Project Virago

Should look great when all finished, could possibly do away with the need for a rear light. With all lighting coming from the rear plate?

That is the general idea Dave, I have noticed something similar being sold on ebay, this was my third attempt to put this on the forum, first time it was my fault, hit the "X" on the top of the page by mistake while navigating between the forum and photobucket , next was just a general glich on the internet, so it was fingers and toes crossed last night while putting it on.

Those little lights are shockingly bright, nice modification in progress.

Hey this looks very interesting, will watch with interest 

This is the Number plate avaliable on EBAY, mine will be smaller than this one


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181251983775?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Excellent work as always Nigel.

Lovely day   out in the garage doing a bit more today, doing a bit of variation to the side panels, have decided to go the racing number plate route, first step was to draw an oval using a cardboard template to transfer the shape to some alloy plate




The best way to cut it was to use a jigsaw with a coarse cut blade, fine cut blades tend to clog too easily...





The easiest way to clean up the edges is with a flap wheel in a grinder clamped to the bench with large jaw molegrips, if you don,t have any get a pair, these make many jobs in the garage so much easier...




Next step is to do the rotary machined effect, this is just a  wire brush in the pillar drill with a piece of cloth underneath to help stop the alloy rotating although a  firm grip is still needed...





Here is the first swirl...







The swirls are then overlapped to give the required pattern...




This is the finished item...





And on the bike, just a pair of stainless Acorn nuts to complete the look

...


Eventually this will have the number "59" hand painted on it with a few coats of clear laquer 

That looks pretty cool Doc! 

Nicely done Doc, as always good explanations with it. Looking good.

Nice work Nigel, my mate does his engine turning with 2"(50mm) rotary emery pads which gives a smaller swirl & for even tighter ones he cuts a 2" pad into quarters & puts one piece at a time in the middle of the velcro backing pad he uses & that gives about 1/2" swirls. He does the same as you though with his pillar drill. It looks pretty good on engine plates etc on some of his race bikes.

Like the swirls, when is the beasty hitting the road? Gotta be soon surely with the bits your doing now?

Not too far now Crash 

Nice one doc, about time w got an updated photo then

Nice piece of work, always look forward to your updates.

Will do Crash, have the bike booked in for a rolling road power run next Tuesday, the idea is to find out what the mixture is like through the running range as I have changed the exhaust system and previously the former owner had Jardine exhausts on it, plus this Dyno run will make the engine work hard and clear the cobwebs out, have also found an interesting article on Instructables showing how to look after Lithium batteries, these are used on a car but the principle is still the same for the bike ones...


http://www.instructables.com/id/Increasing-the-lifespan-of-a-Lithium-Starter-Batte/

Have found another interesting Virago from BIKEEXIF, BEEFY LOOKING BUILD...


http://www.bikeexif.com/classified-moto-xv1100And 

And this one


http://www.bikeexif.com/yamaha-virago-xv750-hageman

Really nice looking bikes Doc, Love the red one 

Very much liked both of them, the red one did look nice though.

Pleased to say the bike passed the MOT Saturday morning and with no adviseries, took it down on a trailer as I haven,t had a chance to ride it yet but had a few rounds of the trading estate to bed the pads in and clear the cobwebs 


Here you are Crash, a couple of side shots, haven,t fitted the alloy plate to the battery cover yet...






Have also done a quick satin black spray tidy up on the rear frame rails and swinging arm to hide the silver paint brush job.
Now looking for a good insurance Co. Dave seems to have a good one that is modification friendly.

Looking good Doc   ready for the rest of the summer's riding

Nice, hope you get to enjoy her!

Great work Nigel, always good to get that MOT you must be well pleased.

Brilliant Nigel, nice to see the riding of her getting just about there for you. I know you have more on your list that you want to get done to her but to have her at the stage that she now is, will make you crack on a bit. I know free time is you enimy but just sleep less mate.

Thanks for the comments guys,  yes it will be good to get some riding time in,   Will be TAX and insuring her from the 1st of September and going with Carol Nash as Dave told me they were more modified bike friendly,

Went looking for a Hydraulic clutch kit for the bike a few months ago but were a bit pricey, had a look last week and the good old Chinese have started to copy them, and at these prices too good to ignore

Slave cylinder...£14.00

Master cylinder...£13.89 free delivery
This is what turned up...















Going on to EBAY in a while to get the hydraulic pipe, at these prices its worth having a go, plus the seals look to be a common size avaliable in any good bearing store, also will be getting the matching brake master cylinder.

Looks good Nigel!

Gotta love the Chinks.

That looks fooking ace for that price! hope you get it working 

Those prices are unreal.

For that price you can,t go wrong, did a little bit of tinkering with the slave cylinder today,

Took off the clutch cover plate...





Removed the cable and then just rested the slave cylinder in the cable location hole, looking good so far...





The hole here will be tapped out to accept the cylinder threaded section ...




This will then be the first part, have also found a firm on Ebay who will custom make a hydraulic pipe...


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motorcycle-Braided-Steel-Hydraulic-Reinforced-Brake-Clutch-Hose-line-1300-1600MM-/121657301518?hash=item1c53571a0e


After this it should be fairly straight forward, ( I hope)

Have also worked out how to mount the right side alloy plate...





Cut a piece of alloy plate to cover the battery, chamfered one end and radiused the other...




This stud will lock the plate and also secure the battery...






Secured...




This was then sprayed satin black, two countersunk screws in the back with the acorn nuts on the outside,,,





The plate hides and the alloy plate stands out...





Both side now mounted.

Well sorted Doc 

Would look better with some Chrome trim on the edges?
I think it looks to small, could you not have different sizes for each side?

Good point Ken, thought they looked a bit small when looking the other day so will be making a larger pair, always good to have different points of view and comments 

Black trim and a Number on the side panel?

Oooh proper racing bike! just don't use 46 I believe its been taken by another doctor

Was having another look on EBAY  for Hydraulic brake lines and remembered that Goodridge do DIY brake line kits and came up with this link...


http://goodridge.brakes-hoses-fittings.co.uk/buildaline.php

It may be of use to other people as well.

Good news, the Virago is now on the road...  took it out for a short !!! ride on Thursday, seemed to run OK. after a quick carb, tweek, took it over to Dave,s today, had to take the country route as it showed how it was running on varying throttle openings as opposed to a straight blast from Ato B, seems to handle and accelerate well but could do with the needle going up a notch as I had to run it on part choke so this would seem to indicate a weak mixture, but wasn,t overly bothered as just being on the bike was reward enough, my wife Jan said I would have to chew on a lemon to get the smile off my face, thank,s to everyone for the support over the last couple of years  this has made it all worthwhile, but, there are still plenty more Ideas to come and will be putting them on the forum on a regular basis....so will leave you with an interesting video ...





Regards to you all, Doc Cox

playback disabled Doc!

peardrop3 wrote:

playback disabled Doc!

It's just disabled for sharing Peter, Click on the 'Watch on YouTube Button' and it opens up in Youtube

Oooooo So pleased the day has come Sir, enjoy. Hope this isn't the end of your very interesting thread.

Yeah congratulations!   keep the updates coming.

Hi everyone, managed to get a bit of riding in before the end of Autumn, but had a bit of a mishap a week ago last Sunday...
Unfortunately a fire started in the garage and these are the results












As you can see the bike suffered as well, not too sure what to do with it, considering claiming on the insurance and the see if I can do a 10% buy back and then rebuild it, already have ideas floating around in the head, luckily no one was hurt, and we are insured for garage contents,,,, was going to have a tidy up anyway 

That is one terrible shame, a real shocker to see the bike and all the gear in there destroyed.

No way, bad luck. glad everyone is OK. Do you know what happened?

Jeez - where do you start with that lot. On the plus - no one hurt and a nice project refurbing the garage.

Fuck!!! all that work gone up in flames   not only with the bike, but the garage as well! gutted for you! hope there's a happy outcome 

Thanks guys, after the firemen had finished the fire inspection team and I had a look and could find no evidence as to how the fire had started, he was happy with the wiring as this had been completely renewed last year and we have a dedicated breaker for the garage in the house main fusebox, luckily the full cylinder of calor gas didn,t go up as this was right next to the fire, only melted the control knob, shows how well made they are.

So sorry for your loss Nigel.

Doc Cox wrote:

 luckily the full cylinder of calor gas didn,t go up as this was right next to the fire, only melted the control knob, shows how well made they are.

  I'm surprised they put it out with a gas cylinder inside! those boys go off like a rocket when they go