So that's me putting in the engine mount bolts in the bike's new "north campus" assembly shop.  Luckily my mate Drew has a mega garage with all the goodies.  However, he's so fastidious that every time I reach for the wrench I set down, I have to get up and go get it out of the drawer because he's put it away. On the other hand, it's a deluxe setup and his ultra cool wife brings out hot Costa Rican food every night, so...




By the way my name is not Frank Machin, that's just one of my fav film characters in the British classic, This Sporting Life.  Richard Harris got the best actor award in '63 at Cannes for it.

Have to hand it to the RYCA guys, they did a ton of work and developed a really cool product, undoubtedly at the expense of their personal lives for aeons.   But, some of the designs are not optimal, nor is every bike constructed identically, so lots of rework and/or modifying/adjusting is required.  The kickstand bracket is a Mickey Mouse job to say the least and I had to get my own bolt to ensure it didn't ride against the frame there.  We also cut a little spacer on the far side of the tension strap to prevent it from bending so much and forcing my bolt into the frame.


Back in the "south campus", it was time to get the tank painted so I could mount it and get the bike together enough to try and fire it up.  After calling around several garage painters and finding their magic skills would set me back $800-1000 for the tank alone, I recovered from the belly laughing and headed to NAPA for rattle cans.  After getting a base coat of white over the gray primer, I taped off my pattern and plowed ahead.  It's so tough to get good 'set' with rattle cans, but, I resigned to spending hours sanding.  And that's just what I did...

I was really pleased with the tape job and color.  Picking paint colors is always risky until you see it on the machine. I realize that this is going to be a very amateur paintjob, but, it's not a mint RC30 and I like doing this stuff and anything that looks too perfect is just not my style.  I hate virtually anything brand new unless it has a mechanical function.  A few imperfections keep it real.

Let it dry, off to bike night now...

Backfire Moto puts on the Ballard Bike night every  3rd Wednesday.  This was the first sunny, warm day and it was a cracker.  Must have been 600 bike there.  I love the 80's race reps.  I once had an NC30 and wish I had it now, probably the coolest bike I ever had.

Had to throw this pic in as that's my buddy's old Baja at bike night. He sold it before he moved, now splitting his time between Hawaii and Nicaragua, tough life...  I liked it better before the horns and skateboard rack. 

Clear coat time.  And wouldn't ya know... disaster strikes!  I was a little too impatient and overzealous with the clear coat and look what happened, she went off hotter than an ATLAS five stage rocket and cracked up on reentry.  Death Valley lake bed.  Look at the white in the closeup.  It was Miller time at that point and hopefully I can sand that down without getting into the paint tomorrow night. 


You have to love projects. 

I should have built a Kawasaki, let the good times roll...