Slim Chants

Further inspection reveals brake problems. The rear rotor is badly scored. I suspect the pads are also shot because of the dragging sound I can hear when I turn the back wheel by hand. I’m hoping that is the cause, in any case. It could also be a bad bearing. The local bike salvage yard wants around $100 CDN for a rotor in good shape but I managed to find one in the Ottawa area on eBay so I bought that. Pads were also easy to come by on eBay. I’m going to replace them all. This bike will be in tip-top condition when I put it on the road.

I’ve completed the clutch rebuild. The new gasket arrived but I didn’t have time before the camping trip so reassembly had to wait.

I managed to find a spare master cylinder at a local salvage dealer and after installation, fluid replacement and bleeding the clutch worked well. I like the extra stiffness offered by the Barnett springs. And the EBC plates grab well without sticking. I’m very pleased with the results.

New EBC clutch plates arrived last week preceded by Barnett springs the week before. I drained the oil and tore down the clutch on Saturday morning. The oil was way past its prime. But the clutch was not seized. The problem must lie in the hydraulics. I’m in the process of negotiating purchase of a used master cyclinder (along with a stock seat) but in the longer term I’m considering dropping serious coin on Brembo clutch and brake master cylinders. The friction plates were quite worn, however and I’m glad I decided to rebuild it. The EBC/Barnett combo should make for a heavy duty, trouble-free clutch.
I should have ordered a clutch cover gasket. The old one came apart n pieces. Bike shops were closed on Saturday due to the long weekend so I had to wait until today to call. ’87 parts aren’t stocked so they have to order it in. My local dealer is Performance Cycle. I bought the oil filter there and it was less than any deal on eBay. I expect they’ll be seeing a lot of me. I’ll be taking the bike there for safety when she’s ready to ride.

I topped up the water level in the battery and put it on a trickle charge for a few days. Lo and behold, the engine starts. It’s running on the lean side but it runs. The clutch is seriously seized, though. I’ve tried all the tricks to engage it without success so I’ve ordered a set of Barnett clutch springs and EBS clutch plates. I’m going to rebuild it.

New front signals arrived late last week and I’ll probably put those on this weekend.

My FZ750 on Day 1

I’ve begun shopping for materials for the Sea Rider ST Greenland Qajaq. First on my list is the plywood for the cross-sections. The design calls for marine-grade plywood, free of voids. In a pinch, any exterior-grade, good on two sides should do. But for maximum strength I really wanted a good Russian Birch ply.

Yesterday afternoon I checked the Home Depot by Sportsworld in Kitchener/Cambridge and they had none. Today I ventured out to the location in Waterloo and sure enough they had two pieces of 2′ X 4′, 11mm 9 ply Russian Birch. I bought both sheets for about $18 apiece. These will do fine for the cross-sections. I’m going to mark out the dimensions tonight for cutting this weekend. Stay tuned for my post on that, including pictures.

I’ve decided to build a kayak. It all started last summer when I decided to buy a canoe. One of my favourite artistic pursuits is nature and landscape photography and I decided what better way to find inspiration than to set out in a canoe.

After much research and shopping around I settled on a nice used Scott 16′ fibreglass Prospector that I found in Dunnville. The boat was in nice condition and came complete with paddles for the grand sum of $350.00. I talked the gentleman down to $300 and drove home the proud owner of the Maggie Mae.

I managed to get a couple of paddles in before winter and this summer planned a canoe camping trip on Joe Perry Lake in Bon Echo Provincial Park. We had a lovely time and the boat served well. But she weighs in at about 67 lbs., a bit much for the 500m portage to the lake. I’m not called Slim Dude for nothing, and though I’ve been cycling and working out, the portage was brutal. This will not work for solo outings. I’ve quickly developed a longing for a lighter boat.

I had a look around at light-weight canoes and they sure are pretty but conversely, they sure ain’t cheap. Kayaks are an option so I had a look at those too. But most of what is out there is also quite expensive, and is also quite heavy. Being a handy guy I had a look around at the various DIY solutions documented on line and came across some absolutely gorgeous hand made boats. The Greenland Qajaq in particular is much lighter than commercially available boats and much easier to build when comapred with stitch and glue or cedar strip designs. It turns out you can build one for about $200-300.

After looking over the many designs available on the web I have settled on a Sea Rider ST design from Tom Yost’s excellent on line Kayak Builder’s Manual. I’ll be using ballistic nylon for the skin, painted with many coats of polyurethane. Apart from that I am planning to stick pretty closely to the existing design.