Sprint Report - 3

Since I've been putting up Sprint stuff, I figured I'd throw up some pics of the rest of the fleet. This one actually belongs to Surly. I used to have the open shop nite at the high school and he would come down and work on things. He was working on this one as time allowed but he hasn't hit a lick on it since I retired. He's got some ideas on doing something with all the parts we have but we need to get together one of these days and get that figured out. We don't necessarily need to get busy on them but we do need to decide what stays and what can go. I need to start down sizing.

This one I made from scratch about 20 years ago. The motor is the 350 out of the race bike I posted photos of recently. Likewise the wheels. The front wheel uses a Triumph backing plate but the hub I made from a steel pipe with a flange welded to it. This has an aluminum plate bolted to it for the other spoke flange. The plate has a hub welded to it with the bearings. More trouble than it was really worth but it was a great design/machining exercise and I can guarantee you there isn't another one like it any where on God's green earth.

Here's a close-up detail of the top triple clamp. As I mentioned previously, I had access to a CNC at the career center I used to work at. I basically taught myself how to run the thing because even though they got the new piece of equipment, the instructor retired the following year and they didn't replace him, shutting the program down instead. They shut the whole school down shortly after that but for a year I had the machine shop all to myself. For a guy like me, that was as close to heaven as I'll probably ever get. 

Since I had access to all the cool toys I made a bunch of motorcycle parts, including the triple clamp. I carved the HD logo in the top of it and the bottom is skeletonized, if there is such a word, to lighten it up. Sortly after completing the frame, they closed the school, I started at the high school and then moved closer to the school. After moving I no longer had a well equipped home shop, nor did I have access to a machine shop. It took me a while to get up and running at home, I went back to college part time, started the boxing gym and went where my interests took me but I was done with motorcycle racing and most of the motorcycle stuff that went with it. 

This one got just enough done to it that I could take it for a spin around the school parking lot and that was it. I need to finish hooking up the back brake, do some wiring and I think that would be all. I've posted quite a few things about Harley Sprint/Aermacchi but surprisingly enough, I've never posted anything about this bike before. Of all the things I would like to be able to call myself, a frame builder and/or panel beater top the list. This one I did all the work on myself. I built the motor, including pressing the crank apart and replacing the big end bearing. I built my own wheel and laced both front and rear wheels. I designed and made the frame (the spars are streamline tubing as used on wing struts on small airplanes. The rest is 4130). I made the exhaust, including the muffler. I made both the seat and the tank from aluminum sheet. And I painted it. I don't usually brag too much but this shows what I was capable of 20 years ago. I've since gotten a bit better on some things but maybe lost a little on others. I could probably call myself a frame builder at this point but I've still got a long way to go to be a decent panel beater - not done trying though!