One busy Saturday later......

A week away put things on hold but with the promise of a box of carbon goodies from Peter at Oronero Friday couldn't come soon enough, oh and some home cooking would go down well also. I received a text from my wife, Liz, at 07.45 letting me know that a large apparently empty box had arrived, luckily she just managed to get dressed before dashing to meet the postman.   

Black gold had indeed landed on the doorstep, all I had to do was to get home from Crawley. Incidentally if anyone knows of anywhere decent to eat in Crawley please let me know it's a dire place.  
So calls were made and Stuart was happy to pop up Saturday and get stuck in and deliver the footpegs he'd been working on. Various tasks then ensued, Stuart got stuck into fitting the radiator and guard, followed by the hose kit. Whilst I "borrowed" bits off my 888 starting with these calipers.

A nice pair of billet brakes which will be paired with a Brembo radial master cylinder, hopefully they should do the job required. The rear sets bought by Rob Scheuer, president on the UKMOC, were fitted and of course adjustments and parts were required. More "borrowing" from the SSie gave up some gear change rod ends. The brake push rod was also relieved of it's position but this was found to be a little too long at minimum adjustment to give the required angle on the "I don't use it anyway" rear brake. Stuart was subsequently tasked with making a shorter one from a 6mm cap screw. He's also narrowing the front wheel spacer by 1mm to get the wheel back in the centre of the forks. This would have a been a much simpler solution than the previous owners shim method behind one caliper to stop it fouling the disc. Stuart being the owner of a lathe was also tasked with making a spacer for the new front brake protector, neither of the two supplied fitted the Renthal bars. In the meantime between cups of tea and coffee various parts were test fitted and checked, Loctited if good or listed for later work if required. We even discussed pit stop strategy and decided that as Liz is the lady of the team she should be doing the visor cleaning and a bit of dusting.

       
Most surprisingly the oil cooler was in almost mint condition and married with a new oil feed hose and fittings looks resplendent. They're all hidden by the fairing, but I know they're there. The carbon air box goes straight in with a pair of velocity stacks, each the size of a small tornado.

So come Sunday morning I have a basket full of goodies on eBay to press buy on, a selection of titanium pre drilled bolts and general bike build ephemera. This week I'll test fit the exhaust and make a decision on which to use, the original or the set off my 888 along with ordering hose clips, Bendix pads and chase up the paintwork.  

     
Apologies to the purists but a Japanese part may have sneaked under the radar.
Up until now I've been reluctant to ask and have been very appreciative of the offers of tyres and the assistance by my main sponsors but, if you'd like to get your name on the bike for the Classic by sponsoring test days, oil or even an oil filter please drop me a line at stafford@metronet.co.uk