...and when you finally have that whole day alone at home that was planned to be dedicated for garage time you`re so knackered it can be seen as an act of great heroism to actually get your keister off the couch and trudge to the kitchen for the second time in half an hour to actually get the cup of coffee you brewed at the first round... Funny what kind of crap you are willing to tolerate from the television if the remote is so far you cannot reach it without moving...

So yea motivation has been at all time low even though a few opportunities would have actually been able to be arranged... The inspiration will arrive at some point and luckily I`m in no hurry so I can wait for it.

Trying to remember (read: be bothered) to fix the pic links over the next few days (weekend at best, probably later)

 

All picture links fixed and pics visible again in case someone wants to start from the beginning.

Sadly no progress with the bike and none coming anytime soon as the cars are taking every last penny I can spare... Probly going to have to ground the Alfa for the winter as every last suspension bushing needs to be replaced along with a few other little things such as the oil pressure operated intake cam "variator", none of them a 1 hour fix so probly have to get me a winter banger to get through the snowy months and to fix the spider so the Daytona is ATM pretty far down the list...

 

The bike is starting to fall deeper and deeper into the clutter that keeps gathering into the garage so figured it would be good to brush some dust from it once in a while. Three months already since the last thing? Sheesh, time flies...



The tail light assembly was working well on the mock up phase but it is coming increasinly clear it cannot stay like this cause when I fabricate the seat latch mechanism there is no access to the two nuts that have to be loosened to tilt the tail light/ plate holder down to fit the tail lights to the holes in the faring. Besides, they sit in the wrong angle anyway so I will be cutting them off the plate holder and will be mounting them straight into the fairing as I did on the Honda. This of course has to be done after the final paint job.



The holesaw ripped the fairing while I was drilling the holes so the gap has to be "bridged" again.



I nicked a few of those tongue spatula thingys from my wife`s collection, cut a piece out of one...



...drew out the shape...



...pulled a few strains from the edge of a fiberglass mat for reinforcement...



...and 2k-epoxy glued the heck out of it. Once it dries I will grind and sand the excess out with a dremel and some sandpaper and I should have a strong enough bond there to hold it together.

 

...and then life got into the way yet again...

By now I should have the whole bike in little pieces tucked away to the shelf and the rest in different paint shops to get new coats but it`s starting to get pretty obvious that is not going to happen, I simply do not have the time, money or the mental state to get everything done amidst all the stress and other stuff, and since my wife will be returning to work from her extended mommy leave in the start of january I`ll be having yet less chances to get into the garage, so I sat down, took a few cold ones along with a good long think about what to do with the bike. So I decided I WILL be getting it onto the road the coming summer BUT:

Due to lack of time and funds I will NOT be tearing the bike completely apart for now. I will get the fairing parts painted, this however has a little drawback. I`ve been juggling back and forth about what to do with the cbr for about a year now, one day I`m selling it, the other I`ll forever keep it, the next I will track it etc... but it is starting to dawn on me that to have the money to finish the Triumph even partially I have no choice but to enlist the Honda for sale the coming spring. The paint job alone will cost me somewhere between 800 and 1000 euros which I do no thave since both my cars need a major overhaul. I will NOT paint the frame or the rims for now, I probably will later but for the time being I`ll leave them as is because that does not only save me the time it will also save me the cost of new bearings, seals and such, which are still in good condition. I will tidy the bike up as much as I can and then, so to speak, try to ride the faults out of it, after all I`ve only driven the bike for about 300km total so who knows what I will find when I start riding it more. I will powdercoat the crash cage because it is plain metal so it needs paint but for now that will have to do.

Then a few pics...



Current state of the garage, took only three days for Missynet to clean it up while I was trying to repair her car boards on the floor from makeshift tarp shelter waiting to get de-screwed and stored away.



Turns out I own a mid sized hardware store worth of tools now that everything is sorted and on the wall gotta try to take better care for them in the future...



I took a goal to get the crash cage out of the bike today. Was a bit of a werstle as it has been built in place and has never been off the bike before. Took every last millimeter I could muster, had to remove the radiators, front sprocket cover, jack the front up and it still was fighting back every step of the way. Just as it started to look like I have no choice but to remove the exhaust manifold I managed to somehow twist it enough for it to clear the drive chain and drop off of the bike. If I am to get it back there unscratched I must either wrap it up super well before fitting or come up with a game plan to get it on better. like to drop the front or back end of the engine (which I do not want to do as it requires to remove the manifold)





Cage is off and suddenly the bike looks as thin as a Husaberg cross bike



Cage is on the table. Tomorrow`s challenge is to finish the welds I could not do while on the bike, grind all seams down, weld the nut for the steering damper into the pipe and tidy it up for powdercoat.

Now a question I`d like to get opinions to: Since the frame is going to stay silver and the fairings will be blue, cooling hoses are blue and the motor black, along with the orange accent bits here and there, ORANGE, SILVER OR BLACK? and if black, matte or gloss? Myself I`m a bit on the seesaw between oven door-satin black and semi-gloss silver.

 

I say black to match the engine (either gloss or matte).

Glad you're finishing the Triumph, it's truly a bike built by you and I think it'll give you as many thrills riding it as the satisfaction you get from knowing you built it!

 

Well I am a sucker for orange, I have no idea why. If not that, I'm with Conrice and go with black, matte being my preference.

 

Yea but the bummer part is I WAS wishing to get it in show spec before pulling it out for the first time but as you know life rarely works the way we plan... It`s a crying shame to have it gather dust in the garage just because I can`t bring myself to finishing it and as said before the CBR is starting to show signs of age and wear so probly better to part with it when I still can get even a somewhat decent pay of it...

Satin (or matte) black 2 votes, depending on what the powder guy has. the oven door paint is some super high temp paint and more expensive AND harder to get to look good so probly a low gloss black then. Think the orange cage might look a bit goofy and out of place without the orange frame. He does have some "effect black" that does a hammer paint -type surface, think i might go with either that or lo-gloss.

 

Don't worry about how much time is involved in something, if it's something that you care about.
If I remember correctly, you have a young family. If you are a good husband/father, that will and should take the vast part of your attention and energy. Then there is that thing called work.
Life is full of different seasons, enjoy the one in which you currently find yourself.

 

^^^This.

 

Yeah, young family with 1,8yr old son and a trucking company to run through the slow economy situation so something like a motorbike is pretty far down the list... but hey at least I still have the bikes in the first place, and two good cars. And one winter banger. I've talked to several guys that have had to sell their good car and bike and buy a crappy banger to survive their loans and stuff so I'm actually in a pretty good situation here, just don't have much of that patience thing everyone keeps talking about... after all the bike has been standing for over a year and from january it will be increasingly hard to find time to sneak into the garage so gotta make decisions about where to take the project to get it even in some kind of running state.