Nice surprises don't come that often

Ive been tinkering long enough to know that with all old bikes - "prepare for the worst" is the only way to prepare for everything. This especially applies with engines you buy blind from the otherside of the internet "Because you have a good feeling" and "it ends on my birthday - its fate!"

to my astonishment these 2 sentiments are true of the VL motor. I dropped in on Baz while down with work yesterday and we whipped the heads of the motor. It came with a new set of +20 pistons and rings, but you can imagine my amazement when the tops came off, the rods were nicely wrapped in bubble wrap so as not to do damage to the great looking and freshly honed barrels. Not only that, but the valves looked good and freshly seated (and even had the markings of a fresh rebuild with which valve was which on top!

Not only was the motor a nice surprise, but the gearbox (which did not come with the motor) was able to shift nicely between gears, and all looked to be working fine! 

both the motor and the gearbox are going to have a good going through, but I left with a feeling I hadn't experienced before - optimism!

Business up front and party at the back

I made a decision that putting an oil bag would take away from the bike, so a drastic action was taken and I chopped the back off the tank. this allowed me to weld in a partition to keep the fuel up front and the oil in the back. 

Ali welding is getting better every time. 

once I got the front all welded up I got the back welded on. When cleaning up the welds I consistently got a hairline crack coming through the metal.

Once I got home and my head clear I realised that what had happened is that the sheet metal had "sunk" near the edges, as i was trying to smooth things off I was going too far down with the grinder, and hence leaving it too thin.

My fix will be to lay a load of beads of weld down to provide loads of coverage, and then file back smooth. Its coming on though. once the tank is finished i'll be trying to make a mudguard with my new English wheel. 

Handmade tank - VL Hillclimber

Wednesday has been and passed, so to fulfil my promise to myself - time for an update. I've got to admit I realised how much I enjoyed doing the blog - getting the narrative out of my head as I'm going...

Anyway - the hill climber has me hooked - really enjoying not having a deadline to work to, so rattling on with it. I've never had brass bits on a bike before, I can find it quite naff looking myself - but with this bike being from the 30's it seems to want to have a few bits on it.  I've been hanging onto this old machine switch for years, looks perfect as a kill switch for this bike. 

After a bit of head scratching and turning on the lathe I made up a holder and adapter out of 3 pieces of Ali, that will hold the switch. I had to weld them together and make sure it was sealed as there will be fuel around it. My first attempts at Ali welding haven't been great, but I banged the amps right up and it started to make a bit more sense...

I also cut the holes for the switch mount and fuel cap holder and welded them in as well. Plenty of grinding later and they seem to have come out nicely.

Next up will be some mounts for the tank onto the top tube (although with all the heat its quite tight already!) and then fuel line bungs.

I was thinking of doing some of the tank as an oil tank, but I think I'll run an oil bag.... home made of course....

I'm not sure how the shifting mechanism will work yet so I'll see on that...

VL Hillclimber

Had my 1 night last week and spent some time on the VL Hillclimber tank. Haven't touched it for a while, but I've been itching to get back working on it. as a reminder its my first attempt at making a tank, and my first go at Ali welding. I should have done a bit of practicing, as I don't find it the easiest of things to do. 

Its coming on nicely, I've the front to do, then sort out how i'm going to get the filler neck attached (its brass). I'm also planning to split the tank and use 1/3 of it to hold the oil...

Oh and I want to chemically etch the tank with Harley lettering; really looking forward to that.

Project Girder

Ive had an idea brewing in my head for quite some time, I wasn't aware of Harley making a girder fork - turns out i'm wrong and they made a small one for a hummer or something, but they never made a big twin sized one.

My hair-brained scheme has been to use the lovely rear legs from an VL/RL I-beam springer as girder fork legs.... with post BF7 and lack of tinker time blues I sourced a rear leg from Scandinavia and set about working how to do it.

I've planned most of it in my head, but as always, those ideas have to change up now and again when  actually making it....

original intention was for dual springs, but it looks like a singe spring is the way forward on this one... I'm intending on using WL con rods as the linkages - of course with a load  of modifications (read - cutting and welding!)

street chopper pic

Just found this photo of my bike from Street chopper

Peace / Fuck off Dustcaps

Some of you will have seen that I made a little dustcap for the 345 with a 2 fingers up - Fuck you! vibe, the other side is a bit more mellow, and Peace!

I've had some cast out of brass and will be doing a limited run of 200 pairs.

the first 80 have gone in a flash, and I'm awaiting the next batch in a week or so. If your interested I've put up a pre-order on www.the345.bigcartel.com and they will be out as soon as I get them...