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.

Baptism of Swarf

Decided to try and make my own open clutch cover out of the stock closed cover. Enter the Drill of Death, donated to workshop by my mate Graham.

Then time for some elbow grease with files etc, tried using rotary tool but didn't have enough relevant attachments.Hand files give more control....

Angle of Ducati logo not quite right when mounted but I still like it. Have to decide whether to leave scotchbrite satin, or paint.

Darkness and Light ( The Omelette)

This is an unashamed homily, maxim, proverb, down-home sayings, cheesy wisdom post so be warned. Last week I had workshop mood-swing big time. One night I managed to damage, ding, over-file and otherwise screw up various powder-coated bits and felt totally depressed. A couple of nights later I decided to have a play and put together some of the front-end just to have an idea as to what black yokes and black headlamp rim would look like:

It's going to be cool! I am finally getting to the "build it, style it, fettle it" stage! News just in - the bearings and seals I have been waiting months for are finally in! This means a winter of proper progress...

The thing is, I am clumsy and lazy and not a perfectionist, so a few dings, a few things destroyed, a few quid wasted, a few short cuts, what the hell. This is my first project and "get it done" is the number two rule, and "keep it simple" is number three. What's number one you ask? To quote a great friend of mine, usually talking about fettling guitars or playing gigs, "It's supposed to be fun."

I have the following paraphrased on my workshop wall (paraphrased means I couldn't be bothered to look it up and wrote it slightly differently, which is a nice metaphor for this project when you think about it):

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better."
Samuel Beckett 

To put it another way, you can't make that omelette without breaking some eggs. (I just hope I break the cheap ones not the unobtainium ones......)

Has anyone got one of these....?

I'm looking for a chain adjuster plate as the two that were on the bike don't match... People seem to make nice aftermarket anodised sideplates (that the axle goes through) but no-one does an aftermarket one of these. If I have to get a stock one then second-hand would be great.... The one on the right is the type I need - just the angled plate nearest the camera, not the rest of the adjuster.

Splurge

There are still some pretty big items cost wise before this project is complete. In terms of expense, paint job is probably the biggest, fork rebuild ties for first place or is a narrow second, saddle customisation comes third. Floating around the £100 mark are little luxuries like chain and sprockets and other consumables that you don't think about because they are a bit boring, but can end up bankrupting you....

However time and time again in articles I see specials builders saying, if you see a special component that's rare, or rare at the right price, buy it. One of my other items for completion was an electronic speedo/dash. I was looking at one of these:

http://www.trailtechproducts.co.uk/acatalog/copy_of_Vapor_Stealth.html


The Vapor (not to be confused with Veypour who also make digital dashes) is light, capable and reasonably economic at around £90 without the plastic dash and lights shown here.
 However, since I started researching for the bike I fancied one of these with its stepper motor and hidden LED readout and lights:

http://www.motogadget.com/en/frameset.html

It's the Motoscope Tiny, from German company Motogadget who make some amazing instruments including an almost microscopic digital dash. As you can see from the coin in the picture, it's very small. This is a digital speedo with a stepper motor reading out through an analogue display. It includes hidden LED warning lights and LED readout which displays a variety of info.

Aesthetically it's bang on for the retro/techtro look I want. It's extremely small and light (though not as light as the Vapour). It doesn't have a rev counter like the Vapor's nice bar display, but then the original Monster dash doesn't have a tach. either and it's not really needed on a big air-cooled twin. These go for around £200, but one turned up new but ex demo on the bay last night for £140 so the decision was made. Let's hope I can get the warning lights hooked-up and the speed sensor in a happy location. Sure the expense pushes back the forks and paint, but it was needed and it's right. Feels good...

Back in black....

Hi, I'm back. It's been a long summer with project progress being fairly slow. I ordered swinging-arm pivot bearings in May and half the kit arrrived after a month, the rest still isn't here. I can get bearings direct from bearings distributers, but not the seals which are unmarked. Much talk of Italian holiday season in August, but I suspect a lack of concentration at the dealer at this end has contributed to the delay. I am investigating alternative source. I successfully got the old shagged bearings out by drifting them using heat gun, brute force and ignorance. I am fairly apprehensive about getting new ones in so the waiting is killing me as I want it over with. Once they are in I can start the rebuild in earnest which should be the fun bit.

I have put the right side of the engine back together having re-sprayed the starter motor with Smoothrite (one of the starter mounting bolts is only accessible with the casing off) and cut back the paint on the crankcase cover with a Scotchbrite wheel, This has left a nice patina as  most of the original paint has survived quite well. The plan insn't for an immaculate as-new engine, but I may touch up  a few flaky sections.

 
The frame, wheels and various other bits have been to the powder-coaters.....twice. I got the frame and front wheel done as already had a black rear wheel. Realised that the new coating was much glossier, but also concerned at how easily the new coat got a little ding in it. I took the newly coated  front back for comaprison with  the rear and the chaps at the powder-coaters spotted something was wrong straight away. They offered to hard lacquer everything they had already coated for free, as the new coating was marking easier than they expected. We shall see if that fixes it. Of course I managed to drop something heavy on the rear rim AGAIN! and ding it straight away. Luckily the tyre will hide this, however little worried that the hard lacquer hasn't solved the problem. I can't face taking everything back again so will see how it turns out in the build.

Still, looks nice eh? I also got the top and bottom yokes done, including the old top yoke and bar clamps. This was in case I decide I just can't live with the clip-on handlebars and want to put straight bars on. I'll post a pic of the coated new top yoke soon but here's the old one:

 Other bits include headlamp ring which was originally chrome:

 That's the sort of small detail which I think will make a lot of difference.....

I also splurged on some nice Oberon levers due to a nice deal from Spareshack via Monster Owners Club UK:

However they show up the master cylinders and reservoir covers which will need some work:

Other news - I went to visit the excellent John Baines at Silverstone when I was at practice day for the British MotoGP. I had a plan to fit the project bike with a classic750/900SS bevel style race fairing. John was great and gave me loads of free advice and let me take pics of some of the great bikes in his workshop:

John Baines was producing kits to convert modern SS's into classic replicas before Ducati started bringing out their recent retros like the GT1000 and Paul Smart. He was ahead of his time as the craze for all things retro hadn't really kicked in. His Imola project was the nuts so if you want an authentic replica you know who to ask! Anyway we had a chat about the frame-mounted fairing supports that would have to be fabricated and he gave me some contacts for engineers who could help. After a few weeks mulling it over I decided that this was my first build and was supposed to be relatively simple. I figured I have enough on my plate with complete rebuild of bike and fettling of new suspension, setting up new FCR carbs etc etc. Not to mention cost. Maybe next time...

Multi-post freakout continues - blogorrhea suspected.....

So anything else. Yep some scary real mechanical stuff for a dilettante dabbling chancer like me. Bought puller, used puller, narrowly averted disaster when spotted had missed one casing bolt. See puller still in position on removed engine casing. Puller necessary due to crankshaft locating in bearing on engine casing...

The dark heart revealed, a strange land where the Woodruff Key roams...

More on the mission to replace the heavy old flywheel with the young pretender later....

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping I Say!!

So what got bought? The legendary Keihin FCR carbs are on the way from  the lovely Chris and Candice at California Cycleworks. In fact the carbs may already be languishing in a Parcelforce prison camp while various gnomes tally up the huge handling and import tithes to be visited on my poor threadbare ass. For surely it is right and just that I be punished for buying something cheaper abroad, forsooth. Enough! They will come and there will be much horsepower, cred, classic racing vibe, and boundless rejoicing.
What else? From Germany and the equally helpful and efficient bods at Kamna... a lightweight Pure-TEC flywheel!
Is there more? Oh yes, rays of divine golden light pierce the clouds, enter stage left a true petrol-head  icon of motosickle royalty bling, oh lordy the Ohlins is amongst us... Got at a bargain price due to the eagle-eyed and brotherly efforts of members of UK Monster Owners Club, and the desire to spread Ducati-flavoured joy in the heart of Peter at Pro-Twins. Check the links list brethren for all of the above. Meanwhile, rear suspension and most of the engine tuning is potentially sorted and I am now skint. Here are flywheel and shock:

 

So no money left for powdercoating - will have to start saving again and selling stuff. But milestones are always flexible (see earlier post) - they are there to help not dictate. I haven't decided about frame and wheel colour as I haven't decided about paint job. Better to wait and grab the big dollar items while the cash was available and the deals good. You never know when the next consumer durable is going to blow up after all....