Thread: New bike - TX650

I had the sutures removed this morning. Had to put work on hold a couple of days ago as I was managing to hit the finger on every single thing in my workshop. The surgeon removed the pin from the PIP joint, broke it, then bent it in a more acute angle as per my instructions, then pinned it again. He also pinned the DIP joint, the smaller one at the end, so that will gradually fuse over the next few months. Hopefully the finger will be more usable after these couple of alterations. Still quite swollen and unusable at the moment and probably for the next six weeks or so. Compliments of Psoriatic arthritis which is gradually destroying all my joints.

Some painting today, painted the rear guard, tail light, seat cowl and kickstand. It all came out pretty good, I'll stick it all together tomorrow and have a look. Undecided on whether to use the painted or ally tail light, probably the ally to break up the black. The singer crapped itself, so I'll have to farm out the seat upholstery. I hate farming work out, tradesmen are just too rough and their work leaves a lot to be desired. Hopefully they won't scratch the hell out of the cowl.

Progress: Rear end done, now all I have to do, is front brake line, mufflers, wiring and spoking, upholstery. Although, I do have an oil cooler and remote filter to do...

Can't make up my mind, black one or ally one?

Ally.

Most cafe racers had them the other way round; ally mudguard with black steel rear light & numberplate but it’s the contrast between the two that’s important.

I'm going to fit a cooler and a remote,spin on filter on the bike, I didn't like the look of the way others had done it: Screwing a fitting into the face of the original oil filter cover, nor did I like the idea of cutting a section out of the sidecover and screwing a fitting into the side of the the filter cover, so I came up with this idea. I think it looks a bit more integrated and not so 'add onish'. Still have to polish it yet, but I'm waiting on the arrival of the oi cooler, so I can replicate the barb size. The barb will be shrunk in, rather than a screw in, brass one, for a neater fit. The big lump of ally in the pictures will become an oil filter housing. For anyone thinking that it looks like fun making stuff like this, look at the lathe, the mill and the floor are even worse. Now I have to clean this mess up!

Polished is better, just couldn't help myself!

Oil filter housing machined, have yet to machine up some stainless, threaded barbs to sit in top of the filter housing, I will also have to remake the engine mounts for cooler installation. The filter is quite unobtrusive where it sits, but will become more obvious after the cooler is installed. It'll sit just above the top of the engine mounts. Still waiting for the cooler and an M12x1.25 tap so I can tap the filter housing and oil outlet on the side panel.

Busy day today, scrapped the old engine plates I made a while back and made a couple of new ones. I decided to mount the the oil filter housing a bit lower, around an inch, so had to extend the engine mounts to accommodate it. I also made up a cross plate to mount the cooler on. Polishing is only a rough job, I'll finish it off when the cooler arrives. A bit of a jigsaw to put together, but everything fits well. Still waiting on the cooler though.

The oil cooler arrived, what a piece of rubbish. Add said 12mm inlet, it is but it goes down to a 6mm hole. The finish is rough as guts and it's bent. Can't find any others other than ones for pit bikes, so, looks like I wont be running a cooler.

Doesn’t look like it’s fit for purpose; will you be asking for a refund?

Yep.

Well, that was pointless, I entered into discussions with the ebay seller, first they offered a 30% refund which I refused. Then they offered a 50% refund which I again refused. Then they offered a replacement exactly the same as the original, again I refused. Again they offered to replace the item with one the same as the original. Then they sort of hinted they 'may' give a refund if I was to change the negative feedback first, again I refused and cut off communication with them. Then I resorted to the resolution centre, lodged a request to return the item (refund) and the request is simply on sent to the seller. What a waste of time, ebay's resolution centre is simply a seller's protection centre,,,

An oil cooler arrived today, much better than the crappy other thing I bought, really good quality. Just have to make a mount for it. I've turned up some stainless fittings for the cooler/filter feed, the one on the right is what the spin on filter screws onto, 20mm x 1.5 thread with a 12mm x 1.25 thread internally. The fitting to the left of that screws into the top of it, sandwiching the filter plate between. The one to the left of that is also a 12mm x 1.25 threaded fitting that'll screw into the sidecover oil supply passage from the pump. The passage from the pump is 10mm, but the remaining oil passages are all 8mm, as are the drillings in the AN6 fittings on the cooler, so I drilled the fittings 8.5mm. Still have to thread the middle fitting, make another similar one for the return hose and polish them up yet.