I got around to disassembling the tail of the Sabre. Took about 2 hours to do so, including the filming and cleanup and all. Overall not too bad. I ended up taking off anywhere between 40-50lbs of weight of the bike. Some of the components will of course be replaced with new ones, but a lot of them will be significantly lighter. As we all know less weight means better handling.

That being said there was some strange things i found on the bike. For one there was a few rubber hoses that were just pinched together and not attached to anything. Another was 2 little screws that were screwed into the frame under the seat. They didn’t hold anything at all.

The other crazy thing was the bodged repair job on the exhaust. It seems the pipes had rusted and deteriorated over time, and the previous owners decided to reweld them back together. That job seemed to be done by a happy trigger individual that didn’t really understand how an exhaust works.

These were all minor issues that make no difference since these components are being thrown away or cut off. However as with any old project there had to be a major issue. I came to discover that 1 of the 4 bottom mounting points for the engine block was completely broken off. This a substantial issue which leaves me with very few, all expensive, options to repair it.

• Find a new engine block piece
• Reweld in some way a bracket to support the engine (done by a professional)
• Buy a parts bike and swap the parts (which means full engine disassembly and reassembly)

This is what the front right looks like, the mounting point on the block clearly missing.

The left side which has the rubber bushing on the engine mount point intact.

The rear shock on the bike seems to be in pretty aged condition as well. It will need to be replaced by a modern one. However modern monoshocks are much shorter then in so the bottom mounting point will need to be modified in order to get the bike stance to be proper.

The electronics off the bike seem to be in ok condition. However the cables and plugs on the harness don’t give off the most reliable vibe. I will need to go through that more thoroughly and see if anything is salvagable or i need a new harness.

Lastly I took a picture of the bike with the seat tossed back on to the stripped rear. I think i now understand what the old owner was going for. It looks a lot like a Dirt Tracker bike.