The Project - I

The time has come for me to reveal to this site, and anyone who reads it, the details of "The Project".

As I may have mentioned here before, I have beeen riding motorbikes since I left home at 16. So that's about 31 years. When they were younger, I used to take my boys for rides every now and then, and so, now they have the biking bug.

Gman has been saying for some time he can't wait to turn 16 so he can get his bike licence, and then get a bike. Quite a few of his older friends ride, and he's green with envy.

Anyway, not for him the new 125cc On/Off road Kamakazi/ Kazuma (Made in Korea) which are now available, oh, no, he wants a superbike look alike, you know, the full fairing / racing thing.

Personally I prefer "naked" bikes. The fairings tend to restrict control, and only add value to the ride on long distances. A few months ago I'm at a friends workshop (he's an auto-electrician) and I see this bike standing in the corner of his waiting area. On closer inspection I see thay it's a 125 Aprilia!

WOW! What a find! I ask what it's doing there and he says it's been there for about 2 years. Someone asked him to see if he could sell it, but he never gave it any attention or thought. "How much?" I ask. "ZAR10,000" he says. "Phone the guy and tell him I'll give him ZAR7,000" sed I.

So he does, and the guy accepts, and I write a cheque, and ask he ensures he gets all the papers before he hands over the cheque, and I start to strip it!!!













This is a google pic I downloaded.
This is how the bike looked when I bought it, only dirtier, faded and with slight cosmetic damage.

Yea. I know what you are thinking, 'Stripping?'.

Well, for a start I didn't like the colour. And there was some cosmetic damage which needed to be repaired. Before I got too carried away, we connected a jumper battery pack to the bike's battery, swung the engine a couple of times, and it started up beautifully. Runs like a sowing machine on steroids!!

Stripped it right down, and started to clean / repair / check.













This is the bike after stripping. Frame, engine and not much else.
3 months later, and working only on some Saturday mornings, we finally got to the point where we can start to reassemble.













Some parts - waiting for reassembly

See part two

Salagatle -