Well, as a build diary this needs to start with an excuse as I'm already quite a way through the "year" / build ... but I suppose better late than never!

The attached pic (hope it shows up!) is of the main assembly progress to date; the front forks, wheel, handlebars etc are also assembled but out of shot.

This is (mostly) up to and including stage 61.

I got the full kit: a couple of problems so far, and a diversion from the recommended order.

- a defective headlight wiring "loom" was quickly replaced by Customer Services; they are good.

- the "engine cables A and B" (stage 52) all (yes, all four ...!!) broke / snapped at the join of the hollow cable with the solid part, when bent into position. Simple gluing didn't work, so I resorted to hand-drilling a pilot hole into each fixing and using a stub of copper core to glue-join the hollow cables back to the fitting. OK so far.

- having read ahead in the instructions, I was concerned at the directions to join and then separate the main frame halves three (?) times ... concerned in case of stripping screw heads / threads / etc in such large and fundamental parts.

I felt that by "working ahead" I could join the frame halves only once, after all the other steps are completed in advance: this has worked for me I hope (!), having got to this point with everything "in" and no parts left over ...

The last item still to fit at this point is the transmission case cover, which has left the drive sprocket exposed for tensioning the chain, with the cover itself able to be fitted last with all the other parts in place.

Looking forward to finishing the beast ...

Hi, thanks for your comments, and the point about more cables ...

Do you know by any chance which stage number has the spares? I had looked pretty carefully through all of the parts because of my "out of sequence" approach, to try and make sure I didn't miss out something vital; I hadn't seen any spares for these specific cables, and checking now through all of my as-yet unopened packages I still don't see them?

Not too big a deal as I'm happy enough with my repairs - having used an artist's ink fibre-tipped pen to colour and disguise the join, they look OK.

Thanks for this ... they are indeed in stage 64!!

Not that I have (quite) got to Pack 20 / Stage 64 yet anyway, but in my amended sequence approach I had simply set aside all of the parts for the base - all of which I'm going to do "in one go" - and not looked at either those instructions or the parts themselves ... I just hadn't seen / noticed the new cables.

Now I've read those instructions I can see that stage 64 comments on the potentially weak original cables and shows a way to glue them as well as supplying the replacements. And looking at the stage 64 bag, the cables are indeed sitting there, hiding behind the control panel facia plate ...

Note to self: read ALL of the instructions first, THEN begin ...!!

Here she is a little bit further on .. oil tank etc. fitted, plus the circuit board on and cables connected.

Next step is the fuel tank: the somewhat annoying need to file down the tank locating tab, to avoid it fouling the cables now routed through the slot in the frame intended it would seem for that very tab (!), plus in my case the tank doesn't quite fit width-wise over the two fixing towers on the frame halves, and so I need either to file down the tower outside faces (no more than a coat of paint depth, I think ...) or file back the mounting points on the inside faces of the tank.

The former are much easier to get at, but it seems a shame to file off the paint there, even though it won't of course be seen once the tank is on ...

The WD-40 seems to have worked a treat, thanks!

I now have the completed bike ... looks great!

Some of the steps are a bit tortuous and (unnecessarily, IMO) fiddly at times, but I can certainly recommend this model to anyone interested in the real thing.