dguupyStandard MemberPosts: 16
Joined: Apr 2009
Joined: Apr 2009
Hi guys,
I'm new to the club having been contacted by James through Planet Minitrails.
My bike is an original Japanese ST50E "White" Dax which I found outside a little bike shop/shack in Obihiro, Hokaido in 2005. I ventured inside and asked the owner, mostly in sign language, if it was for sale? Much to my dissapointment he declined to let it go and that was that. Just to clear up a small point, I was in Japan with the Subaru World Rally Team for whom I was in charge of all logistical matters.
Anyway, in 2006 we were back for the Japanese round again and there it was still sitting out the front of the shop. After a few more tricky questions the owner managed to explain that the bike had a carb problem and that was why he didn't want to sell it, my reply to this was simply that I didn't care and just wanted to buy it. After some serious bartering I came out with a purchase price of 21,000 Yen (£104.00)!!!! Bargain.
The little bike then travelled from Japan to the UK, via NZ and Australia, in one of our seafreight containers before arriving in Banbury just before Christmas 2006.
In early 2008 I decided to see if the little thing was interested in starting before I stripped it down so duly cleaned the plug, turned the key and had a spark!! Had a quick look in the fuel tank and all seemed to be clean enough, poured in a drop of new fuel, sorted a small fuel leak on the carb and she started on the 3rd kick!!!! All the lights worked, bingo.
I then started the serious stuff, stripped it down over 3 days bagging and labelling parts as they came off and also took detailed photos for my records. Being as I still worked for Prodrive I took advantage of the sand blasting facilities and spent about 6 days cleaning the parts up each morning from 6.00am till 08.30am, they came up beautifully. The frame was last due to another favour being called in from my friends in the livery department of the then Honda F1, now Brawn GP,in Brackley. They took it in, photographed every sticker and kindly reproduced them for me completely as original and in Japanese text, and all for the princely sum of 2 cases of Fosters!! I have now got spare stickers as well and also the artwork on DVD!!
Got our paintshop to colourmatch the frame using a section of unfaded paint behind the helmet lock, then finished off the blasting to the frame ready for paint. SGM racepaint then painted it and wow, what a finish.
All of the powdercoating was carried out by Central Blast Cleaning in Banbury and this also came out top dollar.
What I finally needed to find was someone capable of re-chroming to a high standard, this took a long time but I settled for a company in Hinkley, Leics called Classics & Chrome. Very helpful guy there by the name of Dave told me that there should be no problem with any of it, called me 2 weeks later and there it was just like new!! Be careful when choosing a plating company, you must choose one that can apply the copper used to rebuild damaged surfaces before chroming, many can chrome but use a less labour intensive method giving poorer finishes.
Loads of bits later, mostly from CMSNL but also from Monkeybike UK & the States, she is back together and running again. I have yet to strip and rebuild the engine but have cleaned it and put it back in due to a house move to North Devon. We are looking forward to getting it registered, anyone have any experience of this please contact me, and tearing up the towns around Ilfracombe!!
Great new website, I will post some pictures soon.
Regards Dave
I'm new to the club having been contacted by James through Planet Minitrails.
My bike is an original Japanese ST50E "White" Dax which I found outside a little bike shop/shack in Obihiro, Hokaido in 2005. I ventured inside and asked the owner, mostly in sign language, if it was for sale? Much to my dissapointment he declined to let it go and that was that. Just to clear up a small point, I was in Japan with the Subaru World Rally Team for whom I was in charge of all logistical matters.
Anyway, in 2006 we were back for the Japanese round again and there it was still sitting out the front of the shop. After a few more tricky questions the owner managed to explain that the bike had a carb problem and that was why he didn't want to sell it, my reply to this was simply that I didn't care and just wanted to buy it. After some serious bartering I came out with a purchase price of 21,000 Yen (£104.00)!!!! Bargain.
The little bike then travelled from Japan to the UK, via NZ and Australia, in one of our seafreight containers before arriving in Banbury just before Christmas 2006.
In early 2008 I decided to see if the little thing was interested in starting before I stripped it down so duly cleaned the plug, turned the key and had a spark!! Had a quick look in the fuel tank and all seemed to be clean enough, poured in a drop of new fuel, sorted a small fuel leak on the carb and she started on the 3rd kick!!!! All the lights worked, bingo.
I then started the serious stuff, stripped it down over 3 days bagging and labelling parts as they came off and also took detailed photos for my records. Being as I still worked for Prodrive I took advantage of the sand blasting facilities and spent about 6 days cleaning the parts up each morning from 6.00am till 08.30am, they came up beautifully. The frame was last due to another favour being called in from my friends in the livery department of the then Honda F1, now Brawn GP,in Brackley. They took it in, photographed every sticker and kindly reproduced them for me completely as original and in Japanese text, and all for the princely sum of 2 cases of Fosters!! I have now got spare stickers as well and also the artwork on DVD!!
Got our paintshop to colourmatch the frame using a section of unfaded paint behind the helmet lock, then finished off the blasting to the frame ready for paint. SGM racepaint then painted it and wow, what a finish.
All of the powdercoating was carried out by Central Blast Cleaning in Banbury and this also came out top dollar.
What I finally needed to find was someone capable of re-chroming to a high standard, this took a long time but I settled for a company in Hinkley, Leics called Classics & Chrome. Very helpful guy there by the name of Dave told me that there should be no problem with any of it, called me 2 weeks later and there it was just like new!! Be careful when choosing a plating company, you must choose one that can apply the copper used to rebuild damaged surfaces before chroming, many can chrome but use a less labour intensive method giving poorer finishes.
Loads of bits later, mostly from CMSNL but also from Monkeybike UK & the States, she is back together and running again. I have yet to strip and rebuild the engine but have cleaned it and put it back in due to a house move to North Devon. We are looking forward to getting it registered, anyone have any experience of this please contact me, and tearing up the towns around Ilfracombe!!
Great new website, I will post some pictures soon.
Regards Dave