CB-1 Mk2

[CB1pod70]

A bank holiday weekend - the perfect opportunity to get on with the CB-1, What more could you want? My neighbour owns his own welding & fabrication business and we often help each other out so when he knocked on my door on Friday evening asking if I could make him some bits on the lathe, I was happy to help. Initially he wanted some 12mm diameter bars drilling, countersinking and tapping to M5, some steel balls drilled & tapped to M8 and some further bars threaded for the balls to screw onto. No problem and an hour later I was knocking on his door to hand the metal bits back.

He was off to see someone about a job for Tottenham FC making new coat hooks for the changing rooms and needed to show the client some samples. He asked if he got the job, could I make some more?

He obviously got the job as Sunday morning at 6.30 he was ringing my doorbell and holding a heavy sack of metal and apologising that they were needed in the next few days as he only has 2 weeks to fabricate, powder coat & install them. The good news is that the customer was happy with the samples but wanted the balls welding in place so they only needed drilling & not tapping, the bad news, there was 160 balls & 40 of the rods to be drilled out & tapped to M5. Oh yeah & I had a hangover......

balls by pod_70, on Flickr

On Monday I had a little trip down to South Wales to pick up another NC23 & met the very nice Martin & his wife. (hope your son is feeling better). I of course chose the hottest day of the year to spend 7 hours in a van with no air conditioning but set off early and got home before most people hit the roads in the afternoon, so not a bad journey
So this is how I spent my bank holiday - Still no progress on the CB-1

[CB1pod70]

So will there be any progress soon? I doubt it as I'm off to Anglesey this weekend and racing at Snetterton next weekend. Still there's another bank holiday soon but I really need to do something about the jungle that my garden is turning into.

[CB1pod70]

Not surprisingly, there was no progress on this in May at all so here is some more drivel to keep you entertained.

May the 12 & 13th saw me up at Anglesey for the weekend and I was having much fun on Saturday chasing bigger bikes around the circuit unfortunately I got a bit too excited and lost the front going onto the start finish straight (right in front of Paul and the guys from the PB Forum who were on the pit wall) while chasing a ZXR600. Luckily no damage to me but the screen, top fairing, brake lever, seat unit & a footrest all were damaged in the process
anglesey damage by pod_70, on Flickr

Some rapid action with the gaffer tape & raiding the spares box got me back out on track for Sunday & a big thanks to Paul & the guys for finding a suitable bolt for the rearsets. I was a bit more sensible with my riding on Sunday and had a great time but it did feel weird not having the screen as a reference for body positioning. I missed the last session in the afternoon as the spring link came off the chain and the replacement link turned out to be the wrong size - Riveted links from now on.....

We didn't leave N. Wales until the Monday evening which only gave me a few evenings to get the bike repaired & checked over ready for the Friday practice day at Snetterton. Luckily the bike I picked up from Martin had new fairings and a screen so these were fitted and a few late nights in the garage followed. Unfortunately I didn't get everything done in time and still had to fit new tyres, so rather than leave on Thursday evening it was an early start on Friday

[CB1pod70]

Bit of a mismatch with the fairings but still better than some of my bikes have looked. I missed the 1st session as they wouldn't let me out without the race numbers fitted. Annoyingly I had literally just bought a set but didn't have time to fit them before we were called out.
snett 1 by pod_70, on Flickr

I blame the previous late nights in the garage and only getting 4 hours sleep before driving up to Snetterton as I just couldn't get into a good rhythm on Friday also the front brakes were binding when hot (obviously hadn't bled them properly) so because of this I thought about missing the last practice session of the day. Stupidly I ignored this thought and wanted to give the circuit one last shot having already missed one session....

Of course I crashed unfortunately this time I high-sided off the bike damaging the newly fitted fairing top and seat unit but more importantly I wrenched my right shoulder and managed to badly bruise my hip. I decided that the weekend was over and hobbled home - I'm definitely getting too old for this nonsense...

leg by pod_70, on Flickr

are we allowed to put such offensive photos on the forum?