On the Road Again!

Rust in the petcock opening ... things were done and dusted. Then the rust that keeps on giving is revealed!! Phil sorting so he can get it finished and a test ride done. Luckily the fuel tap does have a filter.

The new Chinese radiator fitted in place and the grill fitted. The giveaway that it is not an original part is that the top is more angular than the Suzuki OEM part. I guess only time will tell whether it was a good investment at £60 plus postage from China. To recore my original one was quoted at between £300 and £400.

According to the tracking information the radiator is out for delivery to Phil today.  And it has arrived! This is a serious forward movement in the project. When it arrives Phil plans to do a test fit and make sure that all the mounting and pipework match up.  Fingers crossed that this is a mere formality. Then he will spray it satin black as it ought to arrive a very bling silver aluminium colour. Once that is done the project is as good as finished. All that will be on the list is to check its all nice and tight and then see about getting it back to me. With the current lockdown in England, that might prove to be quite difficult. Let's see. Update: 22/01/21 Radiator fits but will need to some bodging to get the grill to fix.  Glad Phil doing it and not me.  Sprayed satin black.

Or maybe that should be in Chinese as that's where it has come from! 散热器到了！ Maybe I have got a little ahead of myself. Tracking shows that it has arrived in the UK and with the Royal Mail. They have still to get it to Phil's for him to fit.  It looks really good in the photo on eBay and I guess it will arrive in silver..... Let's hope it fits and doesn't take too much bodging to get it into place and filled with coolant. Road tests etc. Then we can decide how to get the bike back to me in Kent.

So after the first supplier cancelled from Germany, I went back to eBay and found another. This one from the Czech Republic. All of the ads are very much the same. This makes me think that in reality they are all the same Chinese company... The rads are all made in China!  The ČR version was a little cheaper and was free delivery. I ordered it. Next morning. eBay email to say it couldn't be delivered to UK as they had closed the Czech warehouse. Another refund to my PayPal. Back to Google and eBay. Others available from China so I ordered one. Thinking that it would be posted rather than use a flakey courier service. A longish wait for the order to be confirmed. This morning an eBay update. Dispatched. No firm delivery date as we are in the hands of post offices around the globe. And the container ship making good progress....

Firstly had an email to say that the radiator had been delivered. Apparently last night. I messaged Phil and he said nothing had been delivered at all. Logging into eBay I found a message from the company to say that due to Brexit and the current closing of the borders by the French, that it had been brought back to them and the order cancelled. Great news. It seems no one in UK has them. 

Phil has done a full run up with everything attached and the rad not flowing much liquid. Flow test shows only 60% flow. It has been cleaned to get that low level. Bit like my heart! Pumps at 45%!!! Checking online found a place that does re-coring. Phil called and it was £400. An eBay search found some new ones in Germany for £110. Not original parts but Phil says buy. So I have.  Maybe the exchange rate changed slightly as it came out to be £109! A whole £1 saved.  I thought it best to get it done and dusted now before the UK leaves the EU and they start putting tariffs on imported good from an EU country.  At least begore the end of 31st December it should be tariff free. I hope if goes on without too much faffing about.  It might need a spray over with some black paint to make it "fit" the classic bike look. Hopefully it won't get held up in the problems between the UK and France and the borders being closed due to France making a snap decision.

A small set back in the build today.  In a full "wet run" there is a problem with the radiator. It looks as though there is a blockage somewhere and the water/liquid isn't getting around the system. It's  matter for Phil to see if he can clear it. Worst case is that we need to source another one or get this one recored. Hopefully, he can clear the blockage and it won't cost me too much dinero!