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Hardly a build thread, but here's Old Swampy up on the table. Where she's been for three and a half years. Progress has been geologically un-swift, as is the way. To date, here's the rather underwhelming progress -

- timing belts
- water pump
- gas tank cleaned and lined
- carbs rebuilt
- cooling system cleaned and rebuilt
- painted tins
- steering bearings
- engine covers sandblasted

Hhhm. That list ran out of steam fast, not much to show for having this bike up on the bench for three and a half years. Desperately trying to think of other things I've done...failing. No matter. To the victor the spoils. Onwards.

Nice shop though …

Gord

Sometimes it is so difficult to get motivated. Out of my 4 bikes only 2 are really ready to ride. One needs maybe an hour and the other a day but somehow finding the time and desire have just been elusive as of late.

Whiskerfish wrote: ↑Wed Aug 14, 2024 6:42 pm Sometimes it is so difficult to get motivated. Out of my 4 bikes only 2 are really ready to ride. One needs maybe an hour and the other a day but somehow finding the time and desire have just been elusive as of late.

First sign that you have too many bikes!

i can relate. I have three bikes.....one that has been on the lift for about the same time, (has actually had part robed off it), one I actually painted last month, and one that gets out for a ride, twice this year. So hang in there. They say all things come to he who waits. So I know a ride awaits......some day

All true, all true. The longer something gets left the bigger the job becomes somehow...then the day comes (out of nowhere in my case) that you start spinning spanners again and all of a sudden things start to look a whole lot different. Compared to what the bike looked like a fortnight ago (an oily frame with an engine block in it), its current status is positively resplendent.

Thanks for the solidarity! Victori spolia!

Looks like progress I would be proud of. Life always gets in the way. Just have to make a bit of progress each day.

Fred Camper wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2024 5:49 pm Looks like progress I would be proud of. Life always gets in the way. Just have to make a bit of progress each day.

Words to live by Fred

I think you have made good steady progress!
I wish I could go a bit slower, I do some stuff twice over far too often! Patience is not one of my stronger qualities although I have a constant fear I may never get the project completed, which is my main reason for pushing on. Restoring old motorbikes is just a hobby so it shouldn't really bother me, but it does!
Keep going at your own pace and you will get there!

Jerry

For your viewing displeasure, please be horrified by the crime scene that is my new wiring harness...



So frightening it should come with a trigger warning. But I like how the ignition is out front, not unlike a mermaid on the prow of a mighty Elizabethan ship (very unlike that). However, fear inducing as it may be (and despite both indicators staying on, the headlight resolutely staying off, and the kill switch not reading any memos in the how-to-operate-successfully department at all) the bike has lurched back into life. It starts, it kind-of runs, it dies.

But it starts. Nothing exploded, no-one got maimed. We persevere.

Progress. And I love the "wing chimes" hanging inside, and looking for a breeze

Ha, wing chimes. Damn things were banging away annoying me and keeping me up all night, so now they're in the garage where I bang into them and they annoy me there instead

Finished up installing the radiator and its shrouds, filled the thing up, and finally figured out how to route the #*!%ing clutch cable. Here's where we're at -

https://i.imgur.com/4tBuf7a.mp4


Still have to drop the steering stem and figure out why the lower dust seal is grabbing inside the steering neck

That's pretty nice looking for coming from a swamp!

6 months later and here we are. Added to the done list -

wheel bearings (front and rear)
final drive and drive shaft cleaned and serviced
wiring (90%)
calipers rebuilt
forks rebuilt
maybe something else maybe not, no, nothing else

Another short but sweet list. Perhaps I'll have this thing on the road sometime this decade, there's a thought