I know I have been missing for some months now, and I swear, there is good reason. You see, I do not call myself The Fragile Biker for nothing, my Meatsuit is not the steadiest thing in the world, kinda like that old bike that you keep riding even though the bolts rattle loose and strange sounds happen in movable parts.

I was on a roll, the Tracker build was going well, everything was falling into place and I really got into the groove. But my back rapidly started to crap out. Eventually to the point where walking was becoming a mission. So the work slowed down, the motivation waned and the build ground to a halt.

Thankfully, I have an amazing Pain Specialist and he got me into theatre and did his magic. This entailed turning off the pain signals for all the nerve clusters along my spine. A little bit of rehab and the pain faded away, mostly.

Unfortunately, the passion for the build took a while to resurface. And it did, but there was no energy left in me to write and update this tiny blog about my missions.

So let me catch you up on everything that has happened over the last few months.

Wheel Bearings!

These were pesky little bastards. Starting with the back wheel, there was one that was seized, and as luck would have it, both bearings were pushed all the way in until they snugged up to the spacer sleeve leaving no way for a bearing puller to be used.

So it was off to a good buddy and we tried all the things to no avail. He knew he knew how to do it, he just couldn’t remember, until he did. This involved a welding machine and a piece of scrap metal. Weld the scrap tot he bearing, flip over the wheel and klap it out. That worked like a bomb.

I managed to get a replacement bearing and we quickly smooshed it in with an awesome hydraulic press.

Now the front wheel, when it came off, was pretty much the same. So now that I knew what to do, I dug out my dad’s old welder and created the most beautiful welds anyone has ever seen. You know that beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder, right 😉

I managed to replace both bearings there and boom, all done.

Tyres!

I thought I had found the tyres I wanted, but it was pointed out by another good buddy that they didn’t last long on the tar, so he suggested others and hells yeah, these Dunlop TrailMax Missions look absolutely amazing.

Clutch!

After having to replace the clutch basket on the 883 a while back due to the spring plate exploding, I wasn’t going to take that risk again. So with the old plates from the replaced clutch I switched out the bomb plates in the 1200 and the 883 with normal plates and we should be good to go.

Odds and Sods!

I did lots of little things along the way. I pulled the master cylinder apart for the front breaks and ordered a new rebuild kit. Actually, I ordered a lot of stuff, which I am still waiting for.

Painting little bits, but some stuff turned out was completely wrong for my bike, so much for my “Look before you leap” view on life. I guess for now I’ll have to stick with chrome switch covers, sigh.

I also added my logo jobbie to the little plate on the air filter, which took a few attempts and trial and error sessions, but it came out pretty rad in the end.

Prototyping!

Looking at the bike with the new wheels and tyres on as well as the rear fender, I really didn’t like what I was seeing. The fender just looked wrong and out of place. So much time was spent looking at it and moving things around. Ideas ran along the lines of, should I cut the frame and add a small fender just above the wheel, or should I try lower the fender in its current position. After endless nights of no sleep I think I have made my mind up. I can’t add a fender that hugs the wheel, it’ll collect mud and stones, so that idea is out. Lowering it also just didn’t look right. So I have made the decision to cut it back more and see how that looks. Baby-step removal process, haha.

Spare fuel. You can never go wrong with more fuel while out exploring. So I have decided to use a small 5 litre Jerry can on the left side of the bike. And to get that to work I need a bracket. Who would have known that my desktop laser cutter would come in handy for this kind of thing. I whacked out a few samples and I seem to have a good design going. I have also decided to add one to the other side of the bike, but I’ll turn the Jerry can into a storage box, fuel over an exhaust pipe doesn’t seem like a good idea.

So yeah, that’s is where I am up to. Waiting on parts and waiting to paint. I am putting off the painting because I am no expert and I don’t want to cock it up, but I’ll have to put on my big boy pants and just do it.