There, there Gordon...

Come on Gordon, you know that it's for the best.

Martin and Roy at Slipstream are very nice, and they will really look after you.

I'll stay at home and get on with your other body bits...

Click on the photo to see how scared Gordon really is.

More sweat and tears

Now the engine is out of the chassis I was able to pull out the forks and shock ready to be refurbished / serviced / replaced (whichever is applicable) and drop the engine at Slipstream.
I also carried out some careful measurements of the chassis, comparing them to a TZ250 chassis I measured earlier in the year. I was quite surprised to find dimensionally how similar they are the main difference being the length of the swinging arm, but most of the other measurements are very close.
What has surprised me is the contrast in build, for example: the front engine mounting bracket and spacers weigh almost 2kg! yet the front wheel spindle is hollow and very light.
Now without suspension and engine Gordon is looking very sad laid on his side, but it will not be long before he is completely stripped ready for rebuilding.

Engine out.

After a weekend of struggling at last I have managed to get Gordon's engine out of the chassis.
Easy...NOT, I'm still suffering with my left thumb injury so lifting and fiddling is quite hard work. I have to admit I had to resort to a bit of 'butchery' here and there with bolts shearing and rounding off, culminating in me sawing through the header pipes to remove them to get to the front engine mounting bolts, nasty!
On the up side; weight is falling of him. I'm going to borrow some fishing scales to accurately weigh all the components that come off, I will list them and their weight and for all us 'sados' see what the total comes to.
More to come......

Product support being sought.

I've enjoyed riding hard to secure my place in teams that have helped me win championships over the years - where I just had to turn up and race - but I am also enjoying this project with Gordon, taking me back some 20 years, where absolutely everything is under my control.

Just starting to strip him down to drop the motor out and start on the race prep, it's a bit scary to realise I have no race infrastructure at all!

I've emailed a few companies tonight to see if they can help me with some basic work shop supplies - I'll keep you posted if I get a response.

If anyone has any ideas about who might be able to help, please contact me.

Weight loss begins...

Well Gordon tipped the scales at 166.5kg with no fuel in the tank; boy have I got a weight loss programme for him!

Started pulling all the 'not required' bits off and the starter motor alone is 3kg with its gears etc.

With 23,000 miles under his belt and 10 years of wear and tear most things are 'reluctant' to come off easily. The exhaust stud snapped off with several more components rounding off as I undid them.

What have I let myself in for?

Let the work commence!

Well I have finally cleared some space in the garage to start work on Gordon. First thing is to weigh him to see how much work I have to do!
At the moment I have only one set of scales so an accurate weight is hard to work out, but at 85kg (front) & 82.5kg (rear) it doesn't look too good.
However, the weight distribution is almost 50/50 is standard form so I will have to work on moving some weight over the front end.
First, get him down to his bare bones and clean what components I'm going to keep, then next week I'm off down to Martin at Slipstream to drop the engine off so they can work their magic!

European project

On holiday in Texas and wandering round an off road dealer spotted this XR650 Honda, the engine unit looks small and compact ... Hmmm could you squeeze it in a Minimono?
I fancy having a go and at these prices its hard to say no! Brand new complete machines £2600.
One of the guys in the shop races one and reckons 70 BHP is no problem, and they do 1000 mile races off road too.
I wonder how much weight I can get through hand lugage?

Not a bad run about.

While out looking for xr650 motors I spotted this in the traffic. Apparently Mr. Dell himself was driving it. Mind you I am in Texas...