One of my new year resolutions is to update my Norley, sort out a few problems and improve it here and there. Since I built it, I haven't used it much, and its spend most of its time sitting forlorn in the corner of my cold damp garage, which hasn't done the polished alloy much good.
So a few weeks ago I dragged it out of the garage and into the dry if small conservatory at the back of the house. The alloy polished up a treat, except for the tank. There are lots of fine scratches in the alloy which are taking many hours to remove. Having always been non committal on the virtues of polished alloy tanks... yes they look great in photos but are hell to live with, gaining scratches far too easily. Therefore I made the decision to paint the tank. Probably gloss black with gold pinstripes, though no doubt I'll change my mind a few times on the colour scheme.
Next I'll make new brake and gear change pedals, as the ones I used originally don't quite match the style of the bike, as they were meant for a modern bike. I'll also rework the gear change layout to put the link rod above the lever and not below. IT wont look quite as neat but it'll work better and leave more room around the exhaust.
Next it needs a front fender, I made a mount for a classic British alloy fender, but its too narrow and doesn't cover the tyre as is should. The good news is that painting the tank opens up more possibilities for the fender.. carbon, or painted plastic might work.
Then there's an annoying oil leak coming from the primary chain case, tricky to see from where, but it needs fixing.
Finally there's the electrics.. particularly the cheap switchgear and idiot lights which I want to upgrade. One of my other bikes is having a revamped wiring system fitted at the moment, using German Moto Gadget parts. They are expensive but hopefully worth the cost. If I'm happy with the results, I may decide to use the same supplier to upgrade the Norley electrics too.
No doubt they'll be lots of other small changes along the way.. such as making a mesh screen to the open velocity stack.. but these are the main changes I've got planned for 2018. I try not to work on more than one project at a time, so progress will be slow until a couple of other projects are completed.