Monday 30 April 2012

Ballistic battery

Detroit Chris sorted out some ballistic batteries for the xs's so I've got 2 of them one for the scrambler and one for the relic. They ate tiny and hardly weigh anything!

Hope to be on the wiring this weekend, so fingers crossed they work right!

Need to make a compartment for the electrics under the seat, I need some ideas of what to do though....

Sunday 29 April 2012

F*cking Weather!

Well - what shitty weather! It's absolutely hammering down and SOOOOOO windy up here!

Only had a couple of hours on the bike today. Not sorted out lighting in the shed yet, and it's too dark not to have the door open. That means I'm getting rain 3 foot into the shed. Not good at all!

Anyways, being the impatient bugger that I am I decided to nick the rubbers from the relic and fit them on the scrambler. I will put the new ones on the relic when they arrive, but I couldn't hold back on progress.



The carbs look great, and can't wait to get the bike fired up. Had loads of little bits to finish up on the engine- oil return pipe could be fitted with the new banjo bolts and washers I bought, had to use helicoil replacements on 2 of the tappet cover stud holes, and a general go around everything and tighten up..



Sorry for the shit photos, but I have to stand outside to take the pics!

Every time I have rebuilt an engine I make the same mistake - i always forget to push in the bearings for the cam shaft, so when I go to put the covers on they don't fit. I'll need to slacken off the head bolts, tighten the covers in, then re-torque the head down...

It was at about this point that I got fed up- my legs were soaking, and I was freezing!

Time for some fab work in the other (dryer) shed!

This is the rear light I want to use - its a bike light I picked up a while back. Small, neat and I think really stylish!



Disassembled it into its pieces, needed a bulb replacement as it was just a screw in single filament one...



Our very own Chris donated a pair of Harley side lights that he had spare when I saw him last. They have an LED section that could be unscrewed at the top. Had a play around with a battery, and it had a duel aspect to it with 2 circuits- perfect!



Now in the past I would have tried to do some complicated fabrication effort on this, but instead I just drilled through the bottom of the plastic base...



Drilled it slightly under size so the thread cut into the plastic. Jobs a goodun!





I may trim the plastic back slightly at some point, but it's not a priority ATM....

Finally, I measured up for the headlight, and drilled and cut it out of 8mm alloy...





Once cleaned up a bit it was fitted to the bike. I wanted the headlight tucked in deep between the forks, happy with where it's at..... I'll trim it down a bit at a later date, it's a bit rough and ready and cumbersome, so I'll sort it when I have time.



Saturday 28 April 2012

Seat

Matt Caulfield did a great job on my seat, turned it round in a few days to my design! Nice one Matt! If your thinking of getting a seat made- look him up - Caulfield leather!

Thursday 26 April 2012

Beating down the list

 got some gas for the welder and got cracking on the list!

first up - the holes in the bottom of the tank needed sorting...



couple of squares of steel welded in and the bottom is sorted!



I wasn't sure about the fuel taps,and whether to use 1 or 2.... I had one already, so i thought best to start with 1 and if needs be i'll put another in at a later date...

The petcock is a british one, so1/4 BSP tap was used to cut a thread...



I then lined up where I wanted it compared to the carbs and drilled it through with one of these bits....



I tacked it first and made sure it was lined up properly,then seamed it up...



Fits in nicely!


I was hoping to get the carbs on, but it seems like the inlet rubbers are the wrong size.... Bugger - I was hoping to have it running on the weekend - bugger of a setback!


Ive been thinking about a leg protector for the pipes so I dont fry my legs, so got some ali sheet and marked up the center lines of the pipes. Once I had them I used some larger radius tube to bend it over...





once the both sides were bent and trimmed I gave it a try - looked OK, but will need refining and styling up a bit - possible race numbers on it......

I then turned up the spacer for the disc - its at 8mm at the moment - i'll have to try it on and see if that's too close to the fork leg.



lastly I turned up the 2 9mm spacers for the rear wheel.

Not a bad 6 hours - cant believe how much I got done!

Sunday 22 April 2012

Getting there - Its a Roller!

Started yesterday morning by welding up my pipes, went pretty well literally finished the last weld and my argon run out!
Smoothed the welds down as well as I could, there are a couple of bits that I'll put some more weld on, but they look fine for now.
A mate has given me the use of a paddock stand, which is ideal for getting the wheels on the bike. This meant a shed tidy, and move the bench that the bike has been on, but it was well worth it!



How good does that look!?!

If anything I would have preferred a slightly fatter rear tyre on the back, but I can live with it for now!

Couldn't resist putting the rear muddy and tank on to have. Look....



Then I thought bugger it - I may as well put the engine in to have a look.....



Oh- go on- may as well put the pipes on to have a good look!!



Really happy with it. I'm even contemplating running it on a daytime MOT to start with....

Thursday 19 April 2012

Seat pan

just sorted this for firstly my brain when i'm trimming, and secondly for Matt to refer to...



So trimmed the seat pan right down, and sorted the mounting bolts out.



Took a drive over to Manchester to Matt's place and dropped it off to him. He said to return on Tuesday with either 100 pound coins / 10 tenner or 5 twenties and he'll give me a leather clad seat of beuty!

Can't wait!

Progress....

Trimmed all the unwanted tabs off the frame including pillion mounts and centre stand mounts.

Tank fits a peach!





Was a shame to knacker the paint, but it'll be going for powder coat in the not so distant future.

Mr caulfield said he'd do a rush job on my seat so had a crack at the seat pan. Never used glass fibre properly before.


First effort was a bit thin, so I had to put a second coat on!


Seems to be solid enough. I'll sort out mounts and holes tomorrow.

Matt tells me I should have fibre glassed the bolts in place... 

Monday 16 April 2012

Foot Pegs

Taking a couple of days off work to work on the bike.

Today's efforts were:-

Mega mount



Made it from 6mm stainless I had lying round. It's fecking hard stuff, took an age to drill the holes. I thought about polishing it up, but when I bent up the step it had a good few hammer marks in it. I decided to attack it with a grinding burr and rough it up a bit!





I think I'll end up welding a tab on the frame to bolt it too...

On the list was also foot pegs. I had these old ones with the bike. Old rusty pitted and with dreadful casting marks. 



I cut the old peg mounts off and got cracking with the new ones.
Drilled through the legs, and held in the right place while I welded the tabs on.



Then with a bit of tweaking I got the pegs lined up properly



Then cleaned up with the grinder. 



Pretty happy with the results! I'll need new rubbers for them, but really suit the bike in my eyes....




And the other side to match...



I'll be tryin to sort the seat out tomorrow so I can get it over to mr caulfield.

Also have a few thoughts on making some side covers for the battery area....

Sunday 15 April 2012

Single Sided Pipes

Yesterday's big job was the much anticipated high level pipes, looking forward to cracking on with them, but a little nervous about getting them right.

Spent a bit of time trying out the 2 different size u bends, and decided on the larger of the 2 bends to be used.

Probably the best decision I made that day was to take the time to fab some collars for the ends to sit in the engine. I initially thought I could do with out them, but they turned out to be essential. I just cut up a piece of scaffold pipe, turned them clean and even, and to the fit size - 12mm width. 



The collars weren't a perfect fit over the pipe ends, so I used some weld rod to evenly space the collar over the pipes.



At this point Tombo came down, just at the point where I needed a hand. Top man, cheers for coming down mate!

Once the ends were on we could mount the pipes into the engine and see where we were at...



We figured it best to sort the left hand pipe out first, so used a 35 degree bend as a mock up to try and work my lines out...



The bend was trimmed shorter to get it to fit right, I forgot my dad had bought me an old belt linisher a while back, worked a treat to sort out the ends of the pipes once cut with an anglegrinder. 

We then decided to weld the straight section on the back to see the line of the pipes back to the megas...







We spent a time sorting the megas out, and lining them up how I wanted them. I was playing for a staggered pipe look, the top further back and tighter to the bike than the back.



The back pipe wasn't as easy to make, not make photos of the stages, but basically we had to cut the u bend in half, then twist the joint and tack in place. As my welder was the other end of the garden, we were having to put lines on the pipe to align the pipes to when tacking then take the pipes down the garden to tack, then back up to try on the bike. I think it took 4 or 5 attempts to get it between the frame properly.

Once that was sorted we decided to work from the top mega back toward the front, so we could get them to join.



I think it's a 35 degree bend to kick back round the engine.

To connect the front and back of the pipes I then used one of the tight U bends cut down to fit. It was absolutely made to be. Plenty of marking, cutting and flattening with the linisher, and we tacked the pipes together just before the light failed!

I think we were both more than pleased with our efforts for the day. I'm one happy boy, and just goes to show any old idiot can make some sweet looking pipes....