It’s been a week quite heavily dominated by motorcycle modifications & electrics this week at the mono motorcycles workshop.

The Harley Davidson 883 has returned for a Spring ‘refresh’. We welcomed a Honda CBF for down pipe fitting & chain & sprockets. Our other Harley Davidson Superglide had her neutral light fitted, the Yamaha VMAX had her carbs balanced & new grips fitted & the Honda CB1100RS joined us for an annual service.

The first job of the week was to fit a USB charging point to a stunning BMWS1000RR.

Our week continued with a sad story about one of our regular customers motorcycles.

The gorgeous lime green Yamaha R1 having only just had her rear wheel bearing replaced after it collapsed, developed a horrendous knocking noise in her engine last weekend. As we have got to know our customer & his motorcycle really well, we brought her to the workshop for an assessment.

The initial reaction to the sound was that it could have been a main or big end bearing in the crankshaft.

As our customer has spent a lot of time & love on his beloved machine, he wanted to discover what it actually was, before making a decision going forward. The first place checked was to see if the flywheel had broken up, as it transpires this model of R1 has a tendency to do this. However, everything was intact.

The next task was to take the rocker cover off & check the camshafts for wear or damage. Daniel then pulled the spark plugs out & rotated the engine. By taking it past top dead centre, he could use a blunt screwdriver down through the spark plug hole & physically push down on the piston. There was a definite ‘thud’ with a drop of around 1mm confirming our suspicion that there was damage to the crankshaft/conrod or bearing on No1 cylinder.

Despite us trying to find an alternative engine & having spoken to a professional engine builder who advised it would cost in the region of £5K to build another one from scratch; our customer now has some thinking to do as to his next step. Whatever our customers decision, mono motorcycles will be here to support throughout the process.

We welcomed another regular customer of mono motorcycles Yamaha VMAX to the workshop on Tuesday.

The VMAX was originally booked in for a carburettor clean & rebuild & the customer advised he was struggling to get any clutch.

Daniel started by checking the clutch oil & found it to be contaminated. Once he had replaced the oil & bled the system through, the clutch worked perfectly.

Daniel then made a start on the carbs. However, when he started to take them off, he noted that they were extremely clean & therefore made the decision to take another route. Having added some 44K fuel cleaner to the system & balanced the carbs, the VMAX is now running as she should be.

The final job for the VMAX was to replace her grips. It was only as Daniel began this process, that he noted that the throttle cable had frayed & was only being held on by one thread. Therefore having let our customer know of our findings & him authorising the additional repairs; the VMAX remained with us another day as we ordered & fitted new throttle cables for her.

We also welcomed a new motorcycle to the workshop this week, a very clean Honda CBF500.

Her owner had already replaced part of the exhaust system, but when he had tried to undo the studs to replace the down pipes, the first stud sheared off. It was at this point he contacted us.

Daniel’s first job was to take the front end of the Honda off, to gain access to the studs. With the front wheel & forks having been dropped out of the Honda, he was able to assess the situation. As he began the process of the removing the down pipes, all of the rest of the studs sheared due to excessive corrosion.

Therefore, Daniel decided that the only course of action would be to weld a nut to each stud, heat it up with oxy acetylene & slowly undo the studs. However, the last stud stem was far too short for this process & therefore had to be drilled out, tapped & a helicoil fitted. Once the new down pipes were fitted, the Honda was transformed & we had a very happy customer in the process.

We welcomed an immaculate Honda CBR500 to the workshop this week for some crash protection fittings. The R&G products are outstanding & we cannot recommend their product range enough.

The Harley Davidson Dyna Superglide’s lights have now arrived & Daniel has managed to fit a neutral light, where previously there was not one. The exhaust covers have been fitted to protect the riders legs & the final electrical works have been undertaken.

The stunning Honda CB1100RS, one of our regular customers second motorcycles, joined us midweek for her annual service.

The Harley Davidson 883 Sportster has returned to us for a Spring ‘refresh’

The list is quite extensive including re-covering the seat in Alcantara, re-painting the engine, polishing the fins, powder coating the rocker covers & re-aligning the exhausts & re-wrapping them in bronze.

Having sent the seat to Trimspeed for trimming, Daniel has already set about the process of re-aligning the exhausts. This has meant removing them from the Harley, cutting a small section off one of them, heating them, bending them & re-shaping. The next phase is the wrapping.

The rocker covers have been sent off to paint, so Daniel has begun the process of re-painting the engine & polishing the fins. The result is pretty stunning already. Amazing what some ingenuity & elbow grease can achieve!

We have received some outstanding reviews & received some lovely comments from our wonderful customers this week & Daniel & Katy would just like to say a huge thank you to everyone for all of your support & kindness. Our customers are what make mono motorcycles great & we are grateful for your continued support of mono motorcycles.

We still have some places for our Motorcycle Basic Maintenance & Safety workshops on the 13th & 27th April.

In addition our first breakfast club is just around the corner on the 28th April.

As always, for all your motorcycling needs contact Daniel or Katy on T: 01243 576212 / 07899 654446 or through our contact page.