Thruxton Diary Of A Thruxton 900 Owner

Hey thanks for this I’ll take a look now. I’m not very good at just riding off into nowhere (even with Google maps on) so would enjoy riding routes already laid out by others.

 

Yeah I mean if I rode the bike more than I tinkered with it then it’d be worth it but for now this quad lock thing seems sensible. You can get a wireless charger with it too but will hold off on that until I see how I like it.

Calimoto looks interesting though.

 

I’ve yet to fit this but came across this lovely custom made tank strap for the Thruxton 900

 

Looks pretty good. Once I’ve finished ageing all the other brass parts on the bike it’ll look better. Leather on the strap has been aged so it’s similar to the leather on the seat.

 

Got round to treating the remaining parts.

 

I’ve wanted to put clip ons on the bike for ages but always put it off for various reasons. That was until I found these clip ons with 2.5” risers made by Woodcraft in the USA. The risers position the bars not too far away from what stock would’ve been.

There’s still a bit of work to do with tidying things up and plugging those holes in the yoke but so far very pleased the result.

 

First ride with the new woodcraft clip ons (with risers) and very happy, was out for about 4 hours which is possibly the longest I’ve spent out in the bike

Jobs in the pipeline include replacing the top yoke and chain.

 

Shot round Boxhill and Rykers cafe a few days ago with my other half on the back of the bike. What a blast we had (though Rykers was disappointingly empty). First time I’ve actually ridden with a passenger so that was a new experience, she enjoyed it too which was great so that opens up the possibility of more riding together in the future. Had to fit my old British Customs seat back on the bike as my usual seat is for solo riding only.

Realised I’ve now had my bike for over 5 years!! I’ve noticed an issue of late that I’m sure I had when I first got the bike where it’s becoming troublesome to kick into neutral so I’ll have to keep an eye on that as I can’t keep holding the clutch in whilst at the lights …

Recently fitted a heavy duty gold chain which looks superb, but haven’t done much else, not sure there’s much left to do to be honest

 

Thank you. When I look at how the bike looked when I first got it compared to what it is now I can barely recognise it! I’ve genuinely loved every job I’ve done on it though, even the mistakes have proved rewarding in the long run.

If I ever get to the point of having enough spare cash I’d quite like a Bonnie to muck around with.

Either that or something totally different like a Ducati 996

 

Bit crap with the bike recently, been stored in the garage on a trickle charge. Started it up and it sounded awful so thought I’d shoot over to the petrol station for some fresh fuel and a brisk ride. Bike kept cutting out and dying unless you kept the revs up especially in the low gears.

Was almost impossible to make it above 30/40 mph. Made it home and noticed an oil leak.

Cylinder head gasket had failed so that’s been a hell of a job sorting that out but the bike is finally back together again and just needs a bit of tinkering to get it back to where it was.

 

Bikes been running lovely of late after the last massive job, so couple of new bits and pieces I’ve been playing with and looking forward to a bit of spring/summer riding.

Handlebar wraps and headlight X from Tripmachine. Had to re-wrap the exhausts after the virtual complete removal of the entire engine area after replacing the blown cylinder head gasket. Went for black this time round and they’re going a nice sort of grey/white in places with continued use.

New fork gaiters from Wemoto and cafe racer fairing, still undecided if I’m on board with the fairing but I’ll leave it on for a while anyway as it’s something different isn’t it

 

Bit stumped at the minute.
Bikes been on trickle charge in the garage over past couple months, turned on regularly but not really ridden properly. Turned it on yesterday and rode around our close (no MOT that was booked for today). Bike started but didn’t sound great so figured I’d take it for a proper ride in the morning before the MOT.
Anyway jumped on the bike this morning ready to go and it just won’t fire up. It turns over but the engine just wouldn’t fire up, repeated over and over even with a running start but no luck, then the battery dies. So had to cancel MOT until I can figure it out.

Tested the battery voltage with multimeter and it’s around 13 volts so don’t think it’s that and as I said it’d been on trickle charge
Went out and filled up Jerry can with a load of fresh fuel so bikes now full (it was pretty empty tbf) but still no luck
Tried shorting the solenoid but again the bike just cranks over without firing up.
All I can think of now is to change spark plugs but need a thin wall spark plug socket to get to the plugs and change them so perhaps tomorrow that’ll arrive.
Pinning my hopes on that sorting the starting issue otherwise I’m a bit stumped …

 

So waited for my new tool to arrive so I could get the spark plugs out, made it real easy and probably could have done it without moving the tank out the way but anyway, plugs were pretty dark and sooty.

So new set of sparks and the bike started first time no probs and sounds great to be honest. Shot round the garage and MOT done right away

 

I've made the decision to sell the bike so it's currently up for sale on Auto Trader should anyone be interested

I've come to realise that half of the fun for me personally was building the bike to how its come to look, the learning, the problem solving, tinkering etc. Now that it's all done it only gets used a handful of times a year and only when it's warm and dry.

Looking forward to the next project already

Sean.