Manifold Blessings

Before (well actually after first pass abrasion with scotchbrite disk and some chemical cleaning):

 After (The PJ1, yet to be heat cured...)

The nasty collars, bottom right in the paving stone pic above, are being replaced with these (an ebay find):

 So one more day at work and then I have a week off dedicated to 'shack life! Hallelujah, a chance to make some real progress, and children, believe me the to-do list is long.

However, there will be no pressure. This is also a chance to take the tank to the painters in deepest Essex to have the hinge plate re-welded where it rusts, a dent filled and my paint scheme applied! So a little sketching has been required.




Colours are not indicative of the final shades, but it's all about red and green on a white background. It's just how dark the colours should be and how white the white. I really don't want that thing where the red ends up looking orange. Plus, I do like a bit of US auto badge cool, if you know what I mean....

......so, the the red and green will be much darker than is typical and may well be kandy. This has to end up looking motorsport clean, rally retro, hot-rod, and Italian all at once. Well it will in MY head and that's all that counts. The idea is to have tricolore without looking like ice cream van and bunting. To look a bit traditional without copying an existing scheme. The two stripes on white background give me tricolore without three stripes.

Is to top-stripe (offset) to over stripe? That is the question....

I am very, very excited about getting the tank painted - it's going to be highly motivational when it comes back. I am going to see a gentleman at a company called Boyz Toyz. The guv'nor is an aircooled Ducati fan and builder himself,. I have seen his work in the flesh on a customised Sports Classic, it's proper as Guy Martin would say. Full report when I get the tank back. This weekend I need to get the petrol and the fumes out prior to transportation.

I also hope to talk to some seat makers. Still wondering whether to re-profile the shape to something more "two-four" cafe, and whether to go for a tan leather. Brown is always tricky. Here's a rough idea of the over-all scheme.

BTW I have my 'storm back with a younger engine in it. Having my daily ride back where it should be makes me whole again.

More reports during or after  'shack week....

Back on the rollercoaster of doom...(temporarily of course).....

...still, feck the backside of a warthog!
Having done a nice big update, I went down to the 'shack in fine mood. My optimism was to be rewarded by a slap in the chops with a wet mackerel. Started trying to put the ignition key unit in place only to find it fouls on the Cyclecat top yoke. This rubbed a little powdercoating off the back of the yoke - no matter - I have grown accustomed to keeping a few dings and rubs in proportion - my alter ego is, after all, Captain Not-Perfecto. However as I looked closer I noticed flaking around the stem nut. Couple of big chunks just came away, apparently not in any way connected with the ignition unit rubbing. It just looks like the polished alloy surface didn't take the coating well enough. Now having the yoke back in it's original finish might not ordinarily be such a bad thing - it was lovely. However, it was powder-coated black along with the bottom yoke, to minimise the difference in machining between them, and fit in with blacked out frame, headlamp etc etc. Hurrumph.

Going to have solve the key block problem, and possible take apart the front end again and get the top yoke re-coated, or painted or anodised or something....maybe abrade the surface. Back to powder-coaters for the n'th time. For now clouds hang over 'shack.

Project Status

Things are gathering pace at the 'shack. I've procured and fitted an Oberon clutch slave cylinder. Also got Venhill braided clutch hose which will go on when I'm ready to put hydraulic fluid in (you fill the slave first):

 

 

I've cleaned up the rear brake caliper as best I can using brake cleaner, Gunk and various other toxic gear. I now learn that getting rebuild seal kits is not easy. Trying to decide whether to just wack it back on for now, but have ordered some red rubber grease, so I think I will take the pistons out and see what's what. I have bought Venhill braided hose for this too. Depending on how looking at the seals goes (I hope to re-use them) I will then tackle the front calipers. They already have Goodridge hoses in good nick so no need to replace those.

 I love being able to clean up little parts like the pin and retaining spring with a scotchbrite pad on a drill. They looked like they had spent 50 years under the sea before I did that.

Note the horrible original old rubber hose in the foreground. Venhill braided steel hose, covered in clear PVC and on hard chromed fittings that rotate into position on their banjo bolts - even sounds sexier eh? Not that I'm writing-off rubber missus - just not for hydraulic lines (phnaar phnaar chortle chortle.....)

I finally got the paint to stick and harden on the valve covers. When the motor finally runs the Smoothrite will get baked on and get even harder:

Then with baited breath I turned my attention to the Keihin FCRs. This is getting pretty real now. As mentioned in earlier posts I have forgone the pleasure of pod filters and stuck with ugly plastic airbox. This may change in the future, but I wanted to stick with the advice from Chris of California Cycleworks who recommends stock airbox with the lid cut away exposing a K&N stock pattern filter. Here's a before and after on the filter lid. It's a bit Barney Rubble where I've cut it, will try and straighten the edges up a bit:

Chris's instructions suggest taking the rubber inlets out of the bottom of the airbox and fitting them onto the Keihens' adaptors first before re-positioning in airbox. They make the carbs look even more evil!

I've transferred my tear-down photos on to my laptop so I can take it down to the 'shack to check what goes where underneath the carbs, as they will obscure an area that holds various bits of wiring, connectors and mounting plates. The carbs go onto the inlets shown below, and then are covered by the airbox which includes the coils mounting plate and the battery box.

In other news a good bloke on the fabulous UK Monster Owners Club forum is providing me with a nicer oil cooler and associated pipery from a newer model of Monster. Not so good is that my second "special screw" (this post is turning into Carry On Ducati) has failed while being torqued up to the figure given in the Haynes manual. This is a little bolt with a hex flat cap on one end and a thread on the other. It is secured with a self-locking nut and goes through the bracket on top of the swingarm to hold the rod-end bearing on the suspension arch in place. They cost almost a fiver each and have to be ordered from Ducati so take weeks to get here. Bit of a pain - still no biggie.

I also killed a scotchbrite disc trying to clean up the exhaust manifolds. I followed that up with some mega scary stainless exhaust restoring fluid, but there is plenty of rust left on them even so. I am trying to prep them for painting with PJ1 High Temperature Flat Black paint. Trouble with painting at the moment is most of these paints want room temperature application. While the weather is milder at the moment it still isn't warm so either heat or ventilation, not both, is possible. We'll see...

Compared to my geologically slow progress rate this is approaching the speed of light! I have even contacted the paint shop, and booked off the first week in March both to take the tank there, and spend a few days of concerted 'shack time working on the bike. I want this ride ready for the summer - too long have I slumbered!
Don at  Boyz Toys Paint is a Ducati builder himself and has quoted me a good price for re-braze of tank hinge plate, general restoration and paint job.

So what's to do?

 Getting loom back in while incorporating the new speedo with it's super small wiring. Fabricating brackets for rear no. plate and indicators, exhaust cans, speed sensor, and speedo itself. Designing re-cover pattern/materials etc. for seat, drawing up definitive tank paint design for the painter. Re-fit coils, rectifier, fuse box etc. Get seat to work with or without conventional seat catch mechanism. Caliper re-builds, master cylinder tart-up and fit Oberon levers. Mounting headlamp where top fixings melted while being powder coated. Deal with taking left side of engine apart again if sprag clutch is wrong way round. Source and fit carbon mudguards. And probably loads more I've forgotten about.

Bizarrely enough, one of the things taxing my brain is how to dispose of old fuel which I have in my Monster and my son's scooter project. The local recycling centre takes oil but not petrol as far as I know. I will have to phone the council. Anyway, it's all happening at the Chickenshack... stay tuned!

Wheels

So a good friend, (and consumate piss-taker), Dan the Man not only put my tyres on, but supplied one of them for free - thanks mate you know who you are! The powder-coating seemed to hold up to the procedure which was a relief as I was a bit suspicious of it's resilience.

Unfortunately, my donor bike came with front discs with different disk carriers, round hole pattern on one side and spoke pattern on the other. I don't have the budget to sort that at present, especially as both discs have plenty of life in them. Ho hum. Think the spoke pattern looks nicer, so if one of those turns up...or maybe some wavys if I ever have the spare cash. I'm still saving for paint job and seat customisation.

Talking of budget woes, more news in - my daily ride (Firestorm) has fallen victim to the curse of the Honda cam-chain adjuster. I new this was on the cards but...well it's a long story which I'll skip. I've bought a second hand engine with low miles on it, but I don't think I can face doing the swap in the 'shack which already has two disassembled vehicles in it. Also, I would like to have the manual adjusters I bought (part of long story) fitted and the valve clearances checked.

I thought of how great it would be to have the experience and psychological lift of doing it all myself. However the ethos of the Ducati project has been slow small steps. I can't afford to have something go wrong while re-building the Firestorm, and find myself in a shed with three piles of bit in it, (son's scooter project, Monster and 'storm). Especially as the Cutter family's last running bike, Mrs Cutter's M695 is now having clutch problems. I think it just needs bleeding, but this is getting depressing - I do have a day job....

So, I've had some great advice from VTR.org forum, and may get the work done by a chap from the forum who seems to have a hell of a reputation for fixing and modifying 'storms. It's all a bit of a pain and a distraction from the project, but it is my daily ride to work and I need it to keep me sane. It's also made me realise how much I love the Firestorm, even though it started out as a cheap bridging ride between loans to free up cash for the Rooster's carbs and Ohlins.

Anyway, I still feel like the project is really rolling now. When I started I didn't allow myself to think much about the really fun bit, putting it all together. I wanted some of the scary "heavy lifting" out of the way. Now I'm in that rebuild phase and it feels so good. Here's a shot of the swingarm with scotchbrite (dull polish) and laquered adjusters, and gold anodised adjuster plates: The adjusters look better in real life, not nearly as dull but nicely lived in.


Next steps in rebuild order, exhaust manifold on, and then the FCR carbs!! Need to decide whether to paint manifold matt black, or heat-wrap it before I fit it. The heat wrap thing is getting a bit common but it is nice and edgy.

I have a fairly free weekend but tomorrow I have to go and get that Firestorm engine from Suffolk. It's unlikely I'll get the exhaust decision sorted but there's plenty of other little jobs need doing - tarting up brake and clutch resevoirs for instance, taking the headlamp apart again and fixing an internal metal cover that has come adrift, and braving the crimping/soldering nightmare of the Motogadget speedo connector and it's microscopic gauge wiring. Onwards and upwards compadres!!

State of the Art, and a Word on Parallel Twins

So now a bit of easy stuff - playing the critic. Much as I love to see the cafe racer, flat track, retro and other alternative bike styles flourishing (flourishing almost everywhere other than Britain that is), I have a gripe. I get the whole, "let's use plentiful and cheap Japanese bikes with character to base our projects on" - XS650, SR400, and various other trail bikes and so on. However, I am increasingly seeing the use of bikes that where unloved when they first appeared, and often for good reason. Just cos it's getting old doesn't mean it's cool. Sorry, but Honda CM250 et al?

Yes the winner of the Deus build-off showed abundantly better skills and talent than I can aspire to, with Much Much Go, and I love the exhausts, the stance, the paint job. But the donor motor? And comstar wheels? Not for me - ever. The same goes for the brilliant Wrench Monkees' Monkee #4 using an XS500. Why would you? At least the aesthetically similiar Icon bike, The Snake Charmer uses a rabid two stoke dirt bike motor. For me there has to be some "go" with the "show" unless there is extra charm instead. A lot of the 80's Japanese bikes being re-cycled now just don't have that charm in their genes.

Parallel twins (pre - modern clever firing orders and fuel injection) are pretty low on my favourite engine configuration chart. Low power and nasty vibrations. Brit bike's make up for this with character and stroke. That character has rubbed off very knowingly on XS650, W650 so they have their charm. But the legions of dull commuter bikes that utilised this configuration, XS, Dream and Super Dream, and the equivalents from Kawasaki and Suzuki, belong where they live, in the unglamorous bit of the past. Just my opinion you understand.....

Snowy Suburbia

All is peaceful at the 'shack:

Disgusted, Betty and Wilma don't come out even when you open their door - if you can't see to peck, what's the point? While young foxes frolic in neighbouring gardens, the girls stare resentfully at the snow that restricts their menu to the usual in-house birdfeed...

However, inside the 'shack things are humming (in their usual glacially slow manner). Due to the staggeringly quick delivery turnaround of the "Bearingboys" (sale@bearingboys.co.uk) I am able to continue re-building the back-end of the big rooster. I ordered replacement rod-end bearings mid-afternoon, and despite UK snow chaos, they arrived the next morning - truly impressive turnaround. And at under £13 for the pair, a complete bargain (equivalents are about £45 each from Ducati!!).

At last we come to the fun bit - the giant meccano kit phase of bolting things together that I have been looking forward to:

However, Cutter being Cutter, there is plenty to worry about in the future of the build. The micro wiring of the Motogadget clock, the lingering doubts re sprag clutch orientation, the timing (electronic pick-up positioning), how to deal with safe handling of petrol tank when time comes for weld and spray (because fumes cause a hazard when transporting tank to renovator), etc etc. One step at a time as usual. For now it's great to see the Ohlins in postion, even if I'm unsure about where to mount the remote reservoir, and what to do if I need to swivel the banjo connector to adjust hose routing, as the reservoir is presumably pressurised, so loosening it would lose pressure...

Heaven and Hell

So following the "30mins good work" anti-procrastination method I crunched across the icy garden to the workshop last night at about 10pm. The shed wasn't too cold inside and soon warmed up with the little fan heater on. I had some new shims to add in order to see if I could eliminated the side to side play in the swinging arm. If they didn't do the trick (a trick that needed to be accomplished without unduly restricting the normal movement of the arm) then it would mean a new swinging arm pivot at around £70. I tried a couple of combination of shims without success, and even managed to damage one. Then I thought I would have one more go - success!! At least I think so - it remains to be seen if there is any effect on sprocket alignment. Plus play is supposed to me less than 0.1mm at the pivot. I was estimating by feel given that this is amplified quite considerably at the end of the swingarm, and there now seemed to be no discernable play. It felt good as it had been playing on my mind, and even though it was now coming up to midnight (with work the next day) I decided to try and put the rest of the rear suspension in place, it was going to look great - yellow and gold Ohlins on black frame!!

That's when I tried to fit the rod-end bearing height adjusters I had bought on the Monster Owner's forum. It felt stiff as I did the up the rod-end bearings, and I should have been more suspicious. I unscrewed the rod-ends again and the bottom of the threads had been wiped out by the much harder threads of the adapters. Didn't seem to have cross threaded at all, which was weird.

Curses - saved £70 but wasted about £20 or £30 as would now have to buy another pair, plus hassle of hunting down the right type (note - keep better records). Good news today is that I have found them cheaper than last time.....

What do I learn from this. The usual stuff, don't work when tired, don't rush anything, don't force stuff etc. etc. However once again the top message  is don't beat myself up when I make a mistake - when will I keep that Omelet Principle in mind?!?

Every little thing helps you feel good about yourself...

Cold night, tired after a day at work, but Red Dead Redemption held no appeal. Set PVR to record Horizon doc. about the Deepwater rig disaster, and went down the dark muddy garden to the shed. I'll just do a bit.... (God I have to keep re-learning that essential lesson)

Radio 4 drowned out by my improvised bench grinder. Trusty Bosch drill I've had for years, mounted in vice (without squeezing the section with the motor in it - luckily the casing has a ridge and is made of very tough impact resistant plastic/nylon).

Note - DIY disc for fast paint removal bought in B&Q has far out-lasted Scotchbrite type mops sourced on ebay. Nothing wrong with Scotchbrite it's brilliant, but cheap accessories are often crap - they just wear out too fast. This stripping wheel was a few quid more but results speak for themselves and it seems to be lasting a lot longer.

 

These are the adjuster end-caps for the swinging arm that I was looking for, as mine don't match each other. A kind UKMOC member contributed these (Thanks Greg!!) and I owe him a pint or two in the summer, he wouldn't take any other payment. These were from a 600 or 620 but fit fine. Again I haven't gone for a high polish finish. I want an industrial lived in look to the bike.

I had a bit of a play putting the suspension rocker linkage in place, having to sand the powder-coating back on the faces on the suspension arch that slot into the linkage (scary but getting used to having to do it). Put the polished end-caps in place and held the gold anodised chain adjuster side plates in place just to get a sense of the effect. Going to look nice. Might investigate some lacquer to protect these small parts that I am leaving as bare metal. Not had a lot of success with that in the past though... Maybe I have to learn about "two-pack"?

A couple of hours of farting about had gone by very pleasantly, and one more task accomplished and a bit of thinking done about next stages. I went back into the house to crack open a beer and watch BP manouvering robo-subs around 5000ft underwater. Night night Chickenshack...

At last....

......rebuilding has started! And it feels so good. But Cutter is not Cutter without anxiety, so there is some play in the swingarm, can it be sorted with shims? Or is that S/H pivot pin just not up to it? And, I am now realising that powdercoating in threads is not as much of a problem as I thought, it's a bigger problem on all kinds of mating surfaces I hadn't thought about. These then need to be sanded back and I start stressing about taking metal off areas that should be flush (suspension rocker to frame etc. etc.). Not to mention some wounds I then inflict accidently into areas of powder coating near by. OMELET OMELET OMELET!  The war cry gets me through (see earlier post). Plus three attempts to spray valve covers and the paint still doesn't stick..

However the fun stuff HAS started, bolting it together and seeing  my version of the bike come together. It's not exactly over the crest and downhill from now on, as plenty of challenges to come, harder ones than taking the thing to pieces. But the difference is you get to see it grow.

Logjam Busted

At last the swinging arm bearings turned up. My good friend Barry lent me a big car draw-bolt kit - lovely German tools. Bearings went in as sweet as you like! Unlike removing them which took some heat, and some heated words. A bit of improvisation and the same happened with steering stem lower bearing, smooth as butter.