W/E 4th December 2016

The garage ‘tidy up’ continued with the new engine stand installed and filled up! The only downside of this being Mrs A got her index finger trapped under the Atlas engine (ouch!) The finger is on the mend but for a while the tip remained cold which must’ve been due to interrupted circulation. Fortunately the Atlas engine is fine…

The garage tidy up added to my British collection as my old A65 emerged from a pile of Laverda bodywork. This bike throw a rod in the engine – the engine was rebuilt but never run because by then I’d bought my Jota…that must be nearly 30 years ago. Guess the A65 is yet another project 🙂

I carried on dismantling the RGA and got the footrest hanger apart. In all my years of riding a 120 I never needed to make use of the adjustable footpegs – whether changing the height would be more comfortable I don’t know. The truth is I always think having the adjuster anything but horizontal looks ‘odd’ so for me it’s style over function (but then that fits with the RGS ethos which is a sports tourer that is difficult to put luggage on! Anyways I decided that as it was apart I’d clean it up…

…and of course the right hand side allen bolt has a mangled head. Heat hasn’t worked so far so time to step away and think before something gets broken methinks.

Finally I turned my attention to the RGA bright work that is still in need of attention. The headlamp brackets are in need of fresh chrome. I was pleased that I could dismantle these down to separate components and that although the ‘bands’ that fit round the fork stanchions were rusty they have buffed up okay and the surface is not too pitted. I think the chromer will be able to get a decent enough finish – probably better than the Laverda original as these parts are cheap and nasty in truth.

The rest of the stuff requires bright zinc plate (I think). There’s wheel spacers, washers and original engine nuts which all seem worth restoring rather than replacing with stainless. I’m going to take advice on the wheel spindles as I wonder if it is just the ends that have BZP (I chromed the end of a Jota front wheel spindle and it wouldn’t then go into the fork leg so suspect these items only ever had a very thin coating of bling.

So slow progress but getting there.

Nick 🙂