Cool, I have seen some the advertising for it. didnt see the "waterless engine coolants thread" before askin. Colin hurry up an get the pics up to show our hard work! Bike looks Sooooo much better with the proper coloured swing arm on it!
Will do mate. I'm just going to get something in the stomach first though. Not a good idea to not eat anything all day, when you've been to the gym and wrestling an engine about. I've got the shakes
great thread there colin have really enjoyed reading through it, great attention to detail, bet your super excited in how its coming along, have always loved the look and sound of the sp1,s keep up the good work.
Ok so today the plan was to get the engine back in its frame as it had sat on the bench for long enough now looking pretty after its clean up. In all honesty it was a lot easier to put in than what I thought and didn't have any problems, apart from me being a moody coont To get the engine back in we put it onto a jack, lifted the front of the bike up by pivoting it on an Abba stand (borrowed from my mate Craig) and slowly lowering the frame onto the engine and the jacking the engine up into place so we could get the main engine bolts in loosely. It was then just a matter of fitting the rest of the bolts in by giving the engine a little jiggle till they were all in place. We also put copper slip on all bolts to stop them seizing. Engine in I need to get myself a special tool to do up the castle nuts properly and finish bolting it up, so in the meantime Craig suggested we put the new swingarm in for 1 less thing to do next time. Amazing how much of a difference it makes compaired to the tacky polished swingarm. Next weekend we will be re routing all the wiring, and fitting the rest of the parts to the engine, Ie throttle bodies, radiators and such like. Filling it with coolant and oil. All going well we might even fire it up to here that sound of thunder again.
Excited aint the word Bubba, I'm fookin gagging to get back out on it now. I just know that I will be smiling like a Cheshire cat under my helmet knowing that I have done all this work to the bike and made it better. It's a great feeling
Colin, Does your bike have short bloke syndrome and needs stacked heels to boost it's self esteem? What's that lump of metal attached to the foot of the sidestand?
Hey ken, The side stand extension is required as the bike has an aftermarket shock linkage which raises the back end of the bike by bout an inch for better turning response, if the extension was taken off it sits at wrong angle when parked up on side stand.
It does look awful with the extension piece added to the bottom of the stand Ken. The plan is to make an extendable side stand for the bike in ally when I get a chance in work.
Today was another day in the man cave to get the bike back together. First up I torqued up all the engine bolts, then cleaned up the sump of the engine as I couldn't get to it when it was on it's craddle on the bench. From there it was then onto getting all the wiring routed and hooked back up, which if I'm honest I'm glad Craig was there (shinysideup) as me and electrics don't get on so well. This took us a while but in the end all wires were accounted for "Bonus" Midway through the wiring We then put the shock back in with the new swingarm in place (starting to get there now) From there it was on with the throttle bodies, oil cooler and exhaust headers. We then fitted a few other bits and pieces like the clutch slave cylinder and oil catch bottles, and decided to leave the radiators till next time, when we will top it up with fresh oil and coolant and fire it up, balance the throttle bodies and make any more tweeks as we go along.
Bought another 4L of life blood for the bike tonight (castrol) in halfords £24 using mates trade card , while the girlfriend went Asda shopping (not that she knew anything about my plans until I dropped her off at the door and fooked off to let her get on with it. Her face was a picture).
It's a great ploy Colin. We've got a complex with Tesco at one end of the car park and Pets at Home at the other. I quite often drop Jeanette at one end then go to the other end to get "wild bird food" for the garden feeders. Funnily there's a PC World, a Currys and a Halfords there too.
Ken that sounds exactly like were our Shopping is also. There's a pets at home next door, currys next to that and argos at the other side of halfords. Me and the other half ain't talking just now, so I decided that we would be better off with our own space. Not too sure she agreed though
coming along well mate, not long to the fire up now, you will have to put a vid on would love to hear the rumble off them pipes.
Funny you should say that, but I have the GoPro on standby ready for the big moment. Don't get me wrong I'll be making sure it fires up properly before any video footage is taken. Don't want to embarrass myself incase anything goes wrong. (that and I have a good layer of protective oil all over the engine to protect it, and it will be smoking for a few minutes as it beds in).
Can't wait to see the video mate.... Looks amazing, a job well done there. I'm also waiting to see the side stand bet it will be a piece of art in its own right
Well today was all about getting the SP1 back together and getting it fired up for the first time since November. First on the list was to get the radiators back on the bike and run all the pipework. Once the radiators were on it was on with the airbox making it look like it was getting there. We then fitted the wheels, topped the bike up with fresh coolant and oil, fitted the tank and filled the bike up with fuel. Now was the time to see if all our hard work had been worth it and fire the beast up. First turn of the key Nothing, not even the fuel pump primed "oh no" !! Try switching the alarm off Numb Nut !!!! Second turn of the key the pump primes, I pull in the so called choke hit the switch and BOOM its alive and sounds amazing Can't tell you how happy I was, it was an amazing feeling knowing all our hard work had paid off, and to top it all no more blue smoke from the exhaust. Happy fookin Days !!! Tomorrow I'll give the bike a good clean down, fit the fairings, give it a wash and make a short video with the GoPro for you all to see and hear.
trying to test embed video for ipad users. ok that didnt work thanks vimeo! Anybody know the correct method to embed video from vimeo for IOS users? I know youtube posted the iframe method but that didnt seem to work for vimeo.
