What is going on with UK used bike prices?

[h106frp]

Love your projects Grooveski - finally got hold of an old 70's Honda to play with and having a lot of fun tearing it down to discover that nearly every 'consumable' part has already been consumed and needs replacing. 

[Warlock]

Love your projects Grooveski - finally got hold of an old 70's Honda to play with and having a lot of fun tearing it down to discover that nearly every 'consumable' part has already been consumed and needs replacing. 

Hahah, yes, the downside of this kind of projects, ...or the fun part, depends how you approach it.

[CapeDoctor]

hey guys,
just following on the brake lines discussion from earlier in this thread - i've just had s/steel braided hoses fitted to my RF900, the first upgrade i've done since reading up on it. the decision was taken to fit them purely from a safety point of view - not much good having a bike that goes like stink if it can't stop, lol.
if there was any element of 'looks' to my decision, it was that i chose a color that matches the bike, other than that it was simply an upgrade that i consider important to my own safety. the bike is 20 years old already, and those rubber hoses didn't impress me too much with their performance, hence the upgrade.
only getting the bike back from the shop on monday, so will only be able to offer a 'before and after' review later, lolz
wishing all a good weekend! 

[h106frp]

I think the fact that a hose change is often the first time many bike have had a brake fluid change is often overlooked when evaluating the effect of braided lines 

[Grooveski]

Say 60% new fluid, 30% new hose and 10% differenece between rubber and braided?
...presuming there's no sticky pistons as well.   

The zxr was a saga.  First it was braided hoses, fresh fluid and sinstered pads but that wasn't the instant improvement that it often is.  Feel and force were both still lacking.
....so on went the R1 m/c.  Big improvement in feel but still wasn't happy with the power.
.....so on went the earlier model calipers.  Much heavier but bigger pistons and pads 1½ time the area of what I'd been running.
Unfortunately the R1 m/c wasn't quite enough master for them.
......so on went the RCS19.

At last - ten years down the line - the brakes are the way I'd have liked them to be when I bought the bike.  Before that I was running around on a pretty fresh Fazer 600 and compared to blue-spots the zxr brakes were horrific at first and not even very good when running well. 

Added a natty little reservoir to the dirt bike setup.  Lick of paint on the bracket and it's good to go.
Well - good to hang up somewhere for the rest of the build.   If the natty little (cheap, chinese) reservior is going to melt it'll hopefully do it before it gets anywhere near a paintjob.



Say, anyone happen to know the legalities of fitting a rear tyre as a front?

The DT/BN combination has left me with 18" rear and 17" front rims(both x 2.5").
The front has been dropped 3" with the fork change plus the front wheel is down 4" in diameter.  Frame is sitting horizontaly now(had a tall front originaly).
I've always been planning to heavy up the steering again with a chunky front tyre(after a flat-track vibe) but finding a pairing for the rims hasn't been easy.  Looking at an 110/80 - 18 MT90 rear and a 110/90 - 17 MT60 on the front(which is also a rear - and probably marked as such  ).

Like everything about the combo.  On/off road bias, size, profiles and tread patterns.  The dodgy front is V rated(twice the speed that the bike's ever going to reach) and have even considered that the carcasses are built differently - a V-rated bike still has a back brake and engine braking after all....
I'm happy take my chances - that's all I'm saying - but is it an MOT failure or a no-go for insurance - that's what I don't know.

[h106frp]

Cannot imagine the MOT being a problem and i think you are already in the world of 'modified' for insurance purposes.

If these are spoked wheels have you considered re-building the wheel using the same hub but with a wider rim? You will struggle to (safely) get a flat tracker look with 2.5'' rims. 

[doubledragoncc]

@Grooveski

"Say, anyone happen to know the legalities of fitting a rear tyre as a front?"

I was the first person in UK to do a Wide tire on a VRod when running Hooligan Choppers down in Southend and fitted the rear tyre to the front with NO legal problems at all. MOT was fine with it too.



Remember that the tyre is now acting differently and is being pushed and not pushing the bike so you need to reverse the direction of the tyre depending on its tread cut though.

The basic concept of tyre ratio is 30mm thinner in width is fine from back to front before it starts effecting role speed and front tucking of the bike.

This VRod rode totally neutral but was slower in its role speed due to fat tyres both ends.

Your point on tyre rating is simple. You can only really go as fast as the lowest rating you have safely. Tyre temps is another thing though lol.

DD

[Grooveski]

If these are spoked wheels have you considered re-building the wheel using the same hub but with a wider rim? You will struggle to (safely) get a flat tracker look with 2.5'' rims. 

That's all there's room for anyway.     Pirelli's datacharts list both the tyres at nearer 120mm max width on a 2.5 rim.  That's the size of the (oversize) rears Ive been using for a while so know it'll fit(just - there's always a little wear when I take them off where the chain's had a a skim in the bumpier stuff).  Even if I moved the chain out there's no more room in the swinging arm.
At the front there'll be 4mm clearance either side - the 125 Eliminator only wore a 90 section - so it looks pretty full(slid the front end over my old rear wheel at one point).
Rim range for both is 2.15 to 3.

The 'flat track vibe' I mentioned will be just that - a vibe only.  Will have lights and brakes and all sorts of junk that would never be seen dead on a pukka F/T.

Was in a pals garden and commented that one of his old L-platers had "quite a nice tank really".  One "that thing's dead - help yourself" later and Project Baby Flattracker was born. 
My wee DT has been a city hack for quite a while now.  It's other use is for local(ish) camping trips (30-40 miles on road then 5-10 off each way).  The "off" bits are easy stuff, FC tracks usually and deer paths at the worst. 
So the plan is to make it more roadworthy(since that's where it spends most of it's life) but still be able to pootle(well - more scoot hopefully ) along in the dirty bits.

Is my first custom and have to say I've got the bug(always was a tinkerer(maintenance and rebuilds)). 
May only be a bitza getting cobbled together from what was lying around but I've been learning loads and there's a grin factor in hacking away at an old road sign for a few hours and ending up with headlight brackets that fit 'just-so', chopping a lovely little F/T style mudguard out of the hideous acreage that was the Eliminator one or realising that Trail Tech's Endurance II speedo will squeeze into the tank cowl if it's tickled with a file a little.

Thanks for the pointers DD. 
....and ooooooh - shiny!

[doubledragoncc]

NP bro

It was a lot of work and those custom 2 inch pipes made a sweet sound. Even had all digital instruments in the mirrors to keep it legal but clean lol.



I love custom design and building. Took me 20 years to earn my pro ring!!!

DD

[Grooveski]

That's brilliant.    Y'know I was all over a stall at the bike show selling all sorts of custom dials and readouts and I don't think that'd have ever crossed my mind had I stood there a year rather than ten minutes.

Raises another question - wasn't sure if idiot lights had to be labelled?
There'll be room left in the tank cowl for a few tiny leds but none for labels for them.
Guessing(now, having seen that) that it's cool but it was one that I'd been wondering about.

Say, do you still make cardboard mockups of bits?  I was a laughing stock during the first dry build because of how much of the bike was made of Bud fridgepacks and masking tape.   
One of my mates said all I needed was a magic word to transform them to real parts so I stood back, wiggled my fingers and announced "Money!"...
...but nothing happened.   

[doubledragoncc]

I swear by cardboard and wood mock ups. I was one of the first to start using computer design but it saves mistakes and physical mockups can not be beaten for seeing the end result with out costing much.

The Tank mockup for Devilish



Devilish frame mockup:



Beats even 3D on a puter lol

Never had a problem with custom idiot lights, never had to label one.

DD

[Grooveski]

Hehe, I'd forgotton the computer aided stage.   
For all it was just a few photos scaled and overlayed it did let me see the geometry and check it was going to be in the ballpark.



Good to know about the lights, cheers again. 

[doubledragoncc]

Just be careful using photos to judge a build by. It is very easy to make a large mistake because of each pictures scaling. Even when you think you scaled pictures to each other, due to the perspective of a camera, errors in scale will happen. Just a worthwhile tip to remember.

Also, going by your picture, I would not recommend such a short wheelbase. You have taken the straight line stability away from the bike. It is fine for a trials bike but will give adverse handling on the road. For a responsive bike look at the dimensions of such bikes as the old RD250/350LC or at least that type of bike. Also keep center of gravity in mind. Your design has a very high COG.

DD

[Grooveski]

Yeah - I think the DT whose photo I used had it's back end jacked up.  When I put it together it didn't seem quite as steep.
(front will go up another 10mm or so when the chunky tyre goes on)



Get what you're saying about the high COG.
A plus on that side it that the seat height is down a couple of inches and a fair precentage of the weight is me.

And yeah, looks twitchy to me too, but I reckon once the heavy tyre is on....
Hopefully better than a skinny semi-knobbly on a 21" rim and a drum brake at the end of long, spindly trail forks with goosed 30 year old springs.   

[Grooveski]

P.S. those stanchions are bent silly and both coming back, there'll be another few degrees of rake these days with the fresh straight ones.

Oh - welding lugs onto a frame?
(You're gonna be sick of the sight of me soon - We haven't even got to the electrics yet) 
Have no jig.
All I have here is stick and I just keep shying away from even trying.  Too hot even low with 1.6s I'm guessing.
...so I was thinking hire a mig set for a weekend and put them on with multiple tacks keeping the temp down inbetween.  Happy to do so(migged away half a dozen years of my life as a fabricator).  Not fussed about weld looks, none of them will be visible and I can tidy them up enough that I'll not cringe too much myself later...

...or for a few more quid I could pick up a cheap and nasty brazing kit.  Have only brazed once though(in college 30 years ago) and for all it went ok the guy talking me through it really knew his stuff - not kidding myself on that it'd go that well now even with some practice.
Not sure either if brazing is still a jig job?  I mind the whole point was that the tube wasn't being heated as much but the pushbike frames the lecturer was knocking out on the side were jigged up to the eyeballs.