Big Heavy Wobbler

[kanerdog1X1]

And fitted.

[kanerdog1X1]

Simple tool to help with assembly/adjustment.





New oil cooling delivery pipe for the head.





Lambda bung in the exhaust.



PC5 with data screen thing. Theres no replacement for good mapping on a dyno.

[kanerdog1X1]

Some artistic shots. I was getting more confident with taking good pictures.

[kanerdog1X1]

And another little photoshoot in a disused great war building.

While exploring part of the trading estate that has been out of bounds for years, I rediscovered a building that we used to play in as a child. I had assumed that the building was torn down, as the surrounding area has been levelled for redevelopment. This is one of the only buildings left standing, and is hidden from view by this thinnest line of trees. I spotted it yesterday afternoon, and took the opportunity of the nice weather today to use it before it is no doubt destroyed.

The building, this is roughly half of its interior:-



Rotherwas, and formerly ROF Hereford, was a munitions factory during both world wars. the site is pretty big, and most of the original buildings are demolished, some still stand derelict but a handful are still in use, as industrial units. This particular building is I think the biggest, and it has a huge amount of RSJ suspended from the roof, suggesting it housed a production line. At one end, there are huge doors and a dropped floor, I am pretty sure this was a platform for a railway line.















And my favourite shot.

[kanerdog1X1]

Some more pics from the magazine shoot.

[kanerdog1X1]

The strip down at the end of 2013 was merely to clean and address a couple of snags.

The fuel pipe appeared to be perishing. At that point it was 10 years old.



The damper was touching the frame on one side. I simply tickled away the metal with the grinder and sander. Again I just rattle canned the bare areas.







The brakes and clutch master/slave were given a thorough clean and inspection.



The rear master was showing a little corrosion that cleaned up perfectly.





Made some tools to pull the pistons from the calipers.



Some were worried that the foam would block the filter, it was not the case.





Also went from red&blue unions back to bland&red.

[kanerdog1X1]

After a long break I reassembled the bike in April 2014, primarily because it was so cold in the new unit. Warmer weather gave me the drive to put it back together. I used an engine hoist to get the engine up so I could give it a proper clean.











Also fitted a new PC5, and made a new bracket for it.







new chain and sprockets.













Ready to go!

[kanerdog1X1]

First ride out, got a puncture!

[kanerdog1X1]

So, the work at the end of 2014 didn't really consist of a strip down, just a once over. The brakes came off to service:-



Good job, the rear pads were shot.



The dampers cleaned. Gunk I used in the tyre when I had the puncture was hard to get off!



Rebuilt the master cylinders with these straight adapter from accosssato.

[kanerdog1X1]

Then I started on the big oil cooler.

Big cores as they arrived.





Gently curved.



Clearance to the front wheel.









Making the formers from inch thick aluminium.











I wanted quite sharp definition lines and really flat sides so had to be careful how I worked the material.



Started to form the tanks.







The two sides of the tank fitted together.

[kanerdog1X1]

The opposite tank.







This was the second attempt as the first wasn't quite up to scratch.

And the lower and upper sections welded together. Its quite involving, and I didn't stop to take many photos during this process.





Then there was a bit of a tight bend needed, certainly tighter than I can bend with tools. so I formed it around a smaller buck made from solid.





Those wiggins connectors   



Wire frame pattern for the lower pipes.





Wasn't sure if this new material would bend...



Annealing it lets you bend it.





Pretty happy with the fit:-

[kanerdog1X1]

So then my mate decided he needed his bike setup on a dyno, and so did I. So i hurried to get it to a state where it could be run, old oil cooler on and ready to go.





Still grubby



JHS near bristol did the mapping.



I felt shit that day, proper man-flu.

[kanerdog1X1]

That was in january, and I didn't do much to the bike after that until march, when I simply reassembled it for the summer.

[kanerdog1X1]

Couple of things happened during 2015, I added gold reflective tape to the rear of the air filter, old:-



New:-





And the fork seals went. I replaced them with the recommended Kawasaki ones.

Made a tool to help.







Then the rear tyre gave up. Found a rear on its own, but ended up replacing both.

[kanerdog1X1]

Then there were some bad vibes at work, and I had to get my bike out of there. I put it into storage, and didn't do anything with it for almost a year, but in 2016 I was given a key so I could get at it whenever I needed to, so as it didn't have an M.O.T., the rush was on!

Took the battery off to charge.



The battery was shot tho, had to get a new one. Bike passed the mot, but still had a slightly weepy seal on the forks. These are the kawasaki seals I had:-