Quick trip out

Well blew out the winter cob-webs this afternoon, put the battery on and she fired first push of the button, the new plugs have definitely cleaned up the bottom end and she feels crispier than I remember. The Remus can doesn't seem any louder than the standard can which I am pleased with, looks nicer than the standard can but isn't going to drive me insane on the long runs.

The weather was good and the sun shone, roads were dry and there wasn't much traffic on the road, what more can you ask for eh? two hours just melted by and I soon found myself getting back into the groove having not ridden since November I wasn't about to hit the Leary twat setting and was just happy to be out an about in the sun. The only thing I couldn't work out when I got back was how did I get chain lube on the right hand side of the seat cowl, did it fling off then turn round and chase me!!! weird eh?

Roll on more sunny days and please can we have a decent summer up here in the frozen North?

Allan Duffus Open Weekend

A few pictures from the open weekend I took this morning

Demo rides every hour

Michael Laverty B.S.B title contender

Busy showroom helped no doubt by the nice weather

and friendly staff

Allan Duffus Yamaha

Open day on Saturday 19Th & Sunday 20Th March at the above, Raffle, demo rides ect and I think B.S.B stars Tommy Hill & Michael Laverty will be there too!!!!!!

New Plugs

Behind that oil cooler is the front two plugs!

There as promised, but you feel like a gynaecologist changing them.

Back l/h corner the easy one


four old and one new, bit of blow by on the porcelain
and the electrodes have varying lengths

Glad I changed them now all done in about an hour an half with the most time spent getting at the front ones, with the cooler dropped there was still not enough clearance so I had to take the l/h fairing off to let the cooler drop just that fraction more so I could access them.

Original 1973 Z1

Kawasaki Z650

Z650 sprocket

Whilst searching for a bit of scrap metal to make a bracket out of earlier I cam across the front sprocket for the wee Z which I had lost ( or the shed fairies moved whilst I wasn't looking ) so I thought I better fix the bugger quick before it disappears again!

After fitting the sprocket I greased up the clutch actuating mechanism, replaced the seized cable and fitted the front sprocket cover, needs a good polish but that can happen when I have had it running.

Remus Can

When I got the bike it came with a Remus can, that had been fitted previously but the down pipes had been changed for stainless steel ones and both pipes were almost identical in size, so the Remus wouldn't fit back on. Someone had cut two slots in it with a hack saw and tried to force it on but with no luck, so I thought I would see what I could do; the solution I came up with was too heat the end up slightly and I have a large socket which is the same diameter as the down pipe which I tapped into the end can slightly and wiggled it backwards and forwards with a breaker bar to expand the diameter of the pipe, working slowly I managed to be able to get achieve this and now the end can fits the down pipes.

However the original clamp was fouling the centre stand plus with the two slots cut on the opposite side I decided to cut the old clamp off and get a nice shiny stainless steel fixing that i can adjust where i want the bolt head.

Old mounting

Old mounting removed and new slip on fixing


Job done


Just needs a polish now

The only other thing I needed to do was to make a short bracket to mount the rubber on it that stops the stand slapping the exhaust as it was in the wrong place on the link pipe, I don't know if this is because the stainless down pipes exit in a slightly different place or angle than the original as it would never had lined up in a month of Sundays.

Kawasaki kz650 / Z650 fuel injected using megasquirt ecu

The Boat That Guy Built

http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/z88v0/

Make a cup of tea an follow the link to bbc i-player great new series starring Guy Martin