Grumpy Unk's Beezer Project

I did a little search on my deceased brother's blog to see what I could uncover as to his ideas for the BSA and came up with this:

Beezer Update .......... 









OK, Things have been a bit quiet on the BritBike front as of late. The good news is that progress is being made. Hey, I heard it run this morning. Started up real nice and even idled by its' own self. 
My fragile male ego was originally weeping and gnashing about having to admit I needed some help with getting this thing sorted out. 

I've gotten over it. 

Roger the Brit Guy, has been a huge help in schoolin' me about this bike. He knows these things inside and out and has taught me a BUNCH of stuff I wouldn't have found out about till it broke. I wish he lived a little closer so I could get over there a bit more frequently and hang around while he works. He's a natural teacher and seems to enjoy enlightening me. Not in a "Look how smart I am" way either. Nice guy. He pointed out many little things that were not right and explained how he's corrected them. He's a bit slow, as far as what he's gotten done for the time it's been there, but that's all right. Mine ain't the only bike he's been working on. He has been going over it from one end to the other and tweaking here and there. This bike, like most BritBikes, has been passed around and dicked with by a bunch of folks over the last 35 years. Subsequently, there's a lot of little flaws and things to be fixed. Shit I wouldn't have seen either.

So far - New electronic ignition, coils and Podtronics. Real spark, all the time! Steering dampener. Fork springs, seals and wipers. Carbs rebuilt. Several rounded off, broken off and stripped bolts/fasteners replaced or repaired. Kick start and shift lever fixed and/or setup properly. Chain adjusters fixed. Speedo housing and cable setup right. Brakes & bearings, front and rear, setup or replaced. Handlebar switches put in the proper place and wired correctly. Sump on the frame cleaned out. Footpegs mounted correctly, rear motormount bolt ... Oh shit, there's a bunch more too. 
I ordered all new cables from Rabers the other day and I'll replace them all when it gets back here also.

I found a guy right here in town that had a set of gauges. Proper type and like new. So I'll get those put on later too.

I've got a new tank too. Expensive as hell, but it's what I wanted. My tank has a leak (2 actually) and getting it fixed is gonna require some time and repainting, so I figured I may as well get a tank that I like. Here's what I bought:










This style tank was only for non-export bikes. All the US Bikes had little bitty ass 2.2 gallon tanks like this:

That's what my bike looked like 1 paint job ago. You can see the bars have also been changed from when this was taken, along with the addition of an oil cooler.

Surly is gonna help me design and make a different set of sidecovers. I just don't like the ugly ass ones that are on it now. I've got a set of velocity stacks, so the airbox and filters can be replaced.

I'm still thinking of a paint scheme for it. I'm leaning towards British Racing Green or Dark Blue with a similar white panel and striping like what's on the new tank. Not sure about any design on the sidecovers. We'll see.

The pipes are pretty beat up and will have to be replaced eventually. I don't know whether to go with a 2 into 1 setup, stock or maybe some upswept or backswept pipes. Not a priority right now anyway.

Trying to decide if I should try to make a fiberglass, Boat tail seat myself or buy a Corbin like this one:

http://www.corbin.com/triumph/vintlist.shtml

Again, not a priority anytime soon. The Corbin is not all that much though .... Jebus! A guy can spend a fortune on these damn bikes. Even with the purchase price and all I put into it last year, shocks, tires and tubes, tail light, wiring, switches, headlight loom, etc. I'll still have less than I do in the Big Blue, Plastic Kawasaki. And I'm never gonna get rid of it anyway, so who gives a shit?

That pretty well sums up what has been done and where he was planning to go with the project. That makes things a whole helluva lot easier for Surly and I to continue on in the same vein as "Grumpy Unk", especially when you look at this additional post:


Maybe Something along These Lines..........

Saw this picture over at BritBike.com. Yep, that's right in line with what I have in mind. It's '72 OIF Triumph. Other than the engine, same bike I have. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. 

Get out that wallet, Boy!

Looks like we might have the blueprint now. I'm in the middle of helping the Missus set up for a garage sale and Surly picked up a Sportster project, so there won't be much going on for a while, but at least I'm seeing the vision.