Pretty in pink

I have had my first lesson in resto and I don't even have the bike yet..I am pretty anal and the bike has a small dent in the front right of the tank, I was going to fix it up but have had three people tell me that as the paint is original and the dent is small I should leave it,so decision made and lesson learnt.. Always ask at least 3 people in to resto of cars bikes etc before I make a change to her..

So no she wont be changing her colors and will have her original bronze paint job left untouched.

How to 'aquire' a project bike

It is an interesting tale as to how one comes across a project bike, I wasn't looking for one I was actually photographing sheds (garages/workshops) for a photo project I am working on. While in the shed the photo you see in the sidebar of this blog is the sight that greeted me about 4pm on the 20th of February 2007.

It was the shed of a friend of mine TL (tyabblemons) and when I saw it the conversation went something like this

ME: Hey TL !

TL: Yeah ?

ME: What size bike is this under here ?

TL: Ummm I think it is a two fifty...

ME: Oh yeah, here it is it says two fifty on the side cover,its a Yamaha.

TL: Yeah a Yamaha

ME: Where did you get it ?

TL: I inherited it.

ME: Do you ride much ?

TL: No I've never actually ridden that one.

ME: Well if you ever decide to sell it let me know, I might be interested.

TL: If you want it you can have it....

ME: Okay, Ummm... I wonder if we can fit it on the trailer this time.. HEY MICK... can we fit this bike on trailer with the fish tank ?

(ED. Paraphrased due to memory leak)

We didn't get it on the trailer but I did get my brother sprocket2cog (S2C) to check it out and he said it looked like a Yamaha RD 250,Mick disagreed as he thought they had squarer tanks, and a sportier look rather then the cafe racer look, as it was when I got home and did the internet research thing it turned out S2C was right it is a Yamaha 1974 RD. Have a look at this site for some photos of a few 74 RD's. ( www.cyclechaos.com a wiki on motorcycles. )

I got to speaking to Mick (from my cartoon strip www.twistedsouls.com ) about the history of the bike and the story goes like something like this...

I think...

1. Bike is brought brand new in 1974 by a gas engineer with love of motor vehicles.
   
2. Bike is garaged sometime pre 1979 due to health of owner.
3. The owner never rides again.
   
4. Owners son inherits the bike.
5. The bike is garaged again by son after a quick attempt to start it with no sucess.
6. I buy bike of son (tyabblemons.)

• Originally manufactured and assumed brought circa 1974
• Garaged pre May 13 1979 (this is when the rego ran out)
• Assuming 12 month registration periods we can say first licensed May 1974
• Ridden at most 13 May 1974 to 13 May 1979 5 years
• I found it 20 Feb 2007

So that means with a quick calculation or to that the bike is 32 years and 9 months old, and outof that time it has been unridden undercover for at least 10148 days or 27 years, 9 months, 10 days. That means at least 85% of its life since it was manufactured has been spent under cover and unridden. So I am wrapped with it,and hope to have it all fixed up and registered by Christmas. So anyone that buys me gifts may I be so forward as to ask for bike bits to restore my bike :) thats if you want to give me a meaningful gift..

My wishlist page

This is what the NOLAN "Jet N30 Flashback Plus in flat white" looks like

and a page with things I want or need to do to the bike before it hits the road

All I can say to tyabblemons is "Thank you very much." It has really gone to a good home and once running will be my daily ride...

" YOU GOT TO RIDE IT,NOT HIDE IT"

I got a H4 conversion

I was chatting to a mate today and mentioned I am chasing a H4 conversion kit for my RD, he wandered in to the spare room and came back with one hand handed it over.. So I now have the H4 lens and reflector for the bike so I can see a bit better. :) http://www.s-v-c.co.uk/leur.jpg

I also picked up a bikini fairing for $50

Its all happening

Well a quick phone call of about 30secs tonight I arranged the pick up of the 'LIL Dragon" for tommorow afternoon. I will head up to tyabblemons with Mick tommorow afternoon with the camera.

So expect a full photo diary to accompany this blog from the moment I first saw the bike to the moment I first ride it away from the registration office.. you can see a few pics allready on my photo blog at http://RD250.photoblog.com

Projects

It may seem a little quite on the front at the moment but in reality it is the sound of the dust settling on the mind of senility. What we have been doing is having a visit from sprocket2cog from over at sprocket2cog.twistedsouls.com (ed. my brother) and have been throwing ideas around and then waiting to see what we get....

In amongst a few black eyes and broken bones (you really must be careful throwing ideas around) we came up with a few new ideas and a few new tangents, so BASIC is back :) and 8bit isn't a 4 letter word.. no really it isn't it is alphanumeric so 3 letters one number.

While I was at tyabblemons I asked the right question at the right time and inherited an RD250 Yamaha road bike circa 1974 I will get some pics up soon..

Geek By Nature Linux by Choice

Well I finally took the plunge at around midnight and started to install Debian gnu/Linux.

I cant do things the easy way (my laptop is only a P II 300 with 160 MB and a 3 gig HDD) so I got the business card install about 40-50 MB and did a net install, I am using an old XIRCOM real port that overheats, it was high 30's (celcius) today so I have the pedestal fan blowing on the card until I get the base install done and then get the Orinoco drivers running for my wireless..

Oh and I am doing a custom install to save space..

Wish me luck and lets hope that those swimming penguins can keep me afloat

Nearly a fatal wedgie

While just gliding around under her para glider 2,500 meters or around 8000 feet up Nicky Moss (of the English para gliding team) got attacked by a couple of wedge tail eagles.

Reuters is running the story about her twisted tail in outback New South Wales, in a bid to become a better para glider pilot and beat us in the world championships Nicky was just flying around minding her own business when a couple of Wedge tail eagles swooped in and scared her right in to a wedgie, and at that height I think it came with a skid mark or three.

"I heard screeching behind me and a eagle flew down and attacked me, swooping down and bouncing into the side of my wing(para glider) with its claws," Moss told Reuters on Friday.

Seeing tounge