Nose to the Grindstone

Home from Mallory on Thursday night, unloaded the bikes, ate and started finishing work on the Triumph again... I only lasted till midnight. I was cream-crackered. I had to get both bikes pretty much ready to roll down Bray Hill by Sunday night as I was travelling for work early on Monday until the night before our ferry to the Isle of Man in 10 days time.

Those lovely WalterMoto rear-sets don't have an exhaust hangar on them... maybe I got the wrong ones. Not much I could do about it than make my own exhaust hangar...

A bit rough... but strong... up for the job and done.

Can't even see it hidden behind the rear-set...

Up early on Sat to pickup a delivery at the post-office and run a few errands before getting back to work on the Triumph. JT had done a fantastic job getting the bike this far in such a short space of time. It's the details that make the difference... and these are the details that take to most time to get right. It's got to be right.

Replaced those horrible after-market brake reservoirs with standard items on a 'TT' mounting

Paintwork: Steve at MTS Classics was going to do my paintwork... a professional 2-pack job that will make the bike pop. Bad timing... Steve was away racing at Anglesey for the weekend and I had to get it done on the weekend to get some of the other finishes and prep done. Almost all my race bikes in the past have had a rattle-can paint job... not as durable or shiny as a pro job... but will still look good at 100mph. I got rattling.

Using nature's spray booth. A challenge in the bright sunlight, a breeze... loads of dust and insects sticking to the wet paint. We like a challenge.

My drying cabinet...

I spent most of Saturday on the fairings; prepping, priming, masking, color and then a few clear coats of lacquer. Between the painting I did the little jobs. It was pretty much non-stop till I ran out of lacquer after about 8 hours. I'm no pro and it was all done in such a short space of time... so we had a few runs, bleeds and finger marks. I just hope it doesn't look like crap after a week of being pelted with stones in practice. I've ordered some helicopter tape for the leading edges that help with that.

Beautifully simple - a kit race loom, lithium battery and Bazzaz fuelling module strapped in with care and attention to detail by JT.

I wired in the rain rain light and switch...

I kept going on the other stuff till 1 in the morning. A few hours sleep then back on the job early on Sunday. At Halfords as they open the doors for more lacquer... then back to finishing it all off. By 16h00 I still had a list of things to do, but these could be managed on the Isle.

I got cracking on prepping the wee bike - the KMR. Check, prep, oil change and some clutch steels for adjustment (I felt some clutch slip on track). Still stuff to do (like new tyres and sponsor decals), but things that we can do in about 2 hours on the Isle.

More precision detail - this time on the KMR. A custom clutch setup by Ryan Farquhar carrying additional plates to handle the extra power of the wee 650 twin. About  30% more than standard. Check out that beautiful billet clutch basket.. a billet engine cover spacer too. Proper!

Dinner, pack the spares, pack the tool box, make lists, lots of lists. By midnight my head hits the pillow for a few hours kip before being up at 04h00 to travel for work. A serious lack of sleep... my hands, arms and back aching from the work that I'm not accustomed to. All goot conditioning for the TT. I can catch up on the sleep over the next week.

I love lists. 

It's been a big push, but the bikes are pretty much there... just a few hours more on each when were on the Isle and we're ready to rock 'n roll. Bring on some rest and sleep over the next 9 days...

Starting to look good :-)