TornadoF5
Race Dog
So a while ago I bought a piece of asphalt and got my title deed to Idiotville by being a smart ass.
Damage was bent this, broken that and worst of all broken tank where I lost almost 20 liters of fuel, which by today's standards is probably 1/3 the cost of the bike..........
So after much pontification, involving shaking my head, pretending it didn’t exist, going back to bed, looking for a further 3 weeks until the motivation surfaced, I decided:
1. Strip off all plastics and broken parts. Time for a colour change and realizing I may upset the equilibrium of the universe, as KTM like GS have just become such cliché symbols, with forum names maybe like "Orange lover” (I'm sure there must be one), to statements of "if it is not orange it's lemon" and statements from the riding God’s of “it is sacrilege to paint it any other colour than orange to match their matching KTM buffs, underwear, and twat suits. Well, I have never been known to dance to the mainstream beat too much.
2. Have tank sent in for repairs at Plastic Rebuilders and cross fingers this would be a success albeit the fix is never quite "plastic" again as no flex, which if I ever fell again it would break there.
3. Order new mirrors, handguards and repair other things
4. Budget – Not working nowadays most of what happens is on a shoestring budget but fortunately my Arai was insured, so the payout allowed me to buy a new Desert Fox helmet and have change for crash bars, handguards and a few small things
So I stripped the plastics and broken parts off and realized quickly I will have to dig deep and pay school fees.
Just after it happened trying to salvage 1/3 of the bike's value….
Ermm I could be mistaken but something doesn’t look correct
At 53 I don’t particularly like looking in the mirror much anymore
I think I signed the title deed with this side
Stripped off the tank and took off carbon covers which certainly helped with the road rash
Cleaning all the silicone took a fair bit of time
Repair from Plastic Rebuilders only R580 which was a relief. It does not leak but with mounting rubber and frame next to it, if I fall there again it will break.
Time for sanding, filler sanding , sanding and bloody sanding
Tank for obvious reason needed special attention due to imperfections would show easily
Had to give everything a light plastic primer as in many instances paint was peeling due to age and generally not in the greatest shape
Real bitch to prep and sand due to cervices and angles and you miss things and paint Peels off!
I decided on a military sand colour and with this had a colour mixed up to almost what I wanted (not quite, but hey I ran with it). Many many instances of having to redo all of this, 5-6x because of ignorance and just having to pay school fees as a novice. Gun settings, mix problems, filtering, technique and so it went on and seemed to go on.
Finally, the result was for all intense and purposes not too bad.
Abby it seems after the fact inspired the colour (maybe colour is not desert, sand but Siamese) kept me company daily inspecting my shortcomings of which there were many with her piercing blue eyes. Great company during this process.
I had to then dig into my very limited ability using photoshop to try to figure out what decals I will put on the bike. I was feeling very nostalgic as I think many of us Babyboomers & GenX do.
As an avid Christian and wanting to honour those in the past border war I finally decided, so without further ado and for those in the know.
I finally decided on the following graphics with photoshop after bouncing it off good friends to get a general consensus.
Some of you will recognise this
And certainly those two infamous digits
Yesterday I completed the final assembly short of a few small things which still need to be done. The assembly revealed many problems from stripped frames nuts (used a lot of vasbyts) when trying to get racks ad crash bars installed. 40 min job ended up a 3-day job, chaffed wiring, broken headlight casings, and so these little things kept cropping up and delaying the assembly.
Damage was bent this, broken that and worst of all broken tank where I lost almost 20 liters of fuel, which by today's standards is probably 1/3 the cost of the bike..........
So after much pontification, involving shaking my head, pretending it didn’t exist, going back to bed, looking for a further 3 weeks until the motivation surfaced, I decided:
1. Strip off all plastics and broken parts. Time for a colour change and realizing I may upset the equilibrium of the universe, as KTM like GS have just become such cliché symbols, with forum names maybe like "Orange lover” (I'm sure there must be one), to statements of "if it is not orange it's lemon" and statements from the riding God’s of “it is sacrilege to paint it any other colour than orange to match their matching KTM buffs, underwear, and twat suits. Well, I have never been known to dance to the mainstream beat too much.
2. Have tank sent in for repairs at Plastic Rebuilders and cross fingers this would be a success albeit the fix is never quite "plastic" again as no flex, which if I ever fell again it would break there.
3. Order new mirrors, handguards and repair other things
4. Budget – Not working nowadays most of what happens is on a shoestring budget but fortunately my Arai was insured, so the payout allowed me to buy a new Desert Fox helmet and have change for crash bars, handguards and a few small things
So I stripped the plastics and broken parts off and realized quickly I will have to dig deep and pay school fees.
Just after it happened trying to salvage 1/3 of the bike's value….
Ermm I could be mistaken but something doesn’t look correct
At 53 I don’t particularly like looking in the mirror much anymore
I think I signed the title deed with this side
Stripped off the tank and took off carbon covers which certainly helped with the road rash
Cleaning all the silicone took a fair bit of time
Repair from Plastic Rebuilders only R580 which was a relief. It does not leak but with mounting rubber and frame next to it, if I fall there again it will break.
Time for sanding, filler sanding , sanding and bloody sanding
Tank for obvious reason needed special attention due to imperfections would show easily
Had to give everything a light plastic primer as in many instances paint was peeling due to age and generally not in the greatest shape
Real bitch to prep and sand due to cervices and angles and you miss things and paint Peels off!
I decided on a military sand colour and with this had a colour mixed up to almost what I wanted (not quite, but hey I ran with it). Many many instances of having to redo all of this, 5-6x because of ignorance and just having to pay school fees as a novice. Gun settings, mix problems, filtering, technique and so it went on and seemed to go on.
Finally, the result was for all intense and purposes not too bad.
Abby it seems after the fact inspired the colour (maybe colour is not desert, sand but Siamese) kept me company daily inspecting my shortcomings of which there were many with her piercing blue eyes. Great company during this process.
I had to then dig into my very limited ability using photoshop to try to figure out what decals I will put on the bike. I was feeling very nostalgic as I think many of us Babyboomers & GenX do.
As an avid Christian and wanting to honour those in the past border war I finally decided, so without further ado and for those in the know.
I finally decided on the following graphics with photoshop after bouncing it off good friends to get a general consensus.
Some of you will recognise this
And certainly those two infamous digits
Yesterday I completed the final assembly short of a few small things which still need to be done. The assembly revealed many problems from stripped frames nuts (used a lot of vasbyts) when trying to get racks ad crash bars installed. 40 min job ended up a 3-day job, chaffed wiring, broken headlight casings, and so these little things kept cropping up and delaying the assembly.
