This and That

 

I made the shift lever for the Rickati/vintage trials bike yesterday. Looks like it'll work just fine. The rod is 1/2" in diameter and I was wondering if that was going to be stiff enough, but after bending it, I'm fairly certain it will be. It's a piece of cold rolled that took quite a bit of force to bend, even after heating it up. Now that I've got that taken care of, figure out the brake lever and the fabricating should be about finished - finally! 

In addition to working on the bike, I did a little more on the shop organizing. I need to get rid of my old welder. I thought it was sold but the guy changed his mine. The hole where it's sitting is big enough to hold both my plasma and my "new" welder. I could put the old one in my storage space, but that would involve quite a bit of work due to the size and weight of the machine. And, then of course, it would have to be moved out of there at a later date. 

I pulled the cover off the Sprint that's on the stand in the back of the shop. That's another project that's about 3/4 complete. The seat needs to be reupholstered, new shocks, a few other little things and it could be made to run. The upholstery guy moved a month or so back. I know where he's at but don't know if he's set up to do any work yet. Shocks are easy enough to come by - a credit card will do it. It'll need a set of rings and those might be tough to locate. But the valves have been done and it's got a pop-up piston in it. Should make plenty of power, at least by 1968 standards.

I'll work on completing the vintage trials bike, look up the upholstery guy and maybe order some shocks for the Sprint. As soon as I complete the trials bike I can roll it out of the way and then finish the Sportster. The chest is pretty much healed up - actually kind of snuck up on me. As long as I don't do anything stupid, I should be able to pick up the pace on the projects, and with Surly coming down once in a while to help, should be getting some real progress this fall.