The joy of wheels
May. 25th, 2007 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lprovenI've got it, it works and it goes like stink - better than ever.
Well. It's been a long road. John Hogsden of Hartgate M/Cs saw my last post and he wasn't too happy with my comment that it's been over 3 years. Sorry about that, John.
It's been a hell of a job and Hartgate and John have done excellent work. I know, it has taken a long time, but it's been a significant amount of one-off custom engineering, and not only have they done an excellent job, they have, overall, been exceptionally cheap, too. Owning a custom motorcycle is, alas, a very expensive hobby.
When I got the trike from the Trike Shop in Cardiff in about 2001, it wasn't running. I took it to Big Four Engineering in Whaley Bridge up in the Peak District. It's got to be said that they didn't do a great job. When I went to collect it and take it for its MOT, they'd forgotten to fit a speedo cable. It passed its MOT no problem, then on my way home, it died after a few miles; the engine control unit failed. So they came and picked me up, took it back, replaced the ECU and I set off again. It had a bit of an oil leak, though. The clutch cover was badly bashed up in the original crash in '94 and they'd not only not replaced it, but when re-fitting it, as far as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kjersti to do her Compulsory Basinc Training on it - and their top man John said he'd be happy to do it.
I bet he rues that day!
Actually, the handbrake and so on went fine. I found an old Metro one cheap from a breaker's down on the Purley Way in Waddon and soon afterwards I had my MOT.
The first time that it really proved to be a pain was when in my efforts to retension the chain I overdid it, and a trip togeoffcampbell 's in Wales ate my rear sprocket. A new sprocket and the cover for the diff was only about a tenner, but fitting it took weeks of work for poor John and meant modifying - and effectively ruining - a press to pull the diff apart then close it again. I think that cost me £400, and because of problems getting the sprocket aligned straight afterwards, I missed my boat to Denmark for RanCon and had to fly Ryanair instead. So on top of my £70 air fare, I lost the £265-odd boat fare, too.
Then all was fine for a while, until I went up tosnowyfeline 's for her 16th birthday do, and thence, the next day, to Sheffield to see She Who Was theladyeve /squashed_lime . It died shortly after leaving Nadin's place, just as I got into the hills of the Peak District, and it took 3 trucks and more than 8h for the AA to get me home.
Next Feb, I took it into Hartgate's again. John diagnosed a failed big end bearing - which, realistically, on a 15yo bike, means a new engine. Only ZZR1100C1 engines are hard to find these days. He and I both spent ages ringing around, searching online and so on, to no avail. We found a few engines but they were all really expensive - £600 upwards.
Thenthe_major came into the picture. She used her contacts and knowledge of the motor trade to ask around and came up with a good ZZR engine with a knackered gearbox. My engine was knackered, but the gearbox was fine. She gave it to me for my birthday in 2005. Big ugly greasy pressie, but I was delighted. She had to drive all the way to Grimsby in her mum's car to get it, then back to London to me - I met her at Golders Green and guided her back to here.
The next day, we took it to Hartgate. I introduced their engineer, Clive, to Clara. "Oh," he said, "is this your daughter?"
"No," she said firmly. "I'm his girlfriend."
I thought we were on the home straight then, but no. Reassembling the bike took a while, but then John hit another problem: the exhaust was rotted through. Again we phoned around looking for a ZZR exhaust - not the silencers, the header pipes. No joy. In the end, the cheapest option I found was a Motad kit. I phoned John to tell him, to discover that the same day, he'd come to the same conclusion and gone and ordered it.
That, I believe, fitted, but it wasn't possible to reconnect it to the existing terminal part of the system. The Trike Shop now make their own exhaust systems, because for many bikes, it all has to be rerouted to go around the rear axle and suspension. They did a much more basic job in 2001 or so when they did mine. Basically, the silencers were 2 chromed bits of scaffold tube - no back pressure, no actual muffling, but shiny and very loud. They came out underneath the suspension, meaning that my ground clearance was about 2cm. I ground out on the white lines on the road, 2 up.drpete racked up the suspension to its maximum, hardest settings, which ameliorated that a bit. Oh, and when I got it, the front brakes didn't work - old hoses, not drained in years, so I had to rely on the back brakes. Setup Engineering in Wandsworth sorted that out for me - new braided Goodridge hoses, carbon pads and so on.
So John at Hartgate had to basically rip out the whole exhaust system, fit a new Motad upper system, a new silencer which runs through the box holding the differential, and custom fabricate the pipework to link the two. It's a lot quieter now - but not quiet! It's still very rorty - but also, it's legal and it delivers proper back-pressure so the trike runs better.
I think he's had to rig up flashing hazard lights to comply with yet more recent legislation, too.
I have to admit, poor old Bessie the Burgundy Beast is looking a little sad. She's been sleeping outside a lot, and it's taken a bit of a toll. I'll give her a thorough top-to-bottom clean when I get to the Isle of Man, but even though John's resprayed the mudguards on the rear wheels for me, I think a total respray might be in order, when I have paid off this bill.
But it's all been a lot cheaper than I was expecting. He's not only not making much of a profit out of me, I am sure he's taking quite a loss on it.
It's been a long road, but I am very, very happy to have her back again. Let's just hope she gets me to Confounding Tales all right tomorrow - and then on to the centenary TT races, boats permitting.
Summary: Hartgate are excellent. They've done a wonderful job and have always pulled through for me in the end. I can't recommend them highly enough. The Trike Shop are also, I reckon, the country's best trike builders, if not Europe's, and Setup Engineering are the chaps to talk to for brake and suspension works on bikes. If they can handle Bessie, they'll handle anything.
Anyone up for the Download festival afterwards? :¬) I don't really want to go on my own...
Well. It's been a long road. John Hogsden of Hartgate M/Cs saw my last post and he wasn't too happy with my comment that it's been over 3 years. Sorry about that, John.
It's been a hell of a job and Hartgate and John have done excellent work. I know, it has taken a long time, but it's been a significant amount of one-off custom engineering, and not only have they done an excellent job, they have, overall, been exceptionally cheap, too. Owning a custom motorcycle is, alas, a very expensive hobby.
When I got the trike from the Trike Shop in Cardiff in about 2001, it wasn't running. I took it to Big Four Engineering in Whaley Bridge up in the Peak District. It's got to be said that they didn't do a great job. When I went to collect it and take it for its MOT, they'd forgotten to fit a speedo cable. It passed its MOT no problem, then on my way home, it died after a few miles; the engine control unit failed. So they came and picked me up, took it back, replaced the ECU and I set off again. It had a bit of an oil leak, though. The clutch cover was badly bashed up in the original crash in '94 and they'd not only not replaced it, but when re-fitting it, as far as
kjersti to do her Compulsory Basinc Training on it - and their top man John said he'd be happy to do it.I bet he rues that day!
Actually, the handbrake and so on went fine. I found an old Metro one cheap from a breaker's down on the Purley Way in Waddon and soon afterwards I had my MOT.
The first time that it really proved to be a pain was when in my efforts to retension the chain I overdid it, and a trip to
geoffcampbell 's in Wales ate my rear sprocket. A new sprocket and the cover for the diff was only about a tenner, but fitting it took weeks of work for poor John and meant modifying - and effectively ruining - a press to pull the diff apart then close it again. I think that cost me £400, and because of problems getting the sprocket aligned straight afterwards, I missed my boat to Denmark for RanCon and had to fly Ryanair instead. So on top of my £70 air fare, I lost the £265-odd boat fare, too.Then all was fine for a while, until I went up to
snowyfeline 's for her 16th birthday do, and thence, the next day, to Sheffield to see She Who Was theladyeve /squashed_lime . It died shortly after leaving Nadin's place, just as I got into the hills of the Peak District, and it took 3 trucks and more than 8h for the AA to get me home.Next Feb, I took it into Hartgate's again. John diagnosed a failed big end bearing - which, realistically, on a 15yo bike, means a new engine. Only ZZR1100C1 engines are hard to find these days. He and I both spent ages ringing around, searching online and so on, to no avail. We found a few engines but they were all really expensive - £600 upwards.
Then
the_major came into the picture. She used her contacts and knowledge of the motor trade to ask around and came up with a good ZZR engine with a knackered gearbox. My engine was knackered, but the gearbox was fine. She gave it to me for my birthday in 2005. Big ugly greasy pressie, but I was delighted. She had to drive all the way to Grimsby in her mum's car to get it, then back to London to me - I met her at Golders Green and guided her back to here.The next day, we took it to Hartgate. I introduced their engineer, Clive, to Clara. "Oh," he said, "is this your daughter?"
"No," she said firmly. "I'm his girlfriend."
I thought we were on the home straight then, but no. Reassembling the bike took a while, but then John hit another problem: the exhaust was rotted through. Again we phoned around looking for a ZZR exhaust - not the silencers, the header pipes. No joy. In the end, the cheapest option I found was a Motad kit. I phoned John to tell him, to discover that the same day, he'd come to the same conclusion and gone and ordered it.
That, I believe, fitted, but it wasn't possible to reconnect it to the existing terminal part of the system. The Trike Shop now make their own exhaust systems, because for many bikes, it all has to be rerouted to go around the rear axle and suspension. They did a much more basic job in 2001 or so when they did mine. Basically, the silencers were 2 chromed bits of scaffold tube - no back pressure, no actual muffling, but shiny and very loud. They came out underneath the suspension, meaning that my ground clearance was about 2cm. I ground out on the white lines on the road, 2 up.
drpete racked up the suspension to its maximum, hardest settings, which ameliorated that a bit. Oh, and when I got it, the front brakes didn't work - old hoses, not drained in years, so I had to rely on the back brakes. Setup Engineering in Wandsworth sorted that out for me - new braided Goodridge hoses, carbon pads and so on.So John at Hartgate had to basically rip out the whole exhaust system, fit a new Motad upper system, a new silencer which runs through the box holding the differential, and custom fabricate the pipework to link the two. It's a lot quieter now - but not quiet! It's still very rorty - but also, it's legal and it delivers proper back-pressure so the trike runs better.
I think he's had to rig up flashing hazard lights to comply with yet more recent legislation, too.
I have to admit, poor old Bessie the Burgundy Beast is looking a little sad. She's been sleeping outside a lot, and it's taken a bit of a toll. I'll give her a thorough top-to-bottom clean when I get to the Isle of Man, but even though John's resprayed the mudguards on the rear wheels for me, I think a total respray might be in order, when I have paid off this bill.
But it's all been a lot cheaper than I was expecting. He's not only not making much of a profit out of me, I am sure he's taking quite a loss on it.
It's been a long road, but I am very, very happy to have her back again. Let's just hope she gets me to Confounding Tales all right tomorrow - and then on to the centenary TT races, boats permitting.
Summary: Hartgate are excellent. They've done a wonderful job and have always pulled through for me in the end. I can't recommend them highly enough. The Trike Shop are also, I reckon, the country's best trike builders, if not Europe's, and Setup Engineering are the chaps to talk to for brake and suspension works on bikes. If they can handle Bessie, they'll handle anything.
Anyone up for the Download festival afterwards? :¬) I don't really want to go on my own...
