Lathe action

Went round to TC's today so he could show me how to go with his lathe. Had a great time, who knew making swarf could be so much fun! Didn't finish everything I wanted to but if I'm honest I knew I wouldn't!! Got all the spacers and shims made up for the front wheel, still a bit of adjustment required but a good days work in all!!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

A change of part

 Ive been worrying that the fender I purchased for the build was too skinny for the overall look of the bike. So I was looking round for something a little different and my dad pointed out that the rear fender on his Thunderbird might do the trick....

Yoink!!! He has a new number plate mount to fit anyways so it had to come off at some point....

 

I really like it! I think suits the tank nicely (triumph tank, triumph mudguard - duh!) and fits in well with this fake classic bike theme that the build seems to be following...

Of course my dad wont let me cannibalize this one, so going to have to part with some more pennies for my own.....ach!!

Bits and Bobs

At the weekend I carried on with rubber mounting the tank to the frame. Its a real bugger trying to figure out where exactly things are supposed to fit, so a lot of time was consumed just looking and taping things in place and marking things out with the sharpie.

But eventually I had to commit so I took my best guess and tacked the cups in place.

Then there was some very awkward sharpie action to locate where the rubbers need to sit on the tank

....and from this I could work out where the bungs need to go...

Once I'd tacked these in place I stuck the rubbers on (once it had cooled down) and tried it...
 

 

I am really pleased with the fit. Its very tight, but once its on its very snug and doesn't budge. Also I've miraculously managed to line it up well enough so it doesn't clash with the frame anywhere. I might be able to improve the fit by trimming the bungs and rubbers down a bit, but I'd rather it be a bit tight than too slack.

 Next I need to mount the rear. I have spent quite a while cleaning up the frame in various places also, especially round the back of the tank where the hard tail meets the original down tube. Still plenty of work to be done!!

More gusset action

Had a decent evening in the shed tonight and got the gussets in place.

The stock cups where too wide to fit under the tank as they were so I cut the backs off and after lots of looking and taping things I got stuff pretty much as I wanted.

Then I welded the buggers in!!

Next job is to tack the cups in place and see if this idea is actually going to work....!!

Gusset time

Decided it was time to get rid of those crappy stock neck gussets and replace them with something of my own.

I cut out the old gussets and trimmed off other ugly bits and bobs and cleaned up with the flapper disc

Next I made a cardboard template (standard!) of what I wanted. I even remembered to put the coil in place to make sure the new gusset didn't clash  - how thoughtful of me :)

 Finally I cut my shape out of 3mm steel plate and carefully balanced it in position with some magnets.

That's as far as I got tonight, obviously I will need to make a matching bracket for the other side. But the tricky bit is going to be the tank mounts. I have decided to rubber mount the front of the tank using hidden bungs like the original tank. Hence the big blank space on the gusset - this is where the 'c' cup is going to mount, that will support the rubber bung on the tank.

Not the easiest method by far, but who wants to do things the easy way?! That would be boring!?

Play time!

Rode the bandit to leeds tonight. Got piss wet through mind, but was good to actually be on the road. Its still not running quite right, but am hoping some new coils will sort it out!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Bandit Tank

Been trying to weld up the old tank that was leaking but I ran out of gas so the welds went from bad to worse!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Tommy and the Bandit

Finally got the Bandit running tonight, BOOM! Got the rest of the engine back together, put it in the bike, but the bugger wouldn't fire. It sounded like it was only catching on one cylinder. Anyways, alot of head scratching, diagnosis and multimeter testing later I swapped the spark plugs, fiddled around with the coils and brrrUUUUMMMM!! The bitch finally lives!!!

A few pics of the engine rebuild, cleaning up the replacement top end;

 Taking the old engine apart;

New bits painted and installed;

 Snapped a stud tightening up the camshaft journal caps (cos my hands are so strong and manly) - doh!!

Engine ready to go!

Struggling to wrestle it back in the frame;

 Dooone!

= one happy chappy!!!

And just in time for winter!! Still a few finishing touches to sort out. Controls and brakes need tweaking a bit, tank pain needs sorting, red decals etc. But for those that cant remember here's what it was like before I started;