Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Yep, after a little over 7 months off the road due to a little run in with a cliff face up at reefton, my pride and joy has been bolted back together and is looking sweet (thanks to a few members on here, I-K, T), Icebreaker.... thanks guys ).

it fired up with a little effort and runs just as swwet as pie still but when i dropped it back on its sidestand again, i noticed it had a bit more lean than i was used to. a bit of searching around the thing and i discovered that what i thought was a bent subframe causing my tank and seat to be seperated turns out to be a bent FRAME doing this and causing the forks to sit closer to the radiator not to be robbed of my first ride on the bike in 7 months, i rolled it out and took it round the block. the thing feels fine under normal road conditions, but i wouldn't trust it under the pump with the geometry all stuffed around like it is.

Anyways, the jist of this is that i need to find somewhere to straighten the frame for me now and rather than doing the ring around and having to make a decision on whether to trust my frame and $$ to someone based on a 2 minute conversation, i thought i'd see if anyone has any experiences with a decent mob. if you reckon you know somewhere reputable and hopefully not to exxy, please let me know, i'm itching to have a crack at the spurs again now

dunno if he does frames, but Bob Martin did my discs, and a wheel and did a pretty good job....

theres also a guy over here (snowy) who everyone raves about, apparently does great work...

if in doubt, i can get his number for u...

Call in and talk with Grayden at Bike Magic in Levanswell st Moorabbin about your frame.
Alternately you can go with Bob Martin Motorcycle Engineering out in FT Gully, but you better be quick though cause I remember hearing a rumour that BME will be shutting up shop in Vic before the end of the year.

yeah.... shoulda mentioned that i'm in vic hey and that SE suburbs would be preferable

but bike magic, i know the place, used to work around the corner from them (they actually ON levanswell now or still off it?). cant hurt to call in and see them some time, the bike is ridable so i might take it in and see what they think. cheers!

Bob Martin in FTG actually specialise in this sort of stuff, in fact it's basically all they do, straighten frames, swingarms, forks, discs, wheels etc. Rumour they are going out of business I can't confirm or deny but I would be VERY surpised, last time I dropped in they were snowed under just from the race market let alone your bog standard road riders being busy binning things

Dale,

If you get stuck in Victoria, there's an excellent straightener up here in Sydney by the name of Laurie Alderton ; a million years experience and sensible pricing, he's done a wheel and my racebike frame for me, both excellent results.

Cheers,
Brian

Dale

here ya go..pretty close you were -

Bike Magic
11 Roberna St Moorabbin 3189 (off Keys rd or Levanswell)
(03) 9532 0626


hth


cheers

Smitty

Yeah Roberna thats what I meant.
As for BME. For those that dont know Bob passed away a couple of years ago and his son Steve has been running the business since.
Taken from n&trider is this

As a past employee of Bob Martin Engineering & a mate of Steve's I know he is not going to WA. The business is to be closed down @ end of October due to the confusing situation with VIV certificates. These are mandatory when cars have major repairs & whoever is in charge of the Government department that controls them wants it applied to repaired motorcycles. Most people doing the VIV certificates are mechanical engineers & beleive that x-ray inspection is a requirement once a repair is done. Lots of extra cost to any aluminium frame repair, probably near the cost of a new frame. Vicroads, for the years that Bob was alive, allowed Bob to sign a form supplied by them stating that the repair was done to a standard that satisfied them. However Vicroads will no longer do that telling Steve to go along as the business has done before and see what happens. The problem is that the VIV certificate issuers do not recognise BME as a certified repairer. Vicroads will not commit to acepting BME as a qualified repairer. This leaves Steve with no other option but to close the doors as road bike repairs are the main income to BME. The bike manufacturers won't support him as they want to sell new frames. Imagine what this will do to everyones insurance premiums.
Steve plans to keep most of the equipment & maybe repair race bikes on a smaller scale until something official is finally agreed upon.
Duncan.

and heres a link to the whole thread
http://www.netrider.net.au/forums/viewt ... c&start=15" target="_blank

It sounds like Laurie 'll be busy then

thats bullshit really...

Neka79 wrote:thats bullshit really...

Which what is the who now?

"Please explayne"

thanks guys, i'll be calling into bike magic soon as i get a chance, they sound like the go at the moment but i've found myself working 6 days a week for the next month so i dunno when i'll be able to do it.

BME i've been told charges an arm and a leg, if it comes down to the prices i've been told he charges, i'll just buy another frame and bolt it myself. seen them go for as little as $200 before, just wish i'd known mine was buggered when i saw them.

and brian, if you dont mind, could you let me know what kinda $$$ it cost you to get your stuff done? i dont think the logistics of it would work for me from here but having a ballpark for prices might help me out a little...

cheers all

Laurie straightened the frame on Cath's tracky for $350, forks for $90 and fixed a dented wheel for $90. HTH.

Slow and wobbly wrote:

Neka79 wrote:thats bullshit really...

Which what is the who now?

"Please explayne"

just that the way things are going, and that ppl like BME cant do what they are good at doing...

99coconuts wrote:if you dont mind, could you let me know what kinda $$$ it cost you to get your stuff done?

Dale,

My records tell me he charged $165 to repair some damage to the frame ; one of the lugs that the subframe attached to was cracked, he straightened it up and welded it.

Cheers,
Brian