Post by iconic on Jul 20, 2019 6:34:52 GMT -5
Hi guys, quick intro.
Bought my old bus last May 2018 to do a trip to Normandy D Day landings celebration.....strange how I came to own her...
At the time I had/have a 92 GSXR750, 98 SRAD, 00 Firestorm, SWM 280 and a Monty 247C, none of which were at all suitable for a long distance trip with camping gear. And, there was a caveat on the bike that it must not cost no more than £1000, which sort of adds to the fun. My mate took a Honda 400 Super Four.
Now, I do on occasion classic trials and track days but the longest I have travelled on a bike on the road since I was 17 is, around 80 miles, so I'm not bike fit and worried I will hold my hardcore bike mate back being as, I'm the rookie here. So I needed something comfy for my 50 year plus bones 'n muscles
I had bought a CBR600 F1 Jellymould but then found I couldn't find a rack, and more importantly the bike was such a clean example I really didn't wish to subject the bike to being abused during the tour so was already having second thoughts....any way I'm on the way home from collecting the Jellymould and the Gumtree reminder goes off and there is a Revere 600 for sale with new ticket for £550 just up the road from me, complete with rack.....wow what a find!
So, with the CBR still on board I go and view the Revere and it's a really honest old thing, 2 owners from new, 50k, lovely clean oil and other fluids, engineer father and son owned and they have used it to commute to their villa in Portugal! Bought it there and then, and the Jellymould was sold for a nice profit the next week and is now in a motorcycle museum, it was that nice.
Back home with the Reverend she gets treated to all new Maxxis tyres -love these as I use this brand on track days and MX - and all fluids, but I notice that the old runny juices are all spotless anyway and yes, even the fork oil.
New air filter, jesus that things huge. Brakes are stripped and rebuilt with new Goldfren pads (my favorites after excellent track day performance experience), head bearings and other bits all greased up, all electrical connectors pulled apart, cleaned and put back with di-electric grease, carbs stripped but all clean anyway this thing has been WELL looked after but all this is done regardless to try and ensure a bit of reliability on an unknown bike. Small flyscreen added.
In my experience around bikes and cars (I used to be in automotive research and development) it's anything old and made from rubber, nitrile or of a flexible plastic thats what lets a vehicle down, the rest can't he helped. Ohh the battery was new at the time so one less thing to change out.
Long story short she performed brilliantly bar the usual headshake on the over run with engine braking and, they were known for this back in the day being a shaftie, having had friends despatch them from new....winding the rear end pre-load helps a lot but it's always there in the background. Slow into the corner and power out hides most of the head shake.
I must confess. She did let down on the return part though, by running on one pot but, bless her she dragged me home. Turned out to be a holed carb diaphragm and I can tell you that a cycle repair patch works for a few months and 3k miles until failing but the long term solution are new diaphragms which he now has. What was it I said about rubber/nitrile parts failing with age 
So back to date. Just fitted new points this morning with the old ones looking very second hand, brakes stripped and cleaned, flushed again, new engine oil/filter and she is good to go for another trip to France this August. I also installed 5 weight fork oil and it's a real improvement with the front end being a lot plusher on the those stutter and quick small bumps that catch out old school damper rod forks.
I have oodles of newer bikes come and go but the old Revere is still here....it handles like a tea trolley, feels top heavy and is heavy for what it is, has sluggish and slow steering, the footrests are too high, the bars can't take touring fittings being cast but I still have such a soft spot for the old girl and afterall, it has got me around France twice over now and, looking forward to a third time.
She also gets more attention around France (and the UK) than a newer Gixser as France was a good market for the Revere so there's a lot of "ohh, mon ami, I had one of those" moments.
So that's it. off again in August so hopefully no awful issues, or if they are any something we can fix on the road.
cheers guys