Wrench'n Ride'n

 A selection of my photos from my trip to Boorowa.  Was a round trip of 1766 kms the way I went. Trying to avoid big fast highways and dirt roads. Dirt does not worry me just slows me down. 110km/h zones on a 350 is no fun. I got both of those. One of the photos below shows Little Dug on a wet dirt road. This was the good part of the 22kms through the Goulburn River National Park. This road is transited by many 4x4 for the works of the solar farm located on this dirt section. The road became very corrugated with many deep pot holes. So much mud. Thankful I did not drop little Dug.  When i left home on Friday and rode to Uralla it was super cold and light rain. Conditions so bad i could hardly see the road ahead. I pulled into Uralla thinking I can't see so how can I ride. My visor was coated in the rain that had turned to ice.  I spent first night in Mudgee. Then next day onto Oberon to meet up with the Sydney crew.  Then onto Boorowa.  The Rally was awesom...

 Heading to the RE Owners rally in Boorowa today.  6 degrees and wet. 

  My sister, Sarah, sent me our Pa's WW2 Army caps. She had them in storage. The first photo shows Pa in Palestine on a Army Royal Enfield 350. Notice the cap he is wearing in that photo. Same cap with my modern Army style Royal Enfield 350 which I have made into a tribute to him. The other hat is his slouch hat. Missing the band that has his unit badge on it. The Rising Sun badge I added to it but its smaller than what was originally on their. The passage of time may have meant that when i removed that badge when i was a kid it has gone missing.

DugDug my 2011 C5 Classic 500 has been ignored since I put it into to storage just before we moved from Narrabri over 2 years ago. It has sat in my garage here in Armidale for nearly 18 months. Pushed to one side. Sad really hey. Well not anymore. The recommissioning and makeover has started. It needs new steering head bearing. Front brake fluid replaced. A makeover/restyling. Firstly though will it start after sitting for this long? Some Start Ya Bastard and some fuel and bingo we have DugDug noises.   If it did not start the makeover would be put on hold. This is what DugDug looked like when I bought it about 4 years ago. The makeover is going to keep the essence of what the previous owner has done. I will just add a bit of my madness to it. Staring at the back and working forwards we have a very old small British mudguard now mounted. Don't mind my welding. It is done with my TIG welder. I had to fight the gal coating on the plate and I forgot to take the black paint off the cur...

  Happy place time this morning. In the garage making metal do what I want it too.  A week or so ago, while we where off house sitting I refitted the solo seat that looks like its a Lycett seat. Its a combination of a cut down 2011 Royal Enfield Classic 500 seat. Foam from another different solo seat and some gel seat padding I got off eBay. The springs I use are off a solo seat made in India.  When you have the rear sub frame fitted it can be a very tight fit for the springs. So I made a quick bracket, while we where away working, to mount the springs. This one had one bolt holding it to the frame. Long term I knew this was in no way strong enough to hold the seat and springs while I am bouncing along on it.  We are back home now. I have access to cutting wheels and my Tig Welder. Out came the card board to make a template.  Template is only the first step. Once metal is cut you start to adjust the design to fit.  Cut more. Then some more. Till you have th...