DRP: Derbi Reactivation Project

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This may not work out as well as I had hoped. It looks like maybe the radiator is going to be a bit wide.

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I have this set from the earlier GPR that I could use, but this is really a temporary solution until I can order a new set of plastics for the bike. I really don't like riding it without plastics, and I figured I should be able to get the bike running with what I have laying around. Then when the budget allows I can update parts on the bike as I go.

So these plastics are just a temporary stage for the bike. I was going to wait until I had all the bits to do the bike the way I want to, but having the Red Bike run over ten times has put me in a position where I need to get something active, and this seemed like the best way to go about it.

I found a place, LDC Productions, that that still makes fiberglass for my bike. When I can afford it I want to order these for this bike. Yes the list is very long!

Dcrac3r reminded me about Hubert Cycles in France that also has some GPR body work.

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The styling of these bikes is really special. I may try to do a vertical light array with the fiberglass when I eventually get to that point. The regular mounts for the stock lights are in the faring. They didn't build a structure to support the lights. So if I go fiberglass I'll have to create a support for the lights anyway. Matt pointed out the Foggy Petronas FP1 that the Derbi shares a lot of lines, and it had the stacked lights. So I might try something like that look.

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Had a chance to play around with the muriatic acid today. See kids this is why you want to take chemistry classes. Anyway, this is basically swimming pool acid, but it's still acid, and a fairly strong acid with regards to what you can just walk into a hardware store and buy. You need to be rather careful with it because it can really mess you up.

I should have gotten better before photos, but these are mid process photos, as this is the second pass. I did the first pass earlier in the week. Still you can see the magic of the acid action. This disc could probably benefit from at least one more pass, but I've had enough playing around with acid for today. The stuff, even when properly geared up is still nasty.

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Well a little bit of progress was made today. Through the clever and strategic application of zip ties I was able to complete the mounting of the tail section and seats.

How do these things get so dirty? Oh yeah I actually ride my bikes.

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Didn't make a whole lot of progress today, but got things a bit cleaner.

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The crash messed up a bunch of things on the bike. I'm ever so slowly finding the bits and replacing them. Today thanks to Dcrac3r I headed over to EasyParts to partially correct this situation--notice how the bar on the left is much shorter than the bar on the right? Because both bars were damaged I was able to use a left bar from an older GPR, but the older GPRs have shorter bars than employed on this bike. Makes for a really strange riding position.

EasyParts has the bars for just under $20 each after Euro to Dollar conversion, and the shipping wasn't too bad either. So a bar replacement is on the way, with a few other little tidbits. I really wanted to go for the floating vented front disc, but at about $200 I really had to hold off. It sure is a sexy piece of kit though.

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Got to visit Treats today. I needed to grab a fuel filter, and a wee bit o hose. Now previously I had picked up the Malossi super purple petcock. It turns out that the fitting on the Malossi is 8mm which is much larger than the typical 5 or 6mm fittings. So to take advantage of this unit I would need to source a bigger fuel filter, and proper hose. Treats had what I needed. I went with the OMG filter, and some Motion Pro 6mm black line. I kind of wanted to get the Malossi clear 6mm line, but they had a scrap piece of the MP line--which was free! So I caved. The OMG filter has a clear window so I'll still be able to see what's going on.

Interesting about the Malossi petcock--it takes nearly four full revolutions of the knob to open it up all the way. Seems like a pain in the ass, but then it is a racing item, and they tend to function a bit different than what you would employ on the street (even if you are ultimately putting it on a street bike).

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Again today not a whole lot of progress, but a big step was accomplished. I finally started making brackets. I got held up though because I don't have the bolts, and spacers I need to progress. Not as pretty as I would have liked, but considering I don't have a shop they came out okay.

These two brackets will hold the front faring support in place. There will be two lower mounting points too, but until I can get these properly mounted I can't take the measurements for the other brackets. It will all flow from these two. The first two photos were taken during a check to see how the first holes lined up. Then the third photos was checking the brackets with the faring support. Too short place holder screws with no spacers wasn't doing a good enough job to go forward.

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I seem to be having trouble getting the right fittings to have proper function with the brackets. I need some spacers to make things function properly. I would like some metal one, but the hardware store only have nylon, and only 3mm too long. I figure I could file them down, but nope. Maybe with the rotary tool. And again I got slightly too short bolts. :/ But I can see the big picture, and it should be coming together soon.

I did at least finally get the rear wheel installed. Mostly just had left over cleaning to do--the Motul polish really helps with the wheels. The previous hold up was finding the chain adjusters.