Took the rear carrier apart today, somebody wanna tell me what the hell happened here?! Looks like as if one of the bearings had exploded and the balls have gone loose into the grease cavity, which would suggest the bearings have already been changed at least once, which in turn puts the odometer reading of 4200km under serious doubt. Either it has been disconnected for a long time or it has actually gone over and it`s on it`s second round! Had a bit of an event with the new bearings too. I looked online for them and found them in several places for anything between 5 and 15 euros plus carriage but waiting for a month for them didn`t sit right with me as I want to see what sits where before fabbing the exhaust so I ordered a pair into a local tractor parts dealer. You could imagine the "wait what" when I went in to get them and heard the price. They weren`t 5 euros. They weren`t even 15 euros. They were 63 euros. Per side. The ONE TIME I didn`t ask beforehand what they cost as I naively assumed they`d be around the same or at least not much over. With that money I could have ordered TWO new carriers and still have enough for the assembly beer!!!!
Having recovered from that for a day I decided to whip out the mig rig and start sticking bits together. First up was the new battery box and it`s bracket. At first my plan was to fit it so far back the box can actually swing open but it just didn`t look right sticking out that far so I figured it`s not that much of a hassle removing seven bolts/nuts to lift the rear fairing off, it`s not like you`re digging into the battery box every week anyway.
Somehow the muffler had managed to both rip out the front mount from the frame tube AND cracked the rear loop so those, among other fractures here and there, got welded. Judging by the cracks and the fact the right side fender bracket was bent this thing had been capsized at least once. Might at some point redo the twelve-o-clock-bar with either a skidplate or some rollerskate wheels but that`s a very low priority at this point.