I have been lounging in a warmer place than Southern Ontario this past couple of weeks (in Southern California to be exact !). In between carrying parcels as SWMBO’d shopped, acting as a tour guide to my daughter-in-law who was able to join us both here, and also entertaining my in-laws Judy and John, I have also managed to do a few updates and additions to the OJB web site. Some will already have seen the additional manuals that I added four weeks ago. Those included the addition of the :
And the:
As well, this week I have added the :
And the:
Just ‘click’ on the links above to take a look. I suspect that will pretty much complete the manual selection that I plan to offer. I’m still missing the T20 Parts and Owner manuals, as well as the T200 manuals but I’m good with that and if they fell into my lap, then I could eventually add them I suppose. My interest is really just road machines and so I hesitate to expand the offering to include models used off road, or indeed to road models offered outside of Canada. That could always change in the future I guess.
I still get requests from people to send them PDF’s of the material I have posted. As mentioned on my Manuals page I don’t do that. Excellent quality hard copy manuals are easy to buy at very reasonable rates from e-Classic Bike in New Zealand, or from Amazon and eBay etc. I know there are people who painstakingly copy down each of the images I post and then offer them around to people as PDF’s. They are low resolution images to make them load faster and often I’ve water marked them, but really if that’s what you want to do then have at it I suppose. Whatever turns your crank. And keep in mind that I have not designed these to be viewed on a phone. Having an old laptop or large tablet in the work shop is a cheap accessory, and it is what I’ve done for years. I encourage others to do the same.
In addition, I was also able to add a Japanese Domestic Market dealer manual that Drew Courtney in the UK lent me. This is quite interesting to page through as it shows models not offered elsewhere, along with dealer specific material such as retail prices in Yen for the different models. Having that material prompted me to update the section on the web site slightly and split the sale brochures area into JDM and ROW (for ‘rest of world’) sections which I can continue to add to as material comes available. You can view this new addition at this link.
Details of my latest restoration ( another 1972 GT750 ) are slowly starting to be added at this link on the web site . I expect it will be a slower build than others I’ve done in the past as it is taking me a while to track down suppliers offering the same quality of service in Ontario as I had access to in Calgary. I know they are out there – I just still need to do the due diligence and satisfy myself that I can get what I want at a price I’m prepared to pay.
And I also figured out the answer to a question about water pump seals that I’d been curious about. If you’ve wondered where to buy a replacement mechanical seal for your GT750 or for your RE5, then I wrote about that at this link , and now have also added the seal information to the web site here.
I’ve also added a small write up on making your own engine stand that Skid Brown in the UK has graciously allowed me to share here. This first appeared in the Kettle Club’s newsletter and you can read about it at this link .
Finally, I have started something completely different ! In response to a fellow who asked why I didn’t actually have much on the site about “really” old Japanese bikes, I have started to remedy that omission. I have started putting together a compendium of sorts which covers other JDM machines prior to roughly 1960. I very deliberately am not including much material on products from the ‘Big Four’ manufacturers as there is already loads of material available. For this project, I wanted to shine the light on the manufacturers that no longer remain. It is very much a ‘work in progress’ but you can take a look at what little I have done so far at this link.
That’s all for the moment. As always I continue to make other small changes and updates here and there – too many to list really. The errors and omissions are all mine and I very much do appreciate people letting me know if they find something that needs to be corrected.
The fun continues !