Work on the bike ready for the coming season has stepped up another notch. Several much needed parts arrived this week, and today i finally got the replacement hose for the brazing kit i bought, (the first had a dodgy fitting). I used our local hobbyweld supplier for the Oxygen cylinder, as theres no rental cost, just a refundable deposit, and swapped the vans butane cylinder for a propane. So today - after a bit of practicing, i attempted to braze up the steel cross bracing of my new wheelie bars.
The result is pretty good, and i realized that brazing really is a nice way to join steel, plus it's pretty easy as well. The downside is cleaning off the flux residue afterwards, it turns to a glass like substance that is rock hard. It's supposed to soften in water so i'll try that next time.
A new Tyre arrived yesterday as well, it's a Mickey Thompson the same as the last one, and i use the car version of the 10" Tyre rather than the bike version, purely because it's supposed to last longer. I did get 2 and a half seasons out of the last one so it seems right. The last one did wear on one side faster than the other, which started to manifest as a handling problem. So I'll rotate this one at the end of the season and try to balance the wear.
The engine is now back in the frame, and a start has been made on wiring modifications, mostly just replacing relays and switches and a few key wires and connectors. The reason for the electrical gremlins we suffered from at the last meeting is still a mystery, hence i'm replacing nearly everything electrical. I've had to source and fit a new lanyard kill switch too, as a change to the rulebook this year has made the MPS type switches non-compliant. I went for a trials bike type switch, which is good quality but requires a lot of force to actually disconnect it.
Work on the bike ready for the coming season has stepped up another notch. Several much needed parts arrived this week, and today i finally got the replacement hose for the brazing kit i bought, (the first had a dodgy fitting). I used our local hobbyweld supplier for the Oxygen cylinder, as theres no rental cost, just a refundable deposit, and swapped the vans butane cylinder for a propane. So today - after a bit of practicing, i attempted to braze up the steel cross bracing of my new wheelie bars. 
The result is pretty good, and i realized that brazing really is a nice way to join steel, plus it's pretty easy as well. The downside is cleaning off the flux residue afterwards, it turns to a glass like substance that is rock hard. It's supposed to soften in water so i'll try that next time.
A new Tyre arrived yesterday as well, it's a Mickey Thompson the same as the last one, and i use the car version of the 10" Tyre rather than the bike version, purely because it's supposed to last longer. I did get 2 and a half seasons out of the last one so it seems right. The last one did wear on one side faster than the other, which started to manifest as a handling problem. So I'll rotate this one at the end of the season and try to balance the wear.
The engine is now back in the frame, and a start has been made on wiring modifications, mostly just replacing relays and switches and a few key wires and connectors. The reason for the electrical gremlins we suffered from at the last meeting is still a mystery, hence i'm replacing nearly everything electrical. I've had to source and fit a new lanyard kill switch too, as a change to the rulebook this year has made the MPS type switches non-compliant. I went for a trials bike type switch, which is good quality but requires a lot of force to actually disconnect it.
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