painting day… I debated on painting some of the parts satin black, but I actually like the fake carbon, plus its very durable. The fuel filters came as well.. I bought an 8mm and a 6mm one and swapped the parts over to compensate for the fact the fuel tap is a smaller pipe than the carb! I was going to put a standard Honda decal on the tank, but then I saw these and liked them… not from the usual supplier, but the seller also sent me some samples so i could test the compatibility with the laquer. It was fine thank goodness. When painting over decals there are a few tips… first off I always do a first coat of laquer and let it dry, i never put them on the base coat. then I wet sand with 1000 wet and dry and then stick the decals in place. Now the important bits… Always wipe the area with panel wipe… this is for two reasons. Firstly, there is always some adhesive on the edge of the decal, and secondly they often have silicon on them and that makes the paint cess. I always give a mist coat over the decal and let it tack off, the reason for this is if you hit it with a full coat first you end up with runs off the horizontal edges of the decal. I looked at the filler cap that came new with the tank and decided it looked crap, so I took it apart and made a new on incorporating a breather.
yeah, I felt like a change and always fancied a big single! I have come to a standstill now until the powder coater finishes my frame and parts, which is quite frustrating! Like so many business these days he just can't get good reliable staff so has a backlog... I have also finished the wiring diagram ready to do the electrics.
scratching around for jobs to do at the moment as the frame is still at the powder coaters… fingers crossed he has promised it for tomorrow… we will see. Today I made an adaptor to fit a foam filter on the FCR carb…
Well it looks like there will be another delay. The company I have used for many years for powder coating has messed me around for a month now, lots of broken promises, which resulted in me going over this morning and fetching it all back. Some of it is done, but not up to the usual standard, and the frame has just been blasted. Still charged me the price as if it was all done. Didn’t argue, just walked away. So, I managed to match the paint colour and will do the frame in 2K which in many ways will be better.
for years I have had frames powder coated... the main reason was I hated the amount of overspray painting tubes makes in the garage... However, powder coating does come with a few disadvantages... Firstly finding someone who will do a good job! I have had some terrible jobs done in the past... the other disadvantage is if there are any rust pits, you cant cover them with anything due to the powder coat process involving heat. With a sprayed finish you can use a 2K primer filler which does a brilliant job of covering them imperfections up. the other advantage is it's much easier to touch up in the future, plus and unlimited range of colours. So after the powder coater messed me around again, I decided to paint the frame with 2K. here is the results. I started with a thin coat of etch primer (or adhesion promoter as I prefer to call it!) followed by two coats of 2K primer filler. After a bit of a flat off with 800 I gave it two coats of silver base coat, followed by two of 2K lacquer. I did this in the garden, under the Gazebo, which was brilliant! I am really pleased with the results and probably won't go back to powder coating again.
The other thing the powder coater did for me was the plating… but he didn’t, despite having it a month. I used to do this myself with a home kit, but it was hugely time consuming and he would do a batch for £45. I knew this had potential to hold me up again so after the bank holiday I made a list of local companies that did plating. The first one I visited said I would need to open an account… and the minimum invoice was £120… The second one, the reception was locked, so I wondered into the factory via a side door to be met with a very friendly guy, the owner of the company. I showed him what I had and he said he would do it… but they had a minimum charge… £28! He said come back next day as he would do it at the end of today’s production run. Next day I popped back… Fantastic job! I hate hammering bearings in where there is an alternative… so I pull the head bearings into place with a large piece of threaded bar, this works a treat and allows the bearings to be seated nicely before assembling the headstock. One job I needed to do was to check that there was no blasting media in the frame oil tank. Although I had sealed it you never know, that blast media has a habit of getting inside! I used my bore scope which is an excellent bit of kit! It has an 8mm camera probe and LED lights, it plugs directly into my phone so I can see inside things like engines, it takes stills and videos! All for £15! No sign of any media at all. As I was doing it my wife came into the garage with a coffee… I said let me have a look in your ear… I checked inside her ear and said “just as I expected…nothing in there” she silently walked out… with my coffee It’s all coming together fast now as you can see…
absolutely incredible work, am blown away at how talented you are and many on this forum, proper old school engineers, amazing stuff
To be honest... they lost a few parts, which means I wont use them again... frustrating... Things don’t always go to plan… I dropped the speedo and of course the glass cracked. Very frustrating! My first reaction was to just buy another… then I got thinking… maybe I could repair it? So I made a new bezel out of aluminium and tried to peen it over… first attempt failed, it was too thick, so I made another, and that worked perfectly! One tip when bending aluminium is to aneale it first. To do this mark it with a sharpi pen and heat it.. when the marks disappear, its the correct temperature for annealing! just let it cool… I was able to turn a new glass out of 3mm polycarbonate, clamped between two pieces of aluminium, and a revolving centre. I guess there are now a couple of advantages… the alloy is more in keeping with the bike, and i was able to remove the GPS logo. While the MOT man is not bothered, (its not a reason to fail) A GPS speedo does not comply with construction and use regulations.
This build comes to an end, just in time for spring and the better weather! Took it for MOT today and it passed with no problem… But then again he follows my builds! I did spend a very frustrating day yesterday.. I measured the voltage to check it was charging... It wasn't! I set about fault finding ( the electrex worldwebsite has a fantastic fault finding section!) and everything checked out, I couldn't understand what was wrong... In desperation I asked my mate to pop round... First thing he di was check the volts... with his meter... It was charging! the fault was my meter! I will update in a while when I have put a few miles on it... first impressions are very favorable! Its very light and weighs in at 139KG with a bit of fuel in there... On the road it feels torquey and nimble!
As this build finishes my mind turns to the next project, I have 6 months to think about it as I like to ride over the summer months... Yesterday I moved the cars and bikes out of the garage so I could give it all a good clean. Moving the bikes around made me realize just how heavy the Guzzi feels (200kg) its manageable for me at the moment, but I am sure a time will come when that also becomes too heavy... The Ducati's weigh in at 165- 168 KG and with the high bars, they are easy enough to move around. The Honda feels super light in comparison! Incidentally I rode a Honda Montesa last month... at 80 ish KG that felt like a push bike! I think the next build will be a single cylinder, and as powerful as I can find... which means going for a watercooled bike. maybe quite modern, and perhaps accident damaged/reparable salvage... we will see, watch this space! suggestions welcome!
What about a modern Royal Enfield single, someone must have crashed one of those for salvage ? Or, what about fuel injecting a Suzuki DR800 or a Honda single ?
Last year I rode a mates Himalayan... 24 BHP out of a 400... it was terrible! this year I rode a 350 classic... 20 bhp... better bike, but still so low on power... favorite at the moment is a KTM Duke, with 74 BHP and 146 KG... I will look around for a damaged one I think
A 790 would be perfect! been a while since I updated.... I have been using the bikes quite a lot, despite the cold and wet spells of weather! One thing that’s always bugged me on the last Ducati build was the side mounted number plate… so when i was checking the bike over and noticed a crack in the plate, (poor design and manufacture on my part, I am ashamed!) I decided to fit a rear mounted one the same as a lot of bikes use these days, and also the same as I did on the honda build... I made the bracket out of 12 and 16mm ERW steel tube which I cold bent around a former. it the walls on the former are nice and thick, you can do quite tight bends without kinking. I also made a carbon fiber finisher, using the tyre shape to create a mould. (I covered the tyre with tin foil first!) it came out rather well! The other thing that bugged me was a slight fluffynes/hesitation on initial acceleration. I backed off the advance just a little and it completely disappeared! Red Vs blue line in the graph. just shows what a small adjustment can make!
