Email from Berke:
“Dude I am sorta stuck in Panama because the natives are protesting and blocking the road. They say our group of islands has a few days of diesal and electricity left. I guess we’ll see.”
Author Archives: Adam Kosecki, Grand Duke
Handy Adam
Saw this at a swap meet over the weekend. I got the same one for my fourth birthday. I don’t think any other gift my parents ever got me ended up having a greater influence on me. On second thought, the influence was my parents, themselves, this just kept me from stealing their tools for a while. (Ironically, I think a couple of the screwdrivers from this kit now float around my parents’ house). I digress. I think it’s great that the packaging notes that it’s made in Poland. Today, it would surely be made in China, and all the marvelous wood handles and “chest” would be plastic.
It’s too bad most of the tools were missing, it would have been a great nostalgic purchase.
XS650 Special Tank Update
This bike was painted by its previous owner with an unimpressive metallic red paint that with dissolve in gas. Really lame. I taped off a single stripe along the back and sprayed it down with aircraft remover. Scrape, repeat. I’ll leave the steel bare and either rub in some beeswax/oil or let it corrode a bit. Regardless, I think it looks great.
CB160 Non-Progress
Just before I was going to torque down the top end, I ran into some problems. It seems as though the machine shop that did my valve job fucked me. It’s unbelievable that they would return it to me like this… there’s no way that seat would come close to sealing. Good thing I decided to pull apart the valves and check their work. Always check everyone else’s work, people.
They took the head back and told me they’d replace it promptly. Sucks, the bottom end waits patiently…
Note the upgrade I made to the tenisoner: That’s a Z1000 tesnsioner sprocket and axel from Liska Racing - using some drill bits and patience you can remove the cracked, worn out, hardened stock rubber wheel and install this one. It should outlast any other part of the engine.
I’m really at a point where there isn’t much I can do without being able to get the bike together, with the motor in, to tack together an exhaust system and exhaust mounts. Hopefully I get that head back asap.
Might be time for some new gloves…
The buffer really eats ‘em up when I’m working with small parts.
