The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

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Dave the bass
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#241 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Dave the bass »

pre65 wrote: Mon Sep 03, 2018 6:58 pm Never seen one with wooden forks before. :shock:

Looks like a newel post. :lol:

New project Dave ?
Ha! That staircase spindle was a visual aid in keeping an eye on the bike's vertical position when on the trailer in transport, it was easy to see if the bike was gradually slipping over when you've got a long vertical reference point to keep an eye on. I'll backtrack a bit....

About 6 weeks ago when we were on Hols down in Cornwall a really interesting 'barn-find' project came up for grabs on eBay, I nabbed it after having had a lot of fun getting my Indian Bullet up and running again. Its a genuine 1960 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet, built in Redditch, the owners club have confirmed its provenance and its got the same engine, frame and gearbox it left the factory with 1960. Its amazingly complete if a little 'shabby-chic' in places. Its been stored in a barn (which collapsed) just outside Cardiff since the late 70's/early 80's. We finished our Hols in Cornwall, drove back home to Kent (after picking up Capsey from our-Ray) then collected a kindly loaned trailer from a chum and drove to Whalez and back in a day at 55mph with a trailer on the back of the car and rusty motorbike lashed to it. I've never towed a trailer before or ever collected a non-running motorcycle, lots of 1sts for us.... JTS came along for moral support!
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Needs a lot of work doing to it, a total rebuild in fact. I've been cleaning/assessing/stripping and unseizing things after its long damp snooze. Some pics...
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.....after 3 weeks (no really) wrestling with the seized piston...
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Gotmy work cut-out but I've bought it as a long-term project. Working on the same time schedule it took me get the Indian Bullet working properly the Redditch Bullet should be up and running when I'm 73 years old.
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Ray P
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#242 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Ray P »

Are you gonna make it into a fixie - get rid of all thos cogs you can see in some of the pictures.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
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Dave the bass
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#243 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Dave the bass »

Ray P wrote: Mon Sep 03, 2018 9:20 pm Are you gonna make it into a fixie - get rid of all thos cogs you can see in some of the pictures.
Possibly.

Its deffo a SS'er at the moment, that single speed being 0mph, arf!
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shane
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#244 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by shane »

What do all those gears do? The two bottom ones are presumably the camshafts. Where do the other three go?
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#245 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by pre65 »

The top gear drives the distributor (or magneto) and the other two just transmit the drive.
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shane
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#246 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by shane »

That’s an expensive way of doing things. I’d have expected a chain. Nice though.
The world looks so different after learning science. For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in their flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the Sun which was bound in to convert air into tree.
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#247 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Baggy Trousers »

shane wrote: Mon Sep 03, 2018 10:37 pm That’s an expensive way of doing things. I’d have expected a chain. Nice though.
Enfield used gears in all their bikes - and even lawnmowers - until the latter days of Redditch. Obviously, this drive arrangement is more expensive to manufacture but it is mechanically superior and does not require constant adjustment. However, spur gears of this type can be noisy which is why others, notably Velocette, Vincent and BSA employed helical teeth. As a cost-saving exercise, later Bullets, the nice Meteor Minors and less nice Constellations had chain drive to the ancillaries. Other British manufacturers performed similar financial reductions as part of the British industry's suicidal pursuit of cheapness instead of quality. We all know the rest. Having said that, from medieval times, both Norton and Ariel employed chain drive to their mag/dynos with total success.

DTB, you will know that there is nothing more satisfying than a long-stroke British single. So make a good job of the refurbishment and enjoy what I'm told still is a fine bike. Inexplicably, I have never ridden a Bullet.
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Dave the bass
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#248 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Dave the bass »

pre65 wrote: Mon Sep 03, 2018 10:22 pm The top gear drives the distributor (or magneto) and the other two just transmit the drive.
Yups, bang on Popz.

The little crank pinion drives the exhaust cam which aligned by marked dots meshes with the Inlet cam then the drive goes via 2 idler gears up to the distributor pinion which drives the shaft mounted CB for ignition coil. My Indian Bullet has a fair bit of backlash in that gear train assembly which isn't uncommon apparently, the Redditch less so.
Baggy Trousers wrote: Mon Sep 03, 2018 11:21 pm DTB, you will know that there is nothing more satisfying than a long-stroke British single. So make a good job of the refurbishment and enjoy what I'm told still is a fine bike. Inexplicably, I have never ridden a Bullet.
I do I do! I love riding my Indjun Bullet, it been all round Kent, Surrey and East West Sussex on days out this summer. We're regularly clocking up 120 mile plus journey's to lunch stops.

It's awethumne, we've been together over 20 years now, awwwww!
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The Redditch Bullet we collected from Cardiff on what would've been my Dad's 87th Birthday if he was still around, ergo, he's been named 'Roger' :)
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pre65
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#249 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by pre65 »

Roger the Enfield. :shock: :lol:
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Dave the bass
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#250 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Dave the bass »

pre65 wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 6:15 am Roger the Enfield. :shock: :lol:
Roger from Redditch, I prefer that.

Dad the Bass wouldn't though, he had a strange habit of falling asleep whenever he saw RE's, especially when I took him to the National Motorcycle museum years and years ago. He reckoned they were/are boring!
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#251 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Neal »

Nice one Dave looks to be a fun project. Nice thing about bike you don’t need as much space as a car, I’m struggling with space and have to resort to doing much of the work on the drive.
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Dave the bass
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#252 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Dave the bass »

Ta Neal, yeah, this bike will take up even less room soon as I'm slowly dismantling it. I'm getting the wheels rebuilt as the rims and spokes are pretty rotten and the frame really needs some cosmetic attention too.
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#253 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by thomas »

Nice pics DTB.... you've got some work there!

Did you use DERV to free the piston in the end?
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#254 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Dave the bass »

Ta.Yes, I tried a right ol' mixture of stuff over the 3 weeks or so T.

Derv was in there for weeks before we collected the bike so I cleaned out the gunge that was left then put in fresh derv and left that for a week or so. Nothing shifted, so, Pepsi Cola came recommended as it eats away away at rust apparently, then WD-40, then GT85, then more derv. In between each change of liquid I scraped all the gunge out with a homemade very strong but thin scriber point where the piston crown almost meets the cylinder wall to ensure the penetrating fluid got to the right place. In addition to the 2lb hammer and nicely weighted 60mm dia 'drift' I'd made I think it was the repeated heating and cooling that finally helped get it to shift with a heat gun.

Its mooted that nothing mechanically has left go to caused the seizure, it was just moisture and a very long period of time that caused the rings to seize to the barrel. Since it was laid up in the late 70's/early 80's the engine was inadvertently 'parked' with the Exhaust valve wide open. Not very helpful!

Yup, loadsa work to do on it but a minuscule budget. On the upside though I have a bit more free time to lavish on it than I did 2 years ago so that helps.

Onwards!
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#255 Re: The Audio-Talk Motorcycling thread.

Post by Mike H »

Dave the bass wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 6:07 am It's awethumne, we've been together over 20 years now, awwwww!
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