Update

It's been a while (again) but I have been doing bits on the bike, the main one being the footpeg brackets and centre stand so for the first time since I've owned it, the bike can stand up on it's own!

A previous owner had cut one of the brackets off, and the other was badly welded on at the wrong angle. I looked at various pictures online and worked out a rough idea of where the bracket should be, although it would be a little bit trial and error.

IT RUNS!!!!!!

If you've been following on instagram you'll already know the bike runs and made it to Eroica Brittania, but here's a run down of events and issues for those that haven't been following

After I took the flywheel nut and ignition module to the shop for them to get it going I made it very clear I had a tight deadline, they could get the ignition module to work consistently but they put the original coil back on and timed the points and managed to get it going! I got sent this video via text 8 days before the bike needed to do it's thing at the event

After owning the bike for 4 years, it was a relief to finally hear it running and even better to see it moving on it's own! Obviously it wasn't perfect and I still had some adjustments to do to other parts of the bike but it's still a massive milestone hit so I'm very happy

Making a new Flywheel nut

When the old flywheel got stuck on the crankshaft, the nut ended up getting damaged removing it. I'm not actually sure what happened as I wasn't there but a new one was required so I ordered some material and a tap and die and got to work. First up was a CAD model so I knew what I was working towards

Basically it's a 24mm nut with a plain section to fit inside the extraction threads of the flywheel, with an M12 x 1.25 thread through the centre. Nothing particularly difficult but it's the first time I've milled flats on anything. 

Here's everything ready for some fun in the lathe. I started with a 30mm bar of EN8 steel, bottom left,  as I've been lead to believe that can be heat treated relatively easily (more on that later). 

Now here I have to own up to a bit of an error, you may notice that the piece of steel in the next pic is rusty, when I've just shown you a piece of bright bar. Well, this pic is from my first attempt which ended in a parting disaster on the lathe and I only took video of this stage on my second attempt which as we know from my last post, I am too stupid to get on the internet properly. This step was exactly the same though, turn down the relevant diameters, including a long narrow section that could be held in a collet for the next step. After this pic it was parted off leaving a little extra length for facing after the flats have been machined

Using a hex shaped collet block in the horizontal mill, the first flat was machined while checking the dimension from the flat to the opposite round edge. Once the first edge was in the correct place, a note was made of the y-axis so each subsequent flat would be in the same place. Each face was done in a couple of passes, checked, then the block was rotated to the next face

I did take a time lapse of the process on my phone and I also have the mental capacity to get that on the internet so here's that process in all it's glory

I have to say I was relieved when I first slipped the socket on and this happened! My first attempt hadn't been so successful and had needed extra passes on a couple of faces to get the socket to fit, second time round I must have been more careful and it just worked out right

Next it went back in the lathe held by the stub to be drilled and tapped and have a chamfer machine on the outer face. Then the stub was cut off by hand (didn't want another parting disaster!) and a mandrel machined with the matching thread so the nut could be threaded on the wrong way round and the last remaining face machined true to the thread. Again, this is all on video that will never see the light of day!

Next it was heated to a cherry red and held there for about 10 minutes before being plunged into old engine oil. I know this won't have been a perfect process but hopefully it's enough. Worst case scenario I'll be making another one! After a quick sand blast it looked like this:

Then a quick sand with some 240grit. I decided to leave the faces 'as machined' as I don't think a perfect nut would look right on the bike. After this it was tempered in the oven at home.

The nut and electronic ignition module are back with the bike at the shop so fingers crossed it will run soon!

Chain case rust removal

If you've been paying attention, you'll remember I was going to try cleaning the 'new' chaincase with CLR to remove some of the rust. If you haven't been paying attention, here are the before shots:

Small part deliveries (part 2)

Following on from part 1, here's part two! The new oil can needs holding on somehow and another stroke of luck means I have the strap from a very similar Peugeot in my hand. I think its too long but I'll only find out once I've got the bike back, if it needs shortening that won't be a problem anyway

Small part deliveries (part 1)

The last post was a bit wordy and not very popular (I do occasionally look at the reader numbers for this thing!) so this one is going to be pics with a few words to balance things up. Whilst the ignition saga has been going on I've had searches set up for various parts, but also been checking every site I've looked at for ignition parts to see if they have anything else I need and I've come up trumps

First up, the oil can that sits behind the engine. I never thought I'd find one of these and I think this might be from a Peugeot and a little bit smaller but it's going to look better than the blank space I had before

Safi SSY Ignition; the bane of my life

I really should have learnt by now with this bike not to make statements like:

" I'm really hopeful for an update this side of Christmas"

As that was clearly never going to happen. To cut a long story short, staff changes at RCK have meant that the custom made electronic ignition idea was shelved and an attempt was made to get the old points ignition working on the basis that it's simple and should be fairly reliable and easy to deal with. At this point, the ignition coil was believed to be dead (more on this later) so a separate coil was set up running from a battery, the points were adjusted and the bike was rolled outside to try to start it. Unfortunately I wasn't there when this all happened but I'm told the bike did start, but stopped after a few seconds. A minor victory that at least proves the engine can run

Problems, problems, problems

It's been a long time since I wrote a post (just looked and it's another case of over a year!) for various reasons, but the main one is not a lot has happened with the bike, particularly with regard to getting it running. The last post had a failed attempt to get the bike running with a 'new' carb, after that failed I gave in and took the bike to RCK Motorcycles in Sheffield after a recommendation from a friend.

This was way back in October 2016 and the 'deadline' was set for Eroica 2017 to have the bike running. For various reasons this didn't happen* and the bike is still with them but so far they have:

• obtained parts to rebuild the 'new' carb and adjusted it
• cleaned and tested the original ignition components
• set everything up and attempted to start it which gave good compression, a good ignition but also sent the spark plug into the bottom of the tank. Luckily there was no damage
• Helicoiled the head
• Designed, built and bench tested an electronic ignition system to hide behind the flywheel

We're getting much closer now and the plan is for me to make a small collar to hold the magnets for the ignition then we should be good to go. I'm just waiting for a sketch then I'll be on the lathe

*This post is in no way a complaint about RCK, the delays were not their fault and could not have been foreseen and I am continuing to use them for work on this bike and my Pan European

Over a year without a post.....

I'm amazed it's been over a year since my last post but I guess life got in the way. I have been doing little bits and pieces on the bike and today I ticked a few more off so this post is meant as a catch up and progress report. I'll be totally honest and admit that I can't remember exactly when I did what so some of this will probably be out of sequence, you may be able to spot it in the photos

The last post had the bike back together on it's wheels again although the chain wasn't back on and it still wasn't running. The main issue with that has been the carburetor as I didn't know what it was so didn't know where to start with setting it up. I recently purchased a couple of books and some original sales info that have really helped, I'll do a post on all the literature I have to go with the bike at some point. One is a general Villiers engine manual, it covers several models of engine but explains full disassembly, reassembly and adjustment in much more detail than the user manual I already had. The other one is the original French manual for the bike which gives a full spec of the engine (since it's a Villiers made under license in France it has some subtle differences). This one has been the key to making some small steps towards getting it running as I now know the timing and points gaps are different for my engine than a British made 10D. These are now set correctly although I didn't take any pictures of the setup which involved a dial indicator to measure TDC and then position the piston 6mm before TDC then boting the flywheel on whilst aligning the timing marks. Finally everything was checked by sneaking up on 6mm BTDC and trying to squeeze a 2 thou feeler gauge into the points to check they were opening at the right point. In theory this is all correct now.

So that should be the spark covered, which leaves the other important part of combustion, the fuel. The carb that came with the bike (below) isn't what Villiers would have spec'd (their own 3/4 single lever) but it also isn't what Automoto would have spec'd (a Gurtner M20) and the only markings I can find (Aluvac?) haven't helped in identifying it.

 As luck would have it, this week a Villiers carb popped up on eBay which I won for 99p plus a fiver postage. I *think* it's the correct one and I was fairly sure there were some bits missing but it was worth a try. That arrived today and I was right, the main return spring is missing along with a couple of other bits but I still tried it on the bike after a quick strip and clean and, unsurprisingly, it didn't work. I'll keep hunting....

Back rubber side down (for now)

After finally getting the suspension bushes sorted I got them refitted and I think they look pretty good (ok this photo only shows one fitted but you'll have to trust that I fitted both, or scroll down)

Before I could get the wheel back in, I needed to refit the mudguard but before I could do that I needed to address the cracks in the guard at one of the rack mounting points. I didn't want to mess with the paint, so I decided to drill the ends of the cracks with a 1.5mm drill to stop them spreading and then a template was made for a piece of stainless. 

Rear suspension top out bushes

As I have mentioned before, the rear suspension top out bushes have been causing quite a lot of pain. Obviously there are no spares available for this bike and sourcing something appropriate was proving quite difficult. The bushes are made of rubber and are 50mm OD, 32mm ID and 25mm tall (some of you may recognise those numbers as metric conversions of 2", 1 1/4" and 1"). I managed to find some large bushes that are 50mm OD, 23mm ID and 50mm tall. Plenty of material for me to make mistakes and I also had to order 5 so I've got plenty to make replacements in the future. 

Here's one compared to the better of the originals

Rear mudguard repair

The back section of the rear mudguard hinges open to allow you to remove the rear wheel, well that's what's meant to happen but the hinge was basically non existent when I got the bike. The rear section is a different colour so I'd always thought it wasn't original to the bike (although I had assumed it was the correct one) but on closer inspection the profile is completely different (look at the beading in these two pictures - top one is the main guard, bottom one is the removable section) and the 'new' bit is also a lot rustier on the inside. I don't think I'll find the correct one that easily so I'll work with what I've got.

It's been a while.....

Sorry it's been so long since the last post but for a while I wasn't making any progress so had nothing to write about but that's all changed now! The last post was about stripping the rear suspension down to sort the perished rubbers, they've been a real headache as spares for this bike are non existent. After a lot of searching and headscratching I came up with a few possible solutions such as casting new ones, making them up out of sheets stacked on top of each other (worried they'd separate and get mangled) and I even had an offer of 3D printing them but that came to nothing. In the end I've found some bushes that are the correct outside diameter and the inner diameter is too small so I'm going to have to enlarge the bore, probably using a grinding wheel mounted in a dremel mounted on the toolpost of the lathe. They're also too long but that should be easy to sort with a large knife. They have just been ordered so the project can start moving forward again.

I have made some progress with a few other bits whilst I've been thinking about this though.

Rear suspension strip

The bike has a new home and is now sat on a wheelable platform with the frame supported by a rotary table delivery crate. This means I can take both wheels out at the same time without the bike falling over and I can work on all sides really easily by pushing the platform around. I'll take a pic that shows the set up properly for the next instalment. 

With the rear wheel out I decided to have a look at the rear suspension to work out what parts I needed to track down. With the upper and lower pinch bolts removed, I had to work out how to remove the large tube that the suspension runs on. I re-purposed some Hope Technology bicycle hub bearing press tools, a piece of aluminium tube and a big length of threaded bar to create a press. I wound the tension up then used an aluminium drift on the top to push it through. I repeated this process until the tube was all the way out.

A note on supporting local skills

I've just realised that in my last post I did what many of us are guilty of, I didn't give credit where it was due. I may have gone to the effort of finding someone local who came highly recommended to polish and plate the links but I then didn't do my part as a customer, and local person, of telling anyone who it was. This has probably got something to do with me not going to university so I've never needed to properly reference my sources but I'm going to put that right now.

Before I get to who the plater was, I've mentioned above that they came highly recommended; by who? There were actually quite a few places but the main one was the ever useful Sheffield Forum (here is the exact thread if you care that much). I used it as a starting point and tried a few firms. Most of them had a minimum charge of £80-100 and even admitted that my parts weren't that much works, and NONE of them were even slightly open to my requirements regarding a 'non perfect' finish.

So I worked my way down the list and got to Martin who works with Anchor, based at the historic Portland Works (first site to produce stainless steel) in Sheffield city centre. I did some Googling and found quite a few glowing mentions of his work on various biker forums (I'm not referencing all of them) so I got in touch. When I dropped the parts off he understood that I didn't want them to stand out on the finished bike so suggested not doing a full polish and we decided on nickel instead of chrome, despite other parts on the bike being chromed.

For reference, here are the links before I did anything to them

The only issue I had was the timescale and I think I am partially to blame. I said I wasn't in a rush so the parts ended up taking longer than I expected. Maybe I should have said I needed them ASAP even though I didn't. Even though I was getting a little frustrated at the delay, once the parts were back (and Martin was VERY good at meeting me as I couldn't get to his workshop whilst he was there, above and beyond the call of duty there) I completely forgot as they were exactly what I'd hoped for

How much would you expect that to have cost, bearing in mind the minimum charges mentioned above? £60? £50? Maybe a bargain at £40? I paid just £20 for these parts to be cleaned, old plating stripped, brushed/polished and replated. I knew they weren't going to be expensive but this is frankly ridiculous.

Why bother writing all this I hear you say, well the whole process has made me realise that we need to support our local businesses that do the things we can't do ourselves. Skills like these are not learnt over night and if we don't use them we will end up in a dire situation where we cannot, for example, get parts replated for a reasonable cost. We will then be left with a difficult decision of paying over the odds for services or buying new parts of questionable quality (not an option with an Automoto)

I will be making an effort to hunt out a skilled craftsperson next time I need something I don't have the skills or equipment for and I will pay their price without arguing or haggling. Rest assured, Martin will be my go to guy for plating in the future and I will probably overpay him next time as I don't think he charges enough. This doesn't just apply to motorbike restoration, I'm talking about local cafes, carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, veg shops, bakes, butchers, speciality shops and anyone else you can think of that does something that you can't

To sum up, use your local talent and tell everyone you know to do the same

PS If you've like this, you will love this video

Factory Floor: an Archive Sheffield Film from Nathan Gibson on Vimeo.

During 2013 photographer Clive Egginton began his residency at TSL Turtons, a spring making factory in Sheffield. As "Archivist in Residence" he worked alongside the men in the factory, documenting their day to day life and working methods.

Clive visited regularly over a period of several months, building up an extensive archive of documentary images and large format portraits. As the project progressed it became apparent that the factory would also provide a compelling subject for a short documentary film and to this end Clive invited his friends Nathan Gibson and Marcus Sarko to collaborate. Filming throughout the winter of 2013 and into the new year the three gradually brought together the 15 minute portrait "Factory Floor", presented online for the first time here.
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To view a collection of the still images Clive shot during this period please see here: http://archive-sheffield.org/tsl-turtons-a-case-study-2/
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Sadly Clive fell ill with cancer during the final stages of filming and as a result suffered significant damage to his vision. He passed away peacefully at the end of September 2014, only days after an exhibition of tactile images made for visually impaired people - the first of it's kind - was held by close friends and family with assistance from the Royal National Institute of Blind People.

To read more about the exhibition: http://atactilephotoforclive.blogspot.co.uk

Please donate to help the RNIB do important work here: https://www.rnib.org.uk/donations-and-fundraising

Forks that go boing in the night

I finally got the fork links back from the plater and I'm more than happy with the result and it's official; nickel kicks chrome's arse any day of the week. If I ever get a classic car I'm redoing all the chrome in nickel. The picture doesn't do it justice but it really is lovely. The slight scratches are intentional, the links were brushed rather than polished before the plating so they didn't stand out, I think it's worked really well. If I end up decided they need to be a bit more abused I'll take an abrasive pad to them to knock back the shine of the nickel a bit.

I've been quite busy but on Wednesday I had a couple of hours so decided to put the forks back together. It's easy to see why forks like this don't get used any more, this is quite a lot of parts for a fork that isn't particularly good.

Among those bits are the new friction washers, they're actually for a Motoconfort but they are the right size

I got them mostly back together then tried to put the steering damper in and realised it wouldn't fit past the mudguard and the lower pivot axle held it in place so some of it had to come apart and be re-assembled once the damper was in. The headset and pivots need properly adjusting but this will be a lot easier when the bike is sat on a pair of tyres that hold air and I've got a functioning front brake. The brake isn't working as I've taken the shoes out to be relined, I'll do the same with the rear next time I take the wheel out.

Now the bike is now sat back on it's wheels ready to be moved out of my brother's garage as he needs the space for his project car. Once the bike is in it's new home I'll be trying to get it running (now I can plumb the fuel 'system' in) and then addressing the small welding jobs (foot peg and rear mudguard) as the new home is a fully functioning bicycle frame building workshop so I'll have all my tools to hand including TIG, oxy-acetylene, pillar drill, lathe, mill as well as every hand tool I could ever need

Luckiest man alive (maybe not)

This is just a quick post to let you all know the petrol tank tap has been found!!!!! It had fallen into a box at work and was only found through dumb luck

Not got the link plates back from the plater so still waiting to put the fork back together, I've just asked a company on ebay about making friction discs that are the right size as I can't find anything. Most of the ones I've seen listed are imperial sizes and generally have a bigger OD and ID. For reference the Automoto discs are 50mm OD, 10mm ID and 3mm thick.

Front Shock/Links

I managed to take the links to a plater and we decided to go with a brushed/satin nickel finish. I was really impressed by the knowledge and passion the guy has for making ugly parts shiny again. I was also pleased with the price quoted, once I've collected them (should be a couple of weeks - another pleasant surprise!) and I know the final price I'll stick it up for reference.

Here are the upper links with their bolts. It's the same set up as the rear pivot on the lower link; adjust with the bolt and lock with the locknut. The upper links are much simpler, basically a big piece of Mechano with on end tapped.

Today I managed to get the shock cleaned up and discovered that the lower section is (was) chromed. There was so much grease and road grime on it that it was completely black and the thought hadn't even crossed my mind that it would be chromed. The main spring was completely covered in grease so I got that cleaned up along with the inside of the top and lower sections. The spring has a bit of wear on the outside where it has rubbed the inside of the tubes. I can't really see it causing a problem to be honest but I'll have to wait and see. If it causes much noise I will use some heat shrink around it. This pic shows all of the parts, it really is a simple shock.

Whilst it was apart I thought I'd work out how much travel it gets (in theory). I reassembled the shock without the main spring but with the negative spring in it. At full length it was 220mm and at full compression it was 155mm. That gives 65mm of travel. BUT the main spring will push the negative spring back slightly, making the shock a little bit longer at full travel and the spring will most likely start to bind before it hits full travel so that number is pretty much just a guess. :)

(Sorry for the crappy pic on these two, trying to take pics left handed whilst holding the steel rule and my phone case trying to close on the lens isn't easy)

Once I was happy with how clean things were, they got greased back up and it all went back in the press (no pic as it's just the same as the taking it apart one) and the bolt put back in. Here's how it looks now

NB I keep calling it a 'shock' as that's what I'm used to on bicycles but technically this part is just the spring and has no damping in it.

Hopefully I'll be doing some work on the bike this week but we'll have to wait and see

M

Forks

This post has been delayed more than I hoped and it still won't be as far on as planned. As mentioned in my previous post I've taken the forks apart to look at the shock, pivots and to get a closer look at the links to see if they need to be re-plated. Here's a pic of the linkage I took before I pulled it to pieces so I had a reference for reassembly, it's pretty obvious that the links are definitely going to need re-plating. 

I didn't take any pics whilst I was taking it apart, it was all pretty simple - lock nuts on one end and the axle un-threads from the link on that side through a clearance hole in the other link. This is the lower pivot reassembled but without the fork legs in place. I'm going to need to sort new friction discs as they are really hard and brittle, I'm not sure if they're leather or something else but I'm doing some research to find out. The lower pivot is adjusted underneath the black knob then the black knob adjust the amount of friction to damp the suspension action. The star shaped washer applies spring tension and the little clip holds the black knob in place. The upper pivot is much simpler and is just adjusted using the hex end of the axle then locked off with the locknut on the other end.

The other reason to take the forks to pieces was to have a look at the shock. At first I couldn't see how it was hold together but looking down the end of the small tube on the front (visible in the pics above) I saw spanner flats. Annoyingly there were only two so I couldn't use a socket down the tube to unscrew it. The only way to access it was to squash the whole thing in a press then unscrew that bolt, which also held a negative spring, then the whole shock came apart.In this pic you can see the top of the bolt above the smaller tube, typically for this stupid French bike it's needs an 11mm spanner and the bolt can't be removed because of the grease nipple above. Once I got it out of the press I did have a quick look inside but didn't take any pics.

Whilst it is all apart I will be putting new ball bearings (interestingly still imperial sized balls despite being a metric bike, does ANYONE use metric balls?), re-greasing and adjusting the headset. Once again I didn't take any pics but I'll try to get some when it goes back together.

I also had a quick look at the front hub; the bearings are fine but the brake shoes need relining. I'm guessing the rears won't be as bad but if I'm doing the front I'll sort them all.

And that's where the post is being cut short. I've been busy and then ill so I've not managed to pull the shock fully apart to clean it up and I've hit a slight dead end with the plating for the links. I tried one firm but they wanted £75+ and couldn't guarantee the price until they started the work. I've since found another company specialising in motorbike parts so hopefully that works out better. I'm planning to go with a satin/brushed nickel as I think bright shiny chrome will stand out compared to the rest of the bike. My back up plan is to get new links laser or waterjet cut out of stainless steel and either blast or brush them to get the desired look.

I'm not sure what my next post will cover as I've now started a couple of things without finishing them, first the engine/fuel system and now the forks/shock/headset. I think I will go back and look at the engine and try to work out what I need to order to get that running. I can't remember if I had explained before but the HT lead I ordered doesn't fit (stupid French engine!), I don't know how to set the timing or the carb and I've managed to lose the petrol tap from the tank. The first couple shouldn't be too much of a problem but I think I've right royally ballsed up by miss-placing the petrol tap, I can't see it being that easy to track one down. The broken clutch adjuster has been helicoiled so the cover is ready to go back on when I next work on the bike. If I manage to sort those bits out, it might mean the engine will be running before Christmas, it's just a shame it's going to be in a bike with no forks!

M 

Headbadge choice and forks

I've managed to get 2 headbadges from French eBay and I need help deciding which should go on the bike. They are both originally from bicycles as the motorbike ones were different, but I couldn't care less about that as they look cool.

So which one, this:

or this one:

P.S. I know which one I think it should have and 90% of the people I've asked have agreed with me but please comment anyway, I value your opinion (even if it's wrong and I choose to ignore it)

I've also taken the forks apart and I'm trying to get some new friction washers and get the side plates replated, I'll do a full post on the forks once I've got the bits to put them back together

M