aluminium of the wheel’s rim and spokes was by now in good condition so by cutting a curve out of a piece of card to roughly match the curve of the wheel rim, it could be used as a mask, Steve was able to use it as a mask to keep the paint of the bare alumium sides of the wheel rim. Phil followed along with a cloth to wipe the paint off the sides of the spokes.  Very professional it looked to.  It was a technique developed by Graham’s father back in the 1980’s when part exchanges at his motorcycle shop required a quick spot of refurbishment!!

Dnepr 650…

In case we were suffering Ural withdrawal symptoms Annabelle bought her Dnepr 650 into the workshop for Phil J to refurbish its wiring system.  By the end of the session lights were glowing and hooters were sounding so I believe their efforts were successful.

Honda C50…

John’s little red and white 1970s Honda C50 that miraculously started and ran like a sewing machine during the 13/01/24 workshop session was subject to some fettling by John, Mal and Steve.  The tin worm had been chewing a few little holes in the silencer and Phil Howells applied a little two part metal epoxy filler to them. The chain had received a good dunking in oil and was replaced.  Running inside a metal chain case the chain will have a good long life.