Africa Twin Front End

Tonight I reassembled the Africa Twin front end. All the aluminium castings have been powdercoated sparkly gloss black. All the threads have been re-tapped and all the fasteners have been replaced with stainless steel items.

I also preloaded the fork springs by 10mm by the simple expedient of fitting 6 no. M12 washers to each leg - they couldn't have fitted any better had they been made by NASA! The amount of preload is a guess and it can be adjusted by adding or removing washers, but I expect I'll need some preload to compensate for the extra weight of the 42 litre fuel tank.

When I got the bike back from Italy it was badly corroded after being driven through Italy in the snow and put away for five years covered in road salt! Some of the fasteners seized and broke off in the fork sliders and had to be drilled out.

Since then, I've declared war on corrosion, hence the powdercoating rather than bare aluminium, and all the fasteners have been fitted with copious amounts of copper anti-seize paste.

This project is a slow burn, but it is progressing. Watch this space...

#AfricaTwin #RD04 #Mercenary #MercenaryGarage