Bank Holiday Weekend

Well, what a lovely weekend we had! Loads of news, but as I'm at work I'll have to do this piecemeal - people keep sending me work to do, how dare they! Don't they realise this is much more important...?!

Got a whole bunch of pictures to sort out & upload too.

The weekend was slightly marred by the return of the BUELL!! Oh No! It hasn't found itself a new owner yet and the guy who was looking after it for me at his workshop while trying to sell it is moving workshops so needed to get shot of it for a while. So it's come home. I have to say, it does make a nice noise with the "race" pipe on it and it does pull like a TRAIN, but overall I'd prefer three grand in my pocket than that bike cluttering up the garage. The alarm tends to go off whenever I try to get tools out of the toolbox now. Grrr! Anyone want a Buell?? It's lovely, really, just I've fallen out of love with it is all.

I spent quite a lot of the weekend at a proper old-fashioned May Festival in a local village (middle-england, me? Well, OK, if you insist...). With proper maypole dancing and morris men and barbequeues and all the local organisations - cubs, scouts, brownies, guides, children's playgroups, WI, etc etc etc having stalls on the village green. It was lovely in the sunshine I have to say, and I spent more time there than I really intended to so I didn't perhaps get as much done on this project as might have been possible. But then I do have a life outside of the project!!

Anyway, work completed this weekend. Almost got the entire frame stripped down! After all the faffing about over the last couple of weekends' work not really getting anywhere, suddenly it all came together. Got the engine out - aren't the 125 motors DINKY!! Sat it next to a 250 bottom end on the floor and it's about half the size! We still think the frames MAY be interchangeable, as the mounting points are in different places on the heads, but I'm not really sure. We'll see when I've got a big frame stripped down. I think the spine, from the stand up to the join where it meets the main tank spar, is narrower.

Innit dinky!

So, the frame with the engine out. Finally! I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever get this far. But as Justin keeps pointing out, I'm doing a restoration project (which I haven't done before and am learning all the time) - which is a different prospect entirely to dropping an engine to fix a given problem. Everything I'm taking off has to be identified, tagged, given a light smear of oil to stop it corroding while it's off the bike, bagged up in groups by component and stored away. That's something to add to the "to do" list actually, when I finish dismantling this frame I must sort out the storage before I start the next bike. It's a bit boring, but currently everything is just thrown into a couple of collapsible crates. I really must get one crate for 125 stuff separately, and clear one out for the next bike.

Clutch actuator...

I gave up on getting the clutch actuator out of the generator cover. If anyone can give me a hint on how this might be accomplished I'd be grateful - Justin had a look and we came to the conclusion it's something you're not really supposed to be able to do, so we left it. If I need to get it out to re-paint the cover or anything, I'll revisit the problem later on. Things like that can completely stop me in my tracks unless I consciously put them aside and make a note to work on them later. Here's a couple of pictures of the offending item, inside and outside, just in case anyone kind drops by who knows how to do this! I've got the clutch cable and spring off of the lever on the inside, but haven't managed to get the lever off the worm drive.

The brake caliper still hasn't bled through. I'm giving it one more chance as it's not in the way, but if it hasn't sorted itself out by next weekend I'm going to have to get the pliers onto it, as I'll want it out of the way when I've finished dismantling this bike so I can have a fresh start and a tidy workbench for the next one.

Once I got the engine dropped out, everything seemed to click into place, and I spent most of Monday afternoon happily stripping things down, tagging and bagging. The only component that gave serious trouble was the rear mudguard! The bolts have obviously never been undone (who would? For what reason?) in the life of the bike and were corroded to lumps of pure rust I think. The bolts at the side of the joint halfway along the mudguard were fun. One broke, leaving half the bolt in the nut (not that I mind, all the bolts are getting replaced anyway), and the other one first stripped its cross-point head so I dremelled a straight-across for a big b*stard screwdriver for some grip. That also stripped! So I ended up, as I had the dremel out, cutting the bolt in half. I've wrecked the hole in the mudguard doing this though so will have to do something about that if I want to use it later. Sometimes I love the dremel a bit too much - and forget to take into account the amount of heat it generates. The forward part of the mudguard is still attached to the bike as I'm letting the WD40 work its magic. Will have to try to get into the garage for 30 seconds a couple of times in the week to reapply it. And I might end up cutting this bolt too...

Another slight problem I have come across is getting the pillion pegs disassembled. Here's a picture of the problem. Only one peg was affected as the other one has obviously suffered in a spill at some time - it was fairly squashed and the strange through-peg had been replaced by a normal nut and bolt. If anyone can suggest a way to get this arrangement undone and the peg off the mounting, again, I'll be grateful! I've gotten the whole assembly off the bike as the retaining bolt is captive in the mounting there. Sometimes getting things off the bike isn't the best plan though - being attached to something solid can be an advantage if leverage is to be applied. I get the feeling though, that intelligence is the key here, not brute force. There's nothing to apply brute force to, anyway!

So, this is where I left the project at about 8pm last night. The rear wheel spindle & peripherals need tagging and bagging, and as you can see I've got that forward half of the rear mudguard to remove and the forks & front wheel to sort out. I'm intending to strip the forks down as I expect the fork oil will be seriously manky. That front disc is one of the better ones in my collection though, so that'll have to come off - I hope it'll go onto a later cast wheel - it looks the same from here... So, nearly there - one maybe two weekend's more work, depending on how much time I put in and if there are any problems...

L8r!

One thing just occurs - what is that strange rubber snorkel for, that goes up the big frame spine from just in front of the airbox almost up to the steering head? I can't fathom any purpose for that at all!

Found a Forum

Found a nice-looking MZ/MuZ forum while trying to Google myself. It's definitely alive, but not busy like some forums I've been on in the past - which is good because I won't feel the need to monitor it all the time. I tend to get in trouble at work when I'm forumming...

I've put a link to them in my useful links slot, although probably the only people who are ever going to visit this blog are people from the forum (and not many of them and not very often). Hey ho.

So hello to everyone from http://www.mzriders.com/, see you on the forum!

Shopping (again)

You can tell I'm a girlie! I've been shopping again. Just to get some more tags and a permanent pen (I noticed the biro had mysteriously disappeared from a couple of tags the other day).
Haven't been in the garage since last weekend as I was away in Hoofddorp (nr Amsterdam) for the early part of the week. That wasn't as interesting as it sounds because I was doing an audit on one of the contractor companies that I work with, and basically saw the hotel and their offices. I hate it when people do that, but I didn't have much choice. I could have got on a bus and done some exploring on my own, but knowing me I'd've got lost. If I'd had the Skorpion with me it would have been a different story!

15th March 2008

15/03/2008
Today is DAY ONE of Project 250. I have owned, run and loved MZ’s iconic 2-stroke machines since I bought my first ETZ301 Tour in June of 1995. At that time I was living with a bunch of students in Hatfield, Herts, although I had a job to pay for the lifestyle. Long story!
Anyway, we were planning a major European tour on the bikes. I’d only passed my test about 6 months previously (don’t tell the authorities!) and I was still riding my 15-year-old Honda 125, rebuilding it most weekends trying to keep it running to get to work in Paddington… I digress. I persuaded my father to lend me £2000 for a bike to do the trip and just to move up to a more reliable machine. The group knew someone selling a fairly old but well looked-after Honda CX500 for about that much…
After looking around and having a think, I realised I could have the old CX or a BRAND NEW MZ 301 Saxon Tour. Brand new, eh? I was sold! The bike (one of the last genuine German-built ones) was purchased from Raceways in Rotherhithe two weeks before the trip and I spent every spare moment getting it up to 500 miles for the first service before we went away.
The tour was a great success, I was riding with a CBR600, a GPZ750, a VFR750 and (until it broke down) Justin on his CB400 Superdream. Heady days! The bike acquitted itself remarkably well considering the company, carrying me and my luggage everywhere at 80mph all day, up hill and down dale, over 3,000 miles and 10 countries in 3 weeks with hardly a murmur.
There was one worrying moment in Slovakia when it started making very rattly exhaust noises, but that turned out just to be the exhaust ring working loose. A quick adjustment and all was back to normal.
When we got back home I used the bike for YEARS, all year, rain, snow, hail, sun, for the commute to work. It went to France again a couple of years later with another group of friends, and all over the UK. After a few years I felt the urge to upgrade, so bought a Skorpion Traveller, which also went to France a couple of times.
But I never got rid of the 301, on the basis that it owed me nothing, was worth nothing and could always be cobbled back together in an emergency, albeit missing 2nd gear and speedo drive by now. It’s surprisingly easy to live without 2nd gear if you rev it like mad in 1st and don’t mind the sluggish bit when you hit 3rd…
Anyway, over the years I had lots of bikes but the little MZ was always at the back of the garage. Then, in another long story, Justin acquired a 251 Tour via a deal with a work colleague, and I suddenly had a fully working stroker again. This coincided with the coming of the BUELL. The most disastrous piece of motorcycle engineering I have ever been stupid enough to buy. It spent more time off the road than on it, so the 250 was pressed into service more and more often until I admitted it was my main bike and but the 301 barrel on it. I rode it in this build until the odometer returned to 0… I know the piston and barrel have down a lot more than 60,000 miles – without a rebore, just a new set of rings when I transferred it to the 251 gearbox. Still, it was time to retire the poor beast – the gearbox had basically fallen apart and was making the most pained rattling noises – everything was on its last legs, mostly held together with gaffa tape and faith. Thankfully I’d had no serious electrical problems though. I nursed it up to the big 0 (100,000kms), got my treasured video of the event and transferred to Justin’s Skorpion (our 2nd one, my original was written off in a misunderstanding about roundabouts).
Now the time has come to put my ship in order and start the rebuild project. I should have nearly enough bits for two complete bikes, due to gifts of odds & sods over the years, although one of them will be a serious bitza. I’ve acquired half an old-style ETZ250 and about 1/3 of an ETZ125. I don’t know how much of the 125 will port across, but I’ll find out in the fullness of time!
So, today is Day One, I’ve been doing some spannering on the Skorpion recently and have remembered that I can actually work on bikes successfully (the Buell knocked my confidence a bit), so now I have a job of work on my hands. The first task is to get the garage into a fit state for serious mechanicing – rather than occasional maintenance. This will entail moving some other frames & stuff out, having a bloody good tidy up so I can find all the tools etc. and getting rid of everything that’s not necessary to the project in hand.
I don’t think Justin will let me put his half-built Harris into a shed though, which is a shame as it lives on the ramp. Oh well. Still, I’m sure I can get rid of the donor GSXR frame. When I start breaking down the bikes I’ll gain some more space anyway. So that’s tomorrows task, at least it won’t matter too much if it’s raining. When that’s done I can start breaking the bikes down with a view to getting the frames powder coated.
I’m intending to get at least one bike out of this that, while probably not concours standard, will go around the clock again, so there is a lot of incentive to do stuff like that properly. I don’t want to have to revisit the frame for at least another 10 years!
Then it’ll be engine rebuilds, probably electrical fixing, accessories – panels, fairings etc. – rebuilding, recommissioning, legalising. I’ll throw a big party the day I get an MoT, I can tell you!Today I have been mostly thinking about the project, finally in a more focussed way than over the last 6 months or so; tomorrow I start doing stuff.

Welcome!

Well, my first entry in this online blog. I guess the first thing I should do is upload the backfill entries that I've had on a memory stick for a while. Then I'll do today's entry so it's in the right place. Back in a bit!