Tam's New Bike

[andrewsmith]

Job for one of the Org's CNC lad?

Billet parts Tam?

[TamSV]

I've just ordered the OEM bracket. It wasn't too bad pricewise - you wouldn't get one made much cheaper. Anyway, with the size of the rest of the order it was a mere bagatelle.

No fancy parts, but I've dropped a fair amount of cash on it.

[andrewsmith]

how much so far?

[TamSV]

Too much.

Enough to persuade me to delay replacing the car for another few months.

[andrewsmith]

does the better know that yet.

Before bike I'd guess £1,000

[TamSV]

You're about right. Mrs T's fine with it. She knows where I am of a night.

My mates that play golf or go to the football spend more on their hobbies.

Anyway, keeping screaming 2T's on the road is a noble pursuit.

[andrewsmith]

fair enuf mate

Only if I could afford it! I'm watching this with intrest

[TamSV]

First collection of new parts rounded up;



2 x pistons, ring sets, small end bearings, gudgeon pins, base gaskets, head gaskets
4 x circlips and thrust washers
4 x powervalve cables
2 x powervalve oil seals
2 x oil check valves
1 x front sprocket and circlip
1 x fairing bolt set
1 x set of domed head studs & gaskets

[squirrel_hunter]

If its not too rude a question, what did that little lot set you back? And what sort of budget are you looking at for this?

[TamSV]

The full top end rebuild kit is £250 using all OEM parts. You could do it cheaper with pattern parts (if you wanted to take the chance) but reports are mostly negative - particularly with cheap head gaskets.

The other bits and pieces have pushed this lot closer to £350 but, when you start taking bits off a 19 year old bike - even though they were working OK - you don't want to put some of those bits back on again. Well, I don't. There's some other bits and pieces on the way so I'll probably have spent £400 on the motor.

Alot of this is choice rather than necessity though. The heads and barrels were using a hodge podge of fixings - half nuts/full nuts/flanged/no flange. 12mm, 13mm and 14mm spanners all required. It was working fine so I could have put those rusty nuts back on but I'd rather have it back to standard. It's a cosmetic choice really and that OEM stuff all comes at a price.

Powervalve cables - only 2 were in urgently bad shape but I've decided to change all 4. Powervalve oil seals - they're pennies but I'd be p***ed off if I rebuilt and then had to deal with a leaking powervalve chamber. All those things that cost pennies add up too.

I'm assembling another set of parts to sort the gearbox, which will cost more than a replacement used box, but I'll end up with something that's much improved on standard.

The only other things so far have been (horrendously expensive) brake seals plus a couple of brake pistons, a new gear lever and a return to stock indies.

In terms of budget, I paid £1,200 for the bike with no service history. In decent condition I'm seeing them go for £2,500. It's service history that seems to make a massive difference in value with these bikes - much more so than with 4 strokes. So, in my head, I don't want to go past the notional "sorted" value of £2,500.

I'll have spent a grand on it by the time the engine's back in the frame. If I was less fussy about certain things I could have done the same work for £500 or £600. I still need to decide what I'm going to do about the bodywork/fairing lowers.

Oh, and I don't count the cost of any new tools in the budget. New tools enhance my life and make me a better person, so don't need to be accounted for.