Morning from Wales

Hello to all.

Last week, on Sunday, I got hold of a heavily modified VX800.

I have got back onto two wheels after a masive accident and I still own and ride my VW1600 Trike, but I have managed to get out of my chair and I am back on bikes.

The thing is, that I have a Honda CB400 and a Fazer 600 and without a doubt, I absolutely love them both, but I am in extreme pain when riding them.

So, I have a choice of converting one of them to have forward controls, and raise the bars up, or find a nice cruiser that will do the job, and I have seen a few, but none have been suitable, either they are too heavy or just dont suit my legs and back.

This pile of junk I have just bought however, has forward controls, and a raised bars and it has been lowered a great deal and has the back end chopped off, so its a sort of bobber style, and with the back end gone, I can lift my leg onto it, and so I decided to buy it.

And apart from the fact that its turned out to be a huge bad deal and the previous owner has done me a bad deal, I love it.

Test ride was a couple of miles up the road and that went great.

First proper ride was down the Conwy valley, through Betws-Y-Coed, and up to Bangor, when we stopped off for some fuel, and I found that the footpegs were seriously loose. When I got home, the headlamp had fallen off! - yeah, it was the start of the list of errors. It was shaking so much, that I never even noticed the headlamp falling off????

Ok, no problem, I got another, but then I realised the poor job he had done and so I have a few more bits on order coming soon.

Second ride out, I realised the fan was coming on all the time and it was warming up too easily... Find out there is no coolant or any liquid at all in the radiator! - Just as badly, there is no rear brake... It had pased the MOT 4 days before I bought it??? WTF?

I had a quick check and the disc is a little worn, but nothing too bad, and there is plenty of meat on the pads, so maybe a simple strip and rebuild might be all it needs, so lets hope.

Another issue that needs sorting sometime, is that the front shocks are bottoming out far too easily... for example, I can bottom it out by just leaning on the front end, or riding over a sleeping policeman in the road at only 5mph slams the thing down, so thats definitely NOT legal, and I dont care what the MOT says.

There is a fairly sizeable list of things that need doing to make it truly useable, and the MOT is questionable at best.

I am seriously not impressed, its crystal clear the prev owner knew the MOT guy and I have a legal ground to do something, but I will see what it will cost to sort this out and see what I can do and what I cannot, cos I do like it.

Anyway, I am waffling and all I needed to do, was introduce myself, so there you go!

Welcome Damion.   Wow ... that's some intro.    I think you hit the nail on the head with the MOT story.  Some are easy going. but that's dangerous.

I am happy with easy going, but sometimes, its stupid.

Another annoying one was my Trike a few months ago...

He tok it out on the estate that the MOT place was, and he was driving it up and down and lamming the brakes on etc...

One of the things he failed it on was that the Front brake dived too much when he slammed it on...

The thing is, that he used the front brake ONLY on this, and its a class 4 huge bugger, and it would dive on heavy braking.

He said that I needed to get some more oil in the forks. I took it to a local garage and they flatly refused telling me that they would do it and in a week or two, I would be coming back with popped seals!

Thankfully I got another place to do the MOT and they said the forks were fine and that they would dive, plus he had no rights taking it out to do those tests, so he was too harsh... There was other things, but that really got to me that bit.

Ooooh, great news

Today, I took the VX800 to the Cayley in Rhos on sea where the local bikers are hanging out ( We usually go to the Quay in CONWY but the local council have kind of stopped us due to Covid nonsense ).

Anyway, I saw a mate that I have not seen for ages and we chewed the fat over the bike and he said that he will do my forks for me. He said his mate can sort out the seals, he said the springs seem to be fine, and he showed me that the seal had basically leaked all the oil out and thats why they dont seem to be leaking now, but when he was pressing the forks in, you could see a tiny bit of a bubble, and so cool. He is getting the seals and he will pop over tgo my gaff to do them for me.

The carbs are running a little off, I know that and it does pop a little and ot seems to be heating up a tad quick and he said thats easy to sort out... he said not to sorry and he will do it all for me.

So, I am really chuffed about this. I know he is a great mechanic and he does not mess about either... So, I am hoping that the bike will finally get finished, and I can ride the thing without worrying that somethign will go pop or flop.

Hello,
Think you need to get things sorted with the VX and the Chao you brought it from..

Some people have said that and others have said no.

I am the sort of person who accepts that if you buy something then its tough luck.

I am however torn on this one, because in the time between seeing it for the first time, and actually buying it, it was about 10 days and in that time, he had taken it for an MOT and it passed.

So, based on that, it was a given standard.. Now, I know enough to know that an MOT does not really mean jack...

I also had been so busy, that I then said to bring it here to my house and I will buy it regardless...

And so yeah, its kind of my fault and so Im accepting that.

Also, while I have been having to do X, Y, and Z ( And a few more things ) Im ok with it.

Its 30 year old bike so its not going to be imaculate, and so by the time I have finished with it, I hope that it will be a great bike to have.

So yeah, I could moan, but bugger it... I am more happy than sad.

Plus, I realyl like it more and more every day, because its a great comfortable biek to ride that does not give my back and legs any issues.

Mine is fifteen years old and when I parked it up by my friends stall in the market, I had loads of people
come over and admire it, and ask about it.  One guy wanted to buy it, but Penny is my mate, and not for sale. ....
...These bikes are great.