Motorcycle General Discussion

Well, one thing about building a "special" is that everything almost fits, but nothing quite fits. Spent an interesting time in the shed today fitting rearset footpegs, trying to marry up Norton pegs and brackets to Harley kickstarter and gear lever. Ended up with about half a milimetre to spare an any direction.

I may shorten the pegs a little, although they stick out less than the original Norton Atlas pegs did. But had to make a 1/1/4" spacer to get the footpeg piviot out to where the peg would fold up out the way of the kicker, just...

I was thinking of making a push-in pull-out mounting that would let me click the whole thing outwards to fold it up, then slide it back into the frame when riding, but the chain is right there so no room for anything to slide in there. So, it is what it is for now. And will stop my hoofs from dragging on the ground.

Using the bike lift that I bought was made easier when I realised that the detachable ramp could be shimmed under the end to lift it up about 1 1/2" and a 3/4" sheet placed in front. That made the slope easier up to the 7" lowered height. It makes pushing the bike on easier. I will be cutting off one corner of the stand just outboard of the reinforcing bar as it is just at ankle height in the close confines of the garage, and a soft rubber pad will be fitted there. See posts on 22/7/2022. The bike won't be run till about May, I feel thecold too much at my age.

I won't be riding the bike up onto the lift, Clive Foster was perfectly right about it being a dodgy thing to do.

Edited By old mart on 10/01/2023 19:34:55

Hopper, I imagined you eating up those Australian miles on a Captain America chopper not scratching on a featherbed framed Harley. Should be good fun when finished.

Mike

Just started my latest project, it's I believe a 1930ish Douglas T6 600cc twin, it's mostly all there and should make a tidy ride when complete.

Colin

Yesterday I sent off a Ducati Darmah wiring loom I made for someone. Took a lot of work to get the design down on paper (spreadsheet) and then sourcing the correct connectors.

It took much longer to make than anticipated as I had to upgrade my plating equipment from 5L and 5amp to 10L and10amp to be able to zinc plate the bracket that holds the connector blocks.

Its because of this bracket that you can't buy Darmah wiring looms commercially.

Graham

That will keep you busy in the workshop for a while. Beautiful old bike. And the 600 should purr along nicely.

I did all that back in the day. I like to think I have matured since then -- into a boy racer.

If you haven't been or joined I can thoroughly recommend the douglas forum and the london douglas club, very friendly and helpful and the club has a good spares scheme. Looks like a lot an interesting project

Yes Hopper I hope it will keep me going through the Winter and into the Spring. Hi Paul, I have been a Douglas member for five years, maybe more since I bought a Dragonfly and there's enough info on the forum to keep you in reading for years.

Colin

Bit of progress on mounting the Manx seat on the Snortster today. Cut out a piece of 3mm alloy plate to support the very thin seat base and made mounting brackets to the frame out of an old Keep Left street sign. Upcycling!

My cheap Chinese bandsaw used in vertical mode made easy work of it. One thing I did learn is that not all motorbike seats are symetrical, and their mounting bolt holes are not always straight, square, even or symetrical. One is 15mm closer to the seat edge than the other. So holes ended up being slots. Grrr.

And now, testing out using Imgur photo hosting site and copy and pasting the HTML link on to here:

Now that is weird. Just showed a bunch of code and no pic the first time I saved and viewed the post. But now on opening the post to edit it, I can see the pic in its full glory. Hmm. Try again:

Doubly weird. Bunch of code first time I saved it. Then opened to edit it and the pic appears. Oh well, will try a few more:

Just checked it out o nthe test thread and it seems the quick way to post pictures is to upload them to Imgur, then copy and paste the Imgur HTML link option onto your post here. Close your post. Reopen your poste for editing. Close your post again, and the pic magically appears! Weird but quicker than using this site's slow upload and album process.

Haha, just pegged the North Queensland safety boot in the first pic. Busted. It's 90F in the shed and 85pc humidity so safety from heat exhaustion takes precedence over safety from dropping things on toes.

Edited By Hopper on 21/01/2023 03:46:00

Edited By Hopper on 21/01/2023 03:48:08

Edited By Hopper on 21/01/2023 03:50:02

Edited By Hopper on 21/01/2023 03:50:26

Edited By Hopper on 21/01/2023 04:02:11

Edited By Hopper on 21/01/2023 04:04:21

Hopper, I do like that creation of a Harley engine squeezed into the Dommie frame. Should give decent cycle parts that handle and stop well and will look very nice with the Manx-like seat (and tank?). I guess the engine is about 50bhp but with the torque of a tank?

Did the frame have to be stretched at all? You have just had to reverse the rear wheel drive side I see.

Well done

Norm

Thanks Norm. I originally put it together in the 1980s out of spare parts I had in my shed. Spare frame for my Atlas and spare engine for my Sportster. Rode it for a couple of years and it was lovely. The engines run about 60hp but respond well to a big carb, straight pipes and free flowing air filter. And yes pull like a tractor. An absolute hoot to ride. Of all the Harleys,they are the most raw, punchiest and raunchiest engine. It just squeezed in the frame with no stretching and gentle use of tyre levers to get the oil pump past the bottom frame rail. Rear rocker box sticks up above the top of the top frame tube about half an inch, but hopefully when the Manx tank arrives the reliefs in the bottom will clear that. With the stock Atlas tank I had to mount it up on extra rubbers a little bit.

Yes, 19" Rocket 3 chronical hub rear wheel flipped around and anchored to a tab welded to the swingarm. Cross shaft and arm to the brake pedal is off an old BSA or something that I found kicking around. Currently making a chainguard for it, as everything else uses one on the other side so can't adapt them. Mudguards are BSA A65 as found. Handlebars BMW R90S. Clutch lever and switch Trident. Oil tank and battery box HD Sportster. Side stand Kawasaki ZX9. (That should add 25mph top speed!). Chronometric clocks to go on it yet. And a Ducati 900SS fairing lurking in the background there . But clip ons and my back are not great friends these days!

Yes definitely no clip-ons at our ages ! But rear-sets and straight bars, or a slight rise, work well together.

There is normally a lot of space under an alloy Manx tank to clear the DOHC cambox. You might have to check how a wideline Manx tank fits on the Atlas top frame rails though.

The short, open pipes might be 'interesting'. Are you considering any muting?

Norm, yes the pipes are definitely interesting! They were OK in the wilds of Montana in the 1980s but will definitely not pass a roadworthy inspection in 21st century Australia. I have bought some internal baffles that slip up inside the pipes but my experience is they overly restrict these engines and can stop them running at all over about 2,000 rpm so will have to do some experimenting there. A pair of short megaphone mufflers would be the next option, but that rear pipe might need moving out to accommodate the extra width of the muffler, and as you can see from my earlier posts there is zero room to do that with the folding rearsets. Eventually might look at getting a 2 into 1 standard exhaust off a very early model Sportster and putting a Gold Star "twitterer" muffler on the end for a more cafe sort of look with a more socially acceptable noise level. I am not a fan of overly loud pipes. A bit of rumble for road presence is good.But I do value what is left of my hearing!

Tank I have coming is a Manx tank made for the Slimline Atlas frame, so an inch or so narrower at the back but seems to have all the usual reliefs in the bottom for the original Manx overhead gear, plus extending back for air flow, which should clear the HD rear head.

The rearsets with R90S low bars give a nice sporty but not crippling ride position.

Committing sacrilege today, abbreviating the stock Norton brake pedal to match my rearset footpegs. Cut 180mm out of it and now it's off to my mate the aircraft welder to get tigged up, along with the chainguard I made up earlier. My hands are too shaky and my eyes too dim for that sort of thin welding these days. And the brake pedal is some kind of cast steel so not sure of what rod to use to weld that, so let the perfessionals deal with it.

Edited By Hopper on 22/01/2023 10:51:05

Edited By Hopper on 22/01/2023 10:54:24

Edited By Hopper on 22/01/2023 10:54:46

The thing about building a special is every little thing on them is so, well, special. In order to fit the longer Manx tank, I had to fit rearset footpegs, which require the fitting of a folding kickstarter for clearance. But the pinch bolt on the folding kickstarter is positioned 90 degrees out from the standard kicker arm, and that pinch bolt fits trhough a notch in the square on the end of the kickstarter shaft. So, in order to rotate the kicker shaft by 90 degrees, I have to pull the gear off the other end of it and rotate it 90 degrees on the square end of the shaft. Which requires pulling the clutch off to get to it, which requires of course pulling the primary cover, sprockets (big sockets and pullers needed) and chain and tensioner etc. So you end up with this:

Just so I could get access to this and undo the lock tag and nut, rotate the gear 1/4 of a turn and put the tag and nut back on. (It is the big gear on the right with the pressed steel face cam riveted to it.)

Oh well. Tomorrow's task is to get all that lot off the floor and back into the bike. And put the folding kickstarter on the other end of the shaft.

Special. Very special.

Edited By Hopper on 26/01/2023 11:20:00

Been enjoying the pictures (and notes), not an easy thing you doing there!

It’s an interesting exercise swopping between a classic British and a modern bike, feet get a little mixed up...

Not as complex, but some interesting engineering none the less. Designed an automatic lubrication system for my Blackbird recently...

I can swap feet ok but the Nortons get me every now and again with the first up, second etc down pattern. Come barrelling into a corner with the old single leading shoe front brake and go to bang it down a gear for some extra engine braking and in fact shift it up a gear, which makes the bike go faster! Unfortunately, with my rear sets set up as is, the Harley gear pedal facing rearwards instead of forwards, it will have a Norton first-is-up shift pattern. Doh!

Good idea for a chain oiler. I have pretty much converted all mine to X-ring chains and Teflon spray and done away with gooey back wheels. But I don't ride them enough these days to wear out a chain very often so not critical for me. Seem to spend at least 10 hours in the workshop for every hour riding these days. I need to change that!

I mastered swapping from left to right foot gear change but I was also stuffed when I was loaned a 250 Desmo Ducati, the reverse pattern change meant that I nearly came to a standstill thinking about changing gear. I have an automatic car and a manual and now don’t even think about swapping from one to the other. Although the Ducati was an experience I was quite happy when it went back.

Mike

I always understood that that sort of bike fitting was made of malleable iron. Back when I could see, I just welded as if they were steel. Never had a breakage.