Looking superb, fella! Nice one.

Looking how shiny those pipes are makes me think mine need siimilar treatment.

I decided to get the coolant system back together this morning.
Got the painted covers back on and started 'dressing' the new bottom rad.
Had to grind down the corner on one of the mounts as it was too close to the fan outer ring and the bolt holes wouldn't line up



The bottom left mount was miles off, so I had to make up a little ally offset bracket. Took me about an hour just to mount the fan! That done and the Rad ready to go I offered it up do the engine



Oh dear, as its quite a bit thicker than the original it now badly fouls the exhaust. The garage was 5 degrees this morning and I was getting a bit cold so I've called it a day for now.
I can't weld ally so the mounts on the rad will have to stay where they are, looks like another offset bracket type thing will be required. Hopefully it won't then foul on the fairings by sitting further out!
Not looking forward to doing the top rad now.
On the plus side, they should offer better cooling.

Sigh....
Fitted the lower rad tonight since the paint on the new lower bracket was dry:



You can see the original mount below, the new one had to be made longer, with slightly different hole positions.

Then I transferred the rubber mounts to the top rad and offered it up - naturally it fouled the frame - on the tabs which secure the mesh screen (which doesn't fit). I cut the tabs off and lined it back up - it still fouls the frame bigtime and would have to be moved forward, problem then is that the bottom yoke would smash into it!!



Rad still needs to go forward about another 10mm.
Disaster - I've just contacted the seller and asked for a refund.

I know you shouldnt have too but why not just make some brackets to move it, my race rad is like that

Yeah, been mulling it over, i think a couple of new brackets are feasible, may need to drop it down about an inch or so, couldn't be bothered with it tonight. Sometimes i find its just best to walk away, sleep on it, and go back afresh another day!
Put a chinese rad on my nc23 last winter and i couldn't fault it, guess i was expecting the same again.
Moral of the story, if you can't weld / make brackets or don't have lots of time on your hands, avoid ASI rads.

Calmed down overnight and quickly mocked up some new brackets for the top rad when i got home from work. I used the bottom side mount as a datum. When this mount was installed it turns out the top mounts are 18mm out of position, backets are pretty straighforward really, I'll post a pic when finished.

This arrived today:



Which cheered me up, its second hand from ebay and doesn't even need polishing its in such good condition. I brought an Art can a few weeks back, but it wasn't in the condition i'd hoped and needs to be re-sleeved - this Scorpion can was actually cheaper than all of the bits I would have needed to repair and fit the Art can as it also came with a clamp, strap, link pipe and the correct baffle. I even like the sticker!!

Finished the top rad mounts, here is the Ali mockup brackets that I used to get the spacing right



And here's the finished bracket in mild steel which just has to be painted, not much to look at and the camera makes them look wonky! but they won't be seen and serve a purpose.



I started looking at tyres the other day when e.bay announced a special 20% discount code, thought I'd make the most of it. After shopping around I could actually get them for a similar price from MyTyres - ordered on Thursday night and delivered yesterday. Great service and a decent price of around £145 delivered for the pair, they both have a date code of this year too - the rear being made in June. I've used MyTyres a few times over the last couple of years and they're always faultless and very competitive.

Now tht the rads are fitted I decided to pop the forks on - small problem that I hadn't checked the mudguard brackets prior to this and they both need replacing so it looks like the forks will need to come off again in the future.
When I stripped the clipons for painting I noticed one of the bars was bent and they both weighed a tonne, just so happened that I had some ally bar the right sort of dimensions laying about





Old bars were 950g, new ones are 490 and don't require bar ends either.

I removed the rear brake hose clips from the chain guard the other week, blasted and painted them and re-riveted this morning

Decided to strip the front calipers this afternoon. I'd left the master cylinder connected to try and pump the pistons out, but there was air in the system, so I stripped the hoses off and screwed a grease nipple into the banjo bolt hole - connected up my grease gun and pumped away - this worked a treat on each caliper and dislodged all 8 pistons. Unfortunately, even though the pistons were about halfway out I could only get 4 of them fully out without too much of a struggle.
The other 4 were a nightmare, it was like the rubber seals had perished onto them and I've marked the very top edge of each in my efforts, this is outside the sealed area, so when tidied and polished shouldn't be a problem.
Looks like the caliper bodies are going to need the blaster treatment - I was hoping to just clean and rebuild them, but they are well and truly manky!

Carbs rebuilt and bench synched, little bit of a pain to get on, some heat and o ring grease on the rubbers helped a little.
Then of course I couldn't resist the urge, so bodged up the essentials, hopefully the link will work

http://vid156.photobucket.com/albums/t4 ... y8rxei.mp4

Sound in the video isn't very good, seems to have captured most of the treble, but no bass! In real life it sounds awesome with the Scorpion can. Oh - and I forgot to plug the vac hose on Cyl 3, runs even better once I'd done that!