You will recall that I have told you about my early days of motoring and motorcycling and how they were punctuated by various bouts of mechanical mayhem. The problem with these episodes was that, as an impecunious teachers college student, I had no spare money to pay mechanics to do my repairs for me so I was forced to do most, if not all, of it myself.
Now I was not really mechanically minded. My dad had a huge collection of tools accumulated over the years but, when it came right down to it, he entrusted much of the maintenance and repair of the family cars to better-qualified friends, like Stan Robinson and Les Fuller. Dad could really only do the simple tasks. So, when I inherited dad’s car on his passing, I also inherited his tool collection. Over the years I added to it as the need arose and I still have most of them to this day.
But, I basically had to undertake much of the mechanical work required on cars and bikes myself. And I got to be pretty good at it, too. In fact, looking back on it now and remembering the hours spent lying on cold concrete floors looking up at the oily undersides of various cars, it seems that I learned and accomplished quite a lot.
By far my most ambitious and, ultimately fruitless, bout of DIY occurred in late 1974 when I started to think that there was something wrong with the gearbox in the 350/4. There was a whining noise that I couldn’t explain and, having eliminated (or so I thought) all the possible causes, I decided that the problem lay within the engine. So, in my garage at home I pulled the engine out (by myself), loaded it into the boot of the car and took it to a service station where a mate worked across town and put it up on the bench.
There, without any expert assistance and totally without the reference material necessary to do such a job, I stripped the bottom end of the engine and inspected the bearings, the gearbox, the clutch and most of the moving parts. All seemed well so it was apparent that the problem did not lie there.
I reverse ordered the process and, when I put the bike back on the road, the whine was still there; really, what did I expect? This discovery was one of the factors that led to me selling the bike and buying a brand new RD250 Yamaha from a bike shop here in Dapto in 1975.
So, suffice it to say that, while I had managed this task totally unaided, the lack of success did not enhance my DIY credentials.
So, these days my DIY is strictly limited and the majority of work that is done on my cars and bikes is done by experts who know what they are doing and who understand the complexities of modern engineering.
That is not to say, however, that I have put the spanners away altogether as the following will illustrate.
When I bought Bexie from John Howard in 1994, she was fitted with a Krauser luggage rack and a set of Krauser panniers. Needless to say I used them extensively and they were still attached to the bike when I sold Bexie in 2003. AND, the rear indicators were attached to the rack, the standard indicator brackets had been dispended with. Fast forward 18 years and, when I bought Bexie back from Margaret it was in essentially the same state. But the lock for one of the panniers was unable to be locked as the lock had fallen off and disappeared. A bungee cord was being used to hole the pannier closed. (see picture above).
Not long after purchase I decided that I wasn’t going to be doing any touring on the bike and being unable to source a replacement lock, I stripped the panniers off and stored them away. It made the bike look more original and I always like originality if I can achieve it.
It did, however, leave me with the problem of how to mount the indicators in the absence of the proper brackets. The answer was simple and effective. I simply drilled appropriate holes in the rear mudguard and mounted the indicators there. It wasn’t original but it looked neat and it worked.
I always intended to return the bike to original but the intention relied on me being able to source two new brackets. The need wasn’t urgent and stayed that way until quite recently when, returning from a Club Run, I saw that the right indicator was hanging off.
Now, you will recall that, a couple of years ago my brother and I took a trip to Cessnock, in the Hunter Valley, to collect another CBX550, advertised on FB Marketplace as “free to a good home”. I got in first and so we went and collected. The hulk, as I call it, has been gathering dust in the shed waiting for me to need it. I don’t intend to restore it but I always thought that it would make a useful source of parts. Parts for the CBX are almost impossible to get now and I figured that, even if I only ever took a few bits off it as the need arose, I would still be “in front”
And, guess what, it had a set of rear indicator brackets, a bit scrappy but in fair condition as well as the complete indicator stalks, in great condition and undamaged by accidents (if you drop the CBX, the indicators are always a casualty as they stick out so far).
A few days of sweat and aggravation finally resulted in the hulk’s indicators and brackets being transferred to Bexie, and, wonder of wonders, when I wired them up and tested them, they both worked! They also look better and I am a very happy DIY’er.
It has been wonderful riding weather here over the last couple of weeks and I have been able to put some more miles on TWK. After its 5000km service it seems to be going even better (though that is probably just an illusion) and I continue to be happy with it and satisfied with my choice.
Last Sunday I did a Pie Shop run and actually stopped there to have a chat with some of the “boys”. As usual there was a nice collection of bikes there and the local Peugeot Car Club had a gathering there as well with some very nice 405s in attendance. There was a suitably “patina’ed” Holden ute there as well, perhaps as a back up vehicle. Some of the graffiti on it was pretty funny.
There was also an amazingly original looking Meyers Manx beach buggy, on historic plates. Would be worth considerable amounts of money I’d imagine.
For once I wasn’t Nigellated, too.
I’ve been having a few problems with Relive of late and I have finally worked out that it has been operator error rather than software-related. Here is the Relive video from Sunday.
The MotoGP season kicked off in the desert of Qatar last Monday but the time zone difference meant that it proceeded without me. I was, however, pleased to see that my favourite rider finished 5th in the Sprint and 4th in The Grand Prix, the best 2023-spec bike home in both races. The smile at the end was worth its weight in gold.
Well, that’s it for now. Tune in for the next exciting episode.