As with all good plans, the plan got changed. Last time I said that I’d be taking the bike off the road and doing all of the tasks in one go. When I sat down and thought about this, I realised that this was the stupid way of doing things. Most of the jobs that I need to do can be done, one at a time, with the bike still up and running. I’ll only need to strip it down completely to get the frame and swing arm painted. Phew, sense prevailed.

My first task was to confirm that the Powerbronze belly pan that I’d bought at an autojumble actually fitted my fairing. The answer is yes, and it’s the same colour. The fairing is a Powerbronze Daytona, which looks very much like a Yamaha YPVS fairing. These are still available for the XBR (and many other bikes) and cost £300 (www.powerbronze.co.uk). It’s a lot of money but it is a very well made fairing. Half of my mounting brackets are missing but the main headstock bracket is still there, and that’s the most important one. The rest I can knock up myself. I aim to have the fairing on the bike by early November.

I next turned my attention to the rear wheel. A chum of mine has an NX650 and I offered up an XBR swing arm to his rear wheel, and it looked like it will fit. The next step is to steal his wheel for a day or two and check out chain runs, etc. After that it’s just the tricky business of anchoring the brake calliper. Honda use a little bracket welded to the swing arm but this may be a pain to add to the XBR arm, perhaps I’ll just locate another calliper that has the more usual torque arm fitting. The NX comes with a 17” rim, but it’s no problem getting an 18”rim added. I’ll resist the temptation to fit a classic flanged rim. The last set I had made like that have put me off them for life, if any water gets into the flanges, it stays there for ever. You can start a journey with a puddle in the rim, and two hours later it will still be there. Very annoying.

The most ambitious part of the project is the fabrication of a new tail piece. I’ve hacked about an old damaged tail piece and I’ll be constructing a ‘plug’ to take a mould off. The tried and trusted method is to use wire to make the skeleton shape and to then cover this with muslin soaked in plaster of paris. The shape can easily be built up and worked on, varnished, and coated in fibreglass to make the mould for the fibreglass final item. I had a play around with the look of the item (on my computer) before committing myself to making the plug; I wanted something along the lines of a Laverda SFC rear end, here’s what I propose to build:

The number plate will be a stick-on item, until the police tell me to change it, and the tail light (not shown) will just be a small bolt on item, a la Laverda. The only real glitch is the seat release catch, I’ll have to modify this to cable operation.

I’ve been looking around at exhausts and the situation seems no better than before. A company called Predator (http://www.cjpredator.freeserve.co.uk/) make a stainless system for the bike for a lot less than a Gazelle system, but I’ve seen one in the flesh and I’m not convinced they’ve got it right. The Predator downpipes are the same external diameter as the Honda originals, but these were, of course, the outer skins of a double skin system. The actual internal diameter of the Honda downpipes is much narrower. This must be important, eh? I’ve also arsed around with the NX650 pipes (see part 1) and they want to go exactly where the XBR keeps its oil tank, so that’s another option out. When I was playing around with the picture above, it occurred to me that the standard pipes are really quite nice. I’ve got a set in my attic (where else) and I may have a look to see what sort of condition they are in. I seem to remember hurtling along the entrance road to Pembrey race track on my back, watching one of the exhausts sending up sparks as the bike span away form me, so they may look even worse than what I have now.

The single most important modification has to be to change the rear tyre, which prompts cries of “Who loves ya baby” from people who see it, because of its resemblance to Telly Savalas. Not bad for 10,000 miles though. The front tyre, an Avon Supreme, shows no sign of wear at the same mileage, which is a bit worrying.
All in all, I’m enjoying getting into this project, especially as it will be soooo satisfying to silence the criticism of my fellow club members, some of whom can’t help but compare this project to the half-finished café racer sitting in my garage. If I still had a school report every year, it would read ‘must do better’. Well, I’m going to try.