Watchman

Sampath, I'm going to take your recommendation and forward it to my dad. He's looking to get a set of seatcovers done for the W123. I'm guessing based on the bigger seats and inflation over time it will cost more than Rs.13000/= now..

i've driven neither of these, but If it were me, I'd buy the 5 series, rather than harrier. I'm guessing the 520 would probably be more fun to drive and maybe even have a few additional creature comforts. But then in the Sri Lankan context I would also have to buy a whole lot of paper bags to put on my head cos I don't wanna look like another permit-5-series driver.

This might be a bit of a stupid question, but when you cut the studs, will there be enough thread to safely hold the lugnuts on your regular wheels ?

The next question is how do you know where it really comes from? based on the sticker on the back?

Well, when you put in new parts old parts have to go somewhere.. And living in a tiny room, there isn't a lot of space to store stuff. Besides, there are people out there like me who work on projects looking for cheap parts or to trade.. in face I'm in the process of bartering a used seat in exchange for a pair of hand guards and used footpegs I have lying around Stay tuned for more to come..

So after giving into my vanity of making the bike look nice, another party pooper popped up; just a week before I took the DRZ on its virgin dirt trip.. The carburetor .. <<stay tuned>>

And the beauty currently stands like this.

The colour scheme on the bike just didn't sit well with me, Yellow, White, Red Black, Blue (seat top) was too messy. The stock colour for the fenders should be yellow and for the side-boards white. And the front fender was from the SM model (smaller), and boy did it look bad. I bought a full set of plastics, some stickers for the headlight, and went home to start the job. I spent a good 5 hours on cutting and applying the stickers on the white headlight flaring to give it a more suzuki yellow (or banana yellow as the colour is called). I had already done some stickering on my other bike, so I knew what I was getting into. The key is to have an clothes iron and a hair dryer at hand at all times. The front fender, and the side panels were a direct fit. It was the rear fender that was an issue. The fender was originally meant for a DRZ400E which is the racing (not road-legal) model and hence has no rear subframe like the 400S and 400SM. So the work began with a hacksaw blade in hand. A few hours later the bike looked better, not perfect, but better. Note the triangular cuts; cutting plastics to a set shape is a tad harder than expected Then off with the road tyres and on come the Semi off-road tyres. A scrambler really 'pops' with proper knobby tyres but the rule of thumb here is that if your thumb fits in between 2 knobs its illegal for road use. So Dunlop 605 it is.

In fact I got this bike in late April, and a number of things have happened to the bike since. I'll start keying in the developments soon.. it's nice to have this thread to see who the bike has changed over the last few months. And yes, I swapped in a pair of semi off road tyres and took it out on a couple of off road trips.. All that power at the flick of your wrist eating into gravel sure puts a smile on your face To be honest I wasn't paying attention to the other bikes in the car park. That's a very keen eye you have to be able to recognize it by the seat.

I have been meaning to share the story of my new toy. This being a ‘car’ forum, it may not get a lot of fans but I know there's a few. And I have been putting this write-up off for so long its no longer 'new' either. Being a scrambler-man, the 2 obvious and feasible choices for me were the Honda XR400 and the DRZ400 (E or S models). XR4s weren't exactly hard to find. So I went to see quite a few, though each of them had something or the other that put me off (not to mention the kick-start). Then along came this rare DRZ400S. Engine sounded OK and bike seemed to be decent, though 'showroom condition' is not what I would describe it as. So over the next few days a price was negotiated and the deal was closed. First thing I did was ride it to my mechanic and do a oil and coolant change. Afterwards, a hint of vanity struck me. I went and bought a new set of plastics; fenders tank shrouds and sideboards and all....And that was just the start... They say never go look at a vehicle in the night, but if I waited till the weekend to go see it I'm sure I would have missed this.

Who'd want to send money to Sri Lanka? How about 1000s of people who work overseas to earn some money so that thier families can have a roof over thier heads or thier kids can have a better education. They send the money to thier families, not as a donation addressed to "The Parliament, Sri Lanka". And this scheme is to reward those who contribute to the country/economy by sending in foreign reserves. What's wrong with that? If you don't want to send money to Sri Lanka that's perfectly fine; you don't have to bitch about this scheme that doesn't even apply to you. Not everyone packs their bags and desert the country lock stock and barrel and then tries to scrape away whatever heritages in Sri Lanka.

Are your initials really ABC? And why are you asking people for their preferences? are you planning to buy us all cars? And on a serious note; Different people have different priorities which make them decide one one over the other. You have to decide on your priorities and preferences ..

Sirasa Super of course! Not that they have that big a 2nd hand market... too many in the market..

A crack on a rim sounds fairly serious dude! Are you talking about a crack in the rim itself or a crack in the paint?

Reviving a old thread to think out loud something that came to my mind this morning.. Evos and STi have been going head to head for quite a while with each trying to outperform the rival in every new generation. And just browsing through wiki, I noticed that there was a new model coming out every 2 years. But since 2007, there hasn't really been any evolution (pun intended) in these cars. Not in production, no news even on the conceptual level. Have I been living under a rock and hence oblivious to what's new, or is it really the case?

Just a minor correction; the section in the red box is the trip meter. The tachometer is what is commonly known in Sri Lanka as the RPM meter.

Of course! One only needs to be tested if one feels like he has homosexual tendencies or curiosities.

Well, the car can't be preserved if it's not even in the country right. True the authorities may not be doing anything much to preserve the cars individually, but at least they are taking steps to make sure the country don't loose these treasures. And frankly I dont think those who own these classics need financial help per-se. The only help they do need from the authorities is to keep them in the country. edit: Speaking of letting cars rust to the ground, did anyone read/hear anything more about the "classic car registry" that someone from Colombo Uni (or some uni) compiling..

Well, I dont agree. Just like unmovable assets like buildings and estates or what not, these are still part of ancient sri lankan culture. Same applies for ancient artifacts like swords, jewelry and what not from centuries ago. As for ae100' question I thinkt he authorities DON'T have an issue with antiques being brought it. I recall seeing a old Rolls Royce on a english number. I dont know the full story on it, but it DID come in recently AFAIK. It's the country gaining something in this case, so why say no...

"only"??? From a statistical standpoint, if you stick it in a hole 4 times, one of them would be in a wrong hole!

You didn't hear about the shared income model? Everytime you visit AL you get 1 point. And for very post of yours seen by 50 members you get additional 3 points. And if you are the top 5% of members with highest points you get USD.200.00 (but you need to sync your paypal to AL for the money to come through) Best way to increase your points, look at the post you make and keep clicking F5. You get the post for your click as well as your post seen. Easy money man!

Another interesting bit of info in the media. Balumgala 2013-10-09 Vehicles Lanka

Of course, Japan will be on the gaining side of this issue if it happens. No reason for them to say no.

is there a reason you're spending that much money on a product you have no experience with an on top of that spending on shipping, and potentially customs duty too? I just find it very odd. If it's something you used and really believe in; understandable. If it's some product you're getting at dirt cheap, and dont mind experimenting; understandable... but this....

#1. The seller should NOT be given the money back. #2. If someone's crying that Autolanka is pocketing the money (and not positng the advert), AL can buy biscuits and distribute them to homeless kids. I'll volunteer with manpower too if its a issue. #3. I agree with you we should all give him a phone call and ask about the car's mileage. Pissa just doesn't log on as frequently as some of us who are here 24/7 looking for man-love. And if the records are kept in a file, it's simply a case of ripping out whatever maintenance reciepts after the 51k point