Dawg Days in the Garage

Well summer has truly hit Montana and the temps are way above anything you would dream of in the deepest heart of winter.

Things have been slow so I decided to take on some garage help.  He sure likes the shop truck I can tell you.

Can’t get much work out of him because he always says he has to run and get parts. 

Life does get busy!

Work, family and numerous miscellaneous things have kept me busy.  Busy not always doing what I want.  So first up I helped the Number 1, and only, son install the railing he built for his mother.  Great part is that the railing is up and everybody is happy.  Mom got her railing, son completed a long term project and I got the railing out of the garage.

Sort of hard to see without a back drop to give some contrast between the railing and the house. But the railing has several Montana inspired scenes of sunrise, sunset and moon rise over the mountains.  In person it is very nice and more importunately exactly what mom wanted.

Next up is Kiotee my 62 Rover.  I needed to replace the rear axle seals and do a general clean up on the rear since I had done the same on the front.  However getting the proper seals proved a pain and then when all was completed and a test drive was in order my karma ran amuck.  Going from 4^th into Overdrive revealed that the synchro clips in the overdrive gave up the ghost.  So I walked home alerted my son and we drug Kiotee home. 

Got the overdrive out of the truck and started cleaning up and ready to install the new clips.  Seemed to be a pretty straight forward operation until I gave it a go.  No matter what I have done and no matter what tools I use I can’t get those damm clips in.  So far I have busted two clips and bruised the hell out of my hand.  So sitting on my bench is a very nice lump that is totally useless unless I can get those clips in.  To suggest that the mood in Kiotee Garage is poor would be an understatement.

In and effort to actually get something done I turned to more work on the JAP SV.  After Version 1 of the rear brake pedal failed I am now working on Version 2.  Getting closer and I think this version actually might work and not turn out to be too dangerous.  We will see.  With my recent level of success in the garage, I’m not putting bets on any of this.

LEARNING, RESEARCH, TOOLS and other things of two wheels

I have been busy but don’t have much tangible to show for all the effort that has been expended.  After my first look at a Sonic-Weld like spine frame I decided I needed more learning about frame design and construction.  So I dragged out two fairly well respected books on the subject of motorcycle design and fabrication.

Of course this lead to other sources of information and so time just evaporated away like on a hot day in a draught summer.  But I have learned much and feel much better about what I’m trying to do.

As for the tools there has been a drastic management shift in the upper echelons of my employer so I will have to give up access to the TIG welder.  While this loss is semi-irritating I have stepped back and outfitted my UNIWELD Airline torch with more tips.  This range of tips will give me the right size for welding pretty much any type and thickness of material I’m likely to use on this build.  I haven’t given up on TIG just don’t have the kind of access I need to learn it at the moment.

I have had one bit of a set back regarding the JAP SV.  I thought I had a solution to the rear brake linkage.  I thought, but when put to the test the linkage failed semi-dramatcially and locked up the rear wheel.  All low speed and nothing got damaged.  Well only my ego because I thought it was a nice clean little bit of work.  Good thing I tested it down the alley and not on the open road.

As winter finally gives way to some sort of spring weather I have taken the time to get my other two wheeled passion in riding shape.  I also took the time to clean up and get prepared a loaner single speed that a friends needs the last bit of June.  Both pretty unusual bikes in certain respects.  Got them free of the winter storage and did a bit of clean up and tune up.  Along with some new tubes and tires.

                                         My Proteus

The Proteus started as a used frame I was able to snag.  It was silver brazed by the firm called Proteus someplace of the east coast.  I can’t remember all the details.  However were the first shop that an amateur could get small quantities of bike building supplies from way back in the 60s and 70s.  They also built custom frames.  This particular frame was built using a then new 531 Mountain Tube set from Reynolds.  Conventional wisdom suggests this frame would be too small for my 6’ 1 ½” fat old body.  However the top tube size is perfect and the bike rides and fits a dream.

And the unusual bit doesn’t stop there.  I’m running a set of Chris King single speed hubs on Rhyno Lite rims.  This gives me the same length spokes in the front and rear wheels.  I also am running 6 cogs on the single speed hub.  Because the hub is a full width flanged hub the spoke length is the same side to side because there is no dish.  Up front I have a classic set of Cook Brothers Dog Bone cranks on a White Industries TI bottom bracket with sealed bearings along with three chain rings and no shifter.  I’m lazy, old and not a racer so it’s pretty easy for me to read the road/trail ahead and decide which ring I need to be in.  Stop reach down and move the chain by hand.  No I don’t find it bothersome.  While losing on the fly shifting I lost the weight of the shifter on the bars and the front derailleur and cable.  The rear is controlled by a Sunture mountain thumb shifter and the brakes and levers are from Paul’s Components.  The seat post is a White and all of the skewers for the seat and wheels are something TI.  And of course the seat is a Brooks Conquest.  The bars are from Jeff Jones and are his H-Bar in TI.  The headset is a classic Campy off road bit that has been ok but a bit disappointing because I can’t keep it tight for some reason.  And the new tires are Fat Franks.   Love the tires.  They are a 2.35 and fill my fame but the ride is Most Excellent!

                                         Schwinn Paramount Mountain R30

This is the bike road in Baghdad for two years while on contract for NATO.  I did some research before I bid on this bike.  What I remember is that it was the mid range of the Paramount mountain line, I think in the 90s, and was silver brazed by a respected contract frame building firm on the Pacific Rim. The frame is Tange doubled butted tube set of Chromalloy.  It came pretty much as you see it.  Ryhno Lite rims, Avid Shorty 4 brakes and Paul’s CX levers.  The bars are an alloy Jeff Jones version of the H-Bar made by TiTec.  The hubs are from Surly.  All in all for a single speed messenger type bike I really still like it.  And the bottom bracket as a durable Tange.  This frame is sized about the same as my Proteus.  I didn’t care about any frame dimension except for the top tube length.  And of course it is perfect for me.  What I found is that with even moderately moving city traffic I could out maneuver and out run just about all of the big heavy armored traffic that was on the road in Baghdad.  It was also my escape vehicle.  That is a story for another time I think.

 

A Most Excellent Gift!

No excuse for not mentioning this sooner.  But as a Christmas gift I got a new winter coat from my son Ian and Bree, my esteemed daughter-in-law.  Of course for me the very special part was the embroidery of the JAP company logo that Bree spent a great deal of time and with great skill rendered perfectly.  Bree, I apologize for not acknowledging your great work sooner.

THE THINGS YOU LEARN

Recently I have been messing about positioning the big bit of the Overland to get a feel for what the frame will be.  In the process the gear box and clutch basket and the drive cog on the engine needed to be lined up for the first look.

All went smoothly until I got to the chain cog on the engine main drive.  I had a splined stub and a nut but no obvious way to secure the cog.  Well at least obvious to this novice but aspiring garage monkey.

I couldn’t even figure out what type of fixing I should be looking for in the spares.  So I grabbed a photo and put out a query to the JAP engine experts who read a JAP engine facebook group.  Sure enough I got several quick replies regarding how the splined stub, nut, cog and the missing fixing, a circlip, should work.

Well I found the packet of circlips in the spares and fitted one up.  Now here is the explanation of this arrangement for the JAP.

Speedway bike frames are designed with a bit of flex to them.  Something about the torque, no gear box and turning left.  Well that’s what the experts said.  Anyway so as a result of the frame flex the main chain cog splined stub was design such that the main cog could float a bit on the splines as the frame flexed and keep a straight chain line with the jack shaft.  The purpose of the circlip is so you can quick change main cogs rather than having to deal with dismounting the rear wheel to change the hub sprocket.

It sure makes sense to me once it’s all explained.  Never would have thought of that but I’m not a speedway person; just barely a motorcycle guy.

FIRST LOOK AT THE OVERLAND FRAME

This is just a start of the frame build.  This entire project has been about using what is available first and then filling in the gaps as I need things.  As a result of also imposing the one-off criteria the frame jig will be used once.  So it has sort of a DIY look to it.

The bench was an old TV stand from a friend that I put wheels on.   The main beam is folded steel left over from a Land Rover project and the upright was snagged at the recyclers.

So here are some numbers.  The base is 3 inches in height.  The rear wheel is a stock 18 inch Honda DID rim.  The upright is 2 inches wide.  The height from the bench to the rim gives me a starting tire sidewall of 3.  So to get a feel of the placement in relation to the spine tube the distance from the back edge of the spine is about 5 5/8 inches, which should give me plenty of room for a tire side wall of up to 4 ½ inches.  Of course I have to do some more checking on available tires before I commit to those dimensions. 

The gear box and engine are going to be close coupled with alloy plates with the gear box adjustment for chain tension to the engine main shaft on the top.  The bottom of the box will pivot on a mount point near the base of the spine tube.  Well I hope.  If things work out the general gear box engine ground clearance should be a bit over 3 inches.

What I’m trying to get is a fairly short and stiff rear triangle.  I’m not flat tracking this so stiff in the rear hind quarters should build in less flex in a light weight frame.  At the front end will be a head tube rack of from 20 to 28 degrees.  From the head tube will be a down tube to a bracket which will carry the front engine plate.  So the engine and the gear box bolted together will become a stressed member of the frame. 

With the girder fork at the front the trail should be in the range of 31/2 to 4 inches with the 19 inch front rim and a tire side wall of from 3 to 4 1/2 inches.

We will see.  There is much work, fiddling, blocking, measuring and such before tubes start getting cut and welded along with cutting alloy plate and the list goes on.

Tool Time!

While my brain processes all the possible frame style options and choices it seemed reasonable to think of special tools for the garage.  So here are some additions to the tool box for Kiotee Garage.

First up since I sort of got side tracked by an inquiry regarding a possible spare magneto I realize that when it comes time to put some fire in the cylinder of the JAP it would be nice to know if the timing for the points in the mag would be to spec.  So I scored, with a Christmas gift card, an Aircraft Tools single cylinder magneto test light and buzz box.  In addition I also scored a nice 1 inch micrometer while pawn shop crawling with my son.

And as long as I was thinking of things for the engine I realized I needed a purpose built valve spring compressor to fit the JAP head.   With the help of my son I cut an 8 inch c-clamp in half and added a two inch bar.  Then ground and shaped one end to take a valve stem.  I also added two bits of oak tanned leather on both the valve stem side and the face so the valve won’t get scuffed or scared from installation.  Seems to work just fine.  Need to do a bit more clean up finishing but for now it will do.