If you want the really top secret low down , you'll have to guess what i'm planning on doing with 2 years of stored colourful beach parking tickets in my glove box in the isuzu panther, accumulated from all nooks and crannies of this fine island. No guarantees yet on this one, but the cogs are turning. Visuals pending on this one, the panther is getting some of his own body work tended to at the mo, rendering glove box photography negative.
Not too worried about keeping things "top-secret" like Tom (Tom, don't keep your top-secret ideas laminated A4 lying around, ha) anyway, I'm sick of the cliched street tracker style, so I wanna keep things a little "square" like the GL PRO was intended to be, kinda like the tail on this bad boy. Lamp and guards will also be a little "squarer" than normal. Ok, so everyone's updating so I will too...
Normally I wouldn't bother unless I had some exciting visuals to go with it, but I guess I have a few good stories from the past few days. 1st - Plan A/B was combined and i found a "reputable" variasi GL PRO total front brake package. Kept my original disc though, which took 20min of screwdriver man-handling to get the new caliper to fit. But it's on now and it works. 2nd- Not having a fuel gauge on my bike, petrol levels are left to intuition. Leaving the bengkel today I wondered why my previously smooth engine was losing torque in 3rd gear... then 2nd gear... then cut-out in 1st!? 10sec of pre-meditated bengkel retribution...then i remembered that characteristic spluttery cut-out... no fuel. Lucky i was right next to the Canggu pump! 3rd- Seems I'm losing the lead to Tom. Was planning on leaving my bike at the body shop while I was in oz for chrissy and come back to a pimped-out machine, but he's got 15 bikes on the go in a 4x4m floor space, so gotta wait til after NY. Doh! Plan "A" was to find an original Honda replacement piston for my front caliper. After various dead-ends I opted for plan "B", a new twin-piston variasi caliper requiring a custom steel plate to fit it to my bike. The "steel" plate ended up being cut from aluminium, not steel, and came with a nice hairline crack running right through it. Despite being told "It's fine, don't worry" I refused the part and now have a LOT less confidence in the competence of a certain mechanic. Will now have another shot at plan "A", perhaps just buying a new Honda caliper if I can find one!
I've only had my bike for two days, but I think I've already clocked up more ridng hours on it than my rivals! I'm going for a different tact to the both of them- maximise ride time using the bike as a daily ride, keeping it always operational, with the odd one or two day stint in the bengkel. This is part strategy and part necessity (I don't have anything else to ride and they both have nice KLXs to get around on) but I'll take an edge where I can! I'm pretty sure that seeing me burning around on my bike on a daily basis (see pic) will stress them out and skew their modifikasi judgement. That, and also I'll be gaining early street attention while they're still stuck back at base! While time is working against my rivals during this busy time of the year, I on the other hand are letting time work for me. Whilst I am relaxing here with a beer the old NEO TECH 1600 is being lovingly restored to top health with an overnight treatment at salon Honda. "PAKET SERVIS 1 - Servis Lengkap", what you see to your left, is what's on the menu for her spa treatment. After recieving feedback from the Honda bengkel tomorow I will take a trip into "Tiga Berlian" mega spare-parts storehouse and pick up anything that Honda no longer stocks. Then it will be straight to the variasi boys for some fat black rims, enduro tyres and longer rear springs. By then she should be running super sweet and starting to show a little flare. |
Steve
Enough modif for now, let's just ride these bad boys for a while. I need to start surfing again! Archives
February 2012
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