Ooh-Er Missus!

It must be the beer, but our Jeff has come over all double entendre as he heads towards RG500 completion.

- Jeff Ware

G’day! Well, I hope you had a great Christmas and managed to get some shed time and plenty of food and drinks into you.

Most of us need a turn or two of preload added to the suspension of our bikes after Xmas... not just Bertie!

I got heaps done to the RG500, but failed my goal of riding it before the festive period. I’m sure I’ll be able to ride it very soon. I just want to make sure it is all correct and right, first.

Having it running is good. I start it weekly and I’ve continued to get it running nicely. It idles like a new one now and has a very crisp throttle, which sounds wicked.

However, there have been a few dramas like a coolant leak I had to fix, plus I’ve got the old two-stroke oil weeping/feeding issue so I have ordered four oil check valves, which are on the way as I type. I also ordered two inline fuel petcocks, one for each fuel line, to help prevent storage flooding. The carbs at the front can get overwhelmed and flood if I turn the fuel on suddenly, but if I turn the tap on slowly they don’t flood. Fuel lines of 10mm and a big tank, plus the low positioning of the carburettors and the size reduction of the lines into the second carbs, make the floats and needle/seats get overwhelmed by the sheer fuel flow. Just one of those things to live with, but I’m not going to get ball valves or anything, I’ll just fit the fuel taps for extra insurance and hope the oil check valves can stop the two-stroke oil gravity feeding.

Away from the engine, I decided on black wheels as I mentioned, so I went about washing and sanding the wheels, then washing them again. Being on a tight budget, my only option was to rattle can them so I used what I think (after loads of trial and error on other bikes) to be the best of the shelf rattle can enamel – British Paints Spray Easy Paint & Prime at ten bucks Aussie a can.