Peter's Pics

I'll pitch in with a couple of photos too.

Bandit at Fingal Bay


Long Flat Pub Run 2008

Ive always loved a black engine. One thing i wish the new ones came out with

Just an updated photo of the bike.

Cameron wrote:
One thing i wish the new ones came out with

my new one came with a black engine....

Mine as well Cam.

and i hate you all.

How have you kept those forks so good mine are anodized (not sure if the spelling is right) to hell .

willo wrote:How have you kept those forks so good mine are anodized (not sure if the spelling is right) to hell .

Thanks for noticing the forks, I just recently polished them for the trip, they were badly pitted and oxidised. I had thought the forks were anodised, which is a hard electrolytic treatment like they use on aluminium windows. http://astro.neutral.org/anodise.shtml

Anyway it turns out that they are painted a silver colour, so I used paint stripper to remove the paint. Oh, to do the job I put the bike on the centre stand and put a counter weight (big bag of Shirleys 17 lawn food ) on the bag rack so the front wheel was off the ground and removed front wheel lower fork brace and front guard,.

Because the surface was bad I used 800 wet and dry to wet sand the surface then 1200 grade for a finer finish. Then I got a buffing kit from Bunnings (around $40) which comes with a mandrel for your electric drill and 2 sizes of cutting wheel and 2 sizes of buffing wheel and compound to suite both. About half the price of a setup for your bench grinder. Hearing protection is also a good idea.

I'm sure the purists would be appalled but since I don't intend to do a lot of buffing it suites me.

I hope this inspires you, I think the result was well worth it.

she sure does look good. i still have to work myself up to get out there and clean mine after the snowy ride. never seen her so dirty. will she ever be the same again

My old girls always dirty, shes my daily ride don't matter what the weather is, don't get much time to wash her but she still looks loved just well ridden..

willo wrote:My old girls always dirty, shes my daily ride don't matter what the weather is, don't get much time to wash her but she still looks loved just well ridden..

Isn't it funny, when I first got the Bandit (from new) I washed it every week for the first 6 months, then every fortnight. Then after about 2 years it'd get washed every couple of months or if someone commented on how dirty it was. Now 8 years on, it only gets washed for the Toy Run, or if the seat is dirty.

Note: I regularly clean the chain and rear sprocket, roughly every 1000 to 1500km, depending on the weather and road conditions.

Shit if I cleaned chain + sprockets every 1000-1500 ks, I'd be doing them every month.

willo wrote:Shit if I cleaned chain + sprockets every 1000-1500 ks, I'd be doing them every month.

Yep, that's about right. It can be more often depending on what we're doing riding wise. It's not unusual (when we are financial) for me and my wife to go for a quick 500km ride.