Is today the day?

As last weekend had ended so positively, I wanted to ride the wave of success and get as much done as possible. In terms of starting the bike for the first time, I was only a few steps away but they were rather large steps. As you can see from the photo, last week I had also managed to connect the tank, which I forgot to mention in the last blog post.

The first visit on the cards was to KAS Racepaint and the trip was rewarded with a nice chat and collection of my steel rims. As soon as I got home, the rims were coated silver with as close a match to the alloy colour as possible.

Shortly afterwards, the mandatory visit to Replay Scooters with some parts of Dad’s 2011 engine was made. We also wanted had to obtain some information on ignitions. The visit coincided with Steve Conneely's visit too. His bike not only looks great but sounds the dogs too! The cinnamon coffees finished off the trip and I had some encouraging words from Steve and Chalkie regarding the blog which made me a happy.

In terms of staring the bike, there were just two things that needed to be completed, the front brake, and the exhaust mount. Having swapped out the existing Nissin master cylinder for a Grimeca one (which we have more spares for) last weekend, after leaving it overnight for the bubbles to enter the master cylinder, there was still no pressure.

This was strange primarily because we had only disconnected the master cylinder meaning, in theory, every component below i.e. hose and slave cylinder, should remain as before. As we didn’t know the history of the master cylinder though, we were in doubt of its functionality. Before we swapped it out for the original one though, we thought we’d give one more thing a go.

Equipped with a hose, syringe and spanner, we stared to bleed the fluid into the hose, we filled the syringe from the master cylinder and forced some fluid in. Assuming the bubbles were at the top of the hose we guessed that by now we should have been feeling some pressure. Unfortunately, there was no pressure.

However, in the following minutes we solved it. By sucking fluid, it became apparent that there was air in the slave cylinder?! Recycling the sucked fluid into the master cylinder ended with a fully bled brake line. The only minor issue was on the last lever squeeze, the syringe actually exploded in my Dads face. A bit of water got the fluid off and despite the hiccough, the brake felt fantastic. It didn't take too long to have the routing sorted either.

As the exhaust was off, I took the opportunity to make some timing markings on the magneto cover as I had been told the ones already there were probably no good. Using a trusty dial gauge in the spark plug hole, I marked top dead centre (TDC). I also made some marks at 15 and 20 degrees before TDC in order to strobe her up.

The last steps were to reattach the exhaust and make the temporary electrical connections. The exhaust was done with the unfinished bracket and was very quick to do; I’d had some practice with it. The electrics were also pretty much in place so those connections and checks went without issues.

The bike was pushed in trepidation up the drive and the fuel and choke turned on. I popped it in gear and pushed. Seconds later, realising our efforts were futile, we stopped. The clutch most definitely needed adjusting. A few more minutes passed and the second push, this time solo, also went without a peep from the engine. I gave in and let the older, more experienced rider be the pilot and I went back to my more familiar pushing, something Chalkie and others who have seen me about the paddock can tell you many a story about.

The first run was good we had a couple of fires and simply ran out of road. Second try and I told Dad to not start it so we could get third time lucky for the audience we had (Mum and Steve of Ambivent). Unfortunately though, it started! What a shock. It was fantastic. My dream was coming true. We spent the next few minutes testing the machine up and down the drive. Brakes, clutch and suspension all felt really good. One thing to fix was the steering stop, which made the turning circle really bad. But I’d had one massively positive day. Really great! Smiling and shaking with adrenalin, I put the bike on its stand for some fixing and fettling the following day. Fredo Frogs and Fudges all round!

With the short amount of time I had left, we fitted some M8 retaining nuts on the exhaust bracket to make life easier with it coming on and off. The evening was cut short though with a night out to celebrate.

Race Scooter: All events occurred 10th March 2012