T-Reno Part 1

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SHED of DREA MS

Tech

T-Reno Series

Reno Transmoto’s new series where we get down and dirty with the spanners to renovate a faded beauty.

IN COMING ISSUES:

10 11 12 13

PART ONE Cave dwelling: before the dreams comes the means.

We show you how to turn a dull space into a kicking man-cave.

MARTIN CHILD

TONY NOLAN

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o you’ve decided to get to know your bike on a much more intimate level. This could be because you’re sick of paying labour charges on basic maintenance procedures or because you’ve suddenly decided that now is the time to renovate a blast from your misspent past.

You might be lucky and have a double garage at your disposal – a huge cavern filled with benches, gleaming toolboxes and cans of sprays and oils. Or you might have the smallest area of bare concrete that is about as inviting as working on Christmas day.

Even though you can’t do much about the size of your space, you can cleverly fill it with just the essentials so you still have space to swing a 10mm spanner.

The first thing to do is to dedicate an area to the renovation project so it doesn’t

get overrun by your kids’ bikes/ golf trolleys/stacks of old Sunday papers. The smallest this area can realistically be is a bike-length by double its width – 2m x 2m will be cosy but workable. Get a spray can or tape and mark this area – in this space goes only the bike as you strip-down and rebuild.

Next you’ll need to properly light the area. This makes seeing what you’re doing less tiring and finding that springwasher less of a manhunt. No need to call the sparky and have him chat up the wife; just rig lights to the nearest electrical socket (or generator, if your really are doing this in the middle of nowhere).

Then you want to control the environment. Security is top here as you start to build your impressive tool collection and spend your hard-earnt on expensive shinny new parts.

A strong door, window grilles

and a shotgun rigged to the door’s hinges (only joking, you’d attach it to the handle) are basics to be ticked off the don’t-be-a-statistic sheet. A ground anchor and lock are wise investments, especially when the bike’s finished and looking mighty fine. Floorwise, an old carpet makes life easier all round, and sealing draughty windows and doors means you’ll wake up without a sore neck when you finally venture back into the house.

The final steps are bench areas to spread items out on and a workstand for the bike. If space is at a premium, then a folding bench, hinged off the wall and with supporting legs that fold out, makes much sense. And if your budget simply doesn’t stretch to a hydraulic bike-lift to work on, use a normal bike stand and secure the bike with strong tie-downs.

PART TWO The strip show: swarf, shards and shrapnel.

PART THREE Friends reunited: how many ‘spares’ will we have left?

PART FOUR The test: will it work, will it ride was it bloody worth it?

HERE’S THE DEAL Ever wanted to improve your mechanical knowledge or save a favourite bike from the ravages of time?

If you’ve ever found yourself embarassed by paying a grown man to remove a wheel on your ride or you’ve harboured a secret desire to relive your youth by buying that once special bike, then we have the series for you. Over the next four issues, we’ll show you the whole process of turning nothing more than a field bike back into the ripping beast it once was. But this is no lightweight farmed-out rebuild. Nope, we’ve resuced an area in our parking lot and have claimed it as our own man-cave.

From a dark, damp, completely un-inviting place to do anything but an after-pub piss, we’ve made an area that makes you want to swing spanners and create things that are just a little bit special. We’ve already picked our mechanical victims, but before the old ladies gets a strip down and rebuild, we’re gonna make a place where they won’t mind us getting their clothes off...

“A strong door, window grilles and a shotgun rigged to the door’s hinges (only joking, you’d attach it to the handle) .”

Tech Savvy?

Log onto www.transmoto.com.au for ‘before’ shots of the T-Reno bikes.

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SHED OF

DREAMS

THE ESSENTIALS OF Tech THE MAN-CAVE

T-Reno Series

Or how to make an area a place where you really want to spent some serious time.

CREATURE COMFORTS

TOOLED UP

VIVA THE REVOLUTION I HAVE THE POWER

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ithout the right tools, it’s impossible to work efficiently on your ride.

We’re not talking about buying every item Snap-On has ever made, but enough to tackle the job in hand. A full socket set (normally about 100 pieces) will see you through about 90% of the exercise and asking to borrow your mate’s tools should see you through the rest. If not, your local bike shop will be keen to help, especially if you’ve been buying parts from them.

Unless you plan on using expensive tools

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outside the reno, it’ll be quicker, easier and cheaper to get welding done by a professional, and consider outsourcing the spraying. Having said that, we’ll be looking to spray our project bikes the quickest and cheapest way, but achieving results that belie this fact. Clearly that’ll involve having to deal with some old coffindodger down at Bunnings.

There are plenty of ways to buy tools. Local garage sales can uncover once-expensive tools for not much more than pie-money.

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oing to be spending some time in the shed? Then make it comfy! Your butt might be able to stand sitting on an upturned milkcrate for three hours, but I’m sure you’d prefer to be sitting in a favourite, slightly more welcoming chair. Or couch. And why not eBay a cheap kettle and boom box? You’ll buy them for peanuts and will make those long evenings much more luxurious.

A good tip is to get a head and shoulders photograph of yourself. Then when the wife trudges down to (not in – Man-cave Rule #1) give you the ‘You’ve been down here so long, I’ve forgotten what you look like’ serve, you can simply hand her the snap, along with the following loving words: ‘Make sure you close the door behind you, there’s a love’. Then you’d best duck!

WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH

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f, 20 years ago, you were renovation a bike, you’d be on first-name terms with the local parts guy and spend so much time waiting behind the counter that you could legitimately ask for a wage.

Now, you just throw it out to a forum and the know-it-alls tell all. Yup, the computer has changed the way we renovate. While we’re talking digital revolution, don’t forget the humble camera. Useful to reference when you take the bike apart and then completely forget where that dog-legged z-spring spindle fits into the blind compression moulding. Less high-tech is the whiteboard. Great for lists of parts needed and work to be done. And for those moments when you’re sitting with a cup of tea and looking sadly at a pile of rusty bits, how about an inspiration board, packed full of pictures and ideas you want your finished bike to look like? Hang it front and centre.

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he basic ingredients of your little slice of mechanical Nirvana are the things that you get a bill through your letterbox for – electricity and water.

As mentioned earlier, the better the lighting in your garage/shed/cave, the happier you’ll be. Ideally, you’ll have a double electrical wall socket and multi-socket extension lead available to power tools, etc. Water-wise, either run a hose and tap from the house or fill a plastic container. A good tip is to have a bucket of water by the door. That way you can wash you hands well before heading into the house and into the ‘Look at the mess you’ve made’ maelstrom from the other half.

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ormally the only tree-hugging most of us do is when we cut a corner too tight, but properly disposing of the waste byproducts of a renovation is pretty easy. The biggest mess you’ll make (or not) is when draining the engine oil. As most motorcycles have a relatively small oil capacity, it is far easier and cleaner to drain the fluid into a plastic drink bottle. When it’s full, just slam the lid on to keep it from being kicked over and spilling.

It can then go to your neighbourhood tip –

along with any metal items and tyres – to be disposed of free of charge. Most tips impose a limit for oil and tyre dumping, so visit the website before you trundle up and get slapped with a hefty charge.

If you have the space, keep as many of the old parts as possible. Old cables and sprockets, that didn’t look shiny enough for the finished bike, might get you out of a tight spot in the future, but not if they’re buried under 1000 nappies at the local dump.

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Tech

T-Reno N

ow that the space is all set for the big event, it seems that there is something missing … ah yes, the bike.

Which bike you’ll end up renovation normally falls into three categories: head, heart or hand-down.

The hand-down speaks for itself: family, a friend or neighbour casually mentions they’ve got a Suzukisomething-or-other in a shed and before you know it, his neglected banger has a new owner and an even chance of popping a wheelie again.

Then there’s the head – a choice made purely with the whiff of a nice

THE HUNT FOR THE PERFECT PARTNER

fat cash reward at the end of the rebuild.

This is the one category where it’s the most important to do your homework and get your sums right. Nothing worse than a cash cow turning into a bull’s bollocks. Choose smartly, sell wisely.

The heart is the most pure and slightly romantic reason here. It’s not about what the bike costs to do up; it’s more about what it symbolises.

It’s more about passion than profit and detail over dollars. However, the heart is also where the money goes, so prepare to alter your costings as you go through the rebuild process.

After 30 years of mud sweat and tears, many of the XT’s original parts won’t see more than the back of the shed.

“It’s not about what the bike costs to do up; it’s more about what it symbolises.”

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SAY HELLO TO THE NEW GIRLFRIEND

can’t remember what I did yesterday, but I can remember the planes dropping in on the World Trade Centre, Diana’s chauffeur failing the 101 Tunnel Test and the first bike that piqued my interest in two-wheelers. Yamaha’s XT500 had been around for a handful of years before the gold-rimmed beauty I saw as a boy in Luton’s town-centre library got me thinking there’s more to life than nailing a 180 on my skateboard.

Luckily, I don’t remember much 106

else about Luton – not exactly one of England’s finest achievements – but I’ve had a lingering soft spot for the XT. Growing up, I had a XT550 and XT600 but the original always eluded me.

The super-strong single was literally a trailblazer when new and now has cult status as their numbers dwindle.

So a recent ad for a “one-owner, low kilometre, original example” seemed like as good a time as any to stop dreaming of single life and start living it. After more than an hour of

slow and at times painful negotiation (I think the guy would have let his first-born go easier!), I became only the second owner in three decades and he became $2100 richer. That’s not too bad, considering that he shelled-out just $1799 for the new XT500H back in 1981. As the rusting 30-year-old lady was pushed into my car spot and readied for the biggest transformation of her life, I started to think about where and how I was going to perform the transformation.

I’ve decided my ‘heart’ purchase is going to be fixed with my ‘head’, I’m going to roll with the lows and savour the highs of the build and enjoy a long and fun relationship with the bike.

NEXT MONTH IN PART TWO We introduce the bike and get under her skin to see what 30 years of on- and off-road does to a bike.

Is it all natural beauty under the rust or are we going to have to get the plastic surgeons in?