Back At It

So it's been some time since I last did anything with the CafeRacer, to be honest its cold in the shed and lots of other things have got in the way, the willing is still there but it really does takes time and effort, I think if i have a good couple of weeks solid I would be close but looking at what I've achieved I've done a lot, still lots to do though.

I was thinking at Christmas that this is the year I'd really like to get it on the road, so a big push is needed.

So, a while ago I made a start on the top yoke, it needed changes and I wanted you mount the speedo in the yoke, luckily the Aprilia yoke had a cut out for the key so I used this as the space for the speedo.

I sourced a nice small speedo from https://www.digital-speedos.co.uk I decided on the DAYTONA  48mm Velona Speedometer 140 in Black, it comes with the mounting bracket but it wasn't suitable for where I wanted you mount the speedo so a new one had to be made.

Metal would have been good but for lightness I used some carbon fibre I had knocking about.

I used the metal bracket as the template then made the carbon one to suit.

with it on the bench I could assess the position and see if anything needed changing, I had already drilled the holes in the top of the yoke and it was a case of offering up the bracket behind.

Now that I had the bracket made I could see that it may need a bit of reshaping for strength, I used the first one as the new template and drew a new one with added strengthening.

With it mounted in place I think its looks pretty good.

I've reshaped the yoke and cut of some of the metal thats not needed, all thats to be done now is fill in of machine off the Aprilia lettering then get it powder coated but that can wait, I have to feed the cables through to the speedo pick up but I'm happy with todays work and its good to get back on it.

Heres hoping I can get it done this year.

Spaced Out.

Following on from the previous post the spacers I ordered turned up and the calliper bracket.

Lovely bit of work they are too.

So straight down to fitting them...

All good, I used one of the spare ones just to space the gap, I have since ordered a rear sprocket and chain so I can line the wheel up and work out the correct spacing, I may have to get a spacer made to fill the gap, I also need a rear calliper from an Aprilia RS125 to get the fitting right.

Now that I have sorted out the electrics and wiring, I thought I would turn my attention to the rear of the bike and the seat.

Time to dril a hole for the rear light..

It should be bright enough and it nice and small. I've not put the final plug on yet as I will need to remove it all when it gets painted but it will do for now.

So all in all its going well, I still need to sort the top yoke out so I can fit the speedo then route the cable, but i'm happy with how it's coming along.

Small Update.

Been thinking where to mount the idiot lights, I did think in the top yoke but that causes a problem if you have to remove them and routing of wires and plugs etc, so I settled on the headlight bucket, it already has a wire coming out of it so kinda made sense 



so, drill three holes, feed the wire through and bobs yer uncle.



I didn't want them right in your face so slightly offset, the bars will be cut down at some point, don't need them sticking out that far.

Next job was to look at the earthing issue and sort the wiring out, spent the last couple of nights in the sun just methodically going through it all and sorting it out



Not the clearest of pictures but needless to say its all sorted now, nice tidy wiring, and can all be neatly hidden under the tank.

Other things that have happened, I'm having some top hat spacers made for the rear wheel as the Honda spindle is smaller that the hole in the wheel, so some spacers to sort out the difference and I'm also getting the calliper bracket bored out to fit, these should be back in a few days so more pictures to come then they arrive.



After that well, still need to sort out headstock bearings and fit the speedo and cables, sort the top yoke out, oh and clean the carb and try and get it running again.

I do love a dry summer night for motivation.

Well Blow me.

So yet again life gets in the way and the time I have for "playing" with bikes gets less and less, so since my last post I managed to hook up a temp petrol tank and tried to fire up the bike, needless to say it didn't all go to plan.

For a start the carb leaked like the leakiest thing in the world, it did eventually fire and run for a few seconds, thats a start at least, somewhere to go from I guess.

I think once I sort the carb out, (possible float bowls as it was overflowing), it should be good to go.

That was the least of my problems, it then decided that no matter what I did it would constantly turn over when I connected the battery, it didn't matter if the ignition was on or off it would constantly try and start.

I fitted a kill switch to see if that helped, it didn't, I disconnected everything apart from the + and - on the starter solenoid, guess what it still fired. So I disconnected the solenoid, then nothing fired, so we are getting somewhere right...

Connected everything back up and nothing, thats not true it now decided it was going to blow fuses everytime it was connected, so I thought right its the solenoid, tested it and it wasn't playing ball, time to get a new one.

Ordered a new solenoid and some more fuses, time to try again, I connected the new solenoid and put in a fresh 15A fuse, it blew, new fuse, looked at the connections and it blew, new fuse ignition off, fuse good, ignition on fuse blew.

So now I have one fuse left!!

Think, think, think, I obviously have a short somewhere, jump on the internet and see what I can find, find a post about fuses blowing and they traced it to either the horn or the headlight.

OK so disconnect wiring to front of bike, horn, lights etc, fuse in, ignition on, fuse holds! poke the starter button and it fires up, well tries to there was no petrol in it.

Getting somewhere now, so I have something grounding to earth at the front of the bike somewhere, thats easy to find, but not important right now.

Next job is to clean the carb and sort the float bowls out, fill with fuel then see if it runs, after that its on to the rest of the bike.

Plenty of jobs still to do, no doubt it'll be a few more month before the next update.

Progress...

Had some time over the easter weekend, cleaned the carb using some help and ideas from a friend, seemed to do the trick and made the linkages smoother and free.

1. Take one bottle of dishwasher cleaner

2. Fill bucket with hot water and mix in the cleaner

3. Dump carb in the bucket and agitate.

Came up a treat, fitted it to the bike after a blow out with the airline and a bit of drying time, connected up a fuel line and prodded the starter button, after a few try's it decided it would start, not for very long but it ran for a few seconds, the carb leaked like the leakiest leaky thing but its went.

Next thing is to take the carb apart and look at the floats and anything else that makes it leak and try again.

Had a play with graphics 

to be continued...

Tape me up

Updates are coming thick and fast now, last nights little job was to tidy up the loom and start to get it in a kind of order that works, I started at the seat end and cut, tried and generally made the mess of wires I had better, then a bit of loom tape and all is pretty.

It looks a lot neater, some of it can't be wrapped in place and I will have to remove it for that but for now it's 100% better than the spaghetti that was there.

I then had a look at the oil pressure light, I don't have a red LED bulb for this so a white LED will do for now, maybe the final build will be red, who knows.

Stay tuned, I have the bug now and really really want to be riding it this year.

The Spark of Life.

It lives, well sort of, I finally have spark, I fitted a new (secondhand) alternator/generator and at last I have a spark.

I can get on with cleaning up the wiring now then sort out the throttle cables before finally trying with some petrol and fire the old girl up.

Watch this space, hopefully I'll get a wriggle on now and things can start moving.