Pretty quiet session this week in the miserable weather, but lots of things going on. Armstrong 500 Heinz has been touching up paint on the frame to military standard of the day "slap some paint on it" - not to airbrush quality. More paint required. Honda NS125 Ioan busy with wet and dry on the main faring. Kawasaki Z250 Andy-Rattle-Can has been trying to get a nice sheen on a side panel. Yamaha 535 Virago Steve's been shining up the engine block all day. Yamaha TX500 Armed with a full set of cylinder head nuts, Dave W & Phil R got the head on the engine. Later they were seen with various other, scratching their heads - the replacement cam chain doesn't seem to be any longer than the old one.  Honda FX 650 Vigor Mal is still fiddling with the front mudguard bracket - this is about the last thing to do to finish the project.

 Sorry it's been a while folks. Just a quick update today. Here's the latest based on updates from Phil H. Honda FX 650 Vigor Lovely day at our workshop today progressing with our projects 😁 Fixing a broken bolt hole on Mal’s Vigor with epoxy metal so next session we can drill and tap a new thread in there.   Yamaha 535 Virago And great news our Steve had expressed his interest in completing the Yamaha XV535 project so look out for the next few sessions as he gets stuck in to it 😁. Spotted him taking a wire brush to the engine cases today. Latest Survey We got lots of survey responses today but we'd still love more. Please help us set the direction of the workshop by filling in our 5-minute survey - it really means a lot to us! Click here  for the survey

Today, twenty seven club members enjoyed a fab festive buffet, provided by Henleys of Tumble . Thanks to Jo for organising and collecting, ably helped by Richard or Tricky as Jo calls him but the rest of us don't know him that well... Christmas music was provided by Andy J's phone when connected to the ancient hifi separates that Phil Mc likes to keep in his car for just such an occasion. The morning had been spent by Andy S and Dennis giving the painting corner a Big Winter Clean in readiness for the onslaught of Honda NS125R panels that will need priming and painting in the New Year. Elsewhere in the session, Heinz got to grips with the new spring compressors to put the Armstrong 500 shock absorbers back together after their recent overhaul. Chris, Chips and a first time visitor were shown by Phil H how to do a full brake service and chain maintenance on Chris's Kawasaki ER650. Finally, after listening to Phil Mc flap his gums for a few minutes, as is his wont on such an ...

  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...

  Kawasaki Z550 Now that he had insurance to ride the Kawasaki,  Keiran finally took it out for a ride on the road. Part way round the route it came to a halt and he feared he might need to be trailered back to the workshop. As you can see from the notes he made on the ride, it wasn’t a complete success. Never the less it was the first time in several decades that it had propelled someone over the tarmac.   One other worrying issue became apparent when it was wheeled back into the workshop and it was time to go home.  Keiran had filled the fuel tank right up for the first time since it had been lined and re-sprayed.  As Graham gave the bike a cursory glance over before moving on to other things, he noticed fuel dripping from the front left corner of the fuel tank.  There was no sign of anything leaking from the fuel tap, so the initial conclusion had to be that the tank itself was not fuel tight.   With Chris to assist him the fuel tank was...

  During a busier session…   Honda NS125F… Following its owner’s first visit to the work for a long while last Saturday, Keiran had fetched the bike back from our storage container. At this session Keiran, Phil R and Dave worked to try and find parts that had been removed from it some time prior to the Covid Pandemic. Once they had been rounded up an investigation began to work out what was what. A very rough looking petrol tank was found along with a variety of plastic components, which the team fitted together to make something resembling a Honda NS125F. The fuel tank was going to need a good deal of TLC to get it ready for re-spraying and all the plastic panels would need to be resprayed to get them in a fit state once again. A couple extra panels caused a lot of head scratching.  They looked as though they there were part of the fairing ,but no matter which way they were turned, or which side side of the of the bike they were held up again there seemed to be nowhere...

 It was a relatively quiet session in the workshop but never the less some progress was made... Honda CBR1000F... The petrol leak from between carburettors 3 and 4 had not been quelled, so off came the carburettors once more. It still seemed most likely that the seals on the fuel feed tee-piece between the carburettors needed replacement, so Graham undid the nuts on the ends of the two long threaded rods that kept the carburettors together.  This allowed carburettor 4 could be removed.  The pair of seals did not look too bad but they slipped in and out of their openings very easily. The float bowls of the same pair of carburettors were also removed to inspect the rubber seal fitted between the carburettor and the float bowl.   Whilst the seals were intact they seemed quite thin and it looked as though someone in the past had supplemented them with some clear sealant, so perhaps it was time for some of those new seals as well. Would the seals end the fuel leak? Y...

 Saturday October 18 th 2025.   It was a busy workshop session with lots going on…   Yamaha TX500… For those of you that don’t know much about the TX500 my friend Copilot has put together the following… Yamaha TX500: A Forgotten Pioneer of Four-Stroke Innovation In the early 1970s, Yamaha made a bold move to expand beyond its two-stroke legacy with the introduction of the TX500. Launched in 1973, this motorcycle was a technical marvel for its time, featuring a 498cc DOHC 8-valve parallel twin engine. Yamaha’s goal was clear: to challenge the dominance of British and European four-stroke twins with a machine that combined performance, refinement, and modern engineering. The TX500 boasted a counterbalancer system to tame vibration, a five-speed gearbox, and a top speed nearing 110 mph. Riders appreciated its fuel economy, which hovered between 40 and 55 mpg, and its sporty character. However, the bike’s promise was undermined by reliability issues, particularly overheating...