All day collekshun Fred. (Warning: May contain two wheeler)

[Bag'O'Spanners]

A very fine morning to you all.

 

Finally a Fred, named also collekshun from me.

I've set out from deepest Essex this morning, on a train to 'London' and then onwards from that magnificent transport hub, south west to my new (actually, pile of pitted chrome and rust) steed.

 

First day out of isolation with actual Covid. Nasty stuff, even with life saving jabbyness.

 

I'll try to catalogue my exploits here. This will be my first, so please bear with my idiotic ramblings......

 

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[stripped fred]

Watching with interest, safe travels intrepid shiter.

[Bag'O'Spanners]

Well on my way now. As you can see, seemless travel from deep, dark Essex to Liverpool Street on Greater Anglias finest 321 class (opening windows are a nice thing in super-crush-load pandemic times).
The next leg on the Circles 'S' stock to meet a small Bear.
Now on some finest, anglo Japanese 802 stock GWRness (hopefully no cracks).
Cold, sold has hot sausage bap munched on. Poo count at a unsure, till the Coffee finished, Zero.

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[Dave_Q]

Are you there yet?

[Bag'O'Spanners]

On my way back.... Christ these things are slower than I remember! Just taken fuzzy pez shot on way home. Still another 85 miles out of 250, hence not stopped to update much.

The old girl is a very scruffy 1979 CB400. Lots on chuggy goodness.

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[wuvvum]

Ooh, a Wet Dream!  I had the 250 version years ago - was actually slower than the Kawasaki AR125 which preceded it.

[CreepingJesus]

Verily the steed of winners! 

Riding the 125, donkey's years ago, was an eerily similar experience to riding a mate's NS125R: you'd to cane the bloody thing to go anywhere quickly, and you still weren't going that quickly when you actually thought about it.

Has this range reached any sort of classic status yet, or are they still languishing in mutt-dom?

[Bag'O'Spanners]

Please excuse the photos. The were rushed and pretty useless, even for me!

Yes, a Wetdream. It really is a bit of a hound, though I quite like it like that after having newer bikes for a few years.

I had the 250 years ago, now they couldn't pull the skin off a rice pud. 400 keeps with the traffic nicely though.

They are getting a following and prices are getting a little silly in some cases. This one being a pile woz cheap. Plan is to do a sort of mechanical overhaul, but leave it looking like the rotter it is and go for old man rides out with my mate, who also has one. Slowly.

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[Bag'O'Spanners]

Had a lot to do yesterday (mother in laws birthday). So had a little look at the old girl today, going over a few (read a lot) bits that I noticed on my odyssey of a collekshun and making a list of snags to repair.

• Stripped, cleaned, inspected from brakes. Pads were sticking in caliper carriers through lack of use, making the front brakes.... interesting.
• Noted steering head bearings need a strip and grease/replacement, knocking noise when going over bumps will be hopefully sorted
• Lubed speedo and Tacho cables, might need to have a look at the clocks yet, tacho likes to bounce around a bit.
• Rear brake light switch cleaned and adjusted, as found didn't like being a brake light switch 99 times out of 100.
• Found the exhaust leak under load, RHS downpipe leaking at head, corroded stud and nut missing... Mucho fun ahead.
• Got the horn working, Electrosol  sprayed into the switchgear and some judicious pressage of button.
• Popped the plugs out, looked well. Adjusted camchain, valve clearances and balancer chain (that need more work later, as past adjustment).
• Gave it a look over generally, thinking now going towards total strip of chassis and treating/coating rusty old frame and swingarm, possibly a rewire and take it from there. Could get a bit silly!

I'll be honest, she is a bit of a dog, but a very endearing old thing.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2021 by Bag'O'Spanners
Added photos