Fast From The Past — Awesome Place!

While perusing the internet the other day for a Paulo Tarozzi fork brace I, quite luckily, happened across this place — Fast From The Past. 

And I found they are an absolute goldmine for old race bikes, cafe racers etc. because they carry those quality parts that are hard to find. Often you find a shop that only carries certain items for a few bikes, and my GSX often comes up lacking.
But here, a fork brace for the GSX750ES is just one of hundreds of different types available, all at realistic prices. And, once ordered, it was delivered to me in Australia in around a week. Nicely done.

How retro is that box? Love it!

I'm Seeing Red... Monza Red.

Amateur paint jobs.
Because I just wanted the GS550 to look good enough to go back on the road without any fineries and, because I'm too tight to pay the extortionate prices needed to get someone to spray it professionally, I'm doing it with aerosols. 

GS550 - Fitting New Points and Condensers.

Fitting what?
Contact breakers, remember them? It appears that many of the younger mechanics coming through don't really know what points and condensers are. Maybe they don't teach them the basics of ignition systems in college anymore, maybe they take no notice because they've never had to fit any.  Probably the latter.

Maybe I'll start with how they work.

To get a spark to fire across the spark plug's air gap, we need a pretty high voltage (20,000 - 30,000 volts), for which we use a coil. Everyone's familiar with those, but just how do you get a spark out of one?  Without electronic jiggery-pokery CDI and transistorised ignition systems?

Charging Systems — More efficient, and a cooler engine.

A clever update and worth sharing.

Firstly, I can't take the credit for this because I read about it on GS Resources forum, but here's a cracking little modification you can make to your bikes that are running the old style shunt regulators. But first a bit of history.

Stripped Threads... And How To Fix Them.

Doing it in situ.
There will come a time when, if you like to dabble with old vehicles, you will happen upon a damaged thread. And, to be fair, it can be an absolute bastard!

One minute you're tightening up a bolt into an alloy housing, the next the entire thread comes out with the bolt. And you usually only find out during reassembly and most of the work is already done. This is sod's law... par for the course... and a proper pain in the 'arris.

But there is a way. Fret not. You might not even have to strip the component completely if you know what you're doing, although that wasn't the case with this Trident:

2016 KTM 350EXC — Greasing the Joints.

Swingarm first.
It's brand new, done 200 km's but the general advice out there is to rip out the swing arm and re-grease the moving bits as soon as you've picked it up. Same applies to the steering head bearings.

Waste of time? Let's take a look.

How to change your camchain... or timing chain if you prefer.

I'm picking on the GS550E.
This bike was a very cheap project and, although I should ignore it for the time being, I keep delving in and doing different things to it. I already made up a good set of carbs for it, got it running, rebuilt the rear master cylinder because it was dripping etc. and then I decided to check valve clearances. Oh, and also bought a camchain for it because it sounds like it's stretched to buggery. 

So rather than strip the engine and, consequently, end up replacing all of the worn or moving parts, I'm treating it as a "repair as necessary" to get a better idea on engine condition — hey, it might yet be useable. If money is no object to you, just rip it apart and make it as new, but if you're doing things on a budget, then this could be ideal for you.