Mods and Rockers Winter Rumble 2011

First ride on my Norton in about a year and half was this years Mods and Rockers run. Was a little late cause of hassles getting a warrant, but met up with James on his MKIII and we caught up with the ralley at the Tai Tapu pub. My camera died just after this, but we went onto the Wheatsheaf Tavern after this where I met Mickey on his GB400 and rode home from there with him. A good day for it, and I was pretty chuffed to have to Commando on the road again...

Norton 850 Commando is go!

This post could go on for ever, but basically it is done. The Norton is on the road again. It's even bloody legal! It's been a crazy week though. Above are shots from when John came round last weekend and we put the gearbox back in. We got stuck though when we stripped the thread on an engine mounting bolt, which was a bastard cause John's busy in the week with work and the following weekend (this weekend) he's running the Norton stand at the British Bike Show. So yeah, it was either wait, or do the rest of the work myself. I've had the week off teaching, so I thought 'fuck it, let's get dirty'...

First up was my learning to solder, as we discovered some really messy wiring and also the earth had been wired to the heat sink, and John said I needed to fix that shit up. My nickname is Shakin Luke Wood, and trust me soldering with a shakin hand is tough... and messy, but I got it done.

My shitty wiring done, and the new engine mounting bolts arrived. Got straight into reassembling the primary side...

Encountered numerous problems doing this... broken tab washers on the inner primary case, real trouble getting correct clearance around the rotor, and then the usual not having the right tools kinda trouble. Borrowed some from John and bought some new shit. John's torque wrench is awesome and I need to get one. I hate mine. I was paranoid about leaving bolts not done up to torque, or even worse, not filling things with oil. Hence my ingenius red sticker system you can see here. I tried my best to take my time and not get pissed off with anything. It sort of worked, but it was down to the wire time-wise. I did nothing for 3 days except work on this bike! Did I mention I was trying to get it ready for the Mods and Rockers 'Winter Rumble' here in Christchurch? Anyway, I had it running by Friday night, and took it for a test ride... all good. Needed a new tyre for a warrant though, and here you need a warrant to get a registration. So... rang around and the only tyre I could find was in Darfield, an hour out of Christchurch! Took off out there on Saturday morning, got tyre on sweet, and then went to a garage in Darfield for a warrant where things slowed down a little. They guy there was anal to put it nicely. An hour and a half later he gave me the fuckin warrant, and I got the rego in about 5 minutes. Only problem was I was an hour from Christchurch, and the rally started in 30 minutes...

Anyway that can be the next post! I'm super stoked she's running again.

Dirty Beaches

This is the musical equivalent of riding through Central Otago on the Norton... hypnotic, mind altering, coolness!!!

Visit to Shed 5 with Pete

What happened to Deus?

Malcolm's Triumph and Jonty's GB400

This is Malcolm and Jonty... and Sid (dog). Stayed with Malcolm up in Auckland last weekend and got to use his Bonnie as my main transport on Saturday! Malcolm got hit by a car on this a few months ago and it's taken a while getting it back on the road. It's got new Thunderbike mufflers which sound great, and Malcolm has just removed all the lights off the back. He has a repro Lucas tail light, but hadn't fitted the indicators yet. Looking a lot better though. What were Triumph thinking with those awful fucking lights?

Jonty's GB400 is looking pretty sweet these days too. He got this pretty cheap, but it was kinda rough and had this weird kinda red/pink tank. He's got the single seat now, new paint, and has chromed the front and rear mudgaurds. He also has this great little muffler that came off Malcolm's old GB. It sounds pretty great, like a racing single, loud and poppy.