Saturday April 19th 2025

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At the West Wales Motorcycle Club session on Saturday the 19th of April 2025…

 

Honda Vigor…

Mal worked on his Honda Vigor working on the rear end of the bike and tried to get the swinging arm and the lower suspension apart but the bolts were too badly rusted in. In fact one bolt at the front of the pivot had rusted into its spacer so although it spun around freely it wouldn't come out. Mal took an executive decision to leave well alone for the time being and perhaps revisit it at some later point. My thanks to Keiran for repairing the thread that had been damaged as I tried to knock the stubborn bolt out.

 


Kawasaki Z250…

Keiran spent some time doing final little bits of fettling and working to improve the appearance of the bike, paying attention to the paint work here and there. Also making sure the fuel tap work properly.  Getting it closer to being completely finished.

 



The KZ 550.

 

AJ worked to get the front brake working again with a new master cylinder and we used the pump and undo pump and undo technique to get the fluid to pass through the hose and the brake worked perfectly. There were some issues with a fuse blowing the game, but AJ and his crew overcame it. Keiran later looked behind the front sprocket cover, pondering where the oil had been dripping from but none of the seals beneath the cover were leaking. So the clutch seal and the gearbox output shaft seal etcetera are all in perfect order. So we concluded that it's most probably oil that's coming from the bottom of the clutch cover on the right hand side of the engine that's dripping.


 


Honda Deauville…

Carl spent time working on his Honda Deauville. I say his Honda Deauville,  he had just bought the Honda Deauville from us and with Phil Howe's assistance, he began stripping it and looking to service it and just generally make it look a little bit smarter before he takes it.




Mash Dirtstar 400…

We took a look at the Mash 400. By taking the inspection cover off on the generator side of the engine, I was able to turn the engine over. I found that it turned over quite smoothly. There was no sign of anything clashing with anything else. As the previous owner had suggested the valves timing had gone and the valves had met the pistons we would probably strip the top end of the engine to check and replace any damaged parts.  When I put a battery on the bike, all the electrics livened up OK, but it only turned over very, very slowly, as though something's wasn’t right in the engine. It was a new battery, fully charged, and it's still only managed to turn it very slowly. Unless of course it needed a decompressor working or something like that.




Workshop general news…

We had a visit from Stas and his wife from Covington Solicitors. He's the European pro bono manager for Covington.  They very much appreciated the chance to see what we are doing in the workshop. He has relatives in Carmarthen. He might even invite them to come along. Covington had been providing us with free of charge legal advice and it was a chance for him to take back a better understanding of what we mean to the community and also to gain some photos to include on their intranet to share the good work they are doing.