Category Archives: Bike

What a crazy weekend

So a Classic Industries ‘mini tourer’ popped up on ebay last week for $1200, Buy It Now. It was an ’86 model, so fairly old shape, but I still couldn’t resist – that was basically what I had budgeted for building a trailer! So I phoned the guy, had a good chat, and bought it. I’ll ride down on the weekend to pick it up, thinks I – it’s in Canberra, but that’s only 4 hours each way. Do it on the bike, and it’ll cost 80 bucks, max.

7am Saturday morning rolls around, and off I ride.30 mins down the road, and all my auxiliary power devices shut down. iPod, GPS, autocom, etc. Check fuses, nope those are all good. Ended up with the tank raised, inside what I call the ‘Brain box’ – whee all the relays live on the k100. I have NO idea what I was thinking when I first wired the bike up, but I had a daisy chain cum star wiring next of earth wires to all the relays and various circuit feeds. And this was iffy. Messed with it for a while, thinking I’ll fix it tomorrow over a relaxing day, and got everything working. Back on the road again, 30 mins behind.

Roll off the throttle 15km before goulburn, and the bike dies. UGH! Pull over, she starts fine. Next time I roll off, same thing! Babied it into Goulburn, removed the fuel filter, up-ended it onto the driveway, and wow, that’s a lot of water and other crap!

Continue to Canberra, no probs. It’s way too hot, so I strap my jacket across the back seat, and continue on in my tshirt. I haven’t burnt in over 10 years, so I’m not scared of the sun. I remember back to my Summernats days, the Maori guys would be lathering up with sunscreen, I never bothered, I just get more brown, if anything..

Arrive in Canberra at the sellers house, and bugger me, I’m going red! UV must be through the roof today! Trailer is a little beauty though! Went across to Duffy to catch up with my best man for a while, then headed off northbound.

Wow, the trailer moves around! The seller, Allan, did say you need to have a certain amount of weight in it. Apparently the bag of soil he put in for me wasn’t enough 🙁 ‘well, I have an esky’, I think, though it isn’t currently mounted – it’s sitting inside the trailer. I buy three bags of ice at the next servo (and some drinks), and the trailer is now towing perfectly!

20km short of Goulburn, the bike starts playing up again – the same old dying on power-off problem as on the way down! I manage to baby it to Goulburn, empty the filter, yup it’s got water again! I go buy a 20l jerry can (cost me 60 bucks!!), remove the tank, and drain the tank into it – wow there was a lot of gunk! Reassemble the bike, and off I go again. By this time, it’s 8pm! I get 10km down the road, and the problem re-appears! I managed to baby it another 15km, then it gave up totally, and would not fire at all.

Ended up getting towed to Goulburn, mrs drove down and picked me up, and towed the trailer home, then I did another trip down to get the bike on the Sunday. Time to look at the bike during the week!

All up, I was on the road for 34hr continuously – not a good weekend!

And she’s running! (and I figured out the tow bar mounting..)

WOOOO, she’s all back together, and what do you know.. It runs perfectly!
The speedo is a bit dicky, and it seems there’s an issue with switching to the driving light relay, but it’s running! Oh, and rego is renewed, so I can ride her tomorrow 🙂
Figured out the towbar mount – seems the towbar on an ’84 K100 is very different to that on a later model K100! Email me if you want pics for your own bike 🙂

Where on earth do I get a 1mm dia, 6mm long spring??

So the rear end of the bike all came off today, and the gear position sensor is out.. And one of the three springs inside it (it looks just like a key tumbler, except it’s running on electrical conducting grooves instead of a key!) is totally mangled! Will try hitting up locksmiths, and see what gives!

Dodgy Gear position sensor stopping the bike starting??

So I decided to see if I could figure out the dash problems that are stopping the K100 from starting.. – Waiting on the paint to set nicely before I hit it with cutting compound, so thought it was time to work on other things.. LOTS of mucking around later, I’d finally tracked it back to the first of the three sensor wires coming off the gear position sensor being faulty.. Thankfully I’m told that I don’t have to pull the gearbox down to pull the sensor off.. Seems that the neutral sense comes from that wire, hence not being able to start it.. *totally* disconnect the sensor, and at least I can start it with the clutch it – seems having just one wire wrong totally confuses the dash!
Nope that’s right.. I *only* have to remove the rear wheel, final drive, footpeg mounts, muffler mount, pannier mounts.. oh, the swingarm and rear shock.. But I guess that’s easier than dropping the gearbox 😉