So, without fanfare or adieu, the bottom part of the huge paperweight known commonly as the engine casings was taken up to SOS Motorcycles on the North East side of town and coincidently, situated right behind the Milwaukee tractor sales shop aka Cowboy Harley Davidson.
Due to work being done at present on other forms of two wheeled conveyances, the lower half was left with Stu the owner of SOS to have the cases split.
This is being done in order to 1) have a proper look inside to make sure all is well, 2) have the crank out so the sludge trap can be cleaned out, 3) clean the insides up aand lastly, so all new bearings and seals can be put in.
SOS Cycls is one of those small Olde Worlde motorcycle places that looks at first glance like the Black Hole of Calcutta and is filled inside and out with a selection of British bikes, namely Triumphs though a few Nortons have been spotted and a few from the Orient.
The insides looks like it hasn't been cleaned in years and probably hasn't meaning it will NEVER be mistaken for an antisepctically clean and tidy HD boutique.
As Bodger didn't remember to take the trusty (when it's working) digi camera, a few pics from the iPhone were taken.
See for yourself:
If you look real close, there's a gate in the picture of the hardtail bobber (the bottom picture that is); that and the buildings there are part of Cowboys HD. But no pictures from there in this posting.
It's nice that there is a place that can work on these old machines without a blank look on the face if you mention the words "Whitworth", "British", "AMAL" "Zenor diode" or any other words that are hardly heard in this part of the world.
Anyways, next week providing there's no difficulties, and there shouldn't be, I'll be picking up the split cases from Stu and having a look see what needs to be done besides, bearings and seals and a good cleaning inside the casings.
And the good thing about being by my lonesome, other than one roving alarm, is that I can use the dishwasher or the stove without any ANY recriminations.
Until then..........
SOS and Cowboy Harley...I love it. When I saw the title of your post at my blog I thought you might be posting about Len Vale-Onslow's SOS brand motorcycles. Great you have a shop like that available still. Round my town, there might be one, one man operation left. At least I've got shops not too far away in the Bay area. Some nice looking projects, that Norton really catches my eye. I worry about the shape of my 441's lower end as well, hoping I don't need a rod kit.
ReplyDeleteIt's getting rare to find the old type of shops like this, now it's more or the glass and chrome "boutiques" that are more interested in sales.
ReplyDeleteSOS and Vale-Onslow....I actually hadn't thought of it until you mentioned it.
Len Vale-Onslow was a prtty big name back in the 70s, his place was only about 50 miles or so from where I lived back then. Can't remember exactly, but I think he got an OBE or MBE back in his 90s, which was only jsut a few years back.