oh mattson that tail looks wonderful. Me soo jealous!
I took ur advise and sent that one back. Lil over priced for a broken one. So mine is still broken. Maybe next yr.

My front rim is also sand blasted and waiting for me to go to car shop tomorrow to get some filling base to it.

Hope u get well soon! Spring is knocking on the door

 

Thanks! I actually already made a great deal of a pair of 50mm round tail lights for 20e on another forum! They're unused, the owner has cut the wires to get the connectors from them but since I'm gonna solder them on I'd cut them anyway.

Yep, it'd sure be nice to finally be getting some work done, the spring IS coming pretty fast. I'd have plans for tomorrow to go see me a new car if only I get well enough, not to mention getting back to work next monday, a full week of standing the truck really makes a dent on one's wallet...

 

How hard can it be to get a set of wheel bearings! Turns out the drive flange bearing is of some goofy off-size and doesn't even exist in the books! The others are strangely marked too, cause a -2rs1 bearing should only have a seal on one side, these have on both sides... I used the last straw and went to RikuMotor today to ask for them, last straw because I know they CAN get them but I'm digging pretty deep into my pockets when they come... But since I'm pretty much my back against the wall here I had to tell them to get me a set. The three bearings and two seals are going to cost me over 70EUR! probably could get them cheaper from abroad but truth be told I don't bother hunting and waiting for them and fighting with the customs if I can pay a few bucks extra to someone to do it for me... Strange how some simple little part can turn what was just basic maintenance to an epic hunt...

Next sunday, if all goes to plan, I'm going to the garage to fit the new tail and finally prep the rims for the powdercoat.

 

Yesterday`s snowkiting got me so stiff that a "day at the garage" was reduced to a quick spin... Only was there for an hour or so, but got a little something done still...



Got the new tail mocked up in place. It`s gonna take a lot more work than I expected, I had to take off the whole rear fender/tail light/ plate rack thing to get it to fit in place. The fit`s pretty decent, only the fuel valve doesn`t fit perfect in the center of the hole but I guess that can be adjusted a bit... I`m gonna have to either buy or make a new plate rack or cut the fairing to get the original to fit. Since the original`s already been cut by some PO I think I`m going for the first option, already found one online that could fit... Does look pretty dang cool to me...

As I got it in place I also made the final decision to ditch the mammoth twin can muffler and go back to the Remus, it`ll look even goofier with the new tail, plus I didn`t like the angle it was sitting...



Doing measurements for the new projector lights...gonna be tight... Wished to get more contrast between the big center low beam and the smaller upper highs but since the overall frame width between the two available options, a 38mm and a 50mm lens is the same 56mm I figured the bigger lens will give me more light so I`m gonna order those as soon as the shop site I`m ordering from starts working again, been down the whole day...

Oh, and yes, those blue atrocities are gonna come off as soon as I get to it...



Not exactly bike related but just had to brag... Ordered a set of Barzetta GTR:s for my Volvo for winter use. Summer tires already have alloys but the studs are on... what are they called, tin rims? Probably ain`t gonna fit them just yet as the summer tire season`s coming in less than a month so it`d be a bit of waste of money, but when I take the winter tires off I`m gonna take them and the rims to a shop to have the rubbers transfered to the alloys.



Worst paint job ever, but this is what I planned to do for the tail.

 

Looks grate! And dude ur rims are cool!

 

Little progress again.



I went to Motonet today (local car/bike/boat misc. parts shop) and got this universal plate rack. It seems it`s originally meant to be secured from the black part so that the aluminum section would hold the plate, it`s light and the extendable "ears" would be for the turning indicators, but as I got to the garage and quickly threw it together with what bolts and micky-mouse nuts I could find and went to figure out where to put it, I found out that if I fit it "upside down", the ears for the turning indicators fit perfect to two threaded holes in the rear frame.



And not only does it fit perfect into the thread holes, it also fits perfect out of the hole in the fairing. ONE mm play on each side. Couldn`t have made a better one myself. Not bad for a ~30 EUR universal part that`s in there the wrong way Since the rear lights are not going to light the plate under there I also bought a 10 EUR self adhesive mini LED plate light strip.



Since the black part of the rack is way too small for the euro-plate, I made a template from thick paper I`m gonna take to a metal shop tomorrow so they`ll make me an aluminum back plate for the register plate and to fit the indicators to the sides. I thought for a moment to use those flush mount "cat eye" blinkers, but I`ve seen them quite a few times on different bikes, and none of them has looked any particularily good so I`m gonna stick with the old mini arrows I have. Found a not-so nice surprise when I was taking them off from the old fender: whoever has put them there hasn`t even bothered to solder the joints, there was only two wires crossing and probably a whole roll of black electrical tape reeled over them. A small tug from the blinker wires and off they came from the awful looking plastic tape cigar... Well, another thing to do properly when I get to it... Gawd I hate those tape patents, thought I got over them when I moved up from 125cc teen bikes... And people wonder why their tail lights flicker of R/R:s fry...

 

Well, Mattson, it's about TIME you got busy again!! I was prepared to label you as a slacker, or suspect that maybe you got tired of the thing, and rolled it off the nearest embankment!!

Lookin good! You're picking up steam now!

 

Yeah, been having some...motivation issues, plus can`t tear myself to every direction at once. Also helps that the shops are moving the snowmobile stuff back to the warehouse and are hauling bike things for sale so I can finally get parts!!! Next weekend`s gonna be 4 days off work cause of easter so I`m hoping I can get some tinkering time under my belt. That is, if the weather`s right. Nor NOT right to be exact, the lakes are melting so if it`s sunny and windy I wanna go snowkite for the last times for this season, but I guess I can squeeze both in too.

If only I could get myself to clean the garage, can barely turn in there and all the tools are... well, anywhere than in their places!

Just paid for the headlight order so I`m expecting them to arrive sometime next week.

 

The mailman`s been busy lately, these came in yesterday:



These are pretty much the reason for the whole project name. It`s almost a pity red parking lights are illegal here, that would have completed that "matrix sentinel" look. Gonna be a hoot trying to squeeze those things where the original front light sits, the frames of these lights are far wider than I anticipated and the already tight fit just got that much tighter...



The tail lights also came in some time ago, not exactly what I had in mind, but the selection of round tail lights in the shops is surprisingly poor at the moment, there were a few better choices out there but they were either ludicrously expensive or out of stock and no more coming in so ATM I`m "stuck" with these. They`re not bad either, but they do stick out more than I would have wanted...

 

First of all my apologies to anyone wasting their precious time reading this and waiting for updates, the winter here has been dragging on and on and the sub zero temps combined with sunny, windy weekends has been keeping me firmly on the lakes with my new found love: Snowkiting. Now the temperatures are slowly on the rise, the ice is getting too thin to safely be on and it finally looks like the spring is actually coming so it`s about time to get this train a rollin`.



So this is where I was when I went to the garage in the morning. I finally took the rims to the powdercoater yesterday and he promised me to paint them the next weekend. The bearings for the rear wheel are still a no show, I phoned the parts shop one day and they said they have the bearings and the seals for the rim, but even the importer doesn`t have any of the driven flange bearings so that`s still in backorder. Would be nice to have the bike back on it`s wheels so I could give it a bath, it`s not exactly fun to take apart ATM as all of the little nooks and crannys are filled with dirt.



The first thing I did was I took the rear turn signals apart and inspected why they looked so sad: no wonder the lights were almost non visible as both of them was absolutely packed with dirt and dust, there`s crap even in between the front glasses and the yellow covers inside them. I took all of the pieces with me to give them a proper scrub in the bathroom sink.



Next thing was drilling the holes for the new tail lights. Don`t know is it the light that`s coming from the side or what but even though I measured the marks three times before and once after and they are spot on, they still look like they are too far to the left...



Proper googly eyes they are... Would have wanted something a bit more...subtle but as I said before nothing better have yet to cross my path, but I`ll be keeping one ear to the wind for better ones...



Had this made in a metal shop for the license plate but apparently I`m out of pop-rivets so that`ll have to wait for the next time...



"Adding some lightness" to the exhaust bracket by taking off the exess part...


...and stripping all the paint from the rest. Gotta take that part to work and have somebody plug weld that hole shut.



Taking the front light off proved to be far more labour intensive than I anticipated. I had to take apart the whole front end to get it out of there. While un-bolting all the fairings I hit a bit of a snag: The little cover on the right side of the gauge cluster covering the end of the pipe that holds the visor and mirror in place had to be sacrificed as the screw holding it in place refused to budge and the end got so rounded that it was impossible to turn with a screwdriver, so after pondering my options of trying to drill it out possibly still ruining the cover and putting my gauge cluster under unnecessary risk I decided to destroy the cover and try to get a new one from somewhere. Should be able to find one from nettimoto (local craigslist)



This is gonna be interesting... The headlight seems to be far more complex than I expected and getting the new one to look even somewhat decent is going to be a bit of a challenge as only a part of the glass is showing from the hole in the fairings and the frame of the light differs in shape from the part the light comes out of specially in the bottom, and after a cut in my finger and a few bloody knuckles It was pretty clear the glass is NOT going to come out of the frame in one piece...


...so I`ll be needing a cast of the glass to be able to do some tests before I whack it in (I`m gonna be needing the frame without the glass and the insides)


...so I made a mold from a block of crafting clay I had in the closet and lifted the outcome onto the shelf on the window to dry, there`s a radiator under it so the shelf is always nice and warm so it should be enough to dry the clay.

That`s it for today kids, stay tuned for more!