Empty...

Empty… sort of…  well that is what the beer shed is like at the moment...

Well after the seat & the frame being delivered to their respective custodians, the Beer Shed looked rather empty

What happened to the Love Cub

This caused me to reflect upon my week; well a heck of a lot of progress proves that this has been a good week, & to be entirely honest, I think that this success has been due to the work not costing much (that is, just involving me doing stuff in the shed, something that most men just live for anyway!).

Thus this marks a change in the project; from now on, the job will require “the Folding Stuff”, Cabbage, Moola, Coin, My best friend Mr Johnny (Cash)… in other words, money!

I will get the seat from the Upholsters first, I think it’s important to pay your debts & keep the local guys doing the good work still happy & contented (with happy & contented customers), rather than keep on putting things on Tabs that I may have trouble paying at a later date; this will only cause more bad Karma (& after the shenanigans of the front forks & the bolt, I figure anything I can do to help my cause will be worth it!)

The next job will be to start stripping the engine down, this way I can get the rings & bearings that are required ordered & start some engine progress.

I will also have to see if I can order a Keihin carburettor gasket kit & bits such as the fuel tap & the plastic heat shield as well.

                 

It looks so easy in black & white (pic courtesy of Jesse from work who would’ve stolen it from somewhere else on the interweb!)

AND considering the issue of the bolt, I’ll have to look at options for the plastic body work & how it affixes to the body… Hmm, it was so easy before the cash bit got involved!

I will really have to sit down & think about what will be required & when (given my particular constraints) I hope the Child Bride is as understanding for the next phase as she was for the stages up to now!

The next elephant in the room is the wheels; well the brake shoes are no good & will need to be replaced & the spokes are a different thing, some are very loose, others are very firm… Oh well, had better check with the Old Bike Boys in OJ to see where I can get the spokes & wheels redone. Although, I have yet to pull the rubber off of the rims (maybe a good job for when I return to the Beer Shed)

Anyway, I am away from the nerd-box for a while, so hopefully the next entry will be positive!

So mote it be

Leigh

Extracting it

Well the serenity of the Natural History interlude was short lived; out with my trusty old drill (it was a Black & Decker that I got for my 21^st – it was actually made in Australia, which is not something that one sees much with consumer goods these days!) I reckon that for all that I’ve put it thru in the past 20 years; it has been a fantastic tool.

Anyway, I compared the screw extractors to the drill bits I owned & selected one that was nicely sized so to allow the extractor to bite & remove the broken bolt…

Bugger, No joy…

Ok, so let’s get the drill out & use the next size up screw extractor…

No Joy…

The screw extractor is doing a nice job of scouring out the inside of bolt…

Oh I hate this; OK, so let’s try with an Allen key driven into the hole, at least this may bite into the insides of the bolt & allow me to smoothly extract the bolt, or, rotate it so that it can be removed from underneath

No Joy…

Hmmm, drama & burgeoning panic; SO, in order to feel better, Let’s rip some skin off of my knuckles for good measure… ARRGH

OK, so see if the file can bite into the broken bolt & loosen it… all it will take is a little move & the thing will spin freely…

Nope, not even close…  Well let’s just bloody well give up & bloody well file the bloody thing out then…  Hmmm, despite the chunks of steel bolt that have come out of the bolt hole, I have still got a problem

AND of course I now have to come up with a plan of how to hold the battery bracket… AND, to top it all off, I reckon that this will cause an issue with the plastic battery cover when I purchase one...

Fan-bloody-tastic

Bloody; Bum; Poo!

I can’t even console myself with any of the alcohol in the shed as I have to go pick up the boys this arvo

DAM IT ALL!

Anyway, In order not go nuts, I will have to consult the Workshop manual & see how the battery covers are kept closed; if it is a bolt that fits thru & tightens the cover & the black retainer I will have to look at options… if not, I will look at doing something like this…

The proposed battery retainer, oh I can just smell the panic with this idea!

Most of you will have noted the pure desperation of this idea; yep, I know I have a BIG problem… & I am in vain trying to sell myself the positive!

I will have to do this sooner rather than later too, because IF I need to do welding & associated hot work, it needs to be completed BEFORE I send the love cub to be spray painted (which of course will destroy any  of the paint!)

It also looks like I will be buying some of the plastic trim sooner rather than later (probably from E-bay…) as I will need to get the paint matched to the light blue plastic re-production parts & it is easier to do it in a job lot...(pity about the money bit!)

Next, let’s remove the Carburettor… & discover that the plastic heat shield thingy is broken too – this is probably going to cost heaps to replace as well! Oh well, I was after a real man’s hobby!

Hmm, so all the light blue plastic parts & the white side covers & a carby kit (if I can find the fuel tap bit… otherwise it is a whole new carby)

How the BLOODY hell could this job have turned out so BLOODY hard!

Bad Karma is all I can put it down to!

Now, so in future, I don’t have an issue with the innards of the engine, let’s plug the inlet & outlet to keep all the potential contamination out of it. Given everything that has gone wrong today, I don’t have an issue being a shade cautious at the moment. Some masking tape to widen out a couple of old down off cuts & I think I have an answer

The Cubs Donk - inlet & outlet plugged Leigh Style!

The positive of all this silly business is that the Old Donk will look schmick-o when the hydro blasting is completed…

Now how do I get this up to Dear Ol’ Dads place? Well in the Shopping trolley of course! – Rhonda the Honda; our families ever reliable Honda CRV!

A Honda in a Honda...

I did make sure to put down some old newspaper in the back of the car as I could just see anything going wrong if it possibly could after the past couple of hours on a five minute job! Now quickly up to Dear Ol Dads shed to deposit the Love Cub on a pallet & hopefully the old girl will be cleaned up the next time I see it!

Now quickly around to pick up the boys after school & start to obliterate the terrible memories of the easy 5 minute job!

So Mote it Be!

Leigh

Kangaroos in the Top Paddock

Well after the Child bride left for work, I headed out to the Shed to again return to Cub-vana.

Our House in OJ borders remnant bushland & it is a fantastic place for us to wander around in the summer. This is also doubly good as this place is home to a whole heap of native critters such as birds (Magpies, Galahs, Cockatoos & Kookaburras), Lizards (mainly Blue Tongues & other skinks)… along with the endemic Brown & Red belly blacksnakes. There is also a small creek that has yabbies in it as well… the high tension power-lines certainly provide a contrast too!

But form my point of view, one of the coolest things that lives there are the resident Mob of Kangaroos. As I was headed out to the shed, I looked over the back fence & saw these fellas merrily chewing away…

Yep, there she is...looking straight at the camera... I wonder what she is thinking

The thing is that this mob are happy to loaf around & enjoy life on the rifle range that is about 1 km from my house (except of course, when they are shooting!)

I always like to look out thru the window of the Beer Shed & to be honest, I am always pleased that wild life is so happy, so close to Town - Maybe it's a kinda Zen thing...  The funny thing is that people don’t seem to be as impressed with the snakes that come to visit us in suburbia!

You can see Skippy & his mates lounging around between the trees

Well I am feeling pretty good, a quick 10 minute job & I can say the progress has been blistering so far, after having some time with Trees, Marsupials & a Honda Cub in a beer shed; how much better could life be!

PS, For the sake of Stepthru & other non-Strine speakers, this blogs title is slang (all be it slightly archaic)  implies a insanity; definitely appropriate for a Cub owner in OJ!

So Mote it be

Leigh

Out 'n' About

Hi Anyone

So Friday was one of those mornings; it was hideously cold with a killer frost that just made me want to stay in bed… but by 7:30 I was happy & over a cup of tea & making the boys breakfast I decided that the Vespa would be out today!

So after the customary school run & a fabulous brewed Goroka Coffee to keep the caffeine bugs at bay, on with the spiffy wind proof jacket & the Helm of Vespa-might & out with the Oh So Subtle & Furious Silver Surfer…

The Ol Boy was a bit cantankerous after a month of sitting in the company of the bikes in our garage, but 3 kicks later & I screamed “It’s Alive!”

Oh I do love the smell of two stoke fumes in the morning, especially as I buzzed away from home. 

I had one serious piece of business for the day & that was to purchase my train ticket to Sydney, but that being said, I had just refuelled the Fast & Furious One yesterday morning & I thought, gee, I can get about 250 K’s on that refill…

Well let’s not just go to the train station & scoot straight back home, let’s enjoy the day. So first I was out to the south of OJ & riding about the old Gnoo Blas race circuit. The old circuit suits the Silver Surfer as they are both of a long gone era! Whilst this old track sounds rather cool & exclusive, much like Mt Panorama in Bathurst, it is in fact a public road so it is free to use, but due to other traffic, you must as always be careful when riding it. The 'famous' bit to Gnoo Blas was that was Sir Jack Brabham once raced here; & the Soccer fields close to town are named in his honour.

Anyway, I always like to surf a lap when I am on a ride as it is just so much fun!

Once upon a time cars raced over that road & bridge - now it is only a pedestrian feature; what were they thinking

Anyway, once I had done a couple of laps I decided to drive past the old OJ reservoirs spillway as well, why, well just because it was there…

A way cool way to look at country lanes!

After riding along a few country lanes singing ridiculous songs to the Surfers Buzz (stairway to heaven/ the Honda 50 song/all along the watchtower/ random beetles/beachboys/Elvis/whatever as long as it suits the Silver Surfers Personality – OLD!) I decided to surf into town to purchase my train tickets.

On the way in, I decided that I would drop by the World Famous Orange East Train station.

                

Unknown, even in OJ – The Orange East fork Railway station!

Believe it or not, you can catch a train from Perth in WA & the train will stop at Orange – although you stop at a horrendously early time, you can do it if you want to (4:30 AM) conversely, you can also catch a morning train to Sydney from here a couple of times a week.

The train is the world famous “Indian-Pacific” & I have to admit it is a cool way to arrive in a city… very Old School! If you look on one of the internet map services, you can see a small appendix at the start of Forrest road – this is the East Fork Railway station!

I don’t think the lady in the car was ready for such a cool car-park companion as the Surfer - either that or she thought i was a real Mod...

The glamor of the East Fork Railway Station was quickly replaced by the rather Victorian/Federation era class of the Orange railway Station; at least you can talk to somebody here & purchase a ticket to Sydney on the XPT! I can do this online, but I much prefer to do it in person & any excuse to Vespa!

So $37 later I was rather disappointed to find out that I would be on a Bus this weekend – even though they are quicker, I much prefer the dignified pace, food & style  of the XPT… OR maybe it is my chronic motion sickness that reduces the joy of long distance bus travel over the Blue Mountains for me… anyway, it doesn’t really matter; I need to get to Sydney on the afternoon of Sunday & if it was a bus, so be it… I just need to keep a spare travel sickness bag on me!

Now I thought that I would just go for a spin around the south west of town & enjoy the Autumnal splendor of OJ. I ended up riding out the Towac valley (hilly & turn-ey) so it is heaps of fun to buzz thru on a Vespa. This was about an hour of two stroke fun, enjoying every minute of the brisk bush air & the lovely smell of Eucalyptus & pine, something that is only able to be enjoyed on two wheels (or maybe walking…)

The Silver Surfer meets the Orange Rifle range (on the southern edge of OJ)… at this point I should point out that you are NOT supposed to ride thou that gate…

Next I thought that I would surf out to the north of Orange to Dear Ol' Dads workshop to say G’day (I hadn’t seen him at the boy’s birthday as he was away on business). 

So out to the yard to I went; rather quickly via the OJ bypass, still enjoying the fact that I was scooting about on my classic. Anyway, Dear Ol' Dad was all abuzz with his new plant machinery & was very proudly showing it to me – I’ll see if I can grab a shot of the Vespa meeting a new Drill at some time in the future... or maybe a pic of the Vespa parked beside his Gogomobile… (not the Dart!) Anyway, we can let that develop.

The big news as far as The Love Cub goes was that Dear Ol Dad had spoken to “Bonk” & they could hydroblast the Love Cub for me if I got my bum into gear & got it up there (Bonk does the hydroblasting at Dear Ol' Dads workshop). 

D’oh, The pressure is on, but at least I’d have an afternoon & a bit of time over the weekend to get myself in order! Well at least I know what I would be doing next!

A Phone call from the Child Bride broke my conversation; she was heading home for lunch. I thought that I should get home & Join her - Racing home Returning home in the dignified & respectable manner that one associates with a classic Vespa took me back thou the centre of town waving to the Riff Raff, tooting the Surfers tinny horn at the kids & having a ball. Lunch was a simple left over affair, but hey, I was just pumped from the groovy ride & knowing that the hydrobalsting was going to happen!

Post lunch would see the extraction of that one bolt & delivery (Fingers Crossed) of the various Cub bits to Dear Ol’ Dads workshop so Bonk could blast it for me… but that is a story for another day!

So Mote it Be!  

Leigh

Shocking!

So following the success of the special tool, I mounted the fork up on my work bench & proceeded to remove the suspension assembly.

I first got some off cut galvanized steel & made some “soft Jaws” for my vice (there is no way I wanted the forks to be scarred by my lack of care so early on in the piece!

And into it!

To be honest, I have been frustrated about a lot of things in my life; but good grief, removing the front suspension from a Cub has to be one of the most frustrating things I have done in a loooooooooong time.

I assume that a “special” tool would make this a quick & simple job! Fantastic IF I had one and I don’t!  D’oh, D’oh & triple D’oh!

So after a couple of attempts with various tools that I did have, I settled on a spanner & a pair of needle nose vice grips. I could undo the nut about 10 degrees of movement before the spanner would touch the other side of the forks.

Yep, this is as frustrating at it looks

Talk about slow!

And THEY wonder why we drink… the temptation is huge as well (at this point I feel I must point out that I am in my old beer shed after all & there heaps of home brew sitting about the place…!)

I just know that this will be a real pain in the bum to put back too – but at least I have a bit of time to think about that job & do some research on it too!

I am not too sure how to judge the condition of motorcycle suspension bits, but I figured given the general poor condition of the Love Cub, replacing the springs, dampers, rubber bushings & the bearings will at least see a safe & sturdy ride.

The big shock was the presence of cobwebs & (old) egg sacs from a red back spider (or two) that must’ve been living inside the forks… I knew no one had been using the Love Cub, but, this bit was a bit “confirming” of the general neglect of the Old Girl!

The front suspension...with the spiders egg-sacks!

So with this completed, I felt as though I had achieved something good! And to top it all off Benny was feeling better already (with his temperature nicely returning to normal!)

Time to go pick up Dan & on the way home I will need to buy a screw extractor kit (I remembered that I still had a snapped off bolt that needed to be removed… & I thought that I would be able to tinker tonight!)

The Chinese made  screw extractors cost a mere $10. Yep – you gets what you pays for, but it is only a mild steel bolt & I am fairly sure that it will be fit for purpose!

Anyway, when I returned I put a heap of penetrating oil into the area to assist with the extraction, but due to having to cook dinner I could not get to extracting the broken bolt

Hmm, if things continue to go this well, I may, just may get a Buzz in on the Silver Surfer on Friday (A rather grand way to knock off some errands whilst I am out enjoying a Buzz too!)

So Mote It Be!

Leigh

Special Tool Time

With Benny actually not in need of 24 hour helicopter parenting I then went to indulge in some cub time.

Given the slight change in scope, the allotted job for now was the de-forking of the cub (which sounds like something they do to chickens…)

 I had planned to do this any way, (but just not today) so I had purchased a 32mm socket (as recommended by the workshop manual) when I was at the hardware store earlier in the week (to be honest, I actually went to an Auto parts place on the way home). For the first time in a long time I can say, yes, there was good planning in something that I was doing on a break!

Anyway, the Haynes manual had recommended that I improvise a 3mm wide “staple” that would allow the socket to drive the handle bar retaining nut.

Initially I had the idea of making a “proper” improvised special tool with some key steel (that I had found on the driveway outside my house one day). I thought I would file it down, weld it together & have a “Custom Made Honda Cub Fork Nut Removal Special Tool”. This would go down rather well to the Uber-Nerd Honda Cub loving Vespa riding side of me…

So, into the vice & out with the file…

The section of key steel...

D’oh this is hard; so let’s try pressing “down” on the key steel instead (mechanical advantage & all)

OK, the previous way didn't work & neither does this...

Nope… Ten minutes was enough filing to realize that I was on a caning to nothing! If I continued this would take forever!

I thought I would check before starting with the hacksaw...

Then I remembered the off cut steel that I used on the seat… & the fact that I had a nice length of it left over… AND that it was easy to cut with my hacksaw…

Like a Hacksaw thru non-hardened steel

How much better is this!

So a couple of bends in the vice & a quick file to get the outside profile into something that resembled the diagram in the book. This was a bit loose; so rather than risking catastrophe, I decided to add in an additional staple to make sure that the nut was freed without damage… more hacksawing & bending & swearing later yippee, succeeded in getting the dammed handle bars & forks off

I put the staple onto the retaining nut...

...before adding the other staple & putting the socket on top

After a small success like this I am beginning to feel like a mechanic (if only a bad one!)

So the ball bearings fell out as soon as I lifted the top of the handlebar assembly out, & the same happened as I removed the forks too. The grease inside looked a bit gritty, but then, I don’t have any new grease to compare it with either.

The topless fork assembly!

There was a plastic dust seal at the top of the handle bars, this turned out to be broken as well (another thing on the list that I will have to buy before I can put it together) probably sooner rather than later!

With the forks free I could remove the steering lock... 

Ahh the bright green screwdriver may look funny but it does stand out!

 I intend to replace the fork bearings anyway as I reckon that they would’ve coped heaps of abuse as the farmers run-around-bike so the broken plastic doesn’t worry me too much at the moment. I will just have to see if I can read a part number on the sides of the bearings when I pull them out. Looks like I will need a heap of grease for them as well. 

I will have to save up & buy all this all at the same time… I will even consult my workshop manual for the correct grease, part & bearing numbers; how is that for project management & planning ahead!

So Mote it Be

Leigh