The BMW.

Over the last few years I've been doing a bit of touring across Europe. It's all been on my Harley and I've managed to see quite a bit of Germany, along with France, Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg.
This year I'm going to Barcelona, I'd decided I was going to get a new Harley but with what I'd saved up I found I could keep my Harley and get a 1200 Gsa BMW as a second bike, some of my friends had done similar. So this is it;

Sadly the seat makes this the most uncomfortable bike I've ever sat on, so that has had to be replaced. Apart from that it does everything you'd expect and it does it very well. It does lack a bit of character though and is very much second best to my Harley. I doubt once the Barcelona trip is out of the way that it will be in my garage for much longer. It will be going to a new owner.

Kawasaki Z1100 Shaft.

I bought this as a non running import from a dealer on e bay. It had a few parts missing and a few really rough parts that needed replacing.
I decided that it would be a rolling restoration, it's never going to be mint but it needs to run well and just be a bit tidier.
So far it has a Vance & Hines megaphone exhaust fitted, and the seat has been recovered in a Corbin style by Smart RRR's in York. There is however some smooth bore carbs to go on it, some original rear air shocks and a few other bits to sort. Eventually I'm hoping to slip on an upside down ZX10 front end.

As it stands now it has tax and MOT and is on the road.

Temptress Z1000 Kawasaki.

This is how the Kawasaki turned out. Fully rebuilt with many worn out parts replaced. Fantastic paint job by Dave Dickinson at DDK Custom Airbrushing, and then tuned by John Warrington Motorcycles in Malton.

Fast forward 5 years......

Wow, where does time go? I’ve thought many a time that I really ought to look at my blog again but I had no idea that 5 years had gone by. So....what have I been doing?
Well, I’ve finished off some projects, started some others and moved out of the country back to the sunny coast of Bridlington.
In 2013 there are pics of my Harley having just been modified, well the following year I did it again. I’m still riding it but it now has increased to 1550cc and has had a colour change.

My red Kawasaki chop was finished and after 2 or 3 years was sold to a very nice guy from the Outer Hebrides. I’ll add some photos of that later as it turned out really well.

It's all in bits

Well now my workshop is up I thought I had better do something in it.......
I pushed it in with the help of the long suffering wifey and then after giving it a good coat of looking at decided that it needed to be rebuilt, not exactly as it was when first built back in 1984 but bloody hell it's long overdue.

                                          Test fit of the new GSXR flat slide carbs.

                                          It knows some things going to happen.

                                          On it's way to being in 20,000 pieces.

 

The whole bike is in bits now, the frame and loads of assorted rusty crap has gone off to Carnaby Powder Coating and will reappear next week wearing a gorgeous gloss black finish. I've started on some of the polishing already and hopefully it will start coming together, next job is the motor but before that I need to send the forks away for a coating of hard chrome as they're just too pitted to do anything with.

My new workshop

It's nice having a brick garage but when you have as much stuff as me it's still not enough. I'm lucky to have a big garden and so I picked out a space for a new workshop to go in. There's no way I can afford another brick built one so it had to be made of wood. I found a firm on e bay that makes them to order and took the plunge. It's 18' x 12' and I'm not in the least bit disappointed, it's great and it will soon be in use once I've finished boarding it out and getting my bench erected etc.

Harley completed.......for now.

Harley all back together and on the road, brand new MOT all done. Still loads of jobs to do on it but that will be for next winter. Just looking forward to riding it now. I highly recommend a hydraulic clutch conversion, it's easy to do and makes a difference, giving a light feel to the clutch.