Yamaha Virago 535 - Our new project. First pictures of our new project (Supplied by its owner) Only 8546 miles if the speedo can be believed. First pictures of our new project (Supplied by its owner) Extreme corrosion in some places - but we can deal with it! Jo and Graham collected our latest project from the village of Garnant roughly 22 miles east of Carmarthen on the southern edge of the Black Mountains.  The lady that kindly donated it to us had last used it during Covid and it had stood idle outside the house ever since then. The log book indicated that when she bought it, it had had 7 previous keepers.  The speedo indicated that it had covered just over eight and half thousand miles. The ravages of the Welsh weather had done their damndest to ruin what was an attractive motorcycle and lots of work would be needed to bring it back to anywhere near its former glory.   In the workshop a battery was connected up and attempts were made to start the bike.  A...

  Saturday August 16th 2025… Honda CBR1000FX… Work began today on getting the recently donated Honda running and tidied up. With a little persuasion it started but was clearly not running on all four cylinders, so it was time to remove the carburettors and have a peek inside.  Keiran, Pete, Allan Guy and their team set about removing the fuel tank and removing the carburettors.  At first glance everything inside looked clean although one of the CV slides had to be freed off.  However a stuck slide wouldn’t have prevented it from starting on 4 cylinders (As it only comes into play as the throttles are opened and the vacuum being created by the engine rises enough to draw the slides upwards).  Something else had to be at fault.  Graham suggested that despite how clean the inside of the carburettors looked, all the main jets, pilot jets and emulsion tubes (That's the tubes that the main jets screw into) should be removed and cleaned.  It was then discover...

  Saturday June 14th 2025 This workshop session was a quiet one.   At its peek there were just seven of us!   A  huge thank you to Gareth for listing the contents of tool trolleys one to four and for Allan doing the same with the newer green tool chest. It was a huge help and by doing the red tool trolley myself I was able to complete the set so we now know exactly what is where (For a week anyway!) Many thanks also to Jo for collecting and bringing the new project bike into the workshop. It was a Honda CBR1000 that its donor Paul had owned for around 20 years.   It hadn't run properly for a number of years but the bike was in generally sound condition and would make a good project especially for those wanting to learn how to overcome the impact that time stood still can have on a bike and its carburettors Also many thanks to Jo for providing us with temporary use of her starter pack (I hope that’s what you call it.)   Guess where it came in handy!! ...

  Another of our Mechanic's babies. Guy took Levi under his wing as they both stripped this bike down to the bare frame and wheels.

This bike belongs to club member Annabelle. Problems with a sloppy rear wheel have been overcome with the purchase of a new wheel spindle (Many thanks to Ianto for tracking one down) The one that had been fitted previously was not the correct length. Phil J kindly began working to replace large parts of the bike’s electrics. I had also done some work to begin overhauling the carburettors.