Chopped at last

Haven't had a good shed sesh in a few weeks, partly because I've been busy, and partly because I was avoiding chopping that fender! Well tonight I finally pulled my finger out and took some advice.

Marked it with tape and then took the angle grinder to it. Wanted to add some strength back into the fender to I bent a piece of 5mm bar by hand into the rough profile. I tacked it in place bit by bit to bend it to shape before fully welding it in

Cleaned it up with the flapper disc and tried it on the bike. Now I've done it I'm actually pleased with the result. It's clean and simple and necessary.

M8 bungs

Picked up my first batch of M8 'top hat' bungs today. Ideal for welding into your frame to make a neat bolt on connection.

More do it yourself fabrication parts to come!!

Chain tensioner

Made up a chain tensioner. I managed to track down an 'idler' gear that comes with a built in bearing to run on, and turned up a bush to sit inside it.



Then I made a slot in a 5mm plate for it to fix to



I got it jammed in place with a bit of pipe and welded it to the frame





Also spent some time tonight working on the rear fender. Decided it was high time I cleaned up my welding and sorted this gusset out.



Made the gusset out of 10mm plate and welded it in



The chain clashes wih the rear fender so I'm going to have to cut some bits out of it

Brake linkage etc

Cleaned the torque arm up



Spent most of this weekend working on the rear brake linkage. For starters I knew I needed a con-rod longer than the original, so I ordered some 5mm bar and cannibalized the stock one.





Didn't think it through though, as the stock rod is tapped M6 at the end, but a 5mm bar isn't thick enough to achieve the properly, so it just got a slight thread on it. I welded it to the stock connector and also welded a washer on. It will do for now, I've ordered some 6mm bar and M6 studding to make a better one.

Next problem. The new hardtack frame means that the brake lever on the rear drum sticks too far out so the conrod clashes with the frame



To rectify this I carefully made two slits in the lever, not quite all the way through, and bent it to the right angle



Now I thought I had got everything in place apart from the spring, but after lots of fiddling I still couldn't get the adjustment right for the foot pedal. What I didn't realise until I looked back at the stock frame was that there was additional adjustment in the form of a screw which acts as a back stop.



So after a seriously thick coat of thinking I decided that I needed this and that the simplest way to do it was to mimic the stock frame with a screw of my own. I started by just drilling and tapping my frame in the right place.



I wasn't satisfied that this was secure enough, and I needed another connection for the spring, so I went with the threaded bung idea again and made two mini M6 bungs.



Tacked them into the frame;



And that did the trick!





You can see i also had to lengthen the step in the lever for the bolt head to sit nice and flat. I tested it out and I can now adjust things up so the rear brake feels nice and sharp. Just need to remake the con-rod when the bits get here.