OUR BIKES
The genius at work
I’ve not sought to restore the bike, but
instead am just working around it sorting
its issues, so hopefully – one day – it’ll ride
tip-top, while still looking very age authentic,
it is after all 35 (and some) years old.
So the jobs have, at snail’s pace, been ticked
off. I replaced the brake shoes. Humpster’s
bush bars have been put into storage and a
neat set of black anodised Renthals installed,
along with proper trials grips. New spark plug.
Oil change. New air filter. New chain and
sprockets. New tyres.
At this point I rather optimistically entered a
trial. Surprisingly the bike rode really well. In
fact, but for a goof, where I went the wrong
way in one section (a ‘5’), I would have been
on for a class win. That said, the bike came
away from the trial less than match fit. The
brakes barely worked. The forks clearly had
no oil left in them (they clunked everywhere),
while the shocks started with oil but blew
their perished seals almost immediately,
spewing 35-year-old oil all over the swingarm.
And that old exhaust was blowing a little
where a fractured weld was giving up.
Plans were to fix all of those and get straight
back out. But as usual life has got in the way.
A big house-extension build for one. That was
12 months done. And since then between
pressure of work and an injury (knee) and
now Covid-19 the project has stalled.
But not entirely. The split rear guard has
been replaced by a better, but still original
example. The old shocks have been retired
42 KIWI RIDER