Mick Doohan's

Head bearings

August 2015 - New head bearing slotted, this project's starting to look like a motorcycle again ... almost.

Painting session 3

July 2015 - Having been unable to completely remove the sticky blue paint from the bottom yoke, the whole assembly, along with the headlight bracket, went to Max Power for a blasting. Extensive use of shot peening eventually got rid of the ugly blueish coating to reveal the bare metal at last.

Then came the masking step.

And finally, this painting session is over with nice looking, freshly painted yokes (masking tape still to be removed, though). The way these parts react even to light layers of paint is such a thing to cheer about I really wished I'd had more to do.

Sunday ride

October 2015 - A little stop at a silly useless place while on a 2-up sunday ride.

I utterly love this bike whatever people think it is and even though it's not a sharp as it used to at the time of writing. The front shock is due for a rebuild with high expectations.

Bearing change

June 2015 - Let's put some new bearings in the rear wheel and sprocket holder. So out with the old ones ...

... and in went the new. It's always a good idea to start over with a fresh set of bearings, especially when you get a bike with unknown history. All Balls Racing makes complete sets of bearings with rather good quality.

Abba stand

Abba stands have been a must-have garage asset for a few years already. Hairy mechanics can't praise their stability and build quality enough. The stand displayed below is the entry-level "Superbike", but Abba has a full range of more advanced products that you can check out on their website.

We bought one recently for our projects. This certainly is the only way to check what they say about it is true. And it actually is. It's so stable !

The only 2 drawbacks I've found until now are : 

• It's really wide. Of course wider means steadier, but it makes it impossible to use on narrow benches like mine.
• It's a bit heavy and, combined with size, it does not make it the perfect tool on a trackday.

Don't get me wrong though, this is an excellent product and we would rate it really high ... if we were asked.

Painting session 2

June 2015 - Cleaning, brushing and painting fork lowers might pay in the end ...

Top yoke gets its special treatment too.