Resuscitating The old Dog
I mentioned in my introduction the rear suspension seemed a " little harsh", to be honest it was harsher than a Russian winter. On closer investigation it was solid! I rolled the bike up on to the bench and tried to put it up on to the centre stand and guess what, the centre stand was rusted solid too. I recall greater flexibility from the leader of the postal workers union during the big strike in the seventies! I put the bike on the side stand shuffled the bikes around the workshop so that I could get to Violet's rear end and pinch her bobbins! Who is Violet? Well she is my high speed touring touring bike, I built her to replace the FJR1300. Violet is based around a 2002 stolen recovered TLR that I bought from an insurance auction site (snowed in at Heathrow with too much time on my hands). Combine most of the TLR with an FJR 1300 rear sub-frame an fitting etc and a Bandit fairing . Powder coat the frame and fitting in signal violet and you have my girly version of the all back and overly macho Vincent
I digress back to the old dog
With the bobbins fitted and the paddock stand hooked up, the strip down begins. It soon becomes apparent that salt feeds on the DL1000 (Yum Yum Burp!), so that every joint on the exhaust system is rusted to nothing (all falls apart as I remove). Paint is an endangered species around the rear sub frame, the centre stand and the rear carrier. All the plating has deserted the nuts and bolts! The sprockets are knacked, but the chain is in good condition ("what the phuck"). Time to switch from paddock stand to modified scissor jack and front wheel clamp. With the back wheel removed (I can't tell you what a joy it was extracting the spindle!) I drop the dog bones and nothing moves!! Off comes the rear shock swing arm and link. Too tired and too pissed-off to kick through the heaps of scrap on the floor, I turn off the lights in the workshop and head indoors; it's time for copious amounts of tinto collapso and bed!
