G'day blokes,
The name is Johnno, Im 46 and have been riding bikes for 20+ years.
18 months ago I highsided my ZX14 at about 70 mph and speared head first into a tree resulting in major spinal injuries (9 vertabrae in neck and spine), fractures to 6 ribs (punctured lung), sternum and my right collar bone.
worse of of I got a Traumatic brain injury and I have been in rehab between bouts of surgury for about 18 months
This has resulted in a lot of time on my hands..... Time for a project.
I spent some dough getting my old 81 XJ550 shipped to melbourne from under my mates house in Hobart where it had lived for the last 18 years. Once I had got it home, I removed the timing cover and was amazed to find that the engine had not seized and was easily turned by hand...... bloody ripper.
I got a mate around and we drained the carby bowls (which had super fuel in them, not unleaded), popped a fresh battery in, worked out which wires to cross to turn on the ignition ( the barrel was missing) and hit the starter.
After about 5 seconds of cranking it FIRED UP.... wooo hoooo, and blew the rusty innards of the muffler all over my nice white garage wall. my mate reckoned the bike sounded great and was not making any noises that would indicate that rebuilding the engine was necessary (phew).
Anyway, as Im running a bit short on cash, the project will be done in 2 stages.
Stage 1. getting the bike road worthy (so I can ride it as a commuter along with my dads old R65). Im currently going through the bike, changing bearings/bushes, renewing brakes (complete rebuild), fixing smashed bits, replacing lost bits and fixing rusty bits.
Stage 2. Cafe racer mods including complete strip down, clean, powdercoating frame, suspension upgrades, cafe racer style tank and seat, clubman bars, new acewell instrumentation, dominator headlights. Plus what ever else i can dream up.
I would have loved to do a single shock conversion to the bike as well, but in australiam as soon as you take the gas axe to the frame, the whole thing has to be certified by an engineer before it can be registered on the road. So that costs BIG bucks.... oh well.
Cheers
OZ
The name is Johnno, Im 46 and have been riding bikes for 20+ years.
18 months ago I highsided my ZX14 at about 70 mph and speared head first into a tree resulting in major spinal injuries (9 vertabrae in neck and spine), fractures to 6 ribs (punctured lung), sternum and my right collar bone.
worse of of I got a Traumatic brain injury and I have been in rehab between bouts of surgury for about 18 months
This has resulted in a lot of time on my hands..... Time for a project.
I spent some dough getting my old 81 XJ550 shipped to melbourne from under my mates house in Hobart where it had lived for the last 18 years. Once I had got it home, I removed the timing cover and was amazed to find that the engine had not seized and was easily turned by hand...... bloody ripper.
I got a mate around and we drained the carby bowls (which had super fuel in them, not unleaded), popped a fresh battery in, worked out which wires to cross to turn on the ignition ( the barrel was missing) and hit the starter.
After about 5 seconds of cranking it FIRED UP.... wooo hoooo, and blew the rusty innards of the muffler all over my nice white garage wall. my mate reckoned the bike sounded great and was not making any noises that would indicate that rebuilding the engine was necessary (phew).
Anyway, as Im running a bit short on cash, the project will be done in 2 stages.
Stage 1. getting the bike road worthy (so I can ride it as a commuter along with my dads old R65). Im currently going through the bike, changing bearings/bushes, renewing brakes (complete rebuild), fixing smashed bits, replacing lost bits and fixing rusty bits.
Stage 2. Cafe racer mods including complete strip down, clean, powdercoating frame, suspension upgrades, cafe racer style tank and seat, clubman bars, new acewell instrumentation, dominator headlights. Plus what ever else i can dream up.
I would have loved to do a single shock conversion to the bike as well, but in australiam as soon as you take the gas axe to the frame, the whole thing has to be certified by an engineer before it can be registered on the road. So that costs BIG bucks.... oh well.
Cheers
OZ
