Estrella » Introducing Myself ...

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Hello all.

Firstly before I get to the boring bit - about me - let me thank Uli for all the help he's given me hopefully now there's this English forum I won't have to keep asking him for translations and directing my technical questions to him personally.

Thanks also to all involved with the Estrella site it's a great resource and an interesting and fun place for all of us 'Star' riders!

OK, About me, I thought I'd paste my 'Biographie' from my profile page - and then I'll go back and edit it down to something of a more sensible length!

I began riding in the mid 1980's on Suzuki DR125, then Honda MTX 80, I didn't bother to pass my test and gave up because of pain and weakness in one arm from a car crash some years earlier.

About 6 years ago I decided I couldn't live without a motorbike any longer so went and bought 5 wrecks from the 1970's over the next few years. (Honda SL 125 x3, Harley Davidson SST 250, SX 250)

I passed my test (all 3 parts of it) in 2003 so I could ride my 'new' bikes but it was taking me so long to restore any of the oldies I bought a 'grey import' Estrella RS Custom, (BJ250E1) originally from Japan, unseen, from a dealer 300 miles away who was selling it via eBay.

It had one or two (many) problems which took me a few months to sort out. It had carburation problems - the float level was too high, that took a lot of tracking down, - the front brake was assembled wrongly, I guess it had been stood for years and there was much rust even though it had just under 6,500 kms on the clock and it had minor crash damage down the right hand side, scratches, scruff's, cracked lever, ripped twist grip. I sent it to a garage to have the carburetor fixed after I'd all but given up on finding the problem - they didn't manage to cure it - and it came back with a bent front wheel.

The first time I rode it I went to take photo's and parked it on newly laid tarmac - the stand sank in and it fell over bending the gear lever under the engine, next time I rode it a car forced me into the gutter by coming round a bend on the wrong side of the road and I scraped all underneath on the curbstones and this is how it got the nickname 'Scuffy.' I no longer announce that I am going out for a ride but that I am going out for 'a scuff.'

I'd just got all the problems sorted out and I crashed it.

It smashed the headlamp shell, bent the forks and twisted the yokes, and I snapped the newly fitted second mirror off (with my thigh as I flew over the handlebars) not to mention putting matching scratches on the other side of the front mudguard and headlight bezel, and, bending the gear lever back under the engine again.

I had skidded and 'high-sided' it on mud which was covering the road on a bend but now it is all fixed again and back on the road with a new front tyre - note to other Estrella owners - if the front tyre is worn out in August don't think of it as a 'job to do' when the bike is put away in November for the winter!

Well hopefully this is the first of many posts 'fleshing out' the brief notes on the profile pages and if there's anyone else in the UK, come on lets hear from you - I know you're out there... all two of you... I've seen pictures of your bikes on dealers web sites!

Ride safe.

motosapiens (Loui)

..Scuffy's back...