Finally Finished!

It’s time to put the fairing back on the RG500 and hope that there are no leaks or squeak.

- Jeff Ware

G’day! Well, the time finally arrived and I am still as proud as punch. The RG500 is finished and ready to ride. Over here we have Historic Registration, so any vehicle over 30 years old can be used up to 60 times per year and registered under the umbrella of a club’s insurance.

I joined the VJMC over here and they posted me the forms. Now all I need to do is get the bike inspected and get what is called a Pink Slip, get a few forms signed by the VJMC rep and head to a registry to pay a very moderate fee of around 30 quid for a year of riding.

That is insanely cheap, as usually a bike would be as much as 1000 plus insurance (another 1000 or more) per year to register in New South Wales. I have full comprehensive insurance for the beast, so I’m ready to go. I just need some time to get it all sorted, but I have been busy with my real job lately, testing all the new 2019 models.

To get the RG500 finished, all I had to do was give it a final look over, make some fairing repairs, dress it and get it off the bench. I poured myself a glass of wine (different, eh?) and carefully read through my original checklist of what the RG needed.

I had crossed these off as I did them, so now I just wanted to double check I actually did the jobs (all those beers over summer, you never really know…) and inspect the main fasteners – axles, caliper bolts, pad pins, chain, engine mounts, fork pinch bolts, footpegs, sump plug(s), coolant bolts, steering head, fuel system fasteners and so forth. I found nothing loose or forgotten, which was a relief.