Old Aus motorcycle news story

Strange this should come up, I was only thinking about our old 79 JOTA while working on our 76 JOTA over the weekend.

Our 79 had a set of the dreaded crankshaft bearings - despite supposedly not being in 'the range'. They failed some 3,500km from home at the 32,000km mark at approx 5,500rpm in top, on the wrong side of the road, 2 up and loaded passing a semi trailer.....
Not a pleasant experience.
The crank took with it the camshafts and mangled the head somewhat plus lots of other bits and pieces in the engine.

Max Eade had the crankshaft rebuilt, but it took over 6 months for it to be done and then another 2 for the engine to be rebuilt and the bike ready to pick up. My wife and I picked it up on a Thursday and it was a revelation. Max gave us a very good deal on the work !
So much smoother than before.

The following Monday I was travelling past, with the idea of dropping in and telling Max how impressed it was. A burnt out building and some seriously mangled metal was all that remained. My memory is that it was the main switchboard that failed. Shows how wrong one can be.
My memory also tells me that EADES had not taken delivery of the Stanco spares before the fire. Wrong again it seems.

There were quite a few people who lost their LAVs to that fire, and it took Eades a long time to get back operating again.

We count ourselves very lucky to have picked up the JOTA before the fire. It went on to do another 8-10,00kms with us before that wonderful chap Paul' Crazy' Trillo purchased it from us when we headed off OS again.
After Crazy, Ralph L-M owned it for a while and then we lost track of it.
 
Dropped into Vic Wreckers in Melbourne this arvo - been an institution for about 40+ years at least, moved from Abbottsford to West Heidelberg (Melbourne!) in 1983 i think. I went in ... EMPTY!! Owner had been trying to sell it for about 5 years with no takers. Said he sold a bit of stuff and the rest went to scrap!!!!!!!!

I've had some great purchases from them over the years - always open to me asking for odd things for customising and letting me rummage through stock for what I want. About an acre of every conceivable motorcycle part from hundreds of models. A real bummer to lose them.
 
Vic Wreckers gone. Another one bites the dust, big shame. It would be hard to find any do it yourselfers in Vic who haven't bought from them, and there have had some great people working there.
 
O dear, was talking to Marty about the last bike wreaker left in Sydney. There used to be dozens. Just like Wheel Wrights, going the way of the Dodo.
 
I've bought quite a few Japanese bike bits from the USA before freight charges went ballistic. The market is so much larger that good parts were plentiful and very affordable (eg my R1 calipers, R1 clipons - that came with clutch perch, nice grips AND a Brembo radial master cylinder!)
 
Bloody hell, 1983 sounds a bit early Q.

Problem is, they buy em, but can’t fix them themselves, because they’ve got no idea what they are doing.

Instead of drinking their mocha double shot coffees, and avocado on sourdough and flicking through their phone, they should be reading up the manual to work out how to adjust the handlebars, or remove the seat etc

Wankers buying wanker disposable bikes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top