Yep, I’ve now got my fully refurbished engine back from Graham File, so hopefully this weekend will see it fitted into the frame and even given a quick run – superb!!

I’m not gonna let on how much the final bill was, but when you see what’s been done you can make your own guess – crank refurbished, crankcase work, tuning upgrade, rebore, pistons, new powervalves, squish, every bearing/seal/gasget replaced. Plus the care and attention that’s a speciality of the File house…….

No, your guess is nowhere near big enough!!!

I’ve also had some parts in for the 400-spec bike, including the super fancy Tyga Performance top yoke, and the carbon front guard. Hopefully the remaining powder coated bits will be back later this week too, so other than a quick drive to Reading for the football on Saturday I should have a good weekend in the garage.

If Bristol City can pick up three points too it’ll have the makings of a good weekend……..

Hmm, bit of a lull in activities in the garage for the last couple of weeks as I seem to have switched into a waiting mode – mostly waiting for phone calls from people that are handling key jobs for me for both bikes…….

It’s the engine I need for the YPM bike, as nearly everything else is done, but it does sound like Graham File will have finished fettling my lump by Friday this week, just in time for another four day weekend in the garage which should see the bike ready to run in.

For the 400 bike the list is a bit longer…….

The bottom yoke is still with PB Engineering to have the TZR stem fitted to it – yep, it’s an Aprilia RS250 item, well it is this time for sure, the first one I bought from Ebay turned out to be from a RSVR or something…….

I’ve ordered a fancy top yoke from Tyga Performance – seems like an extravagance, ’til you know that 2nd hand ones go for around £100 on Ebay!!! Tyga are supplying a carbon fibre front guard too – will get it painted white to match the standard livery we run in Team Norbar, but leave some carbon bits revealed just to be flash.

Coming up with a modification plan for the 3MA swinging arm has been kinda tricky though, mainly due to the spec of the bearings needed, so I’ve gone for a standard 1KT set-up to start with. Everything fits well with my Ohlins rear shock, so I just need to get the swinging arm powder coated and bung in some new bearings before doing the final fit.

And while I’m off to my powder coating place I’ve got another 4″ rear rim and engine cradle, plus a couple of top yokes to get done. Oh yeah, there’s also a couple of fork legs for Fish. Hopefully my man can turn this little batch of bits around reasonably quickly……..

That’s it for now……..

Yep, plenty of jobs scratched off my to-do list this weekend, which was expanded to four days in an attempt to use up my remaining 2009/2010 leave from work.

First up was completing the build of the engne for the 400-spec bike, basically taking the engine that I used last year, spliting it down so I could replace the gearbox bearings, checking over everything else while it was apart, and then bunging it all back together. So that was day one of my four day weekend done…….

Actually, I still had the clutch, clutch cover, stator and flywheel to fit, but that didn’t take long at the start of day two, before I moved onto a cleanup of my Jolly’s prior to a dusting with satin BBQ paint – looks quite smart actually…….

Day three was allocated to frame detail work, with the right hand frame rail sanded back to the bare metal with 120-grade wet and dry to match the work I’d already done on the left hand rail, before making another custom heel plate out of carbon fibre, and filling the recess in the frame rail with some stick-on fake stuff. The whole thing is looking quite tidy now, much better than it was anyway…..

Day four was good too, with new bearings pushed into my freshly painted wheels and the discs fitted, before heading out to PB Engineering to drop off the RS250 bottom yoke that I need modifying to use with the original TZR stem. Fortunately it was the right bloody part this time!!! Then it was a shift of focus to the rear end for the reat of the day, with the original shock/linkage/swinging arm removed, and a plan fleshed out for how to best make use of my ex-R6 Ohlins. It looks like I’ll be fitting another old style 1KT setup, and using the ride height adjustment on the shock to take care of the fine adjustment. I need a few replacement parts for the linkage, and the actual swing arm needs to be powder coated too – aiming to get that off to be done next week, along with a couple more wheels and maybe some bits for Fish.

All in all a decent weekend, and then a package arrived from Norbar today……….

Yep, it’s been a good day in Team Norbar Racing (West) garage, with a big pile of parts reassembled into nearly a complete engine – result!!

After fitting the new gearbox bearing circlips the two crankcase halves went back together easy enough, although while doing this I discovered that the new Norbar Torque wrench I had for christmas doesn’t really go down to a low enough setting for the odd bolt that doesn’t have to be done up “Button Tight”. Anyway, I made do by pulling out the old wrench that I’ve had for yonks to get the job done.

The top end went back on ok, but I did find a missing moon clip on the right hand powervalve, and a loose central powervalve bolt too – both sorted easy enough.

I made a start on re-filtting the clutch, but quickly discovered a missing washer on the gear that the kickstart drives, so did another flying visit to Fowlers. Yep, they even has what I wanted in stock – including the seals for the freshly painted wheels and sprocket carrier.

So, hopefully tomorrow will see completed engine on the bench, and I can also make a start on the other half of the frame for the 400 bike, and maybe paint my Jollies too – will let ya know how things pan out……….

Oh yeah, just splashed £150 on a couple more Norbar Torque wrenches – a TT100 in 1/2″ drive for the big stuff, and a TT20 in 3/8″ for the super-low torque settings.

Unfortunately I didn’t make much progress on either bike towards the end of January, but things have moved on a bit since February started, and I now have a nice four day weekend coming up while a few of ya will be at Brands for the Bemsee race shool, so expect further progress in a number of areas by this time next week.

The list of outstanding jobs for the YPM bike is starting to look quite short now, with just a fairing and seat to fit and some new stickers to throw on. Oh yeah, having an engine to fit would be good too!! Hello Graham, how are you getting on chap……….

Over the past weekend I’ve managed to fit my powder coated swinging arm, the new Pat Heron special bushes and generally cleaned everything up so my rear end looks as smart as possible. Oi, stop smirking there in the corner – that’s the rear end of the bike!!!

I’d already fitted the left hand fork leg after it came back from Maxton for the second time – the copper washer in the bottom wasn’t sealing correctly, so most of the oil had gone AWOL while being shipped first time around – made quite a mess did that, I can tell ya.

The 400-spec bike has progressed a bit too, with a few bits stiripped off and sold (rear

sets, forks, yokes etc…), and a bit more time spent on making the frame look slightly more bling. Not sure how durable the 120 grade wet and dry finish is gonna be, but it looks kinda trick when finished off with some custom made frame plates in genuine carbon fibre, and the insert on the frame rail covered with some fake stick on stuff.

The ex-RS250 forks that I’m gonna be running came back from Maxton last week too, so fingers crossed the yoke modification will be nailed this week as promised and I can get back to having a rolling chassis, rather than a slumped on the floor with no wheels one.

Oh yeah, I still need to re-assemble the engine for this bike – another job for next weeked, especially now I have all the parts needed from Fowlers.

Also, I managed to find a 4″ rim from a SZR660 for sale on Ebay Germany too. Guess how much?? How does £218 + P&P sound?? Yep, too bloody expensive…….

Anyhow, think that’s it from me for now, so laters…….

Yep, everyone decided to send me stuff while I was away in NYC buying sweets for Ramit Rachel, but some slick re-delivery and a bit of collection has now sorted everything.

I now have a nice set of Brembo callipers for the 400 spec bike – in the correct 65mm spacing this time, not 40mm like the last set I bought – doh!!!

I’ve also got the left hand fork leg for my YPM bike back from Maxton (don’t ask, it’s a long story….) and then CityLink turned up in a huge LWB Merc Sprinter with a mountain of rubber – enough BT090’s for me and Fish for the season, plus a set of wets for the 400 bike – garage is looking kinda full now…..

I then got a call to say that wheels and other stuff that were off being powder coated was ready to pick up, so off I went with cash in an envelope – got another great deal from my local man, around £23.50 per wheel. It all just about fitted in the back of my Mini Cooper S JCW……

Finally, the gearbox circlips that I’d ordered from Fowlers turned up too – you, know, the ones I’d thrown away by mistake, another doh!!

So, I now have loads of jobs to make a start on over the weekend – fit forks, fit painted swinging arm, fit wheel with new bearings and discs, fit rubber, finish engine build etc etc – I’ll let ya know how much I actually get done……..

So Finally my off season prep has really started

I got into the garage at the weekend for the #7 strip down since the end of last season and the op on my Fingy of course…

Engine out and on bench ready to be fully stripped for new crankcases, crank, pistons and seals – Also considering getting my new Power Valves tuned and fitted but then I know the lump is putting out good power so may save them til they are really needed… or use them for my spare stock head and barrels that I’ll get Bally to Tune at some point…

Noted all the part numbers for rear swinger and linkage bearings bushes etc ready for order…

Pistons have arrived just waiting for my crank now and the engine build can start.

Target is to get bike ready Feb 13th

Off to Team Black Sheep for bike work on Saturday and help them get off and started.

Been busy trying to find a supplier to make custom patches for our leathers – Looks like we have a goer now – just waiting for some final details on Sponsorship and it will be new leathers take 2 !!

Thats it for now

Fish

Yep, Mr File started calling this week with an update on what he’s found inside the ex-Hardy lump that I’m intending on running next year.

Looks like the crank hasn’t been touched since 2005 when it was put together for Daz Mowat, but there’s been some top end fiddling for sure. Anyway, we hatched a rough plan and agreed a budget, so it’ll now be interesting to see which engine is ready first – my old engine from last year that’s still spread all over my garage, or the one Graham is working on. I’m betting on Graham……

Probably should try and get one of the chassis finished just in case I end up with one fully working bike at some point, but both are still a little way off being ready. My YPM bike is closest though, so assuming Graham turns out the winner in the motor-build race I could be ready to start thinking about some sort of running in plan in February. Fish has mentioned staying at Brands after the race school for the event they have on the Monday (15th Feb) but it’s hard to think about this while there’s 3″ of ice on the road outside my house!!

Anyway, off to NYC for a bit of R&R today, so I’ll see how the land lies when I’m back in circulation on the 16th of Jan.

Laters……….

Couple of jobs nailed on the 400 bike this weekend, in-between FA-Cup football, or a walk to the pub after the BCFC game vs Cardiff got called off yesterday due to a frozen pitch.

First up was fitting the seat from my YPM bike, which actually took way longer than I expected. Still, done now…..

Also, I now have a previosuly powder coated fairing frame sporting a neat carbon fibre panel holding my Vapour dash thing – superb!!

Finally, I’ve also started to make the frame look a bit more presentable. 120-grade wet and dry in my orbital sander seems to have stripped the frame back to the raw metal quite well, and actually left a kinda-smart looking semi-polished finish too. I’m gonna get some more carbon fibre to make up some replacement frame plates for the areas down near the footpegs, and maybe some fake carbon fibre sheet to stick in the indentation on the frame rails. Will keep ya posted on how successful that turns out………

Anyway, West Ham vs Arsenal on TV now, so laters……

Will post some pics at some point too

Yep, Team Norbar Racing (West) celebrated Christmas with a set of rockin’ numbers at the Royal Oak in Chipping Sodbury the day after Boxing Day, and great fun it was too. We even went for some semi-fancy dress for the 2nd set…….

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