Tool kit MKII

With the test run done and my tool kit AWOL I have decided to make 2 more poly pipe tubes to fit next to the Rotopax. These will house my tools and some spares. If these fall off I am not meant to have tools...

The raw(ish) materials.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

And stick it all together

And strap them on

If I loose tools this time I'm going to buy a sat phone and if something breaks I'll call someone else to fix it...

All coming together

The oil leak was coming from the clutch spindle. Simple enough but to get to the retaining screw the starter motor needs to come out. To get the starter motor out the carby needs to come out. To get the carby out the airbox needs to come out. To get the airbox out the subframe needs to come out.



So up on the bench it goes. Problem was where my bench sits the roof was too low… Time to clean the bench and move it to the other side of the shed…



Before.









Does anyone remember how this goes back together? What was I thinking?

The trip is off….



New spring goes in





Surprisingly enough, It went back together ok.





Sits better, sags better. Will take it for a spin tomorrow.

Oh, yes, I did fix the oil leak.

The test run

Right, So we decided to drag our families off camping for a couple of nights to allow us to test run our steeds and see what was lacking. Was an excellent idea to remove ourselves from the cars. A very quite trip…

As you can see in this photo I had purchased a front fender tool bag.



Brilliant idea, easy to get to when needed. Doesn’t take up any bag space. So I loaded it up with the start of my tool kit for the trip.



Plus some Locktite, metal mend, puncture kit etc…



The bag and those tools are some where in this pic… Fucking stupid idea. I loved those tools…

Anyway… We all met up at The Great Aussie Caravan park just out of Albury and a great weekend was had by all.



First time camper. She loved it.



What are you looking at?




I am soooo sunburnt, hungover and tired. It’s all the chicken wings fault… Dodgy chicken wings…

The added benefit of this trip is Trent brought my Safari tank, rear spring and a few other items that we had bulk purchased.

The ride home was good. What wasn’t good was finding an oil leak under my bike. Will deal with that in the next post.

The fuel tank(er)

The fuel tanker is complete.
Lets all “reflect” on these images.

Time to load up

My racks are finally fully welded and painted.
Need a couple of straps to pull the bags in a bit tighter.

Just a bit too big

I’ll take those radiator guards with all the “trimmings” thanks…

And now for something completely different...

That about gets us up to speed. Now onto the trip plan.

Somewhere in that mad 30 minutes of solid drinking we decided we should go and see the Finke Desert Race.

Now we have a time frame and a general area of operation. the rest went something like this;

Me: Been to Ayres rock?
Trent: No, never been out of Canberra (That’s a lie but it’s my new avenue to tease…)
Me: Me neither, it’s on the list…
Me: Ever been across the Simpson Desert?
Trent: Fuck no.
Me: Want to go across the Simpson?
Trent: Why not, probably wont be allowed out of the house again once we get back (Another lie, but hey…)
Me: It’s on the list
Me: Ever been to Brokenhill?
Trent: No.
Me: Cool, you can meet some of my relo’s

So the general order of all of this is;

Melbourne
Adelaide
Coober Pedy
Ayres Rock
Fink 2 nights
Dalhousie Springs via Mt Dare
Hopefully 1 night in the Simpson
Birdsville
Innaminca
Cameron Corner/Tibboburra
Brokenhill
Mildura
Melbourne

In the mean time we have a test run camp organised and plenty of practice to do… Hey Trent…

This has all the makings of a life experience and all the evidence will be posted here.

Drinks holder

Gotta keep warm somehow…

Being supervised to make sure I don’t get too warm.

Tanks for the memories

Tanks for the memories. HA! how do I come up with them?

Playing around

Red wire or the blue wire?

Red pill or the blue pill?

This should stop me having to pull bugs out of my teeth.