Time in the Garage

Been spending time in the garage the last few weeks... sorting bikes.

Finally got around to doing something on the Wee Monster over Crimbo/New Year. The last time I did anything on this bike (besides race it... and win trophies...) was when I converted her back to a road racer after her stint as a flattracker. Yes... I did race this puppy on the dirt oval... where she bit me... deep. She's a fussy old tart that don't like the dirt. I think that was nearly 4 years ago now.

At one of the races last year, all the bikes in the series were weighed. Maximum allowed weight = 150 kg. Almost all the bikes in my class were between 155 and 165. Mine was the heaviest beeatch there - a porky 168kg. A diet was well overdue...

I did a bit of cutting... and a bit of grinding.

A couple of other bits and pieces... like stealing the front mudguard off the Monster S4r - a 200g advantage there. This is the theory of 'marginal gains' at work...

The belly-pan is pretty thick... and robust. Holding it in my hands, I reckoned I could make a lighter one. Besides bodywork repairs, I've never made anything with GRP. Out with that finger-pokin' glass-fibre sheet and that finger-stickin' resin... I didn't really know what I was doing... just making it up as I went along...

First tape up the original piece... and spray with some furniture polish...

Then slap on some mixed resin and a layer of glass-fibre sheet...

 

This shit was curing so fast, I had to do it in 4 sections. Man, I love the smell of resin in the mornin'!

  



 

Jeeeesus! All that graft just to make a tatty, crappy mould. There's gotta be a better way to do this... but I didn't really give a shit... I had time... it was cold outside... and I was gettin' hiiiiiiigh!

Clean-up the mould... and do it all again... tape, furniture polish, resin, glas-fibre sheet, dab, dab, dab... never stroke.

Surprisingly, I managed to get the new belly-pan-like-thing out of the mould without destroying the new part... or the mould. Ace! There's definitely something wrong with my technique... the part was full of tiny bubble-holes. No smooth, flawless finish here. I've heard the term 'gel-coat' and recon this must have something to do with it. Oh well... fuck it. Out with the body-filler and sander...

After a bit of sanding, it didn't look too bad. The proof will be when I cut it to fit, slap on some brackets and give it a nice, flat coat of satin black. It'll probably look like shit, but if it saves a few grams, that means it'll help me go faster... and that's all I want from the old gal.