AirHead Drag Bike

paul cardy said:

Ok now I am excited.. that looks awesome, bet you are rightly chuffed with that.

I had some suggestion for your oil pipe problems till I saw where you lived so to far away from my go to place "Hampshire Hose", have you thought about Pirtec they even offer a we come to you in a van service, I have bought bits from their main shop and they knew what they were about.

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Richie does a very nice job. I saw a dyno graph from one of his motors which was making 105bhp at the wheel - airheads, or any other 1000cc, 2 valve, pushrod twin, do not make that kind of power by accident!

Richie called me last night and we discussed the oil line issue, he recommended these people so I called them this morning and they couldn't have been more helpful. I should have a pair of pre-assembled lines tomorrow.
http://www.thinkauto.com/index.html

Dr Nosh

No animals were harmed, the hammer was used but only to help pursuade one of the old frame mounts which looks to have been attached with welding from a tube.. so being careful not to mark the frame with the grinder once an edge had been exposed the hammer helped release it so to speak. The bolster was only to stop the stop the frame moving about as the bottom is uneven with those lugs still sticking out. The defense rest M lord...

In the more shiny corner some of the parts have started arriving back at drag racing central, I have had a couple of chats with wheel builders and it looks like I may plump for "Brickwood Wheel Builders" in Salisbury they came via a recommendation and they are local and its important to me to deal face to face as it could be said I may be a bit fussy. The rear end works around a drag slick that needed a 3 wide 18 dia rim which they could'nt provide so this came from "Central Wheel Services" its made by Morad and comes undrilled. There seems to be a 5 week turn around before Brickwood can start on my wheel and its a moving target the clock only starts once its booked in, so I need to get my finger out if its not going to end up being a late Christmas present from Santa. PS it wont be staying shiny for long

So order of business today - trip out to Trestan's to drop of the wheels rims for powder coating should be ready to collect next Saturday.

Then it was out with the grinder and off with some more brackets

So first was the plunger towers and removal of the mudguard stays now you see them



Now you don't



And





No longer wanted.....



The frame is mostly there now with cutting things off, now it should be trial fitting some new parts - not sure if this is going forward or I may be kidding myself.

Very therapeutic, this grinding off unwanted lugs business, I always find...

Hi Dogbytes , yep very therapeutic and when the posty turns up to drop off a new part the day just goes up another notch, so been spending my time out of the garage on the net and found a 5 series front drum.



This was just what you see so used this to buy some bits from Moto-Bins including new shoes for said drum.

Then as part of the trawling found this site and lost a couple more hours http://www.caferacerclub.org/t6322-c-est-ici-qu-on-met-les-bien-molles-bmw-cafe-racer

and even worse now I have found even more I want to do

paul cardy said:

Then as part of the trawling found this site and lost a couple more hours http://www.caferacerclub.org/t6322-c-est-ici-qu-on-met-les-bien-molles-bmw-cafe-racer and even worse now I have found even more I want to do

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My advice to you and anyone else building a bike (note to self, at this point) is - build it as quickly as possible, you will NEVER decide NOT to do things! Anyone with an inquiring mind and any ambition at all should definitely not allow themselves the luxury of time whilst indulging in this hobby!

Hmmm!! I wondered where I was going wrong...

I totally agree - I have two places I can work, a well lit, warm and cozy shed with a stereo tuned to ABC jazz , carpet on the floor, a beer fridge, and plenty of bench space to lay out , examine and admire all the bits while I order parts.

Or I can work in the front carport, cold concrete slab, the wind and rain blowing through, no bench top , and when the bike is being worked on there is no space for SWMBO's car.

Work in the car port gets done as a matter of urgency, and is usually only started when parts are to hand, or can be cannibalized from the shed. It still takes me around three times as long as the most generous of time tables might suggest, but nothing much has come of of the shed since I retired, which was round about the same time as Dogbytes started his project ------.

Just a twist on the best place to work then, got caught bringing the frame into the house Monday night, good lady going out to yoga

" that's not going in the lounge its it?
No just the spare bedroom,
ok see you later then........" Result

Been looking at modifing the tank to mount it to the frame and thought how nice it would be to be nice dry and cosy, seemed to work out.

Hope to have some more photos soon.

I managed to sneak an entire 100RS into the loft (in Pieces) when the Mrs was out. Unfortunately we now have a crack in the bedroom ceiling.

Like a good swan serene on top but paddaling like ..... underwater we are making progress, at Drag Racing Central at a secret location

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More photos to follow

Back to that swan....and the secret location....

The rear with completed cutouts



And some little scallops round the outside - round the outside.



The front with holes intitially bored using the mill but no cutter big enough so had to break out the stepped drill.











Now need to get them blasted and check out the bearings and we could be ready for the wheel builder.

Excellent work.

Build the wheels yourself. I did mine, with a lot of help and advice from a mate who has a cycle shop. Not all that difficult and even more thereapeutic than grinding lugs off frames!

Hi Dogbytes, thanks I was well chuffed with how they came out.

I could have a go at the front wheel as this is an old BM rim but the rear rim is new and undrilled and probally best to leave to the experts.

Been looking at how best to mount the tank and may move onto that next..

So I would like to let you know all the progress happening at drag racing central but..... a case of almost fatal man flu this week and toothache that makes me wish I had a small pair of pliers and novocaine .. the RED cross is on the front door the whole nine yards.....

So nothing is happening apart from those very brave sort who work for our postal services making deliveries .. almost to weak to open up the parcels...

Ok so the paint has been removed from the door and the drugs seem to have sorted the tooth... back in the garage - all sorts of things going on but first.

Quick stop to the powder coaters




Thought it might be a change to start putting something back together so to speak and the petrol tank needed mounting so...

The first job was to cut off some lugs from the bottom which were the original MZ mounts - having cut these off in the spirit of lets not waste anything they looked to line up as a candidate for the new front mount needed a fold in each to meet up with the tank which is a lot bigger through the tunnel section ( more of this later) they even had holes of the right size.. the plan was to use a tube which runs horizontally underneath the headstock with a long M6 bolt - this tube could have been the origonal tank mount ? not sure.

Luckily the tank had not had any petrol in for a long time and even the old nose test seemed ok but just to be sure we did drop a match inside probally not to be recommended but rather outside in the garden than on the bench in the garage - the good lady is ok on most things but a hole in the roof may have been a test to far...

So front mounts



Next up was the rear mount and again in the spirit or recycling the origonal rear mudguard mount was cut up and shaped then a fold made to reach the tank. Once its was in its final position we drilled the frame M6 and bolted into position with a rubber gasket to give a bit of movement.





Ok so back to that oversize tank tunnel - the basic plan was to get the bottom frame rails parralell with the ground and then the tank to also in the same plain. With this acheived there was a big gap between the tank and frame which looked unfinished ?


Out with the grinder and tin snips and hole saw.


Next it needed a bit of a shape to match the tank profile


Move forward the welder...


Bit of a final clean up


Looks like the bottom edge could do with a radius instead of the right angle but ran out of time this week, could be in darkest Northampton to pick the engine a gearbox up next couple of weeks and hope to have some picture from RM of the build...

paul cardy said:

could be in darkest Northampton to pick the engine a gearbox up next couple of weeks and hope to have some picture from RM of the build...

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Bloody hell! How did you get him to go that fast? I've been waiting for an HT lead for a month!

This is working to his time frame I just keep feeding the RM piggy bank to keep the well oiled machine turning.....,

So had the call from RM its a go situation for this weekend - final conformation Friday