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