For those who like old Motorcycles.

[rockershovel]

Good spot with the autocycle back half! I wouldn't have spotted that. 

 

The sad thing is that it DOES appear to be a genuine 1920s Triumph engine, with period carburettor and magneto. 

 

It's definitely a NAIT. 

Edited November 2, 2022 by rockershovel

[MrWolf]

Maybe even a New NAIT, as per the Bob Currie years at The Classic Motorcycle?

 

The wheels I think are British Hub Company, and were used by New Hudson, Excelsior, James and the Uncle Tom Cobliegh Cycle Co. (Makers of the Andawl autocycle...)

 

 

[rockershovel]

9 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Maybe even a New NAIT, as per the Bob Currie years at The Classic Motorcycle?

 

The wheels I think are British Hub Company, and were used by New Hudson, Excelsior, James and the Uncle Tom Cobliegh Cycle Co. (Makers of the Andawl autocycle...)

 

 

[FX RIMSHOT]

[spikey]

Pure class ...

 

[MrWolf]

There seems to have been a lot more women riding motorcycles before world war two. I only know three women who actually ride and one of those lives here, claims she was hypnotised by a charming old wolf...

 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

There seems to have been a lot more women riding motorcycles before world war two. I only know three women who actually ride and one of those lives here, claims she was hypnotised by a charming old wolf...

 

 

 

 

The one keeping me straight does, pal around the corner's wife does.....plenty of them here but that may be a reflection of Manx society!

 

[MrWolf]

A rarity on the mainland.

 

[spikey]

Going back to the days of my yoof, I can only recall three female bikers.  One was a girl known as Bridget the Midget who was famous for three things: riding a beaten-up Tiger Cub, working in the fish-meal factory and having shocking halitosis.  The second was a girl called Julie who looked exactly like Kate Bush did when she was in her late teens and rode a Norton Dominator.  She also rode rings round a lot of the lads at times.  And the third was my cousin Fat Joan, who for many years drove a Panther with a Busmar double-adult sidecar that was usually full of her many objectionable kids.

[MrWolf]

In my misspent yoof in the late 1980s I do remember a couple of girls who actually rode bikes. Tracy who rode a Honda CG125 about ten miles each way to college and my mate's sister Anna who got her full license and flew about on a caff racer BSA 250 that was older than she was. 

They all seemed to be, (including Miss R, above.) posh girls who had attended the type of schools where they still wore straw hats. Girls from the comp wouldn't be seen dead on a motorcycle, they all wanted to be seen in a BMW as what we call Cinderella syndrome was already well established, but at least not as gaudy as it is thirty years on.

[57xx]

On 24/10/2022 at 13:43, Kickstart said:

Yep, single ball bearings are a nightmare. I have tapered rollers in this one which are easier to put in but harder to get out.

Getting bearings and the like out is something that is pushing me towards getting a mig welder!

 

Simple solution for getting them out is plan ahead! I put tapered rollers in the RD and on the drag bike. First thing to do is get your die grinder (you must have one of them with all your strokers :) ) and a ball cutter and put a couple of notches on the inside of the headstock just under where the outer race sits. This give you somewhere to put a drift onto and tap them out. Works a treat.

[rockershovel]

20 hours ago, spikey said:

Pure class ...

 

Those are the Debenham sisters (yes, THAT Debenham) who were rather "poster girls" for BSA in the 1920s. Marjorie Cottle was also a well-known name, particularly for trials riding in the inter-Wars period. 

 

I can recall a couple of female riders in my circle in my younger days, one of whom rode a BSA A65 combination belonging to her husband... few cared to ride in the chair, because she lacked the strength to get anything useful out of the front brake ...

[Kickstart]

Hiya

 

I know a lot of female bike riders!

 

Bit more done on the FZR600. Front brakes now fitted and bled through. Rear shock fitted (and had to replace one pair of bearings in the linkage, which had looked OK previously by weren't). Side stand fitted, so the bike can now be self supporting (the side stand switch isn't fitted - don't have an M5 tap to clean the mounting holes up so had to order one).

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

I had actually forgotten there is an all-female bike club on the island!  But as I said, things are different here for bikers, we're not even social outcasts.  Weird.

 

Mrs H getting Geoff Duke's signature a 'few' years ago.

 

[MrWolf]

Always impressed to see you bringing back another old bike from the dead, watching the progress is very enjoyable. 

Most of the bikes that pass through here start as boxes of bits which are then assembled and repaired enough that they run or at least kick over and sold on to someone who wants a project that has all the correct and hard to find parts there so that they can do a full (and as we all know not actually economically viable) nut and bolt restoration. I try to keep things at restored his and hers bikes and a spare. But I think that might just increase when the memsahib has what she calls a proper job.

[Kickstart]

19 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Always impressed to see you bringing back another old bike from the dead, watching the progress is very enjoyable. 

Most of the bikes that pass through here start as boxes of bits which are then assembled and repaired enough that they run or at least kick over and sold on to someone who wants a project that has all the correct and hard to find parts there so that they can do a full (and as we all know not actually economically viable) nut and bolt restoration. I try to keep things at restored his and hers bikes and a spare. But I think that might just increase when the memsahib has what she calls a proper job.

 

Thank you.

This isn't so much a restoration, rather turning a old mess of a bike into something useable. Expensive bits have been the tyres and the fork rechroming. I am going to barely touch the bodywork

The dedicated restorer would have kittens at me not replating the original bolts in the original plating! Rear shock is from a BT1100 Yamaha, which happens to have the same dimensions and just a very marginally stiffer spring - plus being a considerably newer bike far easier to find in a condition which doesn't look like it spent the last 30 years at the bottom of the sea.

 

Even at this level, as you say very much not financially viable but I have a soft spot for the bike, and doing this is going to make it viable that the bike survives.

 

Still can't find where I have put the swinging arm spindle nut. It will turn up.

 

All the best

 

Katy

Edited November 6, 2022 by Kickstart

[New Haven Neil]

At one time we had 9 bikes, but are down to 5 now.  Well, 5 1/2, there's always something getting built!  I should point out only one is 'mine', but I get the pleasure of cleaning and maintaining the others......humph.

[Kickstart]

As to female bike riders, there was this event at the Triumph factory earlier this year:-

https://www.visordown.com/news/general/triumph-play-host-largest-womens-biker-meet-moto-advisor

 

All the best

 

Katy

[polybear]

7 hours ago, 57xx said:

 

Simple solution for getting them out is plan ahead! I put tapered rollers in the RD and on the drag bike. First thing to do is get your die grinder (you must have one of them with all your strokers :) ) and a ball cutter and put a couple of notches on the inside of the headstock just under where the outer race sits. This give you somewhere to put a drift onto and tap them out. Works a treat.

 

But don't you have to get the bearings out before you can grind the notch in to get the bearings out......

[Kickstart]

2 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

But don't you have to get the bearings out before you can grind the notch in to get the bearings out......

 

Original ball bearings tend to have a lot larger lip to knock them out. The tapered roller bearing race is almost flush with the inside of the head stock.

As an aside, Sealey sell some extra long pin punches which are useful for getting wheel bearings and steering head bearings out. Long enough that they drastically reduce the chances of belting your thumb with the hammer. Certainly saved me a lot of pain.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[MrWolf]

26 minutes ago, Kickstart said:

 

Thank you.

This isn't so much a restoration, rather turning a old mess of a bike into something useable. Expensive bits have been the tyres and the fork rechroming. I am going to barely touch the bodywork

The dedicated restorer would have kittens at me not replating the original bolts in the original plating! Rear shock is from a BT1100 Yamaha, which happens to have the same dimensions and just a very marginally stiffer spring - plus being a considerably newer bike far easier to find in a condition which doesn't look like it spent the last 30 years at the bottom of the sea.

 

Even at this level, as you say very much not financially viable but I have a soft spot for the bike, and doing this is going to make it viable that the bike survives.

 

Still can't find where I have put the swinging arm spindle nut. It will turn up.

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

General rule of thumb is that the missing part will turn up within 24 hours of buying a replacement.

My friend's old 600 Diversion has just failed the MOT with a rusty hole the size of your fist in the swinging arm behind the spindle.

A secondhand item has been sourced, but the spindle is seized solid in the old one.

We've decided that the most effective removal method will be to employ some careful angle grinder surgery from the middle of the arm outwards, as everything is scrap. He's already using a spring and shock from a cruiser of some kind because the correct part is rocking horse manure. It's also on the 38mm forks being an early bike.

 

[Kickstart]

20 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

General rule of thumb is that the missing part will turn up within 24 hours of buying a replacement.

My friend's old 600 Diversion has just failed the MOT with a rusty hole the size of your fist in the swinging arm behind the spindle.

A secondhand item has been sourced, but the spindle is seized solid in the old one.

We've decided that the most effective removal method will be to employ some careful angle grinder surgery from the middle of the arm outwards, as everything is scrap. He's already using a spring and shock from a cruiser of some kind because the correct part is rocking horse manure. It's also on the 38mm forks being an early bike.

 

 

Very much so on bits turning up. The nut is cheap should I need to buy one , just miffed that I can't find it.

 

I used to have a 600 Diversion. Think the swinging arm rotting wasn't that unusual on them. Mine was OK for the swinging arm but had the rear shock seize up - best we can make out one of the rings on the damper piston managed to escape and jam the piston. Other issue I had was a failing clutch thrust bearing - and it failed on the guy I sold it to also. Possibly because the Haynes said to lube it with oil which the Yamaha manual said to lube it with moly grease. The fuel pump was a vacuum operated pump - if the bike conked out before you had switched to reserve in time it could flatten the battery before it had pulled enough petrol through to start again.

 

I had to chop the old shock out of my FZ750 for similar reasons. No clearance initially for an angle grinder so spent a lot of time with an air powered hack saw cutting away just under the top shock mount. Once that was cut, the swinging arm could come out and I had the space to use the angle grinder from underneath on the top shock mounting bolt.

 

All the best

 

Katy

[57xx]

2 hours ago, polybear said:

 

But don't you have to get the bearings out before you can grind the notch in to get the bearings out......

 

See Katy's response. The RD originally had ball races so was easy to remove the old ones and the drag frame was a brand new custom build to my design so I notched it before fitting the taper bearings :)

[57xx]

2 hours ago, Kickstart said:

As to female bike riders, there was this event at the Triumph factory earlier this year:-

https://www.visordown.com/news/general/triumph-play-host-largest-womens-biker-meet-moto-advisor

 

All the best

 

Katy

 

The site you linked to reminded me of the meets we used to do with Visordown, there used to be quite a few ladies there from what I remember.

[rockershovel]

Frame rot is definitely an issue on 90s and early 2000s bikes. The Yamaha Drag Star series are well known for it, around the rear section pivot. I recently saw a post about it on one of the HD rider forums, which is a disconcerting thought considering the numbers of these bikes which are brought in from the US and sold sight unseen on ebay. 

 

I suppose older all-brazed bikes don't suffer from it because brazing involves heating the tubes until they are completely dry? That said, I once bought a Harley 45 which had undergone almost complete degradation of the front fork legs due to insufficient preparation during chroming resulting in moisture being trapped in the legs. I was intending to fit a Mikuni and Sportster forks so it wasn't an issue, but it was the sort of thing you had to know to look for....

 

[Kickstart]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Frame rot is definitely an issue on 90s and early 2000s bikes. The Yamaha Drag Star series are well known for it, around the rear section pivot. I recently saw a post about it on one of the HD rider forums, which is a disconcerting thought considering the numbers of these bikes which are brought in from the US and sold sight unseen on ebay.

 

 

I saw a picture just a couple of days ago of a Honda where the swinging arm had pretty much snapped. Corrosion on the lower side, and then fresh metal where it had cracked. Scary.

 

All the best

 

Katy