Hi Matey,

she'll soon be back on the road at this rate.

Come on, you're nearly there.

So, I found out that PB has changed the way it uploads, since the last time I uploaded pics on there. I guess you have to pick an upload size in the settings and save it, so when I uploaded the last pics that were tiny, it was set by default at that size.

Here is another go at the pics from my ride the other day....

Hey Reggie, pulling apart the back brake turned into more of a headache. The pin that the brake arm goes on to is for want of a more technical term, wasted. All the splines are worn and I can't get the arm back on. I thought the shoes were ok, but turns out they're glazed, and very brittle. The front pads are also glazed and brittle. So, I got the front and rear sprockets on ok, and the front disc. I still need to get new rear shoes, front pads, and a new rear brake arm pivot. More expense! But after that, it'll be on the road. Where the previous owner had sprayed paint with everything on, some paint had got in the rear hub. I had to clean it all out, and there was a thin bead of rust stopping everything seating together properly.

Hi Matey,

let me know how you get on with the rear brake mechanism, I may have a spare from the Brazilian 225 but I'm not sure if it's like for like.

Good luck.

I stripped out the front brake, pads very thin, cleaned caliper up and fitted new pads (£14.25 delivered set of front and rear from http://www.chinesemotorcyclepartsonline.co.uk/index.php , false economy?), then went for a 10 mile test ride, put back to bed ready for the run on friday.
Then had to work on the Transalp, 2 weeks ago went on a ride down around lake vyrnwy, around 185 miles a long run for me. Headlight has been playing up, poor earth somewhere, now wouldn't light up at all.
Previously a fiddle around in the wiring behind the headlight would get it going again. Had to strip out screen and dash to get out the clocks to get at the bulb, removed bulb with great difficulty.
Connector showed heat damage and had welded onto the bulb, cleaned it and fitted new bulb, and working again. tidied up wiring to heated grips and they work again. Need to book MOT now.

Well kinda late post but in the past week or two I have done quite a bit to my 05 XT 225.

I replaced the front break cable with a braided one. The AZ sun has not been very nice to the original rubber one. After replacing this and not being able to bleed the break system I bought a syringe and a rubber tube. I filled the syringe with fluid and just pushed it into the hose from the caliper. The dealership wanted to charge me 20 bucks to do this. Sure am glad I'm poor. Well after making sure there was no air in my line I still didn’t have front breaks. Checked the pad and my caliper was all the extended. Bought new pads and installed those. Now I got breaks on my bike.

Next my girlfriend got me new Shinko 70/30 tires for my birthday. Got those installed. The bike rides alot better now.

Installed a 12V plug that I got from a local scooter store for 25 dollars. I was originally planning on doing it all from scratch but after pricing everything I needed it came out to about the same. The one I got from the store had the inline fuse and everything already set up. I just had to hook it up to the battery and zip tie all the wires.

The first mod I did after reading this forum for the first time at the beginning of the month was remove my air snorkel.

After that I took a punch and punched a hole in my exhaust trying to do the Z1 mod where I was supposed to just knock a side of the baffle out and create flow that way. Didn’t work just knocked a big hole in it. But hey it works.

Also built my own rear rack out a diamond plate. I still need to trim the edges on it. Almost got my leg the other day when I was jumping on it.

This weekend I am going to take a metal plate and attach my old tank bag from my Zx6r to the back of my 225.

In the end I don’t really miss the 636 I had. I have much more fun just zipping around on my XT. Who knows maybe I grew up over the past 6 years.

I will take some pictures this weekend of everything I have done and post them somewhere.

What did I do to my dual sport today? put the body parts back together after painting.

Before:




After:





I'm happy with they way it turned out. :P

Morning Reggie,

Didn't notice this post, whoops! I saw a 1991 shoe carrier with arm attached (with good shoes) on eBay. The price was a bit high, so made an offer which was accepted.

I didn't have a bike stand, so I turned a breeze block on it's end, picked up the XT and perched it on the top, works a treat! Who needs to pay £35 for stand?

Hi Mate,

glad you got sorted.

Hey, XT225amatuer.......N-I-I-I-C-E !!!!!