TriBSA Chas

...hmmmmm

2012-02-10T19:37:00.000Z

The timing cover has been in the alum solution for hours now and I haven't noticed any difference to the hammer screws. It has covered the cover with black stuff though. I've altered my method slightly, I've allowed the level of the water to drop and I'm pretty sure it's saturated. In fact from the milky look to the solution and crystals forming on the cover I suspect its past saturation. To keep the hammer screws submerged I've turned the cover over as well. Apart from the gas its not going to cost me anything to keep the experiment going so I'll see how it goes.

While I've been trying to get the alum to do its stuff I've cut out one of the brass badges I etched for the timing cover. It would have been a lot easier if I had done it in the workshop where I have a vice but improvisation won the day.

This is where its at now.

All I need to do now is clean the resist off, spray paint it black and then rub on some 1200 grit to reveal the unetched areas in brass.

Alum Alchemy.

2012-02-10T14:33:00.000Z

I'm attempting to remove the hammer screws with sheared off heads using chemical erosion. I read on the interwebs that simmering in a saturated solution of alum will dissolve ferrous metals and leave non ferrous metals unmarked.

I obtained some alum from the local chemists.

I mixed this with 2 litres of hot water, this was nearly enough to cover the timing cover when placed in the vitreous enamel roasting dish I bought just for this occasion. A couple of mugs of water raised the level high enough to cover the hammer screws. The whole lot is currently simmering on a low heat.

I'm not sure if its doing anything but in the reports I've read it can take hours so I'll just wait and see.

Head and Barrels off.

2012-02-05T19:46:00.000Z

Stuart came around today and we stripped the head and barrels off the engine.

I took a few pictures along the way.

Rocker boxes off.

Note for reassembly, red seals go on top of pushrod tube.

Pistons on standard bore.

Another note for reassembly, to remind me which way round the barrels go (squared off corner to front of engine).

Rocker boxes, one on the right has been through the parts washer, one on left is about to go through.

Before I left for the night I wrapped the engine in cling film to make sure nothing nasty gets in.

Followed by a bin-liner, can't be too careful.

Degreased rocker boxes and head were dried off and sprayed with WD40 to protect against rust. Got a few jobs to do now mostly inspecting and fixing anything that needs fixing. I'm also going to try and remove the broken off hammer rivets using a hot solution of alum. Apparently this will corrode the ferrous metal of the rivets but leave the aluminium untouched.

Pottering.

2012-02-03T21:17:00.000Z

My foot has been playing up a bit in the cold so I only got to spend a couple of hours in the shed. I spent this time doing further preparation for stripping the engine by first of all degreasing the top end of the engine.

.... and then making sure my workbench was suitably clean.

Finally I realised that most of the jobs on the to-do board had been done....

...unfortunately this isn't because I have nothing to-do so I rubbed it out and started a new one.

Preparing for the engine strip.

2012-02-01T20:38:00.000Z

I'm planning to paint the timing cover black and have the crankcases left in natural aluminium. While the engine is still in one piece I decided to give the sand cast crankcases the once over with a nylon abrasive brush followed by coarse, medium and fine scotchbrite.

This is how it ended up.

I'm more than pleased with the result, it looks clean and understated, the next step would be polishing and I think that would be a step too far.

As I'm going to paint/powder-coat the timing cover I needed to remove the patent plate. Note the timing cover was scratched before I started.

Some internet research suggested that it was a simple case of slipping a screwdriver under the plate and levering it off to leave the rivets. This bit went to plan.

I then tried to remove the rivets. The internet said that they should come out easily by holding the heads with some small vice grips and pulling with an anti-clockwise twisting motion. When I tried it just resulted in the heads of two of the three rivets shearing off. I felt better when I saw that the same thing has happened previously.

I'll have to redrill the holes, I'm not sure whether it would be best to do this before of after paint.

The last thing I turned my attention to today was the boss for the breather. I've never been happy with the welding.

So using a dremel, round file and nylon abrasive brush and emery cloth I set about cleaning things up. Here is where I got by the time I decided to call it a day.

Its looking better but needs more work, I had load of problems with voids appearing when I ground back the weld, along with pitting in the original case. I did wonder if I was doing the right thing but figured the worst that could happen is the breather mounting falls off and I need to get things redone and I'm confident I can find a better alloy welder if needs be.

I still need to tidy up the weld underneath the boss but its difficult to get to with the engine in the stand so I'll wait until the timing cover is off.

2012-01-26T17:07:00.001Z

Unfortunately I've not been able to do anything in the shed recently thanks to my foot operation. That changed on Friday when I had the pins out of my foot which meant after a couple of days to let the swelling go down I was able to get back in the shed and on Tuesday Stuart came round to help out.

The plan was to clean the engine up then strip the top end. Didn't work out that way though. Stuart did a sterling job cleaning the engine but when it came to sticking the engine in a vice to hold it while I stripped the top end neither of us had confidence in this method of holding the engine (despite it working OK last time I tried, but that was 15 years ago and with a different vice). So the decision was made to fabricate an engine stand to do the job properly.

A couple of hours and some scrap 2" box section later....

I still need to make a couple of braces from the crankcase lug under the dynamo to one of the crush tubes I welded in place.

Yesterday I gave it a thick coat of smooth hammerite and today I received some plastic end caps from ebay which I installed in between working on a stand for my bandsaw.

Next thing on my to do list is to thoroughly clean an area to work in and the start stripping the top end for inspection and (hopefully just) a cosmetic renovation.

More etching stuff

2012-01-19T14:50:00.000Z

I read somewhere that FeCl can be used to etch stainless steel, so I decided to give it a go. First of all I transferred the design to a piece of stainless.

Then I masked off the areas I didn't want to etch with parcel tape and stuck the workpiece in a the etchant. I then put the dish containing the etchant into a pyrex dish with some water in it to let me warm the etchant. The wire in the picture is for a LCD thermometer to monitor temp.

I then turned the hob on and applied gentle heat. Which seemed to work.

Unfortunately I then applied not so gentle heat and the pyrex dish shattered. Ooooops.

After shattering my only pyrex dish I decided an alternative approach wad needed and used a plastic dish with water in it. I warmed the water every 15 minutes in the microwave (removing the container with the workpiece and etchant first).

I kept this up until I noticed that some of the resist had lifted so I stopped at that point. Inspection of the workpiece showed that some etching had occurred but not much before the resist lifted. I also noticed that areas touched up with a etch resist pen (from Maplins, I suspect its a regular fine tip permanent marker) had come off the workpiece early in the process. I tried a couple more etches on stainless but found the same problems with the resist lifting. The photo below is one of the stainless pieces with after covering with permanent marker and abrading with the rubbing block to expose the high spots. This demonstrated that the approach may work.

The next photos show my most successful approach.

First of all I taped the press and peel to a piece of brass with the tape on the back of the workpiece.

I then placed the press and peel and workpiece between two sheets of plain paper and using an iron on highest heat ironed the design onto the metal. I had tried using a laminator to do this step and failed but as ironing only had resulted in a couple of failures where the resist lifted I thoughtt a belt and braces approach might work so I ironed the design on and while still hot ran it through the laminator. This appeared to work well, I'm guessing that the ironing got everything hot enough and the laminator provided the pressure to ensure the toner stuck to the metal properly.

For this etch I modified the warming bath slightly by raising the container with the etchant in so the warm water touched the base of the container as well as the sides.

Three hours of etching (reheating the water and agitating the solution every fifteen minutes or so) produced two well etched pieces with no lifting of the resist.

I now need to cut the badges out and then possibly nickle plate them before painting and sanding the paint off the high points.

Etching continued...

2012-01-16T18:40:00.000Z

I found somewhere to photo-copy the design onto the press and peel. All for the princely sum of 20p.

Haven't got any pictures of transferring the design onto the metal. Basically I used an iron and a combination of techniques I got off the internet. I think I may have had the iron too cool ('Nylon' setting) when a thread on Chop Cult http://www.chopcult.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7840 recommends the highest setting.

For my first attempt I'm using brass with PCB etchant from Maplins. Set up is shown below, simply put parcel tape around the outside of the design and on the back of the metal add a parcel tape handle and bung it in the acid.

While I was waiting for the etchant to do its thing I prepared the next piece to go into the acid.

After two hours in the etchant I had quite a deep etch. However at some point the resist had lifted in the top right corner meaning this area was slightly etched. To get an idea of how this would look I used a marker pen to black out the design and rub away raised area with an abrasive block.

Reasonably happy with the result but not happy enough not to try again tomorrow. This time I'll try warming the acid to speed things up.

Found something I can do while I heal.

2012-01-11T11:55:00.000Z

The patent plate on my timing cover is scratched and I want to replace it. I've fancied making my own design up for a while now but never got round to it because there are more important functional things to be getting on with. However seeing as I am bored at home recovering from an operation and this is something I can do from the sofa I decided to give it a go.

I scanned a replacement badge I bought a while ago...

.... and then spent a few hours re-learning how to use the GIMP to produce a modified version

Flipping and inverting the colours gave me

And now I've printed it out in preparation for photocopying onto 'press and peel' to act as a resist for etching.

Next step is to find somewhere with a photo-copier/laser printer.

No Progress.

2012-01-06T18:07:00.000Z

I've been recovering from an operation on my foot which has left me with pins sticking out of my toes and the infection hazard that is the Mushroom Shed out of bounds.

Just before Xmas I did risk a visit and removed the dynamo from the engine. Today a mate dropped it off at http://www.hawkerelectrical.co.uk/. Hopefully it will be reconditioned and returned by the time I can get back in the shed.

Gearbox in.

2011-11-21T22:53:00.000Z

I took today of work specifically to work on the bike however GP appointments and housekeeping took up rather too much of the day for my liking but I did make significant progress.

The first thing I set about was fitting the stainless bits I bought from Lightning spares a while back. Starting with the gearbox plunger housing, here's the rusty old one I took off.

.... and here's the new one installed, the camplate pivot nut is a new stainless item as well.

....and here you can see the new oil drain/level plugs and the inspection cover that I sprayed with Hammerite a while ago.

By the time I'd done all the above it was nearly time for lunch but before I went I had a bit of a headscratch as to how the gearbox brackets went together. I finally sorted it out, this is one of the pictures I took for future reference.

I managed to get back to the shed for a late afternoon/early evening session, mostly spent polishing the gearbox mounting plates and cleaning up all the mounting hardware. I now have the gearbox in place but I still need a couple of fasteners (ordered from Wye Valley Supplies) before I can finish the job.

Nickle Plating.

2011-11-13T20:57:00.000Z

It's taken a while to move from pickling to plating parts, mostly because I've spent what little spare time I've had riding my Sportster. This weekend I decided to rectify things and plate the hardware for the gearbox mounting.

First step was to thread the nickle anodes onto some copper wire and hang around the sides of a 5 litre bucket with 4.5 litres of distilled water.

Then I added the chemicals, the last lot I added didn't want to dissolve but patient stirring and turning the heater back on sorted that out.

With the chemicals fully dissolved I stuck a piece of box section in as a test piece and connected the battery charger via the simple rheostat provided with the kit.

About an hour and a half later I had a nearly completely nickle plated box section. The darker area is the part that wasn't covered by the electrolyte and so didn't get plated.

That was as far as I got yesterday, today I moved onto plating some actual components. Starting with the pickle....

...then rinsing, the ultrasonic bath is probably a bit OTT.

Then attaching to the piece of box section I used as a test piece....

I then put them in the electrolyte and attached the battery charger. This is what they looked like when I took them out of the tank. I was expecting a more shiny finish but they came out matt.

However a bit of time spent with a buffing mop on my dremel and they came up nicely (even if it is difficult to tell the difference in photos.

I then did the other gearbox mounting parts so now I can mount the gearbox, although I'll be giving everything a proper polish using my adapted bench grinder first.

A bit of a pickle.

2011-10-20T12:25:00.000+01:00

I've made a start on preparing some of the parts I have that I'll be nickle plating. The largest of which is the strap that holds the oil tank. I managed to get the scale off the areas that will be visible using a scotchbrite wheel but used about half of the wheel. I've got some pickling salts for preparing parts for plating and I thought I'd see how they would do the trick.

So I mixed up the pickling salts in the container that was supplied to them, my rough calculations indicate that they are probably on the low end of the recommended strength of 100-200g / litre.

I then stuck the strap in the solution.

The cloudiness in the photo above is due to the salts not dissolving. next time I'll use warm water.

After a while I checked the condition of the workpiece. There was still a lot of scale on it....

At this point I decided a bit of heat might help...

After a bit longer I thought things weren't working as there was still a lot of scale, however taking the workpiece out of the solution, rinsing and scrubbing revealed that the scale had been loosened. The dark bits in the photo below show where the solution didn't cover the part.

I've stuck the piece back in the solution with the ends covered this time. As I'm writing this I'm waiting for the chemicals to do their stuff.

Bits and Pieces.

2011-10-12T08:53:00.000+01:00

Spent a productive couple of hours in the workshop last night.

Fixed the thread in the AJP caliper (problem was the Banjo I had was a M10 x 1.25 but the AJP uses a M10 x 1.0mm thread). Using the correct tap cleaned thing up nicely.

Now I need to suss out brake line length and order/make them up

Also finished the numberboard, probably get it powdercoated.

Tidied up the welds on the brake pedal. That needs to go off for powder as well.

Rollin'

2011-10-03T19:56:00.000+01:00

Took a day off work today and Stuart came round to help with the bike. Got the bearings in the wheels and finished machining the various spacers. This means I now have a rollling chassis. The sun was shining so I felt obliged to get the rolling chassis out of the shed.

I then decided I had to see what it looked like with the bodywork on (the white stuff is powder from the latex gloves we put on to prevent us getting dirt on the still to be clearcoated paintwork).

After Stuart degreased the gearbox I attacked it with a nylon bristle brush in my electric drill. Please with the results as it means I don't have to strip the box to get it blasted. While we were at it we replaced the shagged 17 tooth sprocket for a new 19 tooth one.

I then started on the brake pedal. I've been deliberating as to whether I should use the rear sets or mid controls. Today I decided to pull my finger out and make a decision so mid controls it is. All I had to do was finish various half made parts and weld them together. That got the pedal made and a brief session on the lathe had the operating linkage made up.

At this point I realised I had started to get tired and was likely to make mistakes. I'd already managed to start a minor fire while welding. Fortunately Stuart was there to help put it out but he had to go and when I managed to start another minor fire I decided to call it a day.

On a final note it appears that the thread for the rear brake caliper banjo is a bit shagged. I'm hoping that I can rescue it with the appropriate tap. As I don't have one (M10 1.25mm) I've just ordered one from ebay.

Rear brake done....

2011-10-02T22:00:00.001+01:00

Two Thursdays ago I picked up my disc and brake carrier parts from Griff's. Last Thursday I got them down to the shed.

First thing to do was unwrap them.

Then a little time spent on the lathe to machine off the markings from some M8 countersunk bolts followed by a bit of a polish and I had the caliper hanger assembled ready to go on the bike.

While I was in the shed I stuck the front caliper on the fork leg (mainly so it didn't get lost/damaged)

Need to get some mounting bolts, probably wait until the Stafford show in a couple of weeks. In the mean time I've booked tomorrow off work to work on the bike. I'm hoping to have a roller by the end of the day (along with a big shopping list for Stafford).

Brakes arrived...

2011-09-17T09:41:00.000+01:00

Brake calipers arrived yesterday. Re-conditioned and refinished.

Not cheap but fast and quality work.
Recommended Powerhouse

Brakes on the way back from refurb...

2011-09-15T16:24:00.000+01:00

Good service from Powerhouse. Brakes on their way back today.

Would have been quicker if
a) I hadn't been riding round Wales last week when they rang to get payment
b) I had told them where I live when I sent them the calipers.

Photo to follow when they arrive.

Stuff in the post

2011-08-31T11:21:00.000+01:00

Sent my brake calipers off to Powerhouse for refurbishment.

Also sent the rear disc and caliper mounting bracket off to Griff's for powder coating.

I'm at the stage of the build where I have to send things away for other people to do, which consumes both time and money.

Stripping and Polishing.

2011-08-29T16:39:00.000+01:00

Had a few hours in the shed yesterday. Spent them usefully, stripping the brake calipers and polishing the new rear sprocket.

So now I have a box of bits to go to Griff's for powder coat.

.... and a shiney sprocket.

Now I need to order the seals and pistons to rebuild the calipers.

Torque Arm

2011-08-11T13:07:00.000+01:00

Last week I ordered some 12mm free machining grade stainless rod. Yesterday I took it into the mushroom shed and introduced it to Mr Lathe.

I now have a rear caliper torque arm.

Hopefully getting a rear sprocket at the Cheltenham Autojumble on Saturday. Once I've got that I just need a few stainless fasteners and some powder coating done and that's the roling chassis completed.

Got off me arse....

2011-08-02T23:11:00.000+01:00

I must admit I've been a bit knackered since the Hayride. So much that I even had to stop for a nap on the way home from work today. Then when I saw that Greasy Kulture had arrived (despite only having renewed my sub on Sunday) I was all ready to just lie in my hammock and chill.

Then I realised that much as I like looking at bikes I really like working on them so after doing the heat and eat with a frozen pizza I was in the mushroom shed.

Two hours of drillin', grindin' and filin' and I had my rear brake caliper mounted.

7 Hours in the shed on Saturday

2011-07-18T13:01:00.000+01:00

And this...

Is now this...

In case you were wondering I took the AJP logo off the calliper and have sorted the mounting bracket to use it on the rear of the TriBSA. I just need to finish shaping the bracket that will attach to the rear wheel spindle (the big oblong chunk of alloy in the picture).

I also ordered the wheel bearings and seals this morning... pretty close to having a roller.

Not so pissed off.

2011-07-14T19:28:00.000+01:00

Managed to get into the workshop tuesday evening. Time on the lathe means I now have front wheel spacers and a the correct amount of thread on the swing arm spindle.

Pissed Off.

2011-07-06T12:35:00.000+01:00

Managed to get some shed time for the first time in ages yesterday. Thought I'd finish the number board. Long story short I've cocked it up and will probably have to start again. Plus I've lost my pop rivet gun.

Just ordered new piece of steel and a air pop rivet gun off of that ebay to cheer myself up.

I really need a few days clear to just work on the bike but life is getting in the way...

Shopping

2011-06-13T22:41:00.000+01:00

Went shopping at the Cheltenham Autojumble on Saturday. Bought some stainless fasteners, a gearbox sprocket and oil seal and ordered a TZR/Triumph hybrid rear sprocket.

Number board continued...

2011-06-10T22:04:00.000+01:00

Had a day off work to collect my OH from hospital. Unfortunately she had to stay in another day so I went down the shed to take my mind off things while I waited for visiting hours.

First off all I tried the caliper Toddy sent me for size. Unless I modify it it is going to join the other calipers I have that don't fit. The photo below shows three of the four tried so far.

I may still be able to use the AJP but I'll need to modify it...

I then turned my attention to the front wheel. Looks like having the wheel offset by 10mm has fixed the alignment issues I was having.

Just need to turn a few spacers and I'll have a roller.

Most of my time was spent on the number board. I decided to try mounting the light from the number board rather than the yokes. To do this I made a couple of brackets from 2mm angle and welded them in place.

I tried a new technique for this. I drilled and countersunk a couple of 8mm holes in each bracket and rosette welded them in place. It appears to have worked quite well.

Next I attempted to weld the stainless steel mesh in place. I found that very short spot welds were the only way I could avoid burning the thin mesh back.

Not too happy with how this turned out and may try something else, something neater. However it did hold everything in place while I hammered the mesh from the side shown above to make it flush with the front side.

Cheltenham auto jumble tomorrow. I've been planning and making a shopping list.

Caliper and wheel.

2011-06-08T21:39:00.000+01:00

Postman brought me a package this am. Brake caliper from Toddy.

Picked up the front wheel and disc from Griff's

Number Board

2011-06-08T20:25:00.000+01:00

Been thinking about the number board for ages. yesterday I decided to stop thinking and get on with doing....

After a mock-up with a couple of sheets of A4 I decided that 10x12 inches was an appropriate size. I had some steel sheet that a mate found dumped outside his house ages ago (I knew it would come in handy one day). the sheet was just over 2mm which meant it was too thick for my air nibbler so I tried using my jigsaw. That didn't work too well so I used my air cut off tool to grind a groove along the cut line using the jigsaw to finish the job. Here's my first cut, they got better after that.

The edges weren't perfect by a long chalk but some work with a file sorted them out.

With the rectangle cut out I used my new height gauge to mark a line parallel to the datum (ie the edge I hadn't cut... the straight one).

I then used a hole saw to cut a couple of rather large holes, my pillar drill is a technically too fast for this sort of work but it's all I've got and so I made do with minimum speed and lots of cutting oil.

A bit more grinding with the cut off tool (no need for the jig saw this time) followed with some cleaning up and corner rounding with hand and air files gave me my basic number board shape.

Plan is to fill the hole with some stainless steel mesh, paint the whole lot and then add some numbers.

Haven't decided how to attach the mesh yet. In the picture above I used a pair of mole grips out of camera but I want a more elegant solution.

Bits done.

2011-05-29T21:37:00.000+01:00

Last Friday (20th) I managed to leave work early enough to drop the front wheel off at Griff's to have the off-set sorted. To my surprise the rear was ready to be collected which was nice.

This meant on Tuesday I could try the rear wheel for size.

It's a bit tight on clearance for tyre growth at speed so I'll have to keep an eye on it when adjusting the chain.

While I was in the shed I tried the headlight for size. As I intend to mount a number board in front of the light I want it to be as far back in the yokes as possible. The sides of the housing interfering with the fork legs stopped it from going back as far as I wanted.

So this morning I filed the sides of the housing. The light can now sit further back. I'm not happy with the mount I made so I'll be redoing that at some point in the future. I then spent a couple of hours tidying the Mushroom Shed. I can find stuff now....

This afternoon I managed to grab an hour in the workshop. I had bought some paddock stand bobbins. The bolts that they came with were too long for the holes in the swing arm so I polished a couple of shorter stainless 8mm countersunk bolts and used them.

Hopefully I'll be getting the front wheel soon and I'll have a rolling chassis.

Looks slightly like a motorbike...

2011-05-17T23:00:00.000+01:00

Had a few hours in the shed after work today. Finished the washers for the countersunk bolts, polished the speedo bracket and risers before putting the bars on.

Couple of hours in the workshop.

2011-05-08T21:45:00.000+01:00

I had Friday off work but spent most of the day lying down with my eyes shut due to what the GP reckoned was Labyrinthitis. Cleared up today but meant I had to do all the other things I had been planning to do rather than work on the bike.

However I did manage to get over there for a few hours this evening.

I bolted the brake calliper to the fork leg and centered the wheel in it. This established where the hub needs to be. I then measure the off set required to bring the rim central in the forks. Works out I need the rim over by 10mm. I think the calliper should still clear the spokes.

When I had done that I started on machining up some countersunk 'washers' for the swing arm and shock bolts. I could have used ordinary bolts but I like the look of these.

Now do I REALLY want wire wheels...

2011-05-02T20:05:00.000+01:00

Finished the spacer/reducer today.

It should have now just been a case of machining up a couple of spacers however it soon became apparent that things weren't going to be that easy, things just didn't look right.

Measurement confirmed this, I figured out where the disc needed to go and used washers to fix this distance. This left the rim way off centre.

I need to spend some time working out how far towards the disc I need to go. Using two different methods to measure it it's either 6mm or 9mm out so I obviously need to check my working.

It would be a lot easier to just stick the cast wheels on...

I bet Jesse James doen't have to leave a job half done to wait for the dishwasher repair man...

2011-04-28T18:09:00.000+01:00

RHS fork leg went together easier than the LHS one, which meant I had the front end together (sans wheel).

Now I could get on with machining the spacers for the front wheel. First thing to do is make a spacer to keep the bearing inners apart and allow the standard bearings to be used with the 12mm TZR axle.

First of all I needed to reduce the OD of the ally I had from 1 inch or so down to 22mm. I fired up the lathe and started making swarf.

About a hour or two later I had the spacer made up, a good fit on both bearings and holding them the correct distance apart....

The only fly in the ointment was I had to leave to meet the dishwasher repair man which meant I didn't have time to drill the hole for the axle.

It's now two hours after dishwasher repair man said he'd be here and no sign of him.....grrrr.

Bit of progress, polishing and a mystery.

2011-04-28T09:16:00.000+01:00

Got the freshly powder coated yokes in place yesterday

While putting the yokes together I decided to polish the lock stops, while the mops were out I polished the heads of the countersunk bolts I bought at Stafford. Picture below shows the results along with an unpolished one for reference.

Now for the mystery...

When I stripped the forks I put everything back on the fork leg to keep it all in one place.

When I ordered the parts to rebuild the forks I basically ordered one of everything on the parts fiche. When I compared this to what I had taken out of the LHS fork I found that there was a washer missing from the parts I had ordered. Odd thing is the RHS didn't have this second, thinner washer.

A trip down to Skellerns (my local Yamaha bike shop) solved the mystery, the thinner washer is
a spacer for use when using 'leak prrof' seals.

With the mystery solved I rebuilt the LHS leg and installed it in the yokes (after polishing the pre-load adjuster)

If it were easy everyone would do it.

2011-04-19T12:57:00.000+01:00

Had a day in the workshop on Sunday, Stuart came over to help, take pictures and even tidied up (which was the best birthday present ever in my book).

After having picked up my powder coated yokes and got the tyres fitted on Friday I had hoped to get the bike onto it's wheels by the end of the weekend.

I thought I'd start with the easier job of fitting the back wheel.

This meant making up a single spacer that to replace the two that locate the wheel on the sprocket side and shim the 15mm axle to the 20mm hole in the eccentrics.

I worked so quickly I was a blur around the lathe...

...within an hour I had this.

It even fitted!

Then all I needed to do was put the back wheel in and measure up a spacer for the disc side.

Odd thing was when the wheel was in situ it was way off to the right. Which was odd because it was spot on when I mocked it up.

At this point I decided to stop and eat bread and cheese to clear my mind before getting the measuring tools out and doing a lot of measuring and thinking.

The conclusion I have come to is that the (TDR) hub is approx 10mm wider than the TZR cast wheel I'd used in mockup with the disc off set to the right.

Although I had supplied the cast wheel for reference Griff's measured the offset from the disc (the logical place to do so as I didn't supply a sprocket) it this means the wheel has the wrong offset.

Also the increase in width means that there is no room for a brake hanger (the bolt heads on the disc only just miss the swingarm).

So it looks like I need the wheel rebuilt with correct offset, the hub machined to move the disc towards the centre to give room for a brake hanger (quite possibly a 6mm steel one rather than the 10mm alloy one I had made). I think I'll also need a different calliper because I suspect the GSXR one I bought will foul the spokes once the disc is moved.

....all fun and games.

No Title

2011-04-03T23:04:00.000+01:00

Spent a few hours in the shed today.

Seeing as the yokes are at Griff's for powder coat I decided to concentrate on the back end. So I bolted everything together and tapped the bracket for the brake torque arm on the swingarm.

I'll replace the studding with something a bit more elegant, either in stainless steel or mild and the plated.

I also finished the brackets for the headlight. By cunningly using a piece of angle, a couple of mole grips and a battery charger I was able to establish that it dips to the left which is nice.

Oh and here's a picture of the tyres I bought from Steve at Red Max.

Plan is to get them fitted to the wheels next Friday by Nick at Griff's. That way I'm reasonably confident they will be fitted without chipping the powder coat and if it does chip I don't get into a tyre fitter blames the powder coater who blames the tyre fitter situation.

No pictures

2011-03-27T22:36:00.000+01:00

Got a bit more done, nearly completed the headlight mounting, also drilled and tapped the yokes so I can mount the numberboard. This means that I can get the yokes powdercoated. As Stuart was over for the weekend he's taken the yokes back to Bristol with him to drop into Griff's for me.

Didn't make it to the shed...

2011-03-21T21:47:00.001Z

But I did get paid and order a pair of tyres from RedMax Speed Shop

Shed time.

2011-03-20T18:30:00.000Z

I made a point of getting out to the Mushroom Shed yesterday. The plan was to get out straight after lunch. Life got in the way and I didn't get there until 4.

As I'm still skint from having my van nicked I needed to concentrate on jobs that I could do without spending any money, I'm also trying to get the bike into a finished rolling chassis so I can at least move it about the workshop. With this in mind I decided to concentrate on the fork yokes. I really need to decide what I'm going to do about a headlight as once I get some cash together I want to send the yokes off for powder coating and I'll need to have done any necessary drilling by then.

I have been thinking of running a number board without a headlight, I also dug out a bottom mount bates light I have lying about but I'm not sure about either option so I turned my attention to the light unit I bought at Stafford. My intention is to run this light behind a number board (either a quickly detachable one or one with mesh over the light). So it needs to be as thin as possible. When I stripped it down I realised there was potential to reduce the thickness quite a bit. So I introduced to to the bandsaw.

Followed by a session with files and the air file....

Before making a start on some mounting bracketry.

I feel I've got some momentum going again and plan to do some more work in the shed tomorrow.

Bit of progress.

2011-02-22T22:38:00.000Z

I got a couple of hours in the workshop and now the tank goes over the anti-roll rubbers snugly after I introduced them to Mr Belt Sander.

I also touched up the paint where I chipped it getting the tank off the previously too big rubbers.

I just used a small artists brush to do this, took ages though because the small artists brush was hiding amongst piles of crap in the workshop.

I'll be wet sanding the fresh paint as soon as its warn enough to sit outside in soggy jeans.

I thought about remaking the coil bracket but decided to wait until I've got the engine back in the frame and the head steady in place.

The last thing I did was measure up the various bearings and seals that the wheels use so I can order new ones where required and make a start on the various spacers.

Quit while you're behind

2011-02-22T12:44:00.001Z

Yesterday started well enough, I unpacked some of the powder coating I picked up at the Bristol Bike show at the weekend.

... fork lowers and oil tank

... cush drive

I didn't bother taking pictures of my lovely new wheels as I'm going to leave them in their plastic until I need them.

I then proceeded to finish welding my welding bench before making a start on mounting the coil.

I was quite pleased at this point. Then I had the bright idea of seeing how things would look with the tank in place. Before I could get the tank in place I put the anti-roll rubbers in their bracket, however with these in place the tank wouldn't fit. I thought it was just a bit tight (it fitted ok before paint and powder) so I pushed the tank down.... then I couldn't get it off... then I could (YAY) but I now need to fix some chips on the paint (BOO).

Oh and I've realised the coil mount bracket will interfere with the head steady...

I went home at this point a bit miffed.

Not much happening...

2011-02-12T19:44:00.000Z

Progress on the TriBSA has ground to a halt. Been moving house, dealing with ar5ehole letting agents, sorting out a van after mine was nicked which has left me with little time and less energy.

All I've been able to do recently is pick up the 140 quids worth of spares I ordered to refurbish the forks (new seals and bushes all round). Hopefully I'll be able to get to the Bristol Classic Bike Show next weekend and collect my stove enamelling from Griff's. Then I can get stuck into the fork rebuild.

Good News...Bad News

2011-02-02T14:13:00.000Z

Nick from Griff's texted and my powder-coating is done (although the wheels are still being built. Bad news is I can't collect from Bristol because some fsker stole my van a couple of days ago...

Fork Stops

2011-01-16T22:00:00.000Z

One of the jobs on my list is the fork stops. Before I sent the frame off to be powder coated I welded a tab to the front of the headstock but I still needed to put some for stops onto the yokes.

First step was to put the tank on, put the yokes on and place a fork leg in the yokes. This allowed me to determine where I wanted to put the fork stops.

I then centre punched and drilled the yokes.

With the holes drilled and tapped I was able to work out the optimum height where the cap heads I was going to use would make full impact with the tab on the headstock but miss the frame to headstock gussets.

With this height established I was able to turn up a couple of spacers to go under the cap heads.

With the fork stops sorted I set about putting the swinging arm back in the frame. I polished the stainless steel adapters for the 15mm spindle before assembly. Once I had the arm in place I couldn't resist bunging the seat unit on to see how everything looked. I quite pleased with how things are going at the moment.

Back From the Powder Coaters.

2011-01-16T09:46:00.000Z

On Friday I went down to Brizzle to collect my stuff from Griff's. As always seems to be the way it's good news and bad news.

The good news is the seat subframe and swinging arm look fab.

I wasn't sure about the satin finish on the swinging arm but I reckon it contrasts with the polished alloy adjusters really well.

The frame wasn't such good news.

Griff's had warned me that the frame was pitted (which is why I chose satin rather than gloss black) but I didn't realise how bad it was.

I now remember why I spent a week and several finger tips moulding the frame back in the 90's.

I'm currently weighing up my options and I think I'll either live with it and leave it as it is or use the powder coat as a sound base and fill the pits before spraying with cellulose satin black.

Washing up.

2011-01-14T07:52:00.000Z

I had intended to buy a parts washer from Screwfix but they were out of stock. As I needed to get some parts degreased before getting them powder coated I decided to try some spray on stuff I had lying around.

I left everything to soak while I did some polishing. When the degreaser had had the chance to work I rinsed everything off before leaving them to soak in hot soapy water. Another rinse and they were ready for the draining board.

Today I'm off the powder coaters to pick up the frame and drop off the hubs and sliders

A few more bits for the shiny shelf

2011-01-14T07:42:00.000Z

Tuesday evening I changed the mops on my polisher for the ally ones and polished the eccentric wheel adjusters and rear calliper bracket.

Rear Brake Caliper Mount.

2011-01-09T19:32:00.001Z

On Tuesday I went straight from work to the workshop.

After taking some measurements I made a template for my rear brake calliper mount

....after three hours of cuttin', filin', drillin' and tappin' I had this.

If things goes to plan next Tuesday I'll be making it shiny and placing it on the 'Shiny Things' shelf.

I am Anti-Panda!

2011-01-03T21:43:00.000Z

Spent a few hours in the workshop polishing yesterday. Ended up with a black face and white circles around my eyes from my eye protectors.... I am anti-panda!

End can and 2 into 1 manifold (from my old Husqvarna)

And now shiny...

The downpipes were pretty manky after 15 years or so in storage so I polished them as well.

Here is one done and the other still manky...

The exhaust system after polishing.

This is the special shelf for shiny parts (actually the tank and seat aren't shiny yet because I haven't had the clear sprayed yet).

Stripping forks.

2011-01-03T21:31:00.000Z

Stripped the forks a couple of days ago. All went smoothly (once I got an adapter to let me use my allen socket on my rattle gun.

Plan is to rebuild with new seals, dust caps, possibly bushes and springs more suited to the heavier Triumph (forks are off a TZR 250).

If at first you don't succeed....

2011-01-03T21:27:00.000Z

...have a good think about things in case you're doing something wrong.

Tried to get the bearings out of the TDR hubs today. Drift and hammer didn't work so I spent about an hour making a expanding collet (best description I can think of) on the lathe. That didn't work either. That's when I remembered I had a propane torch.

Five minutes later...

Job done.

Wheels....

2010-12-30T17:49:00.001Z

I've decided to go with proper flat track tyres... which means 19" front and 18" rear rims. Which means I can't run the TZR wheels I was going to use. So I hit ebay and got a set of TDR hubs for not a lot of money. I intend to get them blasted and powder coated before getting them built into a set of alloy rims using stainless spokes. I expect this will cost considerably more than the hubs.

Oh and the front is for a different (larger) spindle so I need to machine up some adapters.

Off for powdercoat

2010-12-11T10:48:00.000Z

Dropped the frame, seat subframe, footrests and swingarm off at Griff's for powdercoat yesterday.

Hoping to get everything back in the new year.

Meanwhile I need to decide what to do next....probably a big clean/tidy of the workshop to prepare for the build up.

Ready for powdercoat.

2010-12-05T21:18:00.000Z

Only managed to spend about 5 hours over the weekend in the workshop but I think I've done all the welding I need to do before getting the frame coated. First thing done was the steering stop. I had intended to use a piece of round drilled out and threaded with button head bolts in each end. It is an idea I saw Jesse James use on one of the Discovery channel programs.

Anyway I started by turning some 16mm steel bar down to 11mm and drilling a hole through it. I then cut it to a length of 22mm and cut a 6mm thread through it. I then attempted to weld this to the headstock.

While tack welding it in place I applied too much heat and got a blob of weld inside the threaded bit. I tried to clean the thread with a tap and snapped the weld off. At this point (and after 2 hours of machining) I decided I was over-complicating what is a simple part of the bike so after 10 minutes with the bandsaw, angle grinder and the welder I had this in place.

Having managed to make a 10 minute job take over two hours I decided to call it a day and go home for my tea.

That was yesterday, today I continued welding and grinding.

Tank bracket...

Oil tank table...

Footrest hanger (I decided to weld one on just in case I decide to use rear sets)

...and here are the bits I intend to take to the powder coaters.

With a bit of luck I'll be dropping the bits off at Griff's on Friday.

Friday was welding day.

2010-11-28T12:25:00.000Z

Started off with a list of jobs to do before powder coat.

BTH thats my shed-built white board, I wanted a proper one but they cost a stupid amount of money. As I used a sharpie it won't wipe off so I'll have to spray some more white before I make another list.

One job down.

What isn't too obvious is how bad the welding is. It's a good job it can't be seen with the tank in place.

Next job was to weld the bosses for the coil bracket. As I'm crap at getting things aligned by eye I made a simple welding jig by drilling a couple of holes in a piece of box section.

This meant I could place the boss in the right place and parallel to the existing mount for the head steady.

With the first boss welded in place I used the some jig (cut down a bit) to locate the second boss.

This meant I had two out of the five jobs completed. So I started on the third, making up a footrest bracket for the right hand side of the frame. This won't be used and I'm still in two minds as to whether I need it. I've got a mount on the left hand side of the frame for my brake pedal but I might still decide to go for rear sets. My thinking is that it would be better to have the bracket and not need it than have to stip off the powder coat and re-paint at some point in the future. Anyway I made a suitable bracket but still haven't welded it on.

At this point I was getting hungry so I called it a day.

While I was messing about making a forge...

2010-11-22T12:45:00.002Z

I also used my lathe to turn some steel tubes that I'll be welding to the frame to mount a coil bracket. The middle one shows my first attempt which I decided wasn't up to the job.

I also threw a few bits back on the bike to see what it looks like...

Boring....

2010-11-07T10:45:00.000Z

All I've done over the last couple of weeks is touch up the paint where white crept under the masking tape. As I have plenty of pictures of the tank/seat masked off and repainted I didn't bother taking any more.

Hopefully I've finished with paint for a while (especially now winters here). Next up (after cleaning up the workshop) is weld a couple of brackets and things to the frame before taking it down to Griff's in Bristol (http://www.realitymotorworks.com/index.htm) for powder coating.

Look what the postman brought

2010-10-25T19:38:00.000+01:00

GSXR1000K5 rear brake calliper, which along with the ally plate I bought at Stafford last week should sort my rear brake out nicely

Seven Nation Army...

2010-10-25T13:11:00.000+01:00

Finally got the white stripes laid down on Saturday. It's starting to get cold, so cold in fact that a vital accessory for wet sanding is....

... a kettle (well there's no hot water in the workshop).

Once I had sanded everything down it was more of the same...

...mask off, spray...

... remove masking. I'm reasonably happy with how things have turned out although the paper I used for masking has stuck to the (dry) paint in a couple of places. I suspect that the thinners in the paint softened the paint. Not sure why it's never happened before though. It does mean I've got more paint work to fix it. Which is a bit of a PITA as I wanted to get on with other stuff.

Another day off work....

2010-10-20T17:30:00.001+01:00

.... is another day in the workshop.

I've decided to paint white stripes between the red and black on the tank and seat. As red will definitely bleed through I've widened the black strip on the seat and tank by an inch.

All these pictures of body work with different size red/black stripes are getting a bit boring. I hope to finish the paint this weekend and start on mounting the new light I bought at the weekend. Here it is placed between the forks. I reckon I'll get away with having the number board about an inch proud of the yokes which is OK in my book.

Headlights and Numberboards

2010-10-17T20:57:00.000+01:00

I've been mulling over whether or not to fit a front number board to the TriBSA. I had considered going with a magneto (I'm sure I've got something suitable stashed somewhere) and no lights but that kind of means never riding after dark and/or in heavy rain. I also quite like the idea of having at least a brake light.

I had been looking at projector beam lights but they are a) expensive b) too deep to hide behind a number board. Inspiration came in the latest issue of GKM which featured an Ironhead Sportster tracker that had the headlight behind a fold down number board. In fact I had seen this bike at the Hayride and only realised it had a headlight when I read the article so you could say its well concealed.

So when I went to the Stafford show today I was on the lookout for the light unit that had been used on that sportster. To my surprise I found one within ten minutes of looking. I may have never noticed this light before because to be honest I would only ever want to use one if it were hidden.

Once I've finished the paint I'll try and figure out how I mount this and a number board.

A day off work is a day in the shed....

2010-10-12T20:42:00.000+01:00

One thing I neglected to report is that when I was wet sanding I managed to break through the colour coat in a couple of places. The first was due to me leaving the tank on it's side because I had tried to paint over a defect on the other side using a small artists brush. Obviously the paint was still too soft for this treatment as it took on an imprint of the table surface. I tried to sand it out and that's when I broke through to primer...

The second was simply a case of an indelicate hand on edge of the bottom of the tank

I also had a small area on the seat unit where I had broken through to primer but I didn't get a shot of that.

I decided that this was a good application for my new touch up gun so I masked off the black I shot over the weekend and touched up over the affected areas.

I gave the new red paint a chance to dry a bit while I went to get the weeks and then set about fixing a couple of defects on the black stripe. Same routine flat back the defect (in this case a couple of dust particles and the thumb print I put in the paint while removing the masking tape), mask off the red and shoot a couple of light coats using the touch up gun. The picture below shows the thumb print at the front of the tank.

And this one shows the tank after touching up, you can just about make out the step in the paint where I masked it off. Hopefully it will wet sand out OK.

This is how the tank and seat unit look now....

I'm still not sure about how the simple black stripe looks. While I was waiting for the paint to dry on the tank I experimented with some masking tape on the seat unit.

I really like the look of this, I just need to work out how to do it. I have some 6mm vinyl tape on it's way to me via the magic of ebay. Other options are to get it done by someone else, do it myself with masking tape and white paint (although this might give me problems with colour bleedthrough) or a pinstripe roller (but a search on google suggests these come in at £80 with a single width roller).

2010-10-10T20:56:00.000+01:00

Started the day with a session wetsanding, nearly followed this up with another coat of red then I realised that I didn't need to spray the whole tank and seat unit and what I needed was a touch up gun. A trip to Machine Mart later and I had this

I flatted everything back with 1200grit wet and dry masked off a 4inch central stripe on the seat and tank and with my new gun shot some black paint

This time I didn't leave the paint to dry that long (about 15-20 minutes) and by pulling the tape back on itself I got lovely sharp lines

What wasn't so lovely was the thumbprint I put in the fresh paint at the front of the tank.... doh.

Still not sure about the stripe, I still think something is missing, just not sure what it is. I've got some silver 6mm vinyl tape that I might use for the transition between the red and black. I've been on ebay this evening and ordered some white tape and some TriBSA stickers so I'll be experimenting at some point.

Bathtime.....

2010-09-28T19:48:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I brought the seat and tank home so I could wet sand them tonight without having to head over to the workshop. Then I worked later than usual and by the time I started sanding it was too dark outside... only one thing for it.

Nice weld

2010-09-26T19:32:00.002+01:00

Last weekend I went to the Hotrod Drags, picked up my swingarm from Pete at Chops and Bobbers. I needed a mount for the brake torque arm and Pete came recommended. Good job, done on time for a reasonable price which seams a rarity these days.

Now with pictures.

2010-09-26T19:12:00.002+01:00

Sprayed the tank up today, put the seat on the seat unit to see how things looked.

Not sure where to go next, options are to get some stripes added using laser cut vinyl, add the tribsa stickers I had made up to go where the tank badges originally went (and where there's a ton of filler now) or just leave in plain red.

Mind you whatever I decide I can see a good amount of wet sanding in my future...

No pictures.

2010-09-25T14:51:00.002+01:00

In the end I decided that the best course of action was to start again. Didn't do anything on the bike last weekend because I was at the hotrod drags and too hungover when I got home. I've bought some celly primer from the paint place (rather than using rattle cans from Halfords) flatted back the tank and sprayed the primer. This morning I sprayed the topcoat on the seat unit and did what I am hoping is the final wet sand of the tank primer. Giving the topcoat a chance to harden off enough to move it out of the spray area then I'm having a go at the tank with the topcoat.

Different Red.

2010-09-12T19:39:00.000+01:00

I picked up a darker red on Friday and repainted the tank.

I'm a lot happier with this red.

I left it overnight, flatted it with 1200 grit and masked it off.

sprayed a few coats of black...

and after waiting about an hour removed the masking tape.

Not too sure about how things turned out. Got quite a few ragged lines when I removed the tape, as the paint didn't want to tear. I think this may be down to my tape removing technique, or due to too many coats of black. I used four coats on reflection I would have been better off using two.

I left the tank like that because the paint is still pretty soft. I'll see if I can make things better tomorrow evening. Worst I can do is cock things up entirely. If that happens I canalways rub back and start again.

Colour Coat

2010-09-07T22:01:00.003+01:00

Finally finished primer on friday but couldn't do anything on the bike over the weekend due to a long arranged family commitment. So today was the first chance I got to spray a colour coat. We nearly, I wasn't sure if conditions were right and nearly didn't bother going over to the workshop. In the end I decided to just give it a go. Inspection of the seat unit revealed the filler had shrunk back a bit so I stuck some more putty on it and concentrated on cleaning the tank with panel wipe and a tack cloth.

Here's the tank after 3 coats of red.

Not sure what I think of the colour, its more orangey than I thought looking at the swatch in the shop and not as dark as I'd like. I'll make my mind up once I get a chance to see it dry and in daylight

Preparation...Preparation...Preparation...Preparation

2010-09-02T21:49:00.003+01:00

...Preparation seems to be taking forever, every time I think I'm nearly done I break through the primer to filler/metal which means another coat or two of primer wait overnight to dry and another evening of sanding.

Just to make things a bit more visual here's the tank and seat together...

I spray, I spray, I spray

2010-08-14T07:16:00.002+01:00

Here is a picture of the seat and tank prior to spraying with rattlecan primer.

I had hoped that this was going to be my last coat of primer, put on to give a single colour to spray over. However a couple of scratches showed up on the tail unit so there is still some filling to do.

Watching paint dry

2010-08-11T19:47:00.003+01:00

Spent yesterday evening and much of today either spraying primer or sanding primer. I'm hoping that a session wet sanding tomorrow evening after work will have the prep phase finished and I'll be able to shoot the colour coats at the weekend.

Oh and I dropped my swing arm off at Pete at Chops and Bobbers hopefully by the middle of next week it will have a brake torque arm tigged on. Then I need to decide whether to polish or paint it.

A bad case of the runs

2010-08-09T20:49:00.004+01:00

UGGGH horrible spray painting warning...

In my defense this was my first attempt at using this primer, I had sprayed the tank with some etch primer without any runs, this stuff just seems to come out of the can so much quicker.

This is where my crimes against spray painting take place, works OK at keeping overspray off the rest of the workshop and dust and stuff off what I spraying.

Here are the tank and seat unit prior to spraying, for some reason it reminds me of a meat packing plant with bike parts instead of pig carcasses, I think I may be misremembering a forgotten scene from a Gangster film.

Started painting....

2010-08-08T21:58:00.005+01:00

I've started painting the tank, but TBH pictures of a tank in primer are pretty boring so I haven't bothered taking any.

I have finished making up the end for my brake pedal. This took a while and wasn't without incident, I broke the tap on the last hole but managed to get the tip out and after grinding the end of the tap into a point rescued the thread. Being aware of the potential for scrapping the piece by breaking the tap (because that is what happened last time) I drilled and tapped the holes first, giving me this...

With the holes drilled and tapped I cut and ground the end to shape...

Since then I've assembled a paint booth out of a £7.50 tesco gazebo and plastic sheet and changed the shape of the brake pedal slightly as I realised that it would foul the primary case.

I've also received a quote from Griff's in Bristol which is very reasonable so I just need to do a bit more welding on the frame and I'll take it down to Brizzle to get painted. I've also contacted Pete at Chops and Bobbers and hopefully he'll be able to weld a brake torque arm bracke to the swingarm for me.

Bloody computers....

2010-07-23T21:26:00.007+01:00

Since I last updated my blog my desktop pc has died, I can complain too much as I cobbled it together using the best parts of two dead pcs. I had thought about getting a cheapo netbook but decided the £250 it would cost would be better spent on bike parts. My OH has donated an ancient (about 10 years old) laptop and I've managed to get it running Linux Puppy so I'm back on line.

In the workshop I've been busy sorting out a rear brake pedal. I've made a pivot up

....and welded it to the frame

I've also made a pedal up

I just need to figure out how to make up the bit you actually press on and add something to operate the hydraulic cylinder. This may be a bit of a problem as interweb research suggests that to get the required ratio (4-1) it will need to be 4inches long. As regards something to press on I started to make a pedal end from some 6mm plate with 4mm cap heads to provide grip. I didn't have the correct drill to cut the 4mm thread so tried using a 3mm (slightly too small). Cut two threads before I broke my cheap tap in the third.

I've ordered a decent HSS tap and the correct size drills so I may give it another go.

Blimey, over a month since my last blog....

2010-07-04T13:01:00.003+01:00

... I just wish it was due to a flurry of workshop activity. I don't really know where the time has gone, but it has.

I think part of the reason for my slow progress is I've reached a stage where I'm having to take things apart to work on the bike. Which makes it feel like I'm going backwards. For example I'm currently working on a brake pedal mount which has meant I've had to take the engine, transmission and swing arm out of the bike to grind off the old bits of pillion footrest hanger and prep the area for welding.

On the bike my priority is painting the tank and seat unit. I've bought the stuff I need to do this I just need to get on with it.

Oh and I sold my house two days ago which means I need to find space for all the crap I had been storing in my old garage. It also means I now have some disposible income so hopefully progress will not be held up while I save for parts/materials/tools.

2010-05-31T18:10:00.002+01:00

Spent a few hours re-working the rear brake calliper mount. The good news is I'm much happier with this arrangement. The bad news is I'll have to do it again this time in 10mm plate as this is just a mockup using 6mm alloy (I used all the 10mm up yesterday).

Bank holiday in the workshop....

2010-05-31T06:52:00.003+01:00

Really feels like I've made some progress. I finished machining the spacers for the swingarm and made a couple of reducers to sleeve the swingarm pivot holes down to the 15mm axle I'm using.

With the reducers in place I put the swingarm in the frame.

With the swingarm in place I turned my attention to the rear brake. I have a modified TZR rear disk bracket but it won't fit the new 'arm. I also have a Harrison calliper that I bought for my FJ but never fitted. So I got out a piece of 10mm alloy sheet I had lying around and after a day of filing ended up with this.

I'm still undecided about this mounting, I might change the shape and I'm going to try hanging the calliper below the swingarm.

Feels like I'm going backwards....

2010-05-21T14:54:00.002+01:00

This is what the TriBSA looks like at the moment

However I'm hoping that the next time it looks like a complete bike again is because I've put it together to see if it runs. I've take the engine and gearbox out of the chassis to give me better access to the swingarm pivot so I can work out how I can locate the swing arm.

In the mean time the engine is looking a bit lonely all on its own. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, either overhaul it or just see how it runs. On one hand it's only done 500 miles since I rebuilt it... on the other that was 15 years ago.

While I was in the workshop I mounted the centres and mops on grinder/polisher. Here is how the swingarm clamps look after 10 minutes with the coarse soap (unpolished clamp included for reference)

2010-04-05T18:02:00.003+01:00

Well I spent some time working on the TriBSA, I had intended finishing the bike lift but I run out of gas for my welder and didn't fancy hunting for some more on a bank holiday.

As I knew I needed to take the passenger footrests off the bike I got the air tools out.

Here it is before I got busy with the tools.

Past the point of no return.

Hmm the other side needs a bit more grinding (lug is for a sidecar)

But it gave up without too much of a struggle

I reckon even if I hadn't had to remove the passenger footrests to fit the 'arm it would have been worth doing as it cleans up the back end of the bike.

I still wasn't sure if the swingarm would clear the frame. What I needed was a way to hold it in place. Now normally I'd use my lathe but I still haven't sorted out a power supply for it so a quick visit to screwfix got me a couple of holesaws and 10 mins in the drill I had a couple of spacers.... made of wood. A bit of tape made them a good fit in the swing arm.

Finally a bit of 20mm plastic conduit completed the mockup.

Swingarm arrived

2010-04-04T21:12:00.003+01:00

.... after a year of waiting my swingarm arrived from JMC. First mockup reveals that the wheel fits OK.

However I'm definitely going to have to cut the pillion footrest hangers off to fit the swingarm as it's wider than the original. Factory scrambles frames didn't have footrests so I can claim I've modified the frame to race spec....

Fingers crossed....

2010-03-03T18:56:00.002Z

Had a call from JMC today and they hope to get the swingarm dispatched tomorrow which means I should have it by the weekend..... nearly a year after ordering it.

If everything is ok with it I'm hoping to make some progress on the TriBSA. I've done a bit more work on the bike lift but it's more of the same really (drilling and cutting) so I didn't bother with any more pictures.

You'll never guess what...

2010-02-07T20:14:00.003Z

But you can use ebay to sell stuff.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/chas_chas/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Should help the TriBSA build fund a bit.

Shiny Shiny

2010-02-03T08:53:00.003Z

Picked up my new oil tank from Adrian Moss at Rickman Motorcycles in Stroud yesterday. It's very shiny and was a very reasonable price (less than the combined price of the battered/non fitting secondhand ones I had previously bought).

2009-12-08T14:26:00.002Z

Just rang JMC and they reckon middle of next month for the swing arm so I've told them I'll ring back at the end of the 2nd week in Jan for a progress check.

Rickman reckon my oil tanl just needs welding up so hopefully I'll be getting that in a week or so.

Signed the lease on new workshop last week so I'm now in the process of hetting my tools and stuff from Bristol.

Oh and my little Sister has given me her Zepher 550 to get running and customise if I want to, she pays for getting it going I pay for mods.

2009-12-01T16:41:00.001Z

getting there....

Finished for today though as I've run out of filler

Working on the tank

2009-12-01T11:36:00.002Z

Called JMC today and they reckoned they'd have an ETA for the swingarm after the weekend. It's too cold to ride to the workshop and I can't afford the diesel so I decided to do some work that I can do in the warm, filling in the indents for the tank badges. I'm not sure how this will work out as it but decided the only way to find out was to give it a go.

First of all here's a shot of the tank with no filler.

I roughed up the areas I'd be putting filler in to give a key for the filler.

And slapped on the filler.

I'm going to be sanding for AGES.

Waiting for the filler to go off now.

Plans afoot

2009-11-26T13:14:00.002Z

Spent a few hours yesterday with QCAD and I now have a plan for the swinging arm.

I've had to extend the swingarm by an inch to make sure everything fits without clearance issues. This may not have been completely necessary as I've found out that the TZR wheel I used to figure everything out is over-tyred (130/80 vs 120/80) but it's always better to have a bit too much tyre clearance than too little.

Hopefully I'll get the arm soon then I can see if I need to cut the pillion footrest loops off (It's close).

Half step forward ten steps back

2009-11-18T08:47:00.000Z

My build has ground to a standstill recently, mainly because of problems with the oil tank and swinging arm. As I've said previously I have two central oil tanks one alloy that fits using the mounts I have but is in poor condition and one steel which is in better condition but doesn't fit. Well I've finally found someone locally who can make copy of the alloy one (hopefully without the dents). So if he actually delivers that's a problem solved (he's given me a two week delivery date)

The biggest stopper though has been getting my swingarm from JMC. It's been 9 months so far but it looks like things might be finally moving. They sent through a drawing of what they have on file as an A10 arm. However it's obviously for a different year than mine. I've played around on a CAD package (QCAD, recommended) and have realised that there is no way to design an arm that will take my wheel using the 35x75mm aluminium JMC use unless the wheel is moved back or the loops for the pillion footrests are removed.

As I already have an extended swingarm that fits and I want standard geometry I think the way forward is to cut the pillion loops off the frame, which means that I loose the mounting points I'm using for the rear sets.

I've got to go back to the workshop to take some more measurements before I can move this forward.

...more waiting.

2009-10-06T15:15:00.002+01:00

Everything seems to be grinding to a halt as I wait for stuff from other people. I've just spoken to JMC and they've now given me a new delivery date of 4-5 weeks from now.

I'm also waiting for a steel central oil tank I 'won' on ebay. The seller listed 10-13 working days for delivery which works out as delivery between the 14-16th October. I did email the seller to see if I could collect (he's only just up the road in Worchester) but no reply.... hope this isn't a bad sign.

I'm also waiting for the badges I ordered, they should be here any day now.

I spent a few hours in the workshop but mostly just tidying while Stuart fitted new brake lines to his Kawasaki.

2009-09-23T15:14:00.002+01:00

Not been able to do any work on the bike since my operation but I did get down to the garage yesterday and got Stuart to take some photos of the bike from above and I plan to use these to plan colour schemes.

I've also sent some ideas for tank badges to http://www.heko.co.uk/index.html hopefully they'll send me details of a mockup some time next week.

This is what I'm after

From Tribsa Stuff

This time with pictures.

2009-09-12T10:06:00.004+01:00

Seeing as I'm going into hospital on Monday for an operation on my foot I've been trying to spend as much time as I can in the workshop. Fortunately for this blog I've pretty much finished the wiring and have gone back to fabricating stuff so I've got stuff I can actually photograph and put up here.

First of all I had been wondering how to switch off the electrics. I wasn't going to bother with a locking switch as for a bike of this type it's so easy to hotwire so they don't really add any security. The Stuart pointed out that at least if I have a key to remove I know I have switched the bike off and don't need to worry about coming back to a flat battery. As I have to go back to the workshop at least once every time I leave to make sure I have turned off the lights/closed the valve on the welding bottle/close the garage door I figured this was a good idea. As I'm skint I re-used a switch I had lying around and knocked up a small bracket to mount it.

Next task was to sort out the mounting for the tank. I had planned all sorts of fancy ways of doing this but in the end decided to keep it simple and just use a piece of 8mm threaded rod blagged from Blackjack. So I mounted the tank and used a centre punch to mark where the rod needed to go. With the position marked I removed the paint from the area and positioned the rod where I needed it using a magnetic clamp.

Some not very pretty welding later....

With the rod welded in position it was a simple matter to put the tank on, establish how long I wanted the mounting stud to be and mark it with a sharpie. With the tank off I cut the rod to length with a hacksaw. All that remained was to machine a lipped spacer on the lathe and it was job done. Certainly not as elegant as some of my original ideas but it does the job.

Next I moved onto the rear brake master cylinder. To be honest I had been putting this off for a couple of reasons but mostly because I hadn't made up my mind about whether or not I wanted rear set pegs. However with the seat in position I found that the rear set pegs were more comfortable than the foot pegs I had been considering so rear sets it was.

Another thing I had been concerned about was welding onto the frame for such a safety critical application with my elementary welding skills. However with the rear sets in place I realised I could use the redundant mounts for the tool box so all that was need was the fabrication of a bracket to hold the master cylinder and a rod to connect the rear brake pedal to the master cylinder.

So a job I had been dreading took less than an hour. It just goes to show that it's possible to think about these things too much and sometimes you need to get out into the workshop and JFDI.

With the rear brake sorted I turned my attention to the carb. I had been worried that I wouldn't be able to fit the carb and bell mouth with the central oil tank and a mock up proved this correct.

There simply isn't enough space for the bell mouth. I have seen shorter bell mouths and I may try to hunt one down.

This final shot shows the RHS of the bike and shows shows how cramped the area behind the carb is.

Quick update....

2009-09-09T13:08:00.002+01:00

Haven't had much to post recently mainly because I've been doing small, fiddly stuff. I've got most of the wiring look in place and everything seems to work. Main job now is to install the swingarm and figure our how to operate the rear brake. I've just got off the phone to JMC and they reckon that I should have it by the end of the week after next...... fingers crossed.

Its the little things....

2009-07-20T18:30:00.003+01:00

I think I've got to the point now where most of the big jobs have been done and I now have a million and one small things to do to finish the job.

I recently discovered that changes to the MoT system will mean that Q plate bikes are tested as if they were manufactured on their date of registration rather than the old 'assumed date' of 1971. This means I need to fit indicators and a front brake light switch.

To comply with this I've fitted some LED indicators....

front...

and rear....

As you can see from the picture above I've also fitted the rear number plate bracket, brake light and number plate light. I'm a bit worried about the angle of the number plate. If I move it closer to vertical it might hit the rear wheel on full suspension compression. I've decide do leave it as it is for the moment and worry about it if it causes a problem at the MoT.

Of course all this electrickery will need switchgear. I had originally wanted to go for minimal switchgear and was trying how to figure out how to mount a micro-switch in the handlebar end for high/low beam. However with the addition of indicators I decided to go for full switch gear. I bought a left hand switch unit off ebay which not only handles all my switching requirements but also has an inbuilt high beam indicator which makes things easier.

I had bought some levers off one of the guys on www.chopperbuilder.co.uk but I couldn't use them with the switchgear as the clutch lever fouled the switch housing. Fortunately a rummage in my box of bits that may come in useful revealed I had a lever and perch that didn't foul and matched the brake I had been intending to use all along.

I found a local upholstery place who covered the seat pan.

I'm quite pleased with how things are looking, here is the bike with the exhaust mocked up.

I've made a start on sorting out the wiring by fabricating a plate for all the electrical black boxes to attach to. I've just got to sort out where I'm going to put everything and I can start wiring the bike up.

As a final note I spoke to JMC last week and they reckon my swinging arm should be finished some time next week..... fingers crossed.

Bitter sweet

2009-07-06T12:18:00.005+01:00

Spent a good few hours in the workshop. The workshop has a lot more space in it now having got rid of two bikes. This is quite bitter sweet. Bitter because I've sold my Gas Gas enduro bike (I'm unlikely to ride competitively again because of the injuries I sustained paragliding last year) but sweet because the other bike shaped space is because I've got my old FJ back on the road and can ride it ok (first time since accident).

Back to work on the TriBSA.....

Last time I was in the garage I glassed in some pieces of aluminium strip with rivnuts attached to give something to attach the seat pan to the seat unit.

I then cut some holes that line up with the rivnuts in the 15mm thick foam that had come with the seat unit. I sprayed this foam and the seat pan with spray adhesive.

I then waited for the vapour to evaporate and stuck them together.

Next I added three layers of cheap camping mat foam using the spray adhesive. I had hoped that the foam would compress over the areas where the strips with rivnuts were but there were distinct raised areas above them. To get over this problem I used an electric carving knife followed by 80 grit paper on a sanding block. While I was at it I flattened the front of the seat and shaped the back of the seat. I finally glued a piece of camping mat foam on the top and sides of the seat. I'm quite glad with how things turned out...

Now I need to figure out how to cover it.

While I was in the garage I decided to sort out the mounting for the LED rear light I bought a while back. When I was glassing in the rivnuts to the seat pan I had also glassed in a piece of slotted angle to the seat unit. A bit of work with the Dremmel allowed me to mount the light on this bracket.

The LED light needed quite a bit of modification to fit but nothing that a Dremmel and hot glue gun couldn't cope with.

The next thing I did was weld the anti roll bracket (bought from Nick at K&S) onto the frame

Here's a picture of things as they stand at the moment.

2009-06-29T14:25:00.003+01:00

As well as working on the seat pan I've been buying stuff. I bought a battery from Paul Goff (http://www.norbsa02.freeuk.com) apparently it uses absorbed glass mat technology, which as far as I can tell means I can mount it any way up (apart from upside down) and it will keep it's charge longer than a conventional battery. I haven't bothered with a picture because at the end of the day it's just a black box.

I've also taken delivery of some stuff from Nick at K&S. First up is the anti roll bracket for the tank.

I also got a weld on table for the central oil tank

.... and the strap that holds the tank to the table.

However offering the table up to the frame revealed the tank I had won't fit properly (there isn't enough room for the strap). The guy I got the tank from had a side fill one and swapped them at no cost but it's not in such good condition.

I'm going to use this tank for the moment but keep my eyes open for one in better condition.

2009-06-17T15:10:00.002+01:00

Over the last couple of days I've had a couple of sessions in the garage, mostly working on the seat unit.

This shows the subframe welded up.

The next step was to make a seat pan that will be upholstered and attached to the seat unit. As I had to cut the seat unit to clear the frame rails at the front I decided that making the pan out of fibreglass would be easier than, say, metal.

To make the pan I mounted the seat unit, used gaffer tape to bridge the gaps between the seat unit and the frame rails and covered the whole lot in cling film.

I then mixed up some gel coat and applied it to the cling film.

I waited for the gel coat to go off and then laid up (IIRC) four layers of CSM on top of the gel coat. As I wasn't sure about how much catalyst I had used for the resin I left it over night. This gave me this.

The following day I removed the seat pan and took off the cling film. I'm not sure if I'd bother with a gel coat next time as the finish as pretty poor (like .... er wrinkled cling film funnily enough).

I then trimmed the seat pan down to fit the seat unit.

At this point the battery on my camera died, but I'll try and get some shots of the seat pan on the seat unit. I'm pretty pleased with the way things turned out, I just need to find someone who can do the upholstery for me now.

As an aside once I'd finished with the seat pan I chopped a couple of inches off each exhaust pipe as I reckoned they exhaust was too long with the end can (even though I had shortened it).

2009-06-07T19:29:00.003+01:00

Yesterday I went to the Cheltenham autojumble in the morning, but it was a bit rubbish and there was nothing I wanted to buy. In the afternoon I went down to my garage and threw some filler at my seat unit.

From Tribsa Stuff

I also did some more work to the seat unit sub-frame, fabricating the front tab to hold the assembly in place using a hole already in the frame and shaping a piece of strap that will be used to rivet the seat unit to the subframe. This photo shows everything in place ready for welding.

Today I seemed to spend all of my time rubbing things down, first of all sanding the filler I put on the seat unit then polishing out the worst of the scratches from where I ground off one of the mounting brackets from the end can. I also welded the mounting bracket and seat mounting to the subframe. I didn't bother taking photos of these but I did wheel the bike outside for a couple of shots.

I'm quite pleased with the way things are progressing.

Headlight and exhaust progress.

2009-06-04T23:35:00.002+01:00

Finally got around to fitting the headlight brackets I got last month.

I need to work out how to mount the headlight to the brackets now and I think that I might need to move the brackets up a bit.

I also ground one of the mounting brackets off the exhaust end can, I think it looks a lot better with one bracket but now I need to polish the grinding marks out of the can.

Planning to do some more at the weekend.