Springs and shocks

Hi all,

Another weekend of highly visibly progress, which is good for the soul, let me tell you.

This weekend, the shocks and springs have gone on. As it turns out, a relatively easy process, really, once Frank spent a day machining the spacers. The spacers were needed for the front shocks - basically, the point where the shock meets the chassis had significant gaps between the bracket and the shock itself, leading to a lot of lateral movement - not ideal. So some small aluminium spacers needed to be machined up. They aren't load bearing or anything, they just need to keep things in place.

So really it was just a case of bolting the things on. The only tricky part was on the front cross-member, as the threads needed to be cleaned out. Unfortunately, doing this chipped some chrome off the front left hand side. Nothing huge, but it's there if you look hard enough.

With the shocks now on, it's only a short step to putting the uprights and the wheels on, and then it can go onto the ground. But it will stay up on the stand for a lot longer yet - I want to get most of the drivetrain and remaining wiring in before I drop it (including things like lights etc), as it's much easier working at this height. I'll put it on the floor once I'm ready to get the engine in.

On the lights, I need to buy:

• Headlights
• Front indicators
• Side repeaters
• Rear brake lights and indicators
• Reversing lights

There are, of course, a series of rules around what lights can be used, and visibility of things like repeaters. I believe the basic rule is that if it's "E"-marked, then it should be fine.

I've found a few sites to look at lights - S.V.C seems pretty good (http://www.s-v-c.co.uk/), a few motorcycle sites (like http://www.bikeit.co.uk/) and obviously sites like Demontweaks (http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/). I've also been advised to go around and see what Harley Davidson have to offer, as they often have decent options for bikers. Anyway, more money to spend I suppose ;-)