Wheel Truing

 

This tune seems to be pretty popular with Japanese artists. It's just a good thing her English is good, I can't speak a word of Japanese.

Fuzzy photo of the completed 1st stage of the wheel truing device.

It works as designed. The cones are good for bearings 15 to 25 mm. The individual pieces all have setscrews so I can adjust the center rod up and down depending on the wheel width. I'll thread a nut down on the top cone to snug it up good. The next step is to make a piece to attach the dial indicator to test runout on the drum. The nice thing about this set-up is if you are going to re-lace a wheel with a new rim, before you take the old one apart, you can take a measurement from the plate to the rim to get the offset and then make a block of the correct distance and slide it under the rim while truing the wheel. 

I did a similar thing when I relaced the wheels on the Sprint road racer years ago. As long as you're patient, it's not too tough to lace a wheel. A bonus with this set-up, it won't take up much room like a traditional wheel truing stand would.

Quick-Change

 

I was on the phone yesterday morning for about an hour, between the credit card company and Speedway Motors, but the Winters quick-change rear has been purchased and should be here next week. I already purchased the drum brake kit for it last year. Need to knock out a couple of bike projects so I can move the jitney to center stage and make it a roller. 

Other than cutting it to length, I finished the first piece of the wheel truing device and started on the second piece. It's supposed to be warm again today like yesterday - temps in the fifties - so I might tackle a couple of outdoor chores as well as working in the shop again. Now that the extreme cold should be over, I want to get out in the shop at least a couple of hours every day. 

I also need to work on my cardio. I was at the gym last night and tried skipping rope and ran out of wind rather quickly. There won't be much Be-Boppin' around here if I don't improve my cardio. 

A Little Bit of Shop Time

 

It was still cold yesterday - not frigid like it has been, but still below freezing. I went over to the storage space to measure the diameter of the BSA fork tubes. Neither my nor Surly's clip-ons will work. Also, the top couple of inches are tapered. Not insurmountable but Surly says he's not boring a taper for clip-ons. Doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. If we need clip-ons, I'll take care of them.

I finished fitting the angles on the platen and then I put in a little "think time" on what I'm planning to make for the wheel truing and drum checking gizmo. I've got it pretty well mapped out. Since the BSA and the Sportster both need the drums checked, I want to make it pretty much universal. I'm going to give a it little more thought and then make a sketch or two. If it looks good on paper, I'll start machining some parts.

Surly's hoping to be free next weekend, so we can start making some definite plans. In the meantime, I'll keep myself busy with the trials bike and odds and ends. 

And So it Begins

 

Don't believe I've ever put any James Brown on here before but I'm ready to get on the good foot and start building "motorsickles". 

Parts for the BSA came yesterday, so that's the start. If Surly jumps in with both feet, that'll be the kick in the ass I need to see regular progress. When I was at the high school he used to come once a week for my open shop night and we got quite a bit of stuff done. Now, between the two of us, we've got the equipment and the know-how to build most anything. And, I'm going back to work, so I'll have a steady stream of money coming in to pay for whatever we need, at least for 8 weeks. That should be plenty unless we opt for new aluminum rims and stainless spokes. If so, not a problem - in for a penny, in for a pound and all that. 

The clip-on bar in the photo got bent at Daytona. If it's the right size for the BSA I can weld on a new tube and get them plated. Surly says he has a pair also - just have to see what the final design calls for and if they'll fit.

Even though it was still cold yesterday, I went out to the shop and drilled a couple of holes in the platen for the new hold-down clamp. I also drilled and tapped a hole for the piece I'm going to make to lace up a wheel and check the run-out on the brake drum. 

Anyway, my chest is feeling good and I'm tired of spending a lot of time in the house due to the cold weather. Time to build things.

BSA Thoughts

 

This is one Brother Johnny had posted on his blog. At this point in time, he was looking for ideas for the BSA like Surly and I are now. We might be a little ahead of that curve, since the side covers and air cleaners will be here in a couple of days. I'm diggin' this one like Johnny was. Checks all the cafe racer boxes - flat bar, rearsets and upswept pipes.

And what's not to like about high pipes? This a little more than a cafe bike. Looks more like a real vintage road racer. Not liking the looks of the muffler, though. Must of had a sound restriction at the track.

This would have been the one I would have bought my senior year of high school except I wanted a Sportster. I couldn't afford one, though, so I settled on a Sprint. A couple years later after my Sprint got stolen, BSA was about done for and I had my eyes on a Triumph Daytona. My dad wouldn't sign for a loan and he was tired of me driving his vehicles, so I bought a car. But the BSA has always been a sentimental favorite, and Johnny's as well. And speaking of my dad, the old boy would have been 105 today if he was still kickin'. You can't choose your parents, but I drew a pretty good hand.

Stay tuned, this is going to be the year for motorcycle progress. 

Some Disco to Warm You Up

 

Surly decided, and I'm in complete agreement by the way, that it's time boogie, oogie, oogie on the BSA. I ordered some side covers and air cleaners for the project. We need to discuss some other details yet, but I'm going to defer to Surly on the design. Eventually the bike will be his, might as well make it like he wants. He'll come up with something that's a classic design that will honor my brother's memory.

Surly sent me this photo with the side covers and air cleaners I ordered installed on an Oil in Frame bike like ours. Not sure what the rest of the bike will end up looking like at this time, but the handlebars will definitely be lower - probably something in the neighborhood of a 2" rise. 

I'm thinking something like this would be pretty cool. Again, whatever Surly says is what we're going to do.

The goal for the year now is completion of the BSA, Sportster and the vintage trials bike. Reasonable goal, especially since my chest has stopped hurting. I'm feeling more like my old self, which actually means, more like my younger self. I doubt if I'll ever be a human dynamo, but no reason Surly and I can't get some projects taken care of this year. 

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Colder than a well digger's ass in the Klondike once again. It was 10 degrees when I went to the gym last evening, only 7 on the way home, and down to 0 or a little below during the early morning hours. It's going to be cold the next couple of days as well. I'm staying indoors, other than chores, until it warms up a bit.

I started on the taxes yesterday. That usually causes me much anguish but this year at least some of the waste has been revealed. Now it's been confirmed what I've suspected all along - the feds take our hard earned money and piss it away, not just in the gold ole USA, but all over the world. I suppose after looking at what I make and what they take, I should be even angrier this year than what I usually am at tax time, but I'm hoping that things will improve in the future. It probably won't make much of a difference in my lifetime, after all the country is still 36 trillion in the red. 

Anyway, it's still cold out and I've got more tax work to do. Now that I completed my upgrade on the ham license, I've got a couple of books I want to read. I've got a good start on one already. My book count has been rather weak the last couple of years. Need to work on that.