my spondon blade

thats the plan

and MDM wants to do a feature on it. He's seen the pics so far and knows Ed and Yan are helping...so I'll be a full blown media darling this time next year!!

radiobloke wrote:thats the plan

and MDM wants to do a feature on it. He's seen the pics so far and knows Ed and Yan are helping...so I'll be a full blown media darling this time next year!!

That'll be great mate, I bet you can't wait to have it finished!

a little progress...so a coupla pics cos I'm sat here bored.

after playing around with rads & oil coolers...I grabbed myself a GSXR1000 K6 rad and cooler mount. the rad is bigger than the blade one I was using before, so cooling issues should be less of a problem. just e-blagged an oil cooler for the bottom of the rad so mounting should be a breeze with the gsxr cooler mount i also eblagged.

the rad was a bit shite...so a bit of a rub down and 5 minutes being blasted with a rattlecan..and t looks ok. and i like the shape of it compared to the blade one, or the R1 rad I also have

took a bit of thought mounting the rad, but got it sorted after a brainwave whilst half asleep on sat morning!

last week i was messing with seat foam...but lost the will to live with it so left it till later. the pics show the first efforts with a stanley knife....not good!!!

once the oil cooler is here I reckon I'll be able to get it running!

just have to pipe up the resevoir that I'm stuffing behind the engine and work out which pipe goes where, including a pipe from deep in the front of the carbs/airbox...forgot where it was plumbed into...I'll work it out...somehow

anyhoo...

here's some pics

Looks tasty!

wow this has moved on a bit since I last looked...looking good

Lookin good mate!

That rad should keep thing cool!

The seat with the new foam in place may not look to bad once it's covered

Nice job

griz wrote:

The seat with the new foam in place may not look to bad once it's covered

gonna redo it...that was a 30min hack job with a blunt stanley knife!!

can do this loads of times as i got a massive bit of foam off the market for £2

Any progress to report RB?

radiobloke wrote:

griz wrote:

The seat with the new foam in place may not look to bad once it's covered

gonna redo it...that was a 30min hack job with a blunt stanley knife!!

can do this loads of times as i got a massive bit of foam off the market for £2

For a good (un-hacked) edge to the foam, try a Leccy Carving Knife! ya dont get the jaggedy edge.

fastbikefinder wrote:Any progress to report RB?

actually yes,...

bit of an update cos its shite telly.

got the rad and oil cooler sorted and oil is in the engine...and the rad/cooling system is full and not leaking



sorted some hose issues and the wiring...well,....some of it!
Battery charged and on the bike ( alarm works so I've done something right)

undertary fitted...




so I went for it,.....pressed the start button....
and guess what!!!!!













feck all happened!

not sure if its the alarm, my wiring, or both....but she doesn't even make a noise. the big bird still sleeps.

So I'm giving up and gonna take it to see someone i know who can sort it..
kinda pisses me off that I can't do it all myself, but at least this way it won't catch fire ( like the blade did!)

I've also got a set of these from germany. I thought they'd come with a fitting kit, but they don't, so I've gotta work out how to fit em, or find someone good with fibreglass to fit em permanently to the tank.



thought she's be running this weekend.....fuggin thing!

Some progress then mate!

Looking good, hopefully she'll be breathing again soon.

radiobloke wrote:thought she's be running this weekend.....fuggin thing!

No big deal RB, at least you can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and this fookin weathers shyte plus the roads are still laden with salt & potholes

Good things come to those who wait...and gawd knows we've waited

cheeky fecker!!!

some interesting parts on that Gemo-fighters ebay site RB
As soon as I get some wages from my new job...............

yeah, bloody expensive tho!

think I've nailed the problem...

i'm draining the alarm after it has 'spiked' ( apparently!)

I wanna take the alarm off. but thats a whole different job!

and I just scored a bird seat off ebay after 4 months of waiting for a cheap one....happy days !

fook me.......it runs!

didn't rev it too hard cos I wanted to check for leaks, also wanted to get the oil round the engine

seat is still work in process, i just put the seat cover over it to keep the foam dry

YouTube - Big Bird Streetfighter takes its first breath!

Excellent RB, sounded nice and tight on the video, bet your clucking to take it for a quick blat also looks like your well on par for finishing before summer...nice one.

will be on it at the TT mate....

carbs need sorting to suit the pipe. was spitting flames.

I'll have a look round for leaks n stuff then really get it warm and open her up next week!

some more random pics cos I'm a pic whore...

some of the seat, and side infils from Germany and the gsxr1000 radiator fitted to the X11 oil cooler. The oil cooler lines are a bit too long but I have no idea if they can be shortened

ok....this weekend's activity
sat looking at the 2 seat bases....a TDM850 and a blackbird seat.
nothing is simple is it...they were never going to be a simple cut n shut!
the 2 seats ( after being cut down) were taped to the bike where they should sit. theres about an inch between them.
I need the sides of the TDM seat so that the seat foam follows the TDM unit. Also the TDM seat has rubber legs so it'll sit on the subframe nicely.
I need the Blackbird front section to mould to the tank.
I've been putting this off for a while but for some reason I went in the garage and cracked on with it.
so,....trust soldering iron in hand, I was working on the thought process that the 2 seat units were made from the same plastic, and would be compatable with each other if melted. I tested a small section...then another strip, discovered that i could fill with slivers of plastic like a welding rod does....then I started transplanting bits of plastic to fill the gaps and make the whole thing a single sturdy unit...then a few hours later I had a finished seat unit and lungs full of (probably) deadly platic gases...I've just come out the garage having 'plastic welded' the underside to make sure its strong
in the best traditions of this thread....the pictures tell the story
I've just gotta sort the foam and cover it now.
another job sorted ( nearly)

Nice work mate! How the spondon coming along?

on the shelf at the mo....Bird will be at the TT.

Spony starts again after that.

Very nice job RB

Nice bud

radiobloke wrote:on the shelf at the mo....Bird will be at the TT.

Spony starts again after that.

Fair enough mate, any other major plans for big bird?

finish it....ride to the TT....thats about it

radiobloke wrote:finish it....ride to the TT....thats about it

& who can blame you!

So, it was sunny today so I took the bird out to see that yellow thing.
seems it was too bright for my phone's camera!...pics are a bit bleached out.

bit of a frustrating day.

Started her up again to see if it'd run better when warm. ( and to hear it again!) but realised that it was only running on 3. Thats why it was so rough, thought it sounded like the crank was gonna snap!

so, mashed my hands getting the plug out. drove accross to Mansfield. First shop was closed, but managed to get a plug from the second shop. Friggin £10.25!!!! seems my Mistral tuned engine is running some fancy titanium plugs. they aint standard blackbird anyway!

Got back, mashed up my hands putting the plug in...still runs on 3. looked at the coil diagram...swaped 2 and 3 over (manual says different way round to the parts diagram) still runs on 3 and its the same pot that aint lighting up. puzzled.

so, left that for a while and set about modding the front mudguard. I say modding, I mean attacking it with an angle grinder and cutting disc.
yep,...its a little shorter than standard! still got to be trimmed back and shaped, but its a start! (you can see where its gonna get trimmed to in one of the pics.

The seat has gone off to 'Gypsy' the seat guy....its gonna be sweet! I was gonna do it but would have looked like a bag of potatoes wrapped in duct tape....so I took it to a proffessional.

I also need to work out how those side panels should fit....but we've had that conversation already! It'll come to me...got a couple of ideas up in my head somewhere

as ever,...picture galore....
keeps me amused!

Lookin good mate, I love the size of the tank in comparison to the seat area!

That sure is gonna be one small mudguard!

Sorry to hear about the engine problems & hope you get it sorted some time soon, was the replacement plug a platinum one? there mega money!