FJ is thirty

Not only still running, actually running while this picture was taken. This is the time of year when the new heater is really paying off - VW Polo heater matrix fitted behind the headlights, At zero ambient I don't get cold driving round town. At all.

Once, years ago now, I used to wonder why someone hadn't done a better job, lighter, neater, better looking (obviously). Now I think I know. Motorcyclists don't know anything about two wheeler dynamics - while the people who make them don't care.

If you doubt this look at the entries on Electric Motorcycle News. All those people spending all that time electrifying motorised bicycles without addressing any of the failings they've suffered from this last hundred years. Anything to say BMW?

FJ is thirty

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Ian's picture

Given that 03 is registered

Given that 03 is registered as an '89 model I would have thought that the Fat Jogger was older than that - has it reached 'ship of Theseus' status now?

February 1988

February 1988 to December 1989 - that's the Voyager project. Amazing what you can do with some people and money!

Theseus? He had a ship?

Triggers Broom

Theseus and his ship are a bit high brow for this forum. I had to google it. Perhaps "Triggers broom" might have been more our level!

Colin

Ah..., But

OK so I googled it too (actually duck duck go, non-tracking search engine) "Does a thing that has had every component replaced over time remain the same thing? And if you collected up all the scrap and re-assembled it, would that be the real thing instead?" This is what people who can't get a better job (Philosophers) spend the centuries debating.

But I can short cicuit all this theory. FJ has not had every component replaced. The gearbox and rear swing-arm were fitted in 1988. Along with the end of the stand handle and a small but important component in the steering. Then there's the Ducellier alternator, the AC delco fuel pump and the Mini distributor. And the intake manifold. All the UNF fasteners, (ex-Frank Williams F.1) are original, apart from the titanium twelve point nuts and high tensile stainless bolts liberated from Rolls Royce and British Wastaspace in the nineties. And thinking about it - for the first time this century - there's the steering column,with UJ, and the top half of the seat back, both liberated from 001 and dating back to 1985. Of course I've also got the original Convert final drive and the first Reliant engine fitted, they're in the stores 'resting'.

So it'll be ages before the 'ship of Thesius' conundrum becomes an excuse to waste more philosophical brain power. And I've carefully scrapped most of the wreckage so that argument is out of the window. Hopefully I'll be riding around in an FF'd C-Evo long before then.

And (I've just remembered) the rear brake calliper, Brembo, ex Mk1 La Mans. Along with the front brake callipers (AP), also ex. 001, from a rather dead Difazio hubbed GT750 that Chris Baker very kindly gave me. Some of the above parts have only been completely rebuilt once.