Only one place sells metric nuts and bolts, and they're closed on Saturdays. Luckily I picked up some bits on Friday, namely some nuts and bolts that fit the shock mounting holes in the swing-arm. But to my surprise, the holes did not match the ones on the shocks themselves, which were 12mm rather than 10. Dad and I searched all over town to find some sort of insert to do the job, some sort of bushing or other small cylinder that had the proper outside diameter (then we could drill out the inside diameter to fit), but to no avail. Finally we hit the motorcycle salvage and managed some 10mm grommets off an old Suzuki in the yard, which the guy let me have for free! Note to self: next time go there first!
After that we searched for some chain. No motorcycle dealer in the city had 520 chain. Unreal. We were sent to John Deere by the Kawasaki dealer, but they didn't have any either, and the Suzuki dealer sold us a brand new, heavy-duty job for $150 that doesn't even fit. Finally we managed to find some links at Peavy Mart and splice together the chains from the '71 and the '74.
After some other bits and parts that needed sorting, I made an exhaust mount out of one of the grommets that we pressed out of the shocks, since the last owner had apparently lost the original and simply wrapped the bolt with what seemed like an entire roll of electrical tape.
It was now 7:00: fifteen hours until the race. I got everything together, and loaded the bike in the truck and was off to the track for the first (and only) test run:
As you can see, the bike needs to be rev'ed quite high to take-off.
The chain broke soon after that and ate its way into the case. We were done.
I think it's time for a new dirtbike.
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