Spent the day cleaning bikes

ratsidecar

.060 Over
Joined
Jul 13, 2017
Messages
155
Location
Northern Ireland
Ride
2006 Rocket III
I spent the day cleaning 2 of my bikes. The first is my 1993 honda ntv650 that I got a few weeks ago which the previous owner added a fairing to and lots of panniers and boxes and stuff for doing long distance touring. When I got the bike it was mostly green and mouldy as it had been sitting for a while. I had been going to turn it into a filthy rat bike as I miss my old ratty sidecar outfit. However I thought i would clean it first and see what sort of condition it was really in. Unfortunately it shined up really well and was in much better condition than I thought under the bodywork. So thats that idea out the window....... I dont like seeing perfectly good bikes ruined for the sake of achieving a certain look. To my mind a rat bike is something thats rescued from a scrapyard and never has a hope of being returned to any state that can be considered half way decent. If thats the case then party on and try and keep it as grotty and nasty as possible, while making sure it still runs reliably.

After soaking it with a hose to test the waterproffness of the electrics I thought I had broken it and ripped off all the panels to check things out underneath. However to my surprise all the electrical connections were shiny and nice and had been recently greased. Oil was fresh too as were all the other service items. It turned out I had accidentally knocked the kill switch to the off position when I was cleaning the switchgear. Oops I never thought to check as I always switch my bikes off with the key. The exhaust collector box has more holes in it than the top of a salt shaker so I am going to make up a y pipe for it to connect the 2 downpipes together and fit a cheapy chinese ebay silencer to finish it off. The mileage of the bike is probably 60,000 miles, or maybe 160,000. Last owner had it for 20 years and it seems to have been well used, although well looked after mechanically. I use it for shopping trips and long runs as it will sit comfortably on the motorway at an indicated 80ish with some left in reserve and doesn't inspire you try harder like the rocket always seems to do :D

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The other bike is a 2001 honda cg125. Great fun for chasing down other 125s, low maintenance with its fully enclosed chain and seriously cheap to run at around 110mpg with tyres in nice cheap sizes that last forever. Its unusual for a 125 to have survived so long over here with the original levers and indicators intact. Usually they got thrashed around by 17 year old learners with no maintenance to speak of and dropped multiple times. Or else stolen and written off by thieves. I got lucky with this one.This is the fourth CG I have had over the years. I got lucky with this one.The first 2 got stolen and the third one still had the old points ignition. There were 2 weighted plastic arms inside the flywheel that locked into a cam to control the centrifugal advance mechanism. Unfortunately 1 of them was broken, causing the ignition timing to vary at random and it was very hard to get hold of a replacement flywheel. The replacement I eventually sourced had a lot of wear in it also and was better but still not perfect so it got sold. Thankfully this bike is one of the later ones with CDI ignition. Its my winter transport and holds 55mph comfortably with top speed somewhere in the low 60s depending on wind and hill size.

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Got the garage cleaned out and reorganised today as well. Needed to make room as the rocket is next to be cleaned up and then pulled apart to replace the clutch and cam chain.
 
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