a contrast of style

 tough swinger

 gorgeous genny

courtesey of backstreet bucket

sissy chop...

my sissy fitted nicely, no scratched mudguard paint - but you know what, I now don't like the angle of the dangle, it needed moving forward so...

yet again its got chopped, but this time its painted! the bracket has to be cut and lowered 4mm...

and two tabs welded on, with the last breath of gas, in what looked like spot on positions, till it was offered up to the mudguard, which needs twisting sideways and discover the rear wheel isn't centred.

fuck it, I've had enough. 

come with me baby, to love land...

 if only I'd taken a photo in its original shitty state...

 it wouldn't have taken three or four attempts at assembly... 

god bless vapour blasting, with the fittings hand painted by 'moi'

decisions, decisions - if only I'd bought the brass clamps instead of the cast chrome back in the day

I may have to paint the original stylie screw clamps black, as the chrome is peeling on the cast set. 

...looking fucking good though, but will it work though - haha

the andrews flowmaster

plumbing

After trawling through suppliers like Speedflow and ebay I used venhill based in dorking to supply my rear brake hose, they make custom cables as well, ended up speaking to Tim in the workshop who used to work for Southern Cycles back in the day - small world.
I wanted to make up a custom length myself and they stock all the groovy colours if you want, (I chose carbon - whoa!) and nice fittings in stainless like the 'socket button head banjo bolt', for not a lot of difference in price, although £69 delivered is still fucking scary. The fitting on brake light bolt was too long for either the caliper or mastercylinder, why? its universal, same item in CCI, so it got cut - fucking customs.

regulated...

From the depths, a bracket surfaced, originally came with the lockheed oil cooler and strangely the holes are exactly right for the regulator unit. 

A little judicious bending in the vice and stripping of bubbling paint and rust, a rattle can later and hard to believe it but the dam thing fits a treat.

In case you are wondering, that my friend is an oil cooler, not many seem to run them, but I remember them shovels run hot and fitted this lockheed back in the day.

Saved by the colonials...

lowbrow saved the day with my last cock-up

Ordered a couple of 1/8th npt brass elbows and a straight to 1/4" fittings

As mentioned previously, forgot the oil line cylinder base fittings when I torqued up the engine.

Having these two part fittings meant not having to undo the cylinders to raise up the rear to fit the old oil fitting. Which is strange as I tend to do every job twice - haha.

Phew - and it looks cool.

Sent same day 8th of June, great service.

you know what you want to do with that, right?...

Andrews Flowmaster Carb, that you now can't get some parts for 

even though its a Keihin

Body vapour blasted by Elliott @ Eltec 08458721825

those that take things apart shall put them together again

-fuck 

badda bing...

Dress up Kit 

Brass oil lines, pushrod covers and rocker nuts

from Old Stf

another shitty day

 Fridays problems 'solver kit' arrived this morning

Oil line thread damaged by some tosser with a big spanner had to be chased with a 1/8th NPT tap and rigged a hose to the vacuum cleaner to pull any debris out and it worked

 The chain link required 'special' grease before using the expensive 'special' chain tool 

After tightening that big nut with that bloody big spanner now that the chains on, the big nut requires a 3/16th UNC x 1/2"socket cap screw, not to be found in any box

And finally who forgot to put the bottom oil line fittings on the cylinder base that will not now go on because there is not enough space? Fuck

for fucks sake pay up!...

Paying for my big mistake - haha

Re- shaped the control profiles to nice curves and added a few dimples 

de-chromed the (double!) triple chroming and powdercoated satin black

Phew... just gotta get rid of those nasty foot pegs and get my mate to turn some brass for the clutch and brake pedals.

Sunday Lunch with Chopper Club

 NCC South Bucks & Berkshire Show at the Queens Head near Windsor

 Sickboyz ten day build

 afterthought?

 too much is not enough for some

 waiting on a band

 Martin and his low budget woodgrain yam got best paint

 Clives 'fenland' framed sporty

 suicide

 nash bars

 steves shovel...

 chopped the frame and added his homemade swingarm

 he got the look...

with Doug who built it

 and off he goes with no prize

Best in Show - Steve's tough shov

 Paul and his sporty... 

 got Best Chop

call that a wrench pal?...

 ...now this is what you call

a wrench, pal - haha

thank fuck that's sorted...

I took a couple of mil off the gearbox plate mounts and fitted the support bearing to the inner primary. Paul came around again and after 'tea' we gently bolted the inner primary to the box and then engine, and after tightening up the gearbox we found #######...

With hindsight it only required the rear mounts grinding down but still surprised at how much space under the front mounts would still require shimming.

Came apart dead easy, no stressed tight bits, so gearbox sprocket can be tightened up if my big spanner arrives tomorrow and some shimming and a dab of paint on the bare metal.

Finally everything can be buttoned down and move on

yeah baby...

check it out

courtesy of thebackstreetbucket

pieces of a man...

Gil Scott Heron 

RIP

saw the man at the hammersmith odeon in '76 when 'Johannesburg' came out, back in the day

the revolution will not be televised

if at first you don't succeed...

Problem No.3 - George turned down my rear wheel spacer 55thou (1.4mm) and the rear wheels in - perfect fit.

Problem No.6 - Crankshaft nut removal, George said to hit it head on with a copper hammer and it will break the adhesion. Paul came round with a 38mm socket and suggested hitting it sharply in the undo direction. I used both suggestions, and its off! no impact driver required.

Problem No.5 - It appears that the solution is to take metal off the gearbox plate so the box sits lower for alignment to the inner primary (which I had done a little already), but crucially the trans shaft support bearing needs to be fitted to achieve exact positioning.
Solving this last problem will mean I can finally button everything up and move on.
In last weeks black hole it really did seem as though Christine was never to be on the road...

a litany of 'kin problems...

1. Solved this one, front wheel spacer goes behind the oil seal, read the manual next time tosser.  The wheel still sits to one side tho, and doesn't seem to spin that freely.

2. Solved this one, upper fork stem bearing very tight, so sanded down top of stem and the bearing slips on. Not like last night struggling to assemble the top end and holding forks at same time and then knocking them out with rubber hammer and bang they hit the floor just missing the frame and my foot.

3. Rear wheel won't go in with all that powdercoat, haha so I have to get George to machine a mil off one of the axle spacers.

4. Gearbox drive sprocket nut, can't tighten without drive chain on and a big spanner - ordered 48mm adjustable.

5. The gearbox, engine and inner primary will not line up unless all bolts are lose. Almost 3-4mm out at gearbox rear two bolts so box sits off the mounting plate. Can't figure this.

6. I put the engine drive nut on (by hand) so I could turn the engine over, now the fucker won't come off. A friend is coming round with an air powered impact driver, hopefully tomorrow, then I can put the bloody alternator rotor on.

7. And finally I can't put the support bearing (thats sitting in the freezer) in the inner primary till everythings sorted as it seems bloody tight on the shaft and probably won't fucking come off again! And I can't torque down the heads, cylinders, engine mounts etc either. Fuck.

Oh and I put my mobile phone in the washing machine this morning - grrrrrrrr!

to hardass or to not hardass...

that is the question

haha - cheers rowan

http://sprunghubsnhardtales.blogspot.com/