A sad day

I've just recently learned that Olga Kevelos from Kings Sutton, the village I grew up in back when I was younger, has died.

Olga and her brother Ray ran the Three Tuns pub in Kings Sutton and I would got there for a pint or two on some nights. I had heard during visits that Olga used to ride motorcycles, but I wasn't aware of the extent of her involvement until later on.

An article from the Kings Sutton Times gave a short history of her life and experiences. Here's a copy of the article in it's entirety

The Classsic Motorcycle also did a two part story a few years back about Olga's exploits on two and four wheels.

Olga was one of Britians few pioneering women motorcyclists and her or her legacy won't be forgotten.

RIP Olga

                                                                 

Restorations

As this load of drivel is about motorcycle restorations being performed (term used loosely) at Thrash 'em Motorcycles, I thought it best to list a few of the makes and models that I would love to work on if I can get my grubby little mitts on them.

Seeing as how they are very hard to find in this region, other than through trawling the 'net or attending classic bike shows, as it stands for right now, this is basically just a wish list. Anyway, here's the list in no particular order:

-BSA B44 Shooting Star
-Triumph T20 Tiger Cub
-Triumph T100SS
-Norton 750/850 Commando
-BSA A50 Royal Star or A65 Lightning
-Any small British trials bike
-And lasty, a BSA Bantam

There are a few sources that may be of great help in knowing where these beasts exist; one is Allan Johncock of the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum in Vanderpool, Texas.

He has been previously mentioned in this epic story and he surprises me with his latest acquistions every time I visit his collection. If anyone knows of a machine to be had or knows a mate who knows someone that once seen one, he's the one.

Mike Brown, also mentioned before, is another who may know of such things.

Also, I shouldn't forget the British Motorcycle Owners Association (BMOA) based in Houston, Texas. They stage an annual Rallye (their spelling not mine) which attracts classic bikes from this vast state to a tiny little town, village really, for a weekend.

Classic bikes can be seen, heard and ridden in all their glory as well as displayed and parts sold, bought or traded. Various vendors are also out flogging their wares, clubs are in attendance, field events are held and BBQs are going as well .

If a classic bike is wanted, those are the ways to find them.

The hunt will be on at a later date. But first the wee Starfire needs to be finished. Back to reality for now I guess.

Plans for the future

Besides getting the little beast on the road to ride around when I can, I'm also getting her ready  for a special little event.....the 2010 British Singles Run.

Before I tell you about it, it's not what you think, a get-to-together for single Brits. It's a motorcycle run for British single cylinder motorcycles that spans a week out in west Texas.

This is a small event put on by Allan Johncock, Aussie ex-pat and owner of the Lones Star Motorcycle museum in Vanderpool, Texas.

He's been doing this run for about 13 or 14 years now and has participants from all over taking part. The only requirement being that you have to have a British single and more or less invited.

As I said this takes place in west Texas and goes to a different place/town each day. Daily distance covered is about 100 miles a day and average speed is around 50-60 mph.

There's a recovery truck with a trailer for those that break down or don't feel like riding for a spell. At the beginning everyone pitches in $100 to cover running costs for the truck and trailer such as gas, oil and any blown tires.

At each stop over, riders have the choice of either roughing it by camping or living the life of luxury by staying in a hotel or motel with  hot shower, food and drinks and the all important bed.

The stops along the way usually have some type place of interest to see. This year one of the stops was Langtry where Judge Roy Bean, The Hanging Judge,  had his court back in the wild West days.

At the end of the week long run, there is a gathering of sorts to hand out awards and celebrate the end of a successful run.

The event takes place starting the first Saturday in October, starting and ending at the Museum, which will be chronicled at a later date.

But for now, tires, battery and tune up are in the works as well as getting registration papers in my name for ownership.

So if all goes well and the wee beast gets on the road and has no teething problems, we'll be taking part, with a report to accompany.

While we're waiting...

to do the tank sealing, I thought I'd tell you about some of my inspirartions in the classic world.

First, a name I mentioned way back in the beginning, Rick Parkington. Rick is basically a self employed restorer based in Edinburgh. He works from his shed in his back garden and from what I can see has an excellent reputation locally as well as nationally and internationlly through his writings in Classic Bike magazine. His common sense approach to problems and his solutions are most helpful when doing any kind of work on a project.

Another source is Mike Brown who is local to me. You may have seen his book, Building Budget Brits, advertised in some of the classic bike magazines. I've talked to him while at a rally/show and he too has a down to earth common sense approach to keeeping British bikes running.

Grahame Blighe has a book called Improving Classic Motorcycles which covers a few areas that can be improved upon. Even though they are applied to his BSA Bantam and Starfire as well as his Triumph Daytona, these can be applied to any classic motorcycle.

I've gotten a few books off eBay that have been helpful or just plain informative; one is published by Haynes and is called The Practical Motorcycle Workshop Handbook or something along those lines. Another is  The Motorcycle Restorers Companion which is like a Bible to restoring in that it has tables and charts as well as chapters on set up, metal and plastic fabrication as well as restoring sidecars.

A couple of small gems are The Motor Cyclist's Workshop by "Torrens" and the other is The Motorcyclist's Pocket Book. The first talks about workshops, mechanical work, tools and other related areas while the second is aimed more at the first time or amatuer motorcyclist. Both are interesting (to me anyway) though no longer in print.

If you're lucky, you may run across them on eBay. If you do, get them, you won't be sorry.

Tank preparation

As it says, the tank is off again in order to prep it for sealing the inside next month I hope.

As it's a BSA it's pretty easy and straightforward to do; undo the fuel lines from the petcocks, undo the single tank mounting point on top of the tank and lift off.

Next undo the petcock nut at the bottom of the tank on both sides and pull the entire unit out. Now I put these into plastic sandwich bags, marked them as to which side was which and sprayed some penetrating fluid in them. This was to help loosen the taps up as they still seem to be stiff and gummd up. I think some type of spray to clear up/out gum deposits is actually in order. But for now, the penetrating fluid is OK.

Other than cleaning up the tank, I did one more thing before ending this little task. I used some sticky electrical tape to tape the rubber tank bumpers to the main frame spine. This is to keep them in place and to make it easier when puttng the tank back on.

Now for a general tidy up of the shed.

A slight bit of a breather here.

Due to the left side footrest being slightly bent, I decided to remove it in order to straighten it out. This looked fairly straight forward as the right one was a simple thing to remove.

But nooooooooo.....

Whereas the right side was simply undo a RIGHT HANDED thread nut, pull the hanger bit off and remove the bolt from the frame lug, the left side had to be a little more complex.

Seems that some not so bright spark decided that this had to be designed to be as complicated as possible.

In order to get at this a little easier, I found it necessary to disconnect the rear brake rod from the rear brake so the brake pedal drops down out of the way.

Then the nut that keeps everything tight and in place is a LEFT HAND type which came off OK. However the fun part is about to start.

It seems thaat not only did some eejit decide to use Satans invention with the left hand thread, they also made it so that the footrest itself is "locked" in place on a splined stud with a "locking plate" or a washer with serrations on the inside that lock the footrest into place to stop it from rotating.

Perhaps this was an early attempt at adjustable footrest circa 1968, but it still is diabolical. In order to get this little monster of a washer off, wedges inserted between the footrest and the washer must be used.

As I have no actually wedges, long common screwdrivers had to be employed. I tapped one in from one side and then from the other side in order to keep everything as even a possible and to prevent any type of binding.

After a few minutes of tapping on each side, lo and behold, the locking plate came off as well as the footrest itself. Next the stud is unscrewed from the frame lug...left handed as well!

Due to some unintentional damage to the threads of this stud, it has to be replaced, hence the work stoppage for right now.

A couple of days ago I had to order the double threaded splined stud from British Cycle Supply in Canada. They also have an office in New Jersey.

For the low price of $27.05 I got a new stud on order. hard to believe that a stud that is about 1 1/4" long at the most can cost so much. But I guess when it's threaded at both ends and with a splined portion in the middle, if ya want it ya have to pay the price.

So right now I'm having to wait on it to come in before putting it into place.

The footrest hanger I keep wondering about, heat it up and straighten it or leave it alone. I'll figure it out when the time comes.

Update
The stud came in a few days ago along with a mighty fine looking t-shirt that I ordered with it. In the shed for a few minutes while doing the laundry and screw the stud into place as well as making sure the other bits go on with no aggro. Results in a few minutes......

Results are....everything went together as required and I decided to put the footrest hanger back on as is wihtout trying to straighten it out. As they appear to be "adjustable", I decided to lave them alone and adjust them to me and. That way I still keep it's previous character and can ride it without too much bother as far a settings.   

Oils well that ends well

While working on the wee one I removed the oil tank to get it cleaned of of any sludge that may have been laying in the bottom.

All went well after removing the oil lines, the fastening bolts and the mesh filter in the tank itself.

Sprayed massive amounts of penetrating fluid inside the tank and let it work into the sludge before using the air line on it. Also snaked a length of wire up through the oil return fitting so it came up inside the tank. Nothing on the wire so it was pretty clean.

Went to put the tank back in place and ran into a couple of teeny problems. First, the two bolts that hold the top of the tank to the frame decided to self destruct on me. One snapped off while tightening the nut and bolt  and the other bolt bent while being tightened. So instead of worrying about originality on a couple of unseen bolts, I got a couple of stainless ones from the local DIY place that worked perfectly. Also used some washers on them as the origianls seemed to have done a runner

The other problem was getting the bottom bolt started into the bottom of the tank. As I couldn't see as well as I wanted, I was worried that it'd get cross threaded in the tank.

But all turned out well and is back in place now