Some Work From 2022

Here is a small sample of some of the types of work we did in 2022 besides the typical maintenance :)

This starter motor worked (miraculously) but made a terrible sound - look at all the rust upon disassembly. We cleaned and polished everything, lubricated the bearings and it worked silently after that. A surprisingly common problem - in our experience, most starter motors don't fail from damage, but from a buildup of dust or corrosion that impedes the current flow.

Here we have a bad TCI unit from a Yamaha Virago. It is very difficult to diagnose that these have failed, so typically we test everything else and then once those variables are eliminated we try swapping the TCI. The symptoms are typically no spark or a very weak spark. This one was quite obvious though once we cut it open, with the melted resistors and capacitors.

This is a bad charging rotor from a BMW airhead. They are also similar to the 70s and 80s Honda rotors on the CB550, CB750, etc. Typically they fail in a way that lowers the internal resistance, which makes the electromagnet weaker and hence lower charging voltage. For most of them you want a resistance reading of 5-7 ohms, but it does vary so check your manual.

Here is a small front fork brace we made for a custom tracker project. We have all the equipment to do fabrication projects like this. In the past year we've made fenders, battery boxes, seat pans and rear hoops for several custom bikes.