Wrench'n Ride'n

Last year my family and I went to the Powerhouse Museum . 500 Harris Street Ultimo, Sydney NSW Australia. This Museum develops collections and presents exhibitions and programs that explore science, design and history. One such exhibition features some lovely old Motorcycles. This is part of the Transport section. Of note is a Waratah, an Australian made bike. Waratahs were manufactured by Williams Bros., 213-7 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, Australia. The one on display I believe has a Villers 2 stroke motor and was made in 1948.

I did an oil change today. Took 5 hours to do. Why so long. Sit back and relax and I will tell you how not to do one. First let me explain where the oil tank on the MZ Scorpion is. It will then all become very clear to you why it took five hours. It is in the tail of the bike. Runs between the frame work under the pillion part of the seat. See the engine is a dry sump with circulation system lubrication. Not my words. Straight from the owners manual. In other words the oil doesn’t live in the engine when the engine is not running. Well a little bit does. The rest is up in the oil tank under the seat. So I start off by taking the seat off. Undo the filler cap/dip stick that is up in the oil tank. Put the drip tray under the bike. Undo the drain plug and oil line as per the what the manual says. Drain the oil. Simple?! Wait till the oil is just now slowly dripping out. Put the drain plug back in and reconnect the oil line. I need to put 2.45 litre of oil back into the oil tank. I have a ...

This week I joined the NetRider.net.au website. This is an Australia based website that connects riders in Australia. They have a very active and well run forum. On these forums they announce meetings in the different cities for riders to get together for either rides or Coffee Meets. Today I went to my first Coffee meet. This one is held at The Mean Fiddler pub at Rouse Hill. North Western suburbs of Sydney. It was great to meet new people all with the same interest, Bikes. There were around 11 of us and we had a great time looking at each others bikes, chatting bikes and drinking our favourite drinks. These are some of the bikes ridden by those that attended. I was surprised to see a few L & P platers. It is good to see new riders.

As you would have gathered from my previous postings to this Blog I love sidecars. So look what I found tonight while surfing the net. MZ Scorpion with sidecar. This company, MZ-Motorrad-Gespanne , in Germany makes both a single and a double seat sidecar. Should I fit my 1 ½ sidecar to my MZ? I will have to think about this one. Anyway let’s see what one looks like with a chair fitted. And from http://freenet-homepage.de/bottger/treffen_04.htm comes this great looking MZ outfit...

Here are some photos I took in August 1999. This was several kilometres north of Armidale while on the way to the Back to the Future Rally. This rally is run by the Virago Motorcycle Club QLD Inc and was then held at Grandchester in Queensland. On this Saturday morning it was freezing cold. As you can see by the ice on the screen of the bike. I was pulled over waiting for my travelling partner, Mark, who was on a Virago 250. At the Queensland Border. We have thawed out at last.

The VX1100 I bought was the last of the Viragos. It was a 1998 SK model. This last model was a bitsa. Seems to me that Yamaha were getting rid of their stock of major Virago parts. My one came with wire spoke wheels and the black tank. I have heard that I could have got the cast wheels if I wished. But there was one thing they fitted that they should have checked. The starting system. More on this later. I took the sidecar off the VX1000. Took sidecar and XV1100 up to HRD and Ron fitted a new subframe to the VX1100 and set up the side car. I found that the engine in the XV1100 was rougher than the XV1000. The stroke was longer on the 1100. Also the top speed of the 1100 with the chair fitted was 10kmh slower than the 1000. Don’t ask me how I know. ;-) I just know. Know what I mean. In 1999 the 1100 and chair took me to Queensland for the Virago Owners Rally. With the 20ltr Jerry can rigged into the fuel system the range of the 1100 was close to 400kms. The Virago comes with ...

I am not the only one in my family that likes motorcycles. My Grandfather on my mother's side had bikes. During WWII he served with the Australian Army Supply Corps. Here he drove and rode anything and everything. I have heard that in New Guinea he would ride ahead of a convoy making sure that the road was clear. After the war he used to have ex-police Harley's. My grandfather in Palestine during WWII. During the 50s, my mother used to ride a Vespa. My father used to have a Triumph Tiger Cub and did some marshal at the old Mt Druitt race track. My oldest daughter has informed me she wants to get a bike when she is old enough. That's only a year and a bit away. So yes it runs in my family.