I'm gonna be relaying some old tech documents for you over time that may be helpfull...
Just click on the images to enlarge

The love and death of motorcycle building

To love to build and ride motorbikes is in no comparison table like the love of a girlfriend. Undeniably I love my girlfriend with no ounce of hate becoming involved whatsoever but with motorbikes it is somewhat different.
I can be in love with the build, even reciting poetry to it as we develop our relationship towards the crescendo of the sucking of air and the exit of carbon and all of a sudden it acts like a fucking bitch.
Firstly I have never before set the timing up wrong so the engine will ram the pistons into the valves and whilst we're on a magical tour of a nightmare like state I have never, within a matter of mere seconds afterwards, dropped a bike with a freshly painted frame onto a motorbike lift causing the meeting of metal that should never have met.

Hate. A very fine line between that and love which I have fluttered across today without the stealth of a tightrope walker.

mounting the engine in the frame

I had a couple of minor battles with the cam chain this morning but I eventually won after a few false starts. Also got the engine in without destroying the frame which is quite a feat when your by yourself.

blocks and laquer

The cafe-racer engine blocks have been re-assembled, only got to get that FUCKING cam-chain back on. The bain of my life everytime. other than that a couple more coats of cream were applied to the frame and 2 coats of laquer, I'll apply a couple more tomorrow but as you can see from the photo you only can do so much without an extraction unti before you get concerned about the vapours igniting!

de-tabbed

Today saw the complete clean up of the frame, i.e. grinding flush the un-used tabs and the remaining paint and putting a couple of coats of primer on so no surface rust appears. Also broke the fibreglassed rear end off its mould so all is looking sweet there. Annoyingly I won't be in until wednesday so it'll just have to sit there annoying me to get done until then.

lucky 13?

Today I ripped the engine out of the frame and took everything else off too, stripped the frame of paint and fibreglassed the rear section. sounds productive ay? well, for once it felt like it was. score.
I have given myself until the 20th November to finishe this so that leaves me 13 days, thats right a total of 15 day strip and rebuild. crazy beans but it can be done.

I'm gonna murder you

All that happened today was I went from this:













to this:


















all because at some point during the last 30 years someone put the wrong bolts inside the engine. moron.

getting the hump

A fair amount of the un-neccesary frame work has been cut from the cafe racer and the new tank put on, removed the clocks and also ordered a smaller headlight and the arms to hold it. Most of the afternoon was taken up with making the tail section and seating mould ready to be fibre-glassed (many thanks to karen & wayne for their help).
Plans for this bike include :

• Upgrading the front end to double discs
• Re-build the engine due to gasket leaks and polish ports etc during re-build
• fit lower bars
• move electrics to centre of the bike
• make aliminium rear sets (footpegs and associated levers)
• make twin stub exhausts
• make a lighter and more attractive chain cover

For more photos of the build look at the photo album on facebook titled 'cafe racer'

bits and bobs

The Avenger has had a couple of little peices completed now from the gear linkages being complete to the rear mudguard struts being finished now the next major peice is to mount the exhaust. I've obtained the girders for the frame jig to start making full bike frames now. And here is a picture of the next project about to start, here we have a '79 Honda CB which some will recognise as my own hack until recently. This over the next couple of months will benifit from a engine re-build with some tricks installed and a lil bit of customising to become a cafe racer.