Hi everyone, just landed, and looking forward to tapping into the wealth of info here, and perhaps finding some like minded riders down under.
Some history. I'm aged 45 and have been without a bike for the last 8 years since moving to Sydney from London. I'm a born and bred Kiwi (New Zealander) from the far south and owned my first bike at the age of 12, a Honda 55 step thru, which was quickly followed by Jawa 175, and when I got my licence the day I turned 15 (on a borrowed Benelli 250 - 6 speed), I bought a Suzuki TS185 ( my Dad new a bike dealer). After a few years bending and breaking lots of dirt bikes (DT,s XL's, TT's, early XR's etc), I got the road bike bug from my flat mate who had a waterbucket with an expansion chamber and porting that couuld pull wheelies in 4th (with me on back). I started with an RD250, then a 350, and then moved to a CB500/4, and over the following 10 or so years I had another 15 or so bikes including a Mk1 750 Norton, a 70 US Spec T120 Bonneville, and a 80 T140D special. Along the way I also had a K3 CB750 cafe racer with an 836 kit and K&N's and a few other Japanese multis, twins and 1 triple, an XS750 with a full fairing and stereo (swapped for a Beach Buggy).
Forgot to add that I left school at 16 to do an apprenticeship as an Engine Reconditioner, so I was a total petrol head. During this time I was into cars as well and had 55 Ford Customline, 62 Chev (roofchopped, chain steering wheel and furry interior), and loads of local Ford and GM stuff (Monaros and Falcon Coupes). Anyway, I'm a dab hand with the internals of an engine and know my way around most of the rest of a bike, but I'm no expert with electrics and it's been almost 15 years since I got out of the trade, so I hope to read and learn a lot from this forum, and help where I can.
Always admired the cool lines of the F and I've just scored one on eBay from Melbourne for $2100. See the pics here:
http://gallery.sohc4.net/main.php?g2_itemId=301488Someone started a Cafe Racer conversion, it has an 836 kit supposedly (which one?), and that's about all the previous owner could really tell me. He bought it 6 years ago and has never done much with it. I sent it to Puds Fours and had Andrew replace the rear guard, hand rails and tail light with originals and take a look at the bike in general. Andrew couldn't get it to run smoothly and after cleaning the carbs, pulled them apart again to discover that someone had overtightened the main jets and split the carb body on two carbs. That explains why the previous owner hadn't moved forward much with the project
On goes a 2nd hand set of carbs with 120 jets and it runs, but man it's an SOB to start. My plans are to Cafe Racer it a bit, but keep all the original bits, but first I have to get it running and then register it. I'll keep the photo's up to date and maybe add a few old ones.
Ciao.
