My bike:
Not riding, just hoping. A couple of days before I bought her. Behind me the Cristchurch Cruisers get ready for a Sunday ride.
Well Yep you guessed……… it’s a Kawasaki Drifter 1500. I bought it from ‘Phil’s Mall’ Bournemouth in July 2006, I have to say it was love at first sight. There she was beckoning me to come over and sit on her……how could I refuse? I eyed her up and down and within a few seconds I had mounted her, pulling on her levers and twisting her twisty bits. Ooooohwee, I just couldn’t wait to get her back to my place to give her a rub down and lubricate all her little dry areas. I took the beast for a spin and she was everything I had dreamed of. I was thinking of bikenapping her but no, I must be patient, something I’ve never been good at. Reluctantly I headed back to Phil’s. He knew by the grin on my face that he had a sale after all how could I let anybody else have her now? So that was it, I put a deposit down, borrowed some money to pay for her and the rest is geography as they say.
To be quite honest Ive never been over keen on the Deep Gooseberry colour so I decided to give her a bit of a face lift. I thought I'd wait ‘till Feb when the weather gets cold and orrible.....and sure enough, it did.
The naff seat had to go ASAP. I think Kawasaki had forgotten about the seat until the day they turned out the first Drifter, then someone said "howacasshi derammi si noo mi tikki" or something like that. It basicaly means we haven’t got a bruddy saddle cookie, so they found one lying around in a corner, reproduced a few and stuck it on the Drifter. Take a look at the pickies and see what Alan and his lads have done to my seat……it’s fabulous. I can now sit into it without sliding forward every time I hit a bump or apply the brakes. And, not that I’ve got a fat arse, now it looks like a proper sized seat for the size bike with at least another 75cm of extra foam each side and on the front section a build up of about 45cm to stop me cracking my nuts into the tank whenever carrying out an emergency stop. See link to Saxon’s website on my Link page…..not on nuts but on upholstery & leathercraft.
I decided to do all the prep myself. I stripped out the mudguards (not fenders), tank and side covers and set about the preparation work. I had worked in a spray shop many years ago so I had the basic knowledge to get the task done. One thing I didn’t know about was that there is a special coating that must be applied to plastic before priming. Fortunately I got this info in time. I’d been given the telephone number of a sprayer who was supposed to be good and not over expensive so I popped over to see him at his workshop. I was happy that he and his work was good so I went ahead with the job. I like to think that the overall effect is fine although there are one or two bits I'd still like to do......time and money.
Well Yer tis on a fantastic hot day in the New Forest, Hampshire, UK
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