Bah Humbug Time Again

As the title says...it's Bah Humbug time again folks. It's that time of year where just about everyone goes into kiniptions going out and spending buttloads of cash trying to get the perfect prezzy's as well as decorating for the season. Hopefully you all have a good Bah Humbug and get some good things from the Fat Man in red. Things such as that elusive part that has kept the current project on the bench for way too long, an actual hard disc copy of "Race of the Power Bikes" featuring the JPN members back in the early 70s, or some good riding gear and not the latest Power Ranger suit! Bodger plans on spending a nice quiet time in with the two roving alarms, Bandit and Smudge the Wonder Dog, cooking a wee turkey with some fixin' with some pie and Cool Whip for after, a long distance chinwag on AG Bell's invention and then maybe hitting a movie later on with Teri. As far as pressy's, Bodger has some on the way; a couple of family movies such as The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren and Siege of Fire Base Gloria, The Search for Robert Johnson has just come in a few days ago. Teri will be getting her press's on Chrimbo Day while the youngest sprog and his SWMBO will be getting there's in a few days as some as it's put together. Have a Merry Bah Humbug everyone!!!!!!

Another great clip

I saw this way back when I was about 15 or so and have looking for it ever since .

This is a great clip on the JPN Team as well as a privateer at the 73 IOM TT.

Great video even though the quality may seem a little off.

Vintage film

While trawling Youtube for something this was found. It's very dated, naturally, but it kind of gives an idea some of the work done at Small Heath. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll2gBdB3AHU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwjubHY2A4s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTwbqo9e5W8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr7Am1ZQto4

A new heart

OK it's really a piston but ya gotta admit that the piston(s) is/are the heart of a motorcycle coz that's what does all the pumping. In the last post it was mentioned that the cylinder was taken to a machine shop to see what the actual bore size was and it was determined it was standard bore. Hazzzzzzzah!!! So after trawling eBay a nice new with gudgeon pin, circlips and rings piston was bought from those great folks at SRM down there in Walesland. Here, see for yourself:

This is good as it's a good quality piston and not one of those pattern thingy's that are made out of monkey metal and will probably melt at the first hint of any heat. Not only was a new piston down bought, but a few weeks back, a new (pattern) ignition switch with keys (most important) was bought:

And then last night in a moment of weakness, some NOS (so they say) fork tubes were also purchased:

The browsing and spending on eBay has to go on pause for the rest of the year so pressies can be bought for Teri as well as the youngest sprog and his significant other half SWMBO, Theresa. But in the meantime, it couldn't hurt to give the Fatman a list of goodies for Bah Humbug. Let's start off with: A BSA Rocket 3 A BSA OIF 650 A Triumph X75 Hurricane More movies and good ones too.....NOT that stuff that's about now! A GI Joe with a Kung Fu grip And, what else???

It's all a bore!

A standard bore to be exact..... Today while off from toiling in the Postal salt mines, it was decided by Ol' Watosh to take the barrel for Vicky to SOS Cycles to see if Stu could check out the ID of the cylinder to determine if it was standard or had been bored out and if so, to what size.

Great plan except for one thing, Stu didn't have an ID measuring doodad, but he did say that across the way was a machine shop that should be able to figger these things out and so they did.

After doing the measuring of the bore and doing the mathematical figgering using the calculator, it was determined that the bore was.........drumroll.............standard and with a good honing should be as good as gold.

Not too shabby considering what state the motor was in when first found and bought. And with new(ish) bits being got, it'll pretty soon be like a whole new motor. WEEKEND UPDATE AND NEWSFLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A nice, new, shiny Wiseco standard size piston with rings, clips and pin is winging it's way thisaways courtesy of SRM, them nice folks' outta Aberwrsywyth (?) in Wales.

Spinning wheel

Hopefully with new bearings it will be.Was going to do some more paint work today, but with one thing and another (read it being a nice day and being a wee bit lazy) decided to do something else instead.As all the paintwork is being done by hand, I figured that I'd do th ewheel hubs the same way too. Except the problem is that I can't see the point in taking the wheel completely apart to do that plus I didn't want to pony up money that isn't there to have the wheels rebuilt. Sooooooo the spokes were masked off near the hub to prep for spraying with primer and then with some heat resistant black paint.

Also took the wheel bearings out so they can be replaced.Was actually surprised to see that they had been replaced at one point by some sealed, on one side anyway, bearings. From the hamfisted way this once proud machine had been treated in the past, I figured the original bearings were probably still in there, beat all to hell and then some. But no, they had been replaced.

Anyway, back to the story, once the primer is sprayed and before it's painted with the black paint, some cleaning of the rims and spokes will be in order. Solvol, some steel wool and some elbow grease will be seeing pplenty of action to get these up to snuff....hopefullyThen before the painting, a film of Vaseline will be smeared on to make it easy to remove any overspray.If all works the way I want it to, should work out great.......if it doesn't, there's always Plan B....figger sommit else out!

Frank Conley

Just read that Frank Conley of Greeves fame died the other day, October 27 to be exact. Frank was THE Greeves guy in Carmel, California who basically could supply any part for any model Greeves there was. Never met the man, bought any parts from him or anything else other than that I know of him due to searching the 'net for info on Greeves' as that is one make, a trials model specifically, that needs to be in the stable along with others on the wish list. Here's a couple of pics of him, one with Nick Nicholson who used to have most of the Greeves parts in th eStates until Frank bought. Also in the pic is Dick "Bugsey" Mann, former motorcycle racer.

Nick Nicholson (L) Dick Mann (Center) Frank Conley (R)

Frank Conley Hopefully the shop and business supplying parts etc will stay alive, who knows I might actually get a Greeves trialss and need parts! RIP Frank!

Old and decrepit

And I ain't a talkin' about the Bodger here thank you very much!!! Several posts back there was mention of a trip that my lass Teri and myself had done to some wineries.....well this weekend was no exception. We went pretty much in the same area that we had before when a motorcycle shop was spotted but due to no camera at the time, a Kodak moment wasn't to be had. This time was different; after some diplomatic requests were made to SWMBO, we made a stop in the same town again and this time armed with the digital camera, pictures were taken. Still no idea what the name of the shop is or even if it's still active or not. At 11:30am there was no life to be seen inside the premises even though the lights and ceiling fans were on. Plus Bodger couldn't see a way to the entrance past the wrought iron fencework. Anyways, see for yourselves:

As you can see from the pics, the title above is justified. From peeking through the windows, plus the crudely made sign nailed above the doors, it looks like this is a place that may cater to Milwaukees finest. The few bikes that were outside were there a few months ago from the looks of the dust on them and they were, with one exception, Japanese dirt bikes. The lone example being a Hinckley Triumph. Anyways, this is just an example of what you cn find while out and about doing sommit else such as winetastings.

A bit more work done

Over the past week or so some more minor work has been done to Vicky. As the paint used has been an acryllic enamel of sorts, all parts painted to date have been left to dry good and hard. The last couple of days a few parts here and there have been sanded down with wet-n-dry paper to get ready for the next coat. There have been some runs so those will be all taken care of prior to the next coat. Also, today it was decided to try and take the cranckcase bearings out. But instead of the old tried and true method of bunging the cases in the oven to roast for a wee bit, something else was tried. A heat gun from Home Depot was used to locally heat the areas where the bearings lived. A few minutes and some taps with a BFH and an appropriate sized socket did the trick. While Bodger was on a roll, the long cylinder studs were replaced as one had a slight bend near the threads at the top. Figured just replace them all and be done with it. The dishwasher was employed to do some cranckcase washing. Put one half in, used some dish soap, turned it on, went aboot doing something important like watching a movie while it went through the cycles. BIG MISTAKE!!!! Don't think the dishwasher had been used in quite some time along with maybe a little too much dish soap as the floor was covered in soap suds. Thought the place had gone Titanic at first but it wasn't as bad as it looked. But in future will clean things the old fashioned way by using plenty of grease, steel wool and brake cleaner, More rubbing down of painted parts will carry on while it's cool right now and the second coat applied when it warms up some before it really gets cold here. We just had a cold front move in from somewhere which dropped temps down fron the high 80s mid 90s to in the mid 50s these past few days. Loved it, but not good for painting things in a garage as it tends to have an effect on the paint and it's drying. Also went to a local Oktobeerfest a few miles away along with a wine fest in another town so teri and Bodger both could relax and unwind from the stresses of the salt mines we both are obliged to toil at. Ah well, work continues.

Paint it black......

Yes, that is the title of a Stones tune and also what I did to a few parts as of late. Seeing how the compressor had to stay at the old location and the hard earned is being used for parts obtaining, it was decided to go the traditional route and paint by hand. Horror, Eek, Are you insane? and other descriptive adjectives I hear you utter in disbelief. But it's true. Started out by doing the frame a few weeks back and today, a few other bits. Later some other parts will get the treatment as well. So far so good......

The frame

Seat base

Oil tank

Skid plate This was just the first coat, put on regular without being thinned down some. After sanding down with some wet-n-dry paper, two more coats will be added but cut by 50% each coat. All this while listening to Radio Caroline CDs to get in that "working in the shed" mode..... Meanwhile, more parts have been got such as the clutch/brake/decompressor cables, the phosphor bronze bushing for the little end, the rubber grommet where the wiring harness goes into the headlight shell, complete plug wire stuff as well as the wee rubber grommit that is in the crankcase for the alternator wire to pass through. More parts of the jigsaw puzzle to get while the paint dries as well as trying to get the forks completely apart. It goes on.............

A celebrity

Back about 18 months ago, March 28, 2011 to be exact there was a posting on here about my mate Kawa/Iain (his Sunday name) at a Scottish show, with an actual picture.

Well sir, Kawa has done it again and is in this months issue of "Practical Sportsbikes".

Seems there was a section there on AMA replica machines and their owners and Kawa has one whole page to himself to include a picture of him himself.

If you want to know more, go down to your local bookstore (Barnes and Noble) and buy one. Don't stand there and read it for free, buy one!

It's not the library ya know!!!!!!

Painting prep

Yesterday while out and about, a trip to ye olde paint shoppe was made and the stuff to do the painting, paint itself for the frame, a gallon of thinners, some small mixing cups and brushes were bought.

After talking to the mannie in the shop and explaining what was to take place, namely the painting by hand of the frame and other parts, he suggested that some type of alkyd based paint be used.

Said paint doesn't need a catalyst but needs some work to apply. So a quart was got and will be used.

The frame and a few sundry bits were already sprayed with an etching primer and then with a coat of a filler/gray primer combination and the frame hung in the garage for the painting.

The sundry bits such as swing arm, oil tank, battery tray etc will be hung on wires from the garage door tracks. The frame is hanging from chains and s-hooks from the tracks already.

Small turnbuckle type fasteners were used to support the rear frame assembly while a long eye-bolt was put throught the headstock and then hung by chain.

The large eye-bolt has two large flat washers and a couple of nuts to keep everything in place and secure. Also should keep any paint from inside the head stock and bearing races.

A little bit of work on the fork sliders has gone on. Seems that rust has taken it's toll and made things difficult but it'll get done.

Here's a useful tip.....for working with delicate things such as aluminum, some type of soft holder needs to be used in a vise. If you don't have any and need some for a quick job, a pair of aluminum beer cans can be used.

A pair of Guinness cans were used for the forks. The small round white thing was found inside the can. A drink and a prize, can't beat it!

As the weather is a little cooler today, there's a good possibility that the frame may get painted tomorrow. There may be a chance of rain so we'll see.

Engine stand

Way back in the mists of time, about 8 months ago, Bodger went mad and bought a few things of importance to use in the shed.

However since a shed is unavailable a garage is being used instead. Nevermind that my lad, what did ye buy way back them I hear you all yell?

One of the things obtained was an engine stand to mount the engine in while work is being done on it. Very nice you say, but what's that got to do with anything?????

Yesterday, some nuts and bolts and washers were bought, the electric drill was used and the stand was mounted on to a solid surface for when it's needed.

Have a look below and see for yourself.

The shelf thingy was rescued from the side of the road. The stand was bolted onto the top shelf to have it at eye level more or less. Leaves the second shelf to lay tools, mugs of tea or even parts on.

Plus there's holes in the sides of the supports that hooks are put into and helmets are hung from, outta the way and all in one place.

Not bad idea all in all.

Some work done

Surprisingly it's true.....

The past week or so Bodger has been slightly busy on the old nail.....errrr....Vicky.

Parts such as valve guides (just in case), a headlight shell, a complete crankshaft assembly, and a few other odds and sods to help the rebuild move along at slightly faster than a snails pace have been obtained.

The crank assembly is to replace the old one that looked like it had been submerged underwater longer than the Titanic. The replacement is in beautiful nick so should, fingers crossed, work a treat.

Today while off from work, the large nut that holds the sprocket in place behind the clutch was removed, the horn was cleaned up some, and in an attempt to remove a rusty external fork spring ended up unscrewing the fork slider from the holder thingy.

However, the other fork leg is being a little on the stubborn side so an attack of penetrating spray was launched to make the rusty threads give up the ghost.

But the good news is that the Allen head bolts that hold the damper rod in place were persuaded to give it up without too much difficulty. So now the damper rods can be taken out and work on the forks can begin.

All this in temperatures that reminds Bodger of three years spent in Tucson, Arizona...namely in the 100Fs for the most part, though today was cooler, only up to about 97F.

Also before it's completely forgotten about, two, not one, but two brand new t-shirts were added to the pile of clothing that passes for Bodgers wardrobe.

The shirt had nine panels featuring models from the Norton marque, old Nortons not the Gardner ones. The shirt was so nice, a second was bought!

Work and parts search still continues!!!!!!

Edit (8/23/2102)!!!!!!!!!!!

Some pictures of the newish parts:

Crank assembly

Headlight shell

Clutch assembly

The first picture is of the two crank assemblies, the old decrepit one on the right and the new one on the left.

The second is of the headlight shell which will need some work to get it back to a decent state. Get rid of some rust, replaace connections and whatever else and good as new.

The last picture is of an entire clutch assembly that was bought today off eBay for the princely sum of $102.

The things you see while out and about

After signing some papers at my attorneys office I happened to see these on the street corner.

After nearly getting whiplash from the double take and a fast turnaround, I managed to get some shots.

No info on them and no money in the account or the BSA would've been in the garage with the others.

Of the two, the BSA like I say would've been in my garage if the funds were available. Not fond of choppers though I do sort of like the look of a well designed and thought out bobber and except for a few things on it, the BSA looked good. Then again I could be just a little biased for some reason.

Banbury's finest

Todays waffling will be about Banbury's finest and it's not the local constabulary.

Banbury in Oxfordshire is known for a few things, these being Banbury Cakes which is similar to an Eccles cake and is pretty tasty, Banbury Cross which is a monument that's smack dab in the middle of the road and forms a roundabout or traffic circle/rotary, and it's cattle market which at one time was the largest in Europe and then there's two motorcycle racers.

The Cross, cakes, etc can be Googled for more info if you like, the racers are Dan Shorey and Eddie Dow.

They both had dealerships in Banbury which unfortunately closed down back before Bodger became a part of the Banbury motorcycle scene back in the mid 70s.

Dan Shorey had his dealership up in North Bar which was a street in Banbury and there was a huge metal sign attached to the building wall that was still there as far as 1980 if I recall.

Shorey raced at the IoM and at Thruxton near Andover, Hants, partnering with one Mike Hailwood to win a race there, a 24 hour I think it was.

The other well known gent was Eddie Dow. he also raced at the IoM as well as in ISDT events and did well in all.

He's more notably known for his association with BSA Gold Stars and his improvements on another BSA model that was highly desirable.

There was one more in the Banbury area, living in the village and running, with her brother, the Three Tuns pub that Bodger at one time used to frequent from time to time.

This lady was the late Olga Kevelos who was quite well known and experienced on the trials circuit as well as other forms of two wheel sport plus a dabble in four wheel.

Besides being a publican and well versed in/on two wheels, Olga also had a very colorful life being a twice contestant on "Mastermind", a TV knowledge show as well as canal boat operator during WWII, hauling vital war supplies between cities.

I believe she was in a previous posting in this bloggy thing.

If you want to know more about them, Google them or check in Wikipedia for more info....you'll always be surprised at what you find, like Bodger is.

Back in the saddle again...sort of

OK I've been a little, OK alot, inactive with the rebuilding of Vicky of late, so figured it was time to pull my finger out and do something.

Still putting the engine work off until ALL the various bits and bobs are in, but that doesn't stop other work such as painting, etc.

After taking a long needed vacation with my better half Teri, I had been wanting to get back into doing some actual work. It was after paying a visit to a sc**ter shop in Fredricksburg and seeing some beautifully restored bikes that got fires stoked so to speak. That and some unexpected prodding from Teri.

I say unexpected as Teri isn't overly fond of motorcycles, but she thought it'd be good for work to get started again.

So.....some work done on the seat.

Sanding of the rusty places was in order but the whole thing really needed it. Started off by removing the white vinyl piping from along the bottom edge as well as the two chrome flashing strips on the sides.

This was a little tricky as the wee nuts were well and truly rusted in place. But with some prior thought on the matter, liberal spraying of penetrating fluid helped that out.

With but a little bit of trouble, the nuts came off and it was discovered that the little studs the nuts screwed onto were in fact tiny little screws and they were held in a smallish channel within the flashings.

After wiping things down with an old sock and then a tack clothe, it was time for major surgery of sorts.

Using a fiberglass repair kit, and a few other things, repair work was started.

First off, using some wax paper, the kind used in cooking, the rusted through holes were masked off.

Then cutting pieces of fiberglass clothe that was supplied and with resins mixed, the holes were covered over with resin soaked strips.

For an amateur it wasn't a pretty sight with excess resin dripping everywhere along with stray bits of fiberglass floating about. But the job got done.

A word of advice, try and get this all done in one go as the resin starts to set hard pretty quick and it gets HOT as well.

Next step after letting it all dry is to trim any excess clothe and resin and then to sand or file it down.

Painting, which is the next installment

Summe hols, the next bit

Well sir, the second leg of the summer vacation is done with now, just getting back yesterday in the PM to HOT, HOT, HOT temps of around 105F.

Without all the boring details, we headed out to Lubbock out in west Texas by way of San Angelo and Abilene.

The first night we spent in San Angelo which to knowledge isn't reknown for anything important though at this particular time was hosting a boat drag race competition of some sort. Even though we got in lateish and didn't see much of the place, we weren't to impressed with the place. Sorry people of San Angelo, we just weren't.

However this place, a winery in the local area was really nice and these were nearby:

(Christoval Winery, Christoval, TX)

(1914 Case tractor parked in someones front yard)

(Actual road sign)

Next day saw us stopping the night in Abilene which fans of Westerns will know for cattle drives, lawmen and outlaws and other such western stuff.

Next morning we were on the road headed towards Lubbock. The drive itself took about four hours and the views can be described as flat and level with some hills thrown in, giant windmills used for alternate power dotted the landscape for miles, pumps for oil wells, small towns that had seen better days and the occasional head of cattle.

Lubbock itself was a surprise. There were wide streets, it was spread out, traffic wasn't heavy and maniacal and it was CLEAN. No trash littering the streets, no graffiti or any eyesores whatsoever.

The main reasons for this trip were to indulge in some visits to wineries and for Teri to revisit Lubbock after 30 years to see what it was like.

She had gone to Texas Tech University for a couple of years and graduated to become a teacher. From what Teri said, she hardly recognized the place other than the college itself and a few other places.

We did the tourist thing by going to three of the five wineries that we wanted to go to and then feeling a little "wined" out, went to see a couple of places such as "Prarie Dog Town" and the Buddy Holly statue.

Here's a few inhabitants of Prarie Dog Town:

Prarie Dog Town was created back in the 1930s in one of the local parks as a habitat for prarie dogs, to protect them. Seemed a little strange hearing of this, but Bodger found it pretty cool seeing the little rodents scurrying around.

Buddy Holly needs no introduction does he? He was from Lubbock and is pretty much remembered for hits such as "Peggy Sue" and "That'll be the Day" as well as dying in a plane crash with Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper.

After a couple of days there in Lubbock, it was time to head back to Bodger Country. We took two and a bit days to drive up to Lubbock via San Angelo and Abilene as mentioned as well as some other stops to look at.

Coming back took three days as we made a couple stops along the way, the last one being Fredricksburg.

Here Bodger finally got a chance to drop by the local motorcycle shop. Actually it's a sc**ter shop but they do work on motorcycles and have a few classic rides in there.

On this particular day there were the following; a Honda CA72, a Triumph 350 21, a beautiful Meridan Daytona and I believe a Bonneville. There was also a beautiful example of a B44VS that was going for $3500. In the workshop was a Benelli 350 being restored or at least worked on.

Bodger got to talk to Billy, the owner of the shop and he was very helpful and friendly, offering help as required with the rebuild of "Vicky".

With the exception these bikes, there weren't many seen on the trip and the ones that were out there were mainly of Milwaukee origin or crotch rockets.

Bodger did spy a San Angelo motor cop getting fuel who was riding a SAPD Honda that could've been a Pan America but as Bodger knows next to nothing on these newer contraptions, it's just a guess.

Leaving Fredricksburg on the last leg of the trip home, we hit a few more wineries with some gorgeous views, bought some fresh peaches and then were home.

We both had a good time together being with each other and seeing the sights. But at the end we were both knackered and glad to be home. Even Bandit the beastie was glad to be home from Teri's house.

Wot we did on our summer Holidays............Part Uno

We hit the road and away we went, heading south towards Corpus Christi finally ending up in Ingleside to eat lunch before checking into our motel in Aransas Pass.




After checking in and changing into swim kit, we headed off again this time to Port Aransas or Port A. In order to get to there, we had to take a ferry across a stretch of water as Port A is actually a small island. If you saw the movie "Jaws", you might remember the car ferries in that, well these were the same but smaller.

Anyway, Port A is definitely a tourist trap where the locals make thir living from the hordes of tourist that descend on the area during the summer months. Things are spread out but accessible and there's no pressure to buy or anything so it's fairly relaxed which was good.



So after stopping off at the candy store to buy some, we headed off to Mustang Island so we could hit the beach.

We got to the area which is a State park and after parking, we lugged some folding chairs and some towels out to the beach to sit, relax and take in some sun.



Now being right at the beach in a hot place like south Texas you would think that it would be even more humid than where we live but due to breezes off the Gulf of Mexico, it kept temperatures and humidity down. The only downside to all of this was there were big areas of seaweed in the surf and there were some signs of jellyfish washed up on the beach.

But it was really nice there and considering it was around 5:30pm, that was pretty good.

After heading back and getting cleaned up some, we headed out for dinner back in Corpus.

The next morning we checked out of the motel after eating and drove around a bit doing more of the touristy stuff. Went to Padre Island, got a couple of pics of the aircraft carrier USS Lexington which is now anchored in Corpus Christi Bay, went and bought some trinkets, and a pound of fresh, large shrimp for $10.50 before taking off in the afternoon for Refugio to visit a winery there.







We took the scenic route through Rockport where Bodger managed to get a pic of a restuarant that has to be seen to believed. Actually saww it in Corpus but as we were driving on the freeway and it was a bit off from there, this was one that could not be miss. I think you'll agree that is a great sign and only a pic can prove it exists.



Just in case you couldn't clearly ead the sign, it's "Hu Dat Restuarant" such as someeone knocks at the door and you ask "Who dat?" Sorry, just my warped SOH showing......

Part Two coming next...........