Motorcycle Carrier

Finally managed to fabricate a frame for my towbar mounted motorcycle carrier so I can start taking the motorbike away with us. It worked out quite well because the top of my rear door still has the 'feet' at the top that were used when the door came down as a stretcher ramp. These are bolted to the steel frame and are very strong. When the bike is strapped to the frame I can lash the bike to these as well and it takes any springiness out of the everything. The bike is pretty heavy for an Enduro at 145kg...

          Cagiva T4E 350cc Single Cyclinder 4 Stroke. Ex-French Military (Import)

The rear-view camera helped me to keep an eye on it when we were on the road, but it didn't flinch and after about an hour it was pretty much forgotten about!

Was able to use the frame to lock the bike on to over night as well....

Barkbusters/Handguards

The bike was missing the army-fitted handguards when I bought it, and sourcing some has been somewhat troublesome, to say the least! The nearest I've seen to them are off the MT350/500 army bikes, and are more of a flat-bar design instead of tubular (which the Cagiva should be).

I ended up buying a length of 15mm copper pipe, which I then bent to shape, replicating the original design as best I could. A lick of NATO paint and a motorcross/enduro fixing kit finished it off nicely.

MOT Day......

The bike breezed through its MOT test last week..... 

12 months Tax & Test now, so all set for next spring/summer. Got a 'Dave Cooper' towbar bracket for the back of the campervan, so looking forward to carting the bike round next time we get away....
    

Out and about.....

Just about squeezing in the last few days before the cold & wet winter weather sets in. During the winter months I will be fabricating a bracket to fix on the back of the campervan so that the bike can be carried.

Cleaned up and a lick of paint...

Gave the bike a bit of a scrub down and a lick of paint here and there to tidy it up. Big shout out to my neighbour Roberto who just happened to have several litres of NATO Green paint in his garage that he was keeping for a rainy day (you just never know when you might be needing that stuff). Scrubbed up really nicely....

Cagiva 350 T4E

Decided to get an off-road/enduro type machine to hang-off the back of the campervan while we're away. This would then be handy for nipping about on while the van is hooked-up etc., and would also lend itself to a bit of fun off-roading and the odd bimble up and down beaches here and there...

I decided to opt for the enduro type bike as they're designed to withstand getting dropped and would therefore lend itself to getting strapped to the back of the van, man-handled and banged about without too many complaints.

I eventually sourced a Cagiva 350 t4e from Knutsford, which is not too far from me. It is an ex-French Army bike that was imported into the country last year with 9000kms on the clock. The bike had only done 9300kms when I picked it up.....which is about 6000miles with my rough maths.

The DVLA translated import papers suggest that it was registered for first use in 1992.

A little bit tatty around the edges, but the engine ticks over like a sewing machine and it rides sweet as a nut. 4 stroke, single cylinder engine that sounds like it will run forever and a day....