Pendine Flyer

Ziggy's Zed

click here to view larger imageWhen I first came across my trike it was in a bad way. It was a non runner and over the years had undergone some bad attempts at repairs. However, none of this put me off. I could see that it had been very well put together by it’s original builder and that beneath all the crap there was a gorgeous little machine just bursting to get out. The frame work has had a lot of thought put into it, and couples up to the shortened Reliant axle beautifully; giving it that "Hot Rod" type stance 
I had to own this trike!
To do so, I had to sell everything I could lay my hands on. I emptied not only my garage, but my shed too. This included a brand new VW trike frame and all the bodywork, VW engine and gearbox, VW alloy wheels, wide slab yokes complete with forks, a nearly finished Kawasaki GT750 trike build, another Kawasaki which was my bobber click here to view larger imageproject, loads & loads of spares for all the above and a lot more besides.  So, as you can probably see, I really wanted this trike, no matter what it took.
Making the little Zed mine had severely dented my piggy bank, so it just sat in my garage for about four months, without a finger being laid on it, but not before a couple of parts were thrown in the bin. First to go was a horrible tall, tinted screen which gave the trike a trials bike look from the front. Next to go was a cheesy sissy bar, complete with a tacky "live to ride" metal badge stuck to the back of it. These two items were ripped off within 15 minutes of owning it, as I just didn't want anyone seeing it like that for fear of being laughed at!
Then, around about April we finally started stripping stuff off and repairing the engine. With the screen now gone, it exposed the original clocks and headlight, so they had to go too, as did the ignition, as I wanted it moved to the left hand side panel. A new ignition switch was bought and my mate Tezza, (who gets all the praise here), worked click here to view larger imagewonders. He also weaved his magic on the rest of the electrics, as they were in a right ol’ state to say the very least. Next to get attention was the engine -the damn thing wouldn't start no matter what we tried, so after a few days of trying this, then trying that, Tezza found the fault to be in the ignition system module. It couldn’t be repaired so a brand new one was bought. About a week later the new ignition system arrived, and Tezza set about wiring it all in, then finally she roared into life. Boy was that music to my ears! Even though the timing was out, that Z1100 motor sounded like it wanted to go race. I was absolutely chuffed to bits and suddenly everything seemed worth while. To be really honest, I was beginning to think I'd made one almighty cock-up in buying this trike, as so much was going wrong along the way, but all that was totally forgotten when she fired up.
In my eyes, the trike is nowhere near finished. There’s a hell of a lot I want to do and have done, but the shortage of funds is the limiting factor. I know it’ll get there eventually though. I’m click here to view larger imagealready building up a stock of new parts. Every time you see it, something will have been changed, like the forward controls that went on just before I wrote this. I also have new tyre-hugging steel mudguards for the rear and all new lights to go with them too. A new front end will also be on the revised spec list, so watch this space!

All my thanks go to Louise for putting up with me and Tezza and Chinster for all the help and support.

Ziggy

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