A little lockdown project I did over the summer of 2020. Why? I had an accident at the start if the year where the bike slid down the road and caused the chip in the engine amongst the whole left side of the bike being being scratched up too. The initial goal was just to get it running and roadworthy again but eventually it turned into an experimental 'guinea pig' and I decided to take it apart completely and learn how it was all put together.
My first time painting any sort of bike parts so I thought the swingarm and various bits and bots came out pretty good considering I was using standard spray cans. Waiting for a relatively calm day with no wind to start spraying was a huge test of patience and getting the original powder coat off was the mother of all tasks. Went through a whole wire wheel and lots of paint stripper which of course wasn't very effective at all. Had my brother helping me along which was fun and much appreciated, cheers lad.
The first thing I should've done on the bike was disassemble and clean up the carbs so that mechanically it was sound and ran smoothly but at the time I didn't think it was necessary. She was running on three cylinders even when I bought her initially but after about 4000rpm she ran just fine so almost certainly it was a case of a clogged pilot jet in the no. 4 carb. Anyway, she was a beaut of a bike, loved to rev and handled beautifully.
I would've kept her but there was still too much work that needed to be done to make her decent enough again. Small holes in the radiator (which I managed to patch temporarily using sealant), old tyres, slightly bent front wheel rim from the accident , loose mirrors, dysfunctional cooling fan, etc. So I lost interest and stopped where I did as you can see from the photos. No point throwing any more good money at it. I got my learning experience out of it.
But then came the awesome Thundercat after a few months and my itch for a decent pocket rocket was satisfied once again, but that's for another video...