I spent the day at Spotty’s place working on my bikes. My “New to me” Rocket III that I bought last week needs a little work to get it back to Roadworthy condition, so first we removed the horrible “Zard” ($4K AUD) “Leg burner” exhaust that I’ve sold to a cop in Western Australia for $1900 who really wanted it, I’m hoping he’s wearing asbestos chaps when he rides his bike once he’s installed it, the pipe makes good horsepower and torque, but it’s otherwise horrible.
New Rocket iii Sunday 8 October 2023 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
We also removed the chrome Jardine pipe from my red bike that’s about to get the turbo treatment, and removed both rear wheels so I could swap tyres and brakes. Both wheels were filthy so I brought over some “spray on/hose off” wheel cleaner that tool a lot of application and scrubbing with a 3M pad to remove the bulk of the grime, and Spotty pressure washed them, ending in a very nice result. The black bikes rear caliper had only the pads backing plate left, and the disc was ruined, so we used the disc and pads from the red bike, which were still good. I’ll order a new disc and hopefully there’s a brand new set of pads in one of the boxes of parts in Spotty’s garage.
We installed the chrome Jardine pipe on the black bike and fired it up, and it looked and sounded really nice. We’ll have to eventually install my stock pipe on the black bike to pass it’s Roadworthy Inspection, but we had to see how good it looked on the black bike and were stoked.
Rocket iii Saturday 14 October 2023 4 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Rocket iii Saturday 14 October 2023 5 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I took my stock header over with the IHI turbocharger to see if it will fit where I want to put it, and once done fitted it to the red bike with just the old “Fishtail” muffler I’d put on my first Rocket back in ‘09, I still love how easy it is to install with only one “ muffler” that doesn’t really muffle much.
Rocket iii Saturday 14 October 2023 8 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
By around 4pm we were both in pain, Spotty’s ankle was killing him, as was my back, so we packed up until next Saturday when we’ll swap out the front wheels after mucho cleaning. We got a lot done, so I think we were both pretty happy.
Rocket iii Saturday 14 October 2023 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I'm not too happy about this pic though, Spotty took a pic of me on the black bike, but somehow this wrinkly old baastard somehow got on my bike and took a selfie, and deleted Spotty's pic of my youthful beauty. I've seen that old tramp hanging around my place, usually when I look in the mirror. I guess I should be happy, riding and owning bikes for 54 years without a break, but I do look better with my full face helmet on.
Rocket iii Saturday 14 October 2023 9 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr