Pet-Cock

My new appropriately sized "pet-cock" turned up today:-



hopefully it'll work a treat - I'm a little miffed tho as I welded in the thread for the other tap - so this one doesnt sit quite right...




Maybe I could sort this with a suitibly sized fibre washer to take it back 3/4 of a turn?!?

Future project...

Scored this from evil bay, it's gonna be a future project...

BSA c11, all rusty and beat up, no nut polishing for me, just clean it up and get it on the road!

Tank Tap

Got my work done early today, so nipped out the shed.

Next on the list:-

Move the petrol tank fuel tap. Where it was on the tank at present it went straight down onto the head of the engine, with no room for pipes. I was dead lucky, I got some fuel taps from Madness a while back for the NSU tank - one of them fits the existing thread perfectly!

first job, cut the old thread out:-



Cleaned up around the hole, then losely tacked in a blanking panel. still find it a bugger welding bits and bobs like this in with the tig (need another arm really) but I got a set of magnet holder things that really make a difference.



There was a bit of a gap due to my shoddy cutting of the blanking panel, so ran a thich bead of weld to start, then went over it all to get it all properly fused together...



After a little tickle with the angle grinder its looking alright!




Next Step - re-locate the tap.

Drilled a suitibly sized hole in the end on the tank..



Tacked it in place with the tap in the right position



took the tap off and welded it up good and propper!

Cleaned it up with the angle grinder and it was looking smart! BY THE WAY - FLAP DISCS FOR ANGLE GRINDERS ARE THE MOST AWESOME THING EVER!



Started stripping some more paint off the tank lightly with a flapper disc - dont know if that is a good idea or not, seems to not be eating the metal up too much..........

Christmas Came Late.......

Santa was a bit late due to the unforseen weather circumstances and custom charges, but i'm not complaining!

New carbs arrived this morning!!!!!!

Looks like the engine is gonna be completely stripped back down for piece of mind and (hopefully) many miles of worry free riding in the future!!!

Donhou Bicycles

A good mate of mine Donny has just launched his website for the custom push bikes he makes. Knowing him from the days of uni, he has a superb eye for detail and always finished his work to the highest of standards.

I've no doubt that his frames will be a sound investment for most, and at the very least a hand crafted bike to meet your exacting needs for use out on the road.

Donny actually helped on my first weekend working on the Relic, having just returned from a 7 month ride from Mongolia to Singapore ON A PUSH BIKE!!!! (having driven to mongolia in a skoda pickup!)

Hats off to the guy - his beutiful bikes can be seen here at http://www.donhoubicycles.com/

Mounting Brackets

Second job of the day - work out how I'm gonna mount the light.....

Origionally there was a bolt that fitted into a slot on the bottom of the light that allowed for the light to be adjusted. the bolt was knackered with rust, and I didnt want to have some sort of a "cup" to hold the light as I figured it would be a bit clumsy looking. As I only ultimately need up and down movement I decided to weld some metal into the slot , then could then be bolted to the bracket (still yet to make)

here it is with a load of weld filling the gaps in place...

Then it was a case of grinding down, first with the angle grinder, then patiently with the dremel (see I can do patience!!!!!)

Here it is just held in the light for a mock up.....



The lamp will be keeping that patina (not using the black one for now) but I will probably paint the bracket black at some point.

Tank Take Two

Made a start on the tank today - the tunnel needed to be altered and a blanking panel put in place.

Didnt realise that there was a hell of a lot of filler on the tank, plus there was also a hell of a lot of silver solder holding it together.

This it the front of the tank with about 6mm of the solder ground back

I assumed that attempting to TIG the silver solder was the wrong idea (in fact it started to melt as I was grinding it back), so it all had to come off, the more I ground, the more metal there was to make up.

Didnt take too many pics of this today (not like me) but made up about 20mm all around the tank, with a big "V" heading back down the tank also.

I spent the obligatory hour or so filling with water, finding holes, draining, drying, welding and finding more holes etc....

I think a lot of it was the residue from the silver solder leaving tiny seams under the weld. With perseverance it got sealed up good and proper.  Here it is mounted atop the frame - with an idea how much I have to make up with the blanking panel.

Couldnt get any further with that as I didnt have any tube for the tunnel (havent got any the right diameter at my local fab shop - gonna have to find somewhere else)