Back to base!

So, I guess it's time for me to pick up the story from here onwards...

Martin was working away feverishly to put the bike back together in time for the insurance company people to come and collect the bike and he did a great job packing everything neatly in the panniers and even throwing a couple of UCCMCC stickers in there!

So, after a long journey of about 20 days through Europe catching rides from one carrier to the other and from one ship to the next, Avra eventually made it home in one piece safe and sound panniers and all.

I will admit that when I saw her up there on the truck it was a very emotional moment for me; last time I had seen her was 1,5 months ago when me and Joe left her in the Honda dealership in Cork all broken and sad after being salvaged from the river.
And to think that just 2 days before the whole incident she was travelling happily through countries on one more long tour around Europe and then everything had come to an abrupt halt with us and our bike parting ways.
No matter, the bike is here now and sad as I am to see her in such a bad shape I am happy that I can start the restoration process.

Welcome home!

Bye Bye Avra

Avra (Nick's VFR) has left the building. This morning Avra began her journey back to Greece. It was heading to Ringaskiddy, on to France, where she will be met by an Italian courier and brought to the heal of Italy then by ferry to Piraeus.

Last night was a frantic reassembly. A tip for VFR owners, when fitting carbs attach the front manifold rubbers to the carbs and the rear to the engine, spray liberally with silicone lubricant and fit front first, then rear. Worked a treat. I won't tell you how long it took me to figure that out.Any spares or homeless parts were sent off in the top box. Strapped in the back of a Transit she left Cork.

I really hope this bike lives again. Before two selfish, mindless, denizens of Cork got their moronic hands on her she had traveled a lot of kilometers.She had seen Europe from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. She had been across the Arctic circle to the most northerly towns in Europe . Nick had repaid her service with upgrades, to suspension, brakes, wheels, electrics, luggage. Like a lot of us, his bike was one of a kind, irreplaceable and impossible to reproduce. I hope the Nick will keep us informed on her progress and I hope she see more road.

Every cloud has a silver lining and the community spirit that has been shown has been inspirational. Thank you all for your help and support.

Long live Avra

A Positive Charge...

It's been a while since the lastr update but the coub have been working away on the VFR and attempting to make the bike turn over. Fearing a blown starter motor we took the starter solenoid from a working VFR, along with the battery, and connected it Nick's VFR. This offered a ray of hope but despite many attempts we could not get the bike to turn over.

The only reason why we were doig this was to ensure that the starter motor still works and that the engine is able to move, at least a bit anyway. Essentially we were trying to confirm that the bike is not dead. Disappointed at the result of this we began to strip off the working starter solenoid from the bike only to hear the engine turn over! But how the hell did it happen?!

It turns out the two wires running to the starter solenoid had touched off one another, producing the noise, and a small spark as well. Further testing, and slight electrocution of Martin, gave the same results. So there we have it, the starter motor does work, somewhat at least, and the engine can turn over. It is not dead yet.

Trying to sort the carbs out...

Over the last few workshop sessions we have mainly worked on the carbs. And by "we" I mean Martin. The carburettors are no longer water-logged thankfully and have fully dried out but there are still some issues with the bank of four. The main issue in this regard is that some of the diaphragms look in poor condition. When the carbs were initially taken apart they did not look too bad but these rubber parts have since deteriorated. No one is exactly sure of why but we all reckon the water has had something to do with this. The use of compressed air to clean and dry the carbs, as was necessary, may have torn a slight hole in one of them as well and this will require replacing. Wemoto and David Silver Spares have these parts (we think) so it should not be a big, nor an expensive, issue to sort. For now the bank of carbs remains on the "clean bench" in the workshop.

Another issue we have been working through has been the electrical system. This may well be the thing that worries us the most as the relays may have fried themselves upon hitting the water, although we may be lucky here as without the engine on no current would have been flowing through them. We think. Either way the starter relay looks in poor condition but this is a common VFR symptom, with or without river water! My own VFR's starter relay was in poor condition not long ago with some of it melted and lots of corrosion on some connectors which in turn caused high resistance in the circuit and certainly helped blow a regulator/rectifier...or two. Starter relays are not too expensive so this should be an easy fix, we hope. This will begin the proper work on the electrical system as a whole.

Last night we connected a battery to the VFR and tried to crank over the engine as a test but there was nothing happening so next on our list is an investigation of the starter motor. The starter motor is located at the front of the V-4 behind the downpipes in that area and would certainly have been water-logged due to its low location. This may be at fault for the lack of cranking and so out attention will turn to that soon.

Unfortunately I did not shoot any photos of this last night but did take a picture of Nick's VFR next to mine in there the night before as I replaced my rear brake master cylinder. Two RC36s together!