This years bike will be the blue NC23 and the yellow peril will be kept as a spare. The blue bike (from now on referred to as No.17) was originally built to a pretty good specification but needed a refresh so I wanted to do a proper job on it and not rush to get it on the track. Unfortunately I have been suffering from a total lack of enthusiasm so decided to start this thread as a way of getting myself motivated. The first race of the season is April 1st (honestly!) so it looks like I really need to get cracking......
First Job was to give the frame & swingarm a good clean and they were duly attacked with the degreaser and pressure washer. There are a few scratches & grazes in the frame but I want to keep these as they are part of the bikes history. I looked to see if there was anything that could be removed from the frame to lighten it but the frame is pretty minimalist as it is so was spared a visit from the angle grinder.
The garage was given a good tidy up to clear some space and then I set to addressing the problem of how to support the bike on my bench.
When I built my home made bike lift a few years ago, I made it quite narrow because I work in a single garage with units / workbench down one wall. The downside to this is that it's too narrow for my paddock stands and Abba stand. So far this has been fine as my previous restorations have all had centre stands but this needed addressing for No.17. I wanted to use the Abba stand so set about making a narrower copy out of a pair of old gudgeon pins, some 10mm bar and a selection of scrap box section and flat bar that I had kicking around.
I've still got another lower support in this photo.
New swingarm and headstock bearings were fitted along with a CBR600 shock kit from GF Racing and the frame was set up on the bench
Don't worry too much about the front support, this was only in place for a few days...
