So with the end slowly appearing in sight, it was time to start fitting the exhaust and bodywork to ensure I’d run the loom in the right places.
Had to re-route the starter cable behind the relays and relocate the earth cable to the engine as it interferred with the exhaust. I was visiting Anthony at Haines Motorcycles and whilst talking about bikes a customer dropped off a R30 644 for some work, this gave me a perfect opportunity to take some photos for reference showing cable runs etc. The conclusion I came to is CCM ‘winged it’ and cables were running everywhere, on the R30 I relocated one that was being burnt through by the exhaust.
After checking the R30 over I decided that some exhaust wrap would help protect the wiring and reduce the heat that the shock was exposed to. I removed the heat shields from the exhaust, sand blasted it, painted it in flat aluminium flame proof VHT paint then added the wrap. When the exhaust wrap arrived and I couldn’t get the stainless straps sufficiently tight, so swapped them out for slim stainless jubille clips.
I then discovered that fitting the exhaust is a bloody nightmare, starting from the front, the inner exhaust stud is too close to the frame, the middle mount doesn’t come anywhere close to the frame mounting point and at the rear I didn’t need the small drop link that connects to the strap that goes around the silencer. Side note when I looked at the R30 its exhaust didn’t even have a middle mount. Looking at the middle mount I think a small rubber anti-vibration mount with fit, so will buy one to try.
The other issue that came to light was I fitted the inidcators on the rear mudguard too far forward, so they wouldn’t fit with the side panels. I’ll buy another rear mudguard and do a write-up with cutting dimensions to make life easier in the future.
Whilst at Haines Motorcycles I took one of Anthony’s Fantic eBikes, an Issimo Fun, for a quick rip up the high street. What an absolute blast, first time on an eBike, 16mph up hill with little effort. You start pedalling and think nothing is happening then the motor kicks in, I wheel span up the ramp out of the shop.
One of my friends was also collecting his new Fantic XEF250 Enduro Race, it might be a WR250F in different clothes, but it looks amazing and will be an interesting change from his Gas Gas EC250 two-stroke.
