2013 Scrapheap Adventure Ride – Back ‘O’ Bourke – March 29-30

Mick ride out to bendameer,go over old bridge past servo, great dirt road all the way to narrabri turn of,briliant ride. will pre run any day .
Toes

I was originally going to ride a CT90 in the 2013 Scrapheap Adventure ride but once I found out it was way out west this year, I decided I needed something with a bit more go about it.

This year I did the Scrapheap Adventure Ride on a 1989 NX650 and it did the job well. I picked another one up for $200, it had no spark and looks as rough as guts. This one is a later model and even has a disc brake backend.

Here it is with last years Scraper NX.

I dragged it into the shed and threw her up on the stand to see why she had no spark,

I replaced the CDI and Coil, still no spark. I found a loose connection on the pulse generator wires and low and behold, she all of a sudden had spark.

I jammed a tank on her and hooked up some fuel and she fired into life after several years of laying dormant.

A massive cloud of rusty dust blew out of the exhausts all over every thing in the shed and she ran like a beauty!

As you can see, she still needs a fair bit of work to tidy her up but I am pretty sure I have found next year’s Scrapper!

Well, after this afternoon I am convinced there is no God.

AS you all know I am working on an old neglected NX, in order to ride in the Scrapheap adventure ride Next March, to raise money for the support of people living with Down Syndrome. Well this bike has spent the last few years of its life, out in the weather, a few near the sea, just to make it worse.

Anyhow, I decided that the rear shock needed to come out for a bit of a tidy up.

Simple enough on any bike except for a rusty NX650.

The top shock bolt had frozen solid and required some persuasion with a ball peen hammer and a big punch. To actually get to the end of the bolt, along with the left exhaust pipe, I had to remove the rear mudguard so I could move the air/battery box back far enough to gain access to the bolt.
That bolt was one stubborn bastard of a thing. I had to flog it with a hammer and drift 100 times.

Actually it was probably only 98 times as I hit my hand twice. (I was on beer 5 by this time)

That hurt like a bitch and I was seen staggering around my back yard with my hand firmly planted in my armpit yelling profanities( for longer than really necessary according to my wife.)

By beer 7 the bolt finally came out.

It came out with such velocity, it shot across my shed at Warp speed, this is the bit that has convinced me that there is no greater being, watching over the good folk. The bolt shot across the shed and smashed the rear tail light lens on my treasured XR650R!! That is an area of 35mm x 55mm, what are the chances of that in a 60 square meter shed?

What sort of God would let that happen to a well intentioned soul like myself?

Anyhow, I finally managed to extract the shock out of the bike, it is obviously not the genuine Honda one, anyone got any ideas what it might be?

No Eags, this is a different NX650 to the one I got from TB.

Mate…. all I could do was laugh too, that’s why I decided to share the story. :laugh:

Mick think a little wider AVO means it has taken out an aprehended violence order against it after seeing what you do to your own hand!

Update

It is always a great moment when you have been working on an old bike and you finally press the starter button and it fires and runs sweetly! Not even a hint of smoke from the exhaust or the slightest rattle from the engine!

Thanks to a new float needle, that I had to give our Honda dealer my first born in exchange for, I have stemmed the flow of fuel from the overflow. A special mention goes to Horri a freind from New Zealand for his tip on using a strand of wire off a wire brush to clean the small hole in the pilot jet. I had searched my shed high and low looking for something to clean it with and completely overlooked the humble wire brush!

I still haven’t used Brianhare’s CDI repair technique yet, it is on the to do list. It is still getting spark after I bashed the CDI with a screwdriver (another of Brian’s suggestions).

I got the rear shock cleaned up and back in after greasing the linkage bearings and borrowed the seat off my other NX just to get an idea how she is going to look.

I had a spare XR600 front guard kicking around, so I though I might go for the high guard look on this beast and do away with the fairing for that naked look.

One of the exhaust cans has several rust holes in it, making it all but unrepairable, I couldn’t believe my luck yesterday when I logged onto ebay and there was a set for sale in Sydney for $55.00! I grabbed those quick smart! Thanks to TB for offering to pick them up for me.

I am still missing a few parts and am having a bit of trouble finding them 2nd hand.

I am needing a bottom chain guide, a chain guard, a rear brake fluid reservoir and most of all, a seat! So if anyone knows were to start looking please say so, there are very few (read none) NX650’s at the wreckers I have contacted so far.

She is not far off her first test ride, should be fun I think, once I fit a decent set of tyres.

I best go see John and tell him he has my Chain guide then. :silly: