15/04/2010
I took the girls up to the South Yorkshire Sidecar Club rally for a look at all the outfits. There were loads of different combos up there, what stood out was the number of outfits piloted by women - a far higher proportion of women riders than you see at the average bike rally. The outcome is that I want to make my sidecar safer than any of the sidecars I've yet seen (then the missus can't complain). I was given the contact details of an engineering shop in Dronfield, they seem to relish a challenge and I'm waiting for them to quote me for the fitting of a double loop roll cage with side impact protection. I'll put a link for them on the links page.
I very nearly bought a new Harley 1200:
It looks good, rides good and sounds good, but in the end it's just too much money at the moment. So after that dissapointment I've decided that what I need to revitalise my motorcycling life is to get out and go places. So I arranged a trip to Mont St. Michel with another AIMCC member
I love my NTV600 but reality dictates the purchase of a fast bus to get down there, so I scored an XJ900 on Evil Bay for £800 - Bargain. Extra bonus, see the air horns?
28/03/2010
I persuaded the missus to go out in the sidecar
This was taken at Sutton Scarsdale Hall. It's a ruin now but must have looked grand in its day. It was a sunny afternoon and it was very enjoyable spending an hour sitting on the grass bank next to the hall watching all the people belting up and down the M1 in the distance. You can see Bolsover Castle from there as well.
Then I was on holiday for a week. First order of business on my return was to go out for a ride. I went on the '83 C90, s'funny but I can't explain why these things are such fun, they just are. I went miles and miles, calling in at Sutton Scarsdale again
Then the usual, CMC, Powersports and Matlock Bath. I find it really funny observing peoples reactions when I turn up on the 90. On the way into MB an 1800 Goldwing Carved me up, no reason to, there was a car in front and a car behind, no where to go and he just wafted past me and forced me over to the curb. At CMC some bloke nearly smashed into the back of a car because he was pulling a wheelie as he went past.
Yep, silly season is here, all the weekend warriors are out - be careful out there....
15/03/2010
I'd felt a slight knocking on the front end of the NTV, I wanted to fit gaiters (these should be a legal requirement on manufacturers if you ask me) anyway so decided to kill two birds with one stone. Judicous use of bungee cords made the job surprisingly easy, I took the lower yoke out, cleaned and packed both bearings and rammed it back up.
The lower yoke and bearings
Bungees in action holding everything up
From the front, what I really like about the photos is that it looks a liitle bit like a scene from Hellraiser :o)
This is what's left of the NTV I bought for spares, eveything else is stashed away. This frame will end up hanging from the rafters in the garage (next to my spare GS750 frame) when I've cut the rusted in centre stand out and removed the swing arm.
It was a (relatively) nice day on Saturday; all the bikes were out so I thought it was time to take my daughter (23 months old) out in the outfit for the first time.
I have been preparing her for helmet wearing by putting it on her on her baby bike, she quite likes it.
Ready for the off, she really enjoyed it but I've realised I need a mirror on the bars so that I can see her whilst going along - at the moment I kind of have to look under my left armpit...
>I've never ridden a bike so carefully<
12/03/2010
I've really got into the NTV600 now. I've not had many V twins and it takes a while to adjust to the different power delivery. The handling was transformed by the replacement of the old (but still legal) BT45 tyres with a set of Maxxis tyres. These have really impressed with their confident handling, especially in the wet.
The bike is nice balance between weight, power and handling and is great fun to ride.
I bought another NTV600 to break for spares, it was under £200 on evil bay and has loads of good parts on it. This photo is part way through the strip - it came as a complete bike and had spare forks wheels and panels.
Here's my spare engine collection - look carefully and you'll see 3 GS750 engines, 3 C90 engines and an NTV600 engine on the top. Loverly Jubberly.
20/02/10
I've got a GS750 and sidecar for my daughter to go out in. It's an open top Squier so I thought a helmet would be a good idea. You cannot get motorcycle helmets for very small children (she's 23 months old) because they aren't big enough to ride pillion until 6 or 7 years old. Somebody put me on to the idea of a ski helmet as these do start very small. I took the girl down to Decathlon today and found:
How cute is that!!!
The legal side of it is that since the sidecar passenger doesn't need to wear a helmet, any helmet that is worn doesn't need to be a "legal" motorcycle helmet.
I fitted a new seat cover to my '96 C90 Cub, it came from Ebay, cost £15 and fits a treat!
A torn seat can make a tidy bike look like a shed and a good seat can make a shed look very tidy. I've got one to put on my '83 C90 too, it has white side panels and should look brilliant.
I bought a new bike today! I took the GS750 down for its MOT (which it passed) and then went to the bike shop with a view to getting new tyres. It turns out that the back wheel is not standard as its 17" and not 18", it may be off a GS750L and I guess it was changed to lower the gearing for sidecar use. So i thought "sod it" I need a solo bike. Today's Ad Mag came up with an NTV600 Revere for £495, so I bought that. It's very clean and rides like a new bike - result! Anyway to put the icing on I attached the sidecar back to the GS750, it took about 2 hours and the idea of doing that on and off as required was enough to justify the purchase of the NTV.
16/02/10
Bodgers, they are a PITA. I've just had to rebuild the back brake caliper on the GS because somebody put it back together last time without the rubber boots over the pistons. These boots cost about 5 quid apiece, what I don't understand is if you're going to the trouble of rebuilding a brake caliper, why not do it properly? It's just as easy to get it right....
15/02/10
I was having trouble with the blue C90, bogging down and losing power on mid throttle. It was worse when hot. I learned a hard lesson about carbs when I had the last GS750 chop so I applied the same thinking and ordered replacement needle jet and jet needle. These are the parts of a carb that wear the most yet nobody ever thinks of changing them.
You can see the wear on the original needle (on the left).
This is the needle jet, it sits up on top of the emulsion tube; it's the little brass bit you can see poking up into the choke when you look through the carb. These the needle and the jet wear together and should be replaced together. Anyway the result was a complete success, it runs like a new 'un now.
07/02/10
The ride to Wales the previous weekend showed up that the swingarm bearings were shot on the GS750, because I've never run it without the sidecar before I'd not noticed the problem. The bike has an aftermarket alloy swing arm (of unknown make) fitted. The bearings themselves are standard caged rollers and City Seals and Bearings provided replacements for £8 each.
The problem was that one of the sleeves that the bearings run on had corroded and worn, the diameter on the worn part was 0.05mm smaller than on the unworn part.
There was no way of getting a new one of these since I didn't even know what manufacturer made the swing arm in the first place and since the swing arm spindle was larger than the standard one (the frame being modified to suit) I couldn't go back to the standard set-up either.
Nothing for it but to make a replacement!
I had a piece of bright mild bar and bored the middle out to the correct diameter to fit the swing arm spindle.
The new sleeve is on the right
Next the outer diameter needed to be reduced, I tried to use the swing arm spindle as a mandrel but it wasn't concentric enough. I'd hoped to use this method because then I could machine the whole length of the sleeve.
So I had to resort to holding the end in the chuck and using a rotating centre.
I turned it down to 25.03mm, the bearing actually requires it to be 25.00mm but I allowed a little extra meat for polishing down. The new sleeve is on the left, it just needed polishing down to 25.00mm with 1000 grit wet and dry and oil and the waste turning off the end.
Next was to harden the sleeve to prolong it's service life. The only option I had was to heat to cherry red and quench in water.
To get the old bearings out I knocked up this puller from some aluminium tube, some M10 threaded bar and various washers and plates.
With heat applied to the swing arm the puller worked a treat!
The new bearings were put in the freezer for 1/2 hour before fitting and slotted into the heated swing arm with just a couple of taps. Job done, the bike's back together now.
Really this type of thing should be made out of harder steel than I used and the surface precision ground, so I'm looking on this as a temporary fix to get the bike on the road whilst I get an engineering shop to make up twoproper replacements.
03/02/10
I felt the need for a spontaneous act so I loaded the old GS750 up and went to Betws-Y-Coed for the weekend. It was cold, very cold.
18/01/10
I managed to remove a blind bearing from the C90 engine I'm rebuilding. I welded an M8 allen bolt into the bearing and used a slide hammer to pull it out
15/01/10
I may have come up with a solution to my parking space issue...
10/01/10
I've just bought a new bike :o)
Inspired by Phil's purchase of a tasty trumpet over the weekend (and few beers) I put a bid in on a ZZR600 Rat - and won.
As you can see it's a bit unusual, and has a cool trailer made out of the front of a scooter! The trailer is coupled to the bike using a UJ from a car prop shaft, very clever, it means the trailer always follows the vertical axis of the bike but is free to move up and down, left and right.
I'll be picking it up next week. It had to happen, after 4 months of being sensible and riding a Canary Yellow SLR I've reverted to type and gone rat....
That does mean of course that there's an SLR650 (actually an FX650 Vigor, but nobody knows what that is) for sale. It's all good to go, T&T new tyres, it's on a '51 plate. Drop me line if you're interested, looking for about £850
My new winter gloves arrived:
They're the "3 Finger" or "Lobster" type. A fellow club member had a pair and I could see the sound principles behind the design. The fingers are kept warmer because there are two in each part of the glove. That's more flesh in less surface area and therefore less radiated heat and warmer fingers. I can't get on with full mitts because of the restricted movement, but these allow 2 fingered braking and so you can do hill starts on the front brake with them.
As for the milling job detailed below, it failed, miserably. I ended up ruining the case and so had no alternative but to "recycle" it using my 6lb sledge hammer.
05/01/10
So it's time to deal with that snapped stud. I have a vertical slide for my lathe and an aluminium CNC plate that I'd mounted to a steel block that clamps in the slide. I've bolted the crankcase to the CNC plate and mounted the whole lot in the slide. Reason being that attempting to drill this stud out with a hand-held drill result in disaster as the drill wanders off the stud and into the casing. The crankcase is too tall to go in my pillar drill, so the lathe is the ideal solution. It enables the drill to be precisley placed and to run true.
I'm going to use a fluted end mill to cut the stud flat, then a centre drill and finally an 5.5mm drill bit to get the 6mm stud out. Let's see what happens......
The crankcase mounted on the CNC plate
The stud is the top one, just below the oil return hole
From above, the case is offered up to an end mill
The end mill about to cut
The big picture showing the CNC plate, steel block and vertical slide
03/01/10
I stripped the engine from the crashed C90 tonight. They're so easy to work on it's untrue! It took about an hour to strip the ancilliary components; clutch, oil pump gear change shaft. With the crankcase bolts removed, a few sharp taps with a rubber mallet had the cases apart.
The left crankcase with the gearbox still in situ
The right crankcase
The teeny little crankshaft, that's a 12mm socket lying there
This little git is the reason for the strip - I've never seen a stud so determined not to come out
Here's a stud snapped off in the iron barrel, should be easily sorted in the drill press
Here's an interesting design feature. It's a steel ring sweated into the crankcase. The main bearing is a sliding fit into this steel ring. I've never seen anything like this before. Normally bearing outer races are an interference fit in the case. The same method is employed on the head, where the ball race cam bearings are a loose fit in the head. I guess Honda knew what they were doing, but it's a bit odd.
02/01/10
I went out with the C90 Club lot. We were off roading in the snow on C90s. Great fun but very hard work, we all had road tyres on and there was some pushing invloved on the steeper climbs.
31/12/09
These C90s are still causing me headaches. The engine from the crashed bike had no compression. The head came off with a snapped bolt in the barrel. Removing the barrel needed a lump hammer and drift as one of the studs had corroded into it. With the barrel off it was time to get the stud out. It snapped off near the cases, so ludicrous amounts of heat were employed and the remaining bit clamped in the vice, I turned the whole engine around the stud and it then snapped off flush. So now the left crankcase is scrap. Getting a bit peed off now.....
I took the sidecar out for a blast this morning, very enjoyable, that third wheel helps on the slippy stuff!
Had a run up to the Roman Road (Houndkirk Moor) to have a look at the situation for the planned C90 outing on Saturday. There is a lot of snow...
The ride up there was very scarey, black ice and slush across the road. I nearly turned back a couple of times. As a result I'm trying to cancel the C90 run.
If you're out on your bike at the moment, be aware of the effects of altitude. There is no snow or ice outside my house, or anywhere on the roads in Sheffield, but up in the hills it's deadly...
28/12/09
Does anyone know why the camshaft bearings on a C90 are sliding fit in the head? I'd expect the bearings to be an interference fit, otherwise what's to stop the outer race spinning in the head? Answers on a postcard please...
Looks like I'll be taking a few fellow loonies from the C90 club off roading in the Peak District (yes really). What annoys me is that you mention the words "off roading" and it instantly turns into a debate about yobs, pitbikes, stolen bikes and anti-social behaviour. Off roading is LEGAL on public byways like Houndkirk Moor, it's no different to any other public highway (e.g. the A61), you have to be taxed, tested, insured, licenced etc.. All the normal rules of the road apply.
27/12/09
That '83 C90 is running lovely. I've measured the carb and it turns out that it's a C70 carb. I've ordered a pukka C90 item from "mylittlehonda", so that should sort it out.
I've fixed my Flute! The missus dissasembled it roughly and snapped a cork damper off one of the keys (and this with her being a professional level flute player!). A spot of impact adhesive saw the cork damper re-attached. It's a Chinese instrument which I bought to learn on but I'm amazed at the quality for 50 quid!
25/12/09
I've sorted that exhuast stud. I cut the head off an M8 bolt, turned most of the shank down to 6.9mm and ran an M6 die up it using the tailstock as a guide.
I then tapped the stripped hole in the head to M8 using a bottoming tap and voila - Job done :o)
That's why you need a lathe if you're running crappy old motorbikes....
BTW I always wear nitrile gloves in the garage these days, absolutely brilliant
24/12/09
Success! The '83 C90 finally has a good running engine. It's the engine that had the valve timing set wrong. With the valves lapped in and a polished piston and cylinder head it's a good runner. Only problem is one exhaust stud has pulled out of the head due to a dodgy helicoil. I'll just drill and tap to M8 and make an M8 to M6 reducing diameter stud - another job for the trusty Southbend Lathe..
22/12/09
I picked up a crashed C90 today for spares. It's gone into a car, hard, front wheel is folded in two the forks and the frame are bent.
I bought it for the engine, which is showing a worrying lack of compression. The saga continues...
21/12/09
It's the Winter Solstice today! This is the day that the sun is lowest in the sky, it's all upwards from here with the days lengthening out to the peak of daylight hours on the 21st June.
Our forebears celebrated this day as the turning of the tide, marked with candles, evergreen trees and gifts. This year I did sod all about it, but normally I go and visit the stone circle on the Baslow Road (no I'm not a wierdo I just like tradition).
I walked home from work today, it's about 3.6 miles and a lot of it is thorugh the woods.
I set off at 15:30 and arrived home at 17:05. It fell dark as I was travelling and the crescent moon looked stunning with Jupiter just 10 degrees below it. With the snow in the trees, the cold air and the ice in my beard it was a visceral experience.
I've decided to stop acting like a wimp and send for my Dragon Rally ticket - you only live once (and only die of hypothermia once too), Sarah is a girl and she's going - I can't let her show me up!
20/12/09
Wow, it's really snowing now! The C90 is proving the perfect snow bike. I have to go up a 1:7 hill to get off my road. Managed it by walking next to the C90 whilst operating the throttle and helping it make its way up the hill. Probably illegal but it got the job done. The saga of the '83 bike continues: I rebuilt the head and lapped in the valves from the engine that had the valve timing wrong. The valves turned out not to be bent (surprisingly) and so it looked good. I polished the piston crown and the thought I'd fit the new top end to the bottom end that was in the bike already, that bottom end being the one that had had the POS chinese top end. It all went together with no issues. Fired up immediately, no smoke or rattles from the top,but rumblings from the bottom. It turns out the mains are shot, couldn't feel any play before because the crank seal was holding everything firm. With the stator plate removed it was obvious there was a problem.
So now I've got to take that engine out and swap the top end onto the engine it was originally on and then fit the whole thing back in the bike. That spare engine I picked up was then basically scrap - thanks mate if you're reading this...
18/12/09
C90's, the most popular bike ever built. I've got two of them; an '83 and a '96 Cub. 120MPG is the main selling point, that and a pair of tyres for £15, a top gasket set for £7.99 etc..
The problem is that because Monkey Bike engines are derived from C90 engines there's an awful lot of utter cr*p out there. I bought a C90 engine, "good runner" it said. I fitted it, fired it up and it went "knock knock" at the cylinder head and smoked heavily. I ripped it apart and found the piston to bore clearance was nearly 0.5mm and the roller bearing cam journals were so loose that the outer race had spun in the head. The reason? It was Chinese monkey bike parts, utter rubbish! So now I need a genuine Honda C90 top end...
I bought another C90 engine on Ebay, it said "good compression". It turned out that the piston was hitting the inlet valve because some clown had got the cam timing 90 odd degrees out. How do you get cam timing 90 degrees out? I can understand 180 degrees, but 90 just means they can't have known ABOUT cam timing, so why were they messing about in the engine in the first place? I haven't left feedback on that one yet....
JAWA 350's are now available new again. F2 Motorcycles are the dealer. They do Urals and other wierd stuff. I guess that they're importing them and sending each bike for an SVA test. EU legistlation rendered two-strokes illegal because of emissions, but that only applies to homolgated bikes. If you present an individual bike for an SVA test they'll check all the usual stuff; brakes, lights, controls etc. but emissions are not tested! I bet those gits in Brussels didn't think that when they introduced the seemingly Draconian measure of the SVA test, that it would provide a back door for getting round all their vehicle compliance regulations!
I crashed my FX650 Vigor (like an SLR650) the other day. It was dark and wet and I was on an unlit country road. I hit something and the front end jumped away from me. I was wearing textile gear which had body armour and it did it's job well. Problem was I had my phone in my breast pocket, I hit the road hard on my left side and the phone fractured two of my ribs! So the lesson is, be careful what you carry in your pocket!
I took the girls up to the South Yorkshire Sidecar Club rally for a look at all the outfits. There were loads of different combos up there, what stood out was the number of outfits piloted by women - a far higher proportion of women riders than you see at the average bike rally. The outcome is that I want to make my sidecar safer than any of the sidecars I've yet seen (then the missus can't complain). I was given the contact details of an engineering shop in Dronfield, they seem to relish a challenge and I'm waiting for them to quote me for the fitting of a double loop roll cage with side impact protection. I'll put a link for them on the links page.
I very nearly bought a new Harley 1200:
It looks good, rides good and sounds good, but in the end it's just too much money at the moment. So after that dissapointment I've decided that what I need to revitalise my motorcycling life is to get out and go places. So I arranged a trip to Mont St. Michel with another AIMCC member
I love my NTV600 but reality dictates the purchase of a fast bus to get down there, so I scored an XJ900 on Evil Bay for £800 - Bargain. Extra bonus, see the air horns?
28/03/2010
I persuaded the missus to go out in the sidecar
This was taken at Sutton Scarsdale Hall. It's a ruin now but must have looked grand in its day. It was a sunny afternoon and it was very enjoyable spending an hour sitting on the grass bank next to the hall watching all the people belting up and down the M1 in the distance. You can see Bolsover Castle from there as well.
Then I was on holiday for a week. First order of business on my return was to go out for a ride. I went on the '83 C90, s'funny but I can't explain why these things are such fun, they just are. I went miles and miles, calling in at Sutton Scarsdale again
Then the usual, CMC, Powersports and Matlock Bath. I find it really funny observing peoples reactions when I turn up on the 90. On the way into MB an 1800 Goldwing Carved me up, no reason to, there was a car in front and a car behind, no where to go and he just wafted past me and forced me over to the curb. At CMC some bloke nearly smashed into the back of a car because he was pulling a wheelie as he went past.
Yep, silly season is here, all the weekend warriors are out - be careful out there....
15/03/2010
I'd felt a slight knocking on the front end of the NTV, I wanted to fit gaiters (these should be a legal requirement on manufacturers if you ask me) anyway so decided to kill two birds with one stone. Judicous use of bungee cords made the job surprisingly easy, I took the lower yoke out, cleaned and packed both bearings and rammed it back up.
The lower yoke and bearings
Bungees in action holding everything up
From the front, what I really like about the photos is that it looks a liitle bit like a scene from Hellraiser :o)
This is what's left of the NTV I bought for spares, eveything else is stashed away. This frame will end up hanging from the rafters in the garage (next to my spare GS750 frame) when I've cut the rusted in centre stand out and removed the swing arm.
It was a (relatively) nice day on Saturday; all the bikes were out so I thought it was time to take my daughter (23 months old) out in the outfit for the first time.
I have been preparing her for helmet wearing by putting it on her on her baby bike, she quite likes it.
Ready for the off, she really enjoyed it but I've realised I need a mirror on the bars so that I can see her whilst going along - at the moment I kind of have to look under my left armpit...
>I've never ridden a bike so carefully<
12/03/2010
I've really got into the NTV600 now. I've not had many V twins and it takes a while to adjust to the different power delivery. The handling was transformed by the replacement of the old (but still legal) BT45 tyres with a set of Maxxis tyres. These have really impressed with their confident handling, especially in the wet.
The bike is nice balance between weight, power and handling and is great fun to ride.
I bought another NTV600 to break for spares, it was under £200 on evil bay and has loads of good parts on it. This photo is part way through the strip - it came as a complete bike and had spare forks wheels and panels.
Here's my spare engine collection - look carefully and you'll see 3 GS750 engines, 3 C90 engines and an NTV600 engine on the top. Loverly Jubberly.
20/02/10
I've got a GS750 and sidecar for my daughter to go out in. It's an open top Squier so I thought a helmet would be a good idea. You cannot get motorcycle helmets for very small children (she's 23 months old) because they aren't big enough to ride pillion until 6 or 7 years old. Somebody put me on to the idea of a ski helmet as these do start very small. I took the girl down to Decathlon today and found:
How cute is that!!!
The legal side of it is that since the sidecar passenger doesn't need to wear a helmet, any helmet that is worn doesn't need to be a "legal" motorcycle helmet.
I fitted a new seat cover to my '96 C90 Cub, it came from Ebay, cost £15 and fits a treat!
A torn seat can make a tidy bike look like a shed and a good seat can make a shed look very tidy. I've got one to put on my '83 C90 too, it has white side panels and should look brilliant.
I bought a new bike today! I took the GS750 down for its MOT (which it passed) and then went to the bike shop with a view to getting new tyres. It turns out that the back wheel is not standard as its 17" and not 18", it may be off a GS750L and I guess it was changed to lower the gearing for sidecar use. So i thought "sod it" I need a solo bike. Today's Ad Mag came up with an NTV600 Revere for £495, so I bought that. It's very clean and rides like a new bike - result! Anyway to put the icing on I attached the sidecar back to the GS750, it took about 2 hours and the idea of doing that on and off as required was enough to justify the purchase of the NTV.
16/02/10
Bodgers, they are a PITA. I've just had to rebuild the back brake caliper on the GS because somebody put it back together last time without the rubber boots over the pistons. These boots cost about 5 quid apiece, what I don't understand is if you're going to the trouble of rebuilding a brake caliper, why not do it properly? It's just as easy to get it right....
15/02/10
I was having trouble with the blue C90, bogging down and losing power on mid throttle. It was worse when hot. I learned a hard lesson about carbs when I had the last GS750 chop so I applied the same thinking and ordered replacement needle jet and jet needle. These are the parts of a carb that wear the most yet nobody ever thinks of changing them.
You can see the wear on the original needle (on the left).
This is the needle jet, it sits up on top of the emulsion tube; it's the little brass bit you can see poking up into the choke when you look through the carb. These the needle and the jet wear together and should be replaced together. Anyway the result was a complete success, it runs like a new 'un now.
07/02/10
The ride to Wales the previous weekend showed up that the swingarm bearings were shot on the GS750, because I've never run it without the sidecar before I'd not noticed the problem. The bike has an aftermarket alloy swing arm (of unknown make) fitted. The bearings themselves are standard caged rollers and City Seals and Bearings provided replacements for £8 each.
The problem was that one of the sleeves that the bearings run on had corroded and worn, the diameter on the worn part was 0.05mm smaller than on the unworn part.
There was no way of getting a new one of these since I didn't even know what manufacturer made the swing arm in the first place and since the swing arm spindle was larger than the standard one (the frame being modified to suit) I couldn't go back to the standard set-up either.
Nothing for it but to make a replacement!
I had a piece of bright mild bar and bored the middle out to the correct diameter to fit the swing arm spindle.
The new sleeve is on the right
Next the outer diameter needed to be reduced, I tried to use the swing arm spindle as a mandrel but it wasn't concentric enough. I'd hoped to use this method because then I could machine the whole length of the sleeve.
So I had to resort to holding the end in the chuck and using a rotating centre.
I turned it down to 25.03mm, the bearing actually requires it to be 25.00mm but I allowed a little extra meat for polishing down. The new sleeve is on the left, it just needed polishing down to 25.00mm with 1000 grit wet and dry and oil and the waste turning off the end.
Next was to harden the sleeve to prolong it's service life. The only option I had was to heat to cherry red and quench in water.
To get the old bearings out I knocked up this puller from some aluminium tube, some M10 threaded bar and various washers and plates.
With heat applied to the swing arm the puller worked a treat!
The new bearings were put in the freezer for 1/2 hour before fitting and slotted into the heated swing arm with just a couple of taps. Job done, the bike's back together now.
Really this type of thing should be made out of harder steel than I used and the surface precision ground, so I'm looking on this as a temporary fix to get the bike on the road whilst I get an engineering shop to make up twoproper replacements.
03/02/10
I felt the need for a spontaneous act so I loaded the old GS750 up and went to Betws-Y-Coed for the weekend. It was cold, very cold.
18/01/10
I managed to remove a blind bearing from the C90 engine I'm rebuilding. I welded an M8 allen bolt into the bearing and used a slide hammer to pull it out
15/01/10
I may have come up with a solution to my parking space issue...
10/01/10
I've just bought a new bike :o)
Inspired by Phil's purchase of a tasty trumpet over the weekend (and few beers) I put a bid in on a ZZR600 Rat - and won.
As you can see it's a bit unusual, and has a cool trailer made out of the front of a scooter! The trailer is coupled to the bike using a UJ from a car prop shaft, very clever, it means the trailer always follows the vertical axis of the bike but is free to move up and down, left and right.
I'll be picking it up next week. It had to happen, after 4 months of being sensible and riding a Canary Yellow SLR I've reverted to type and gone rat....
That does mean of course that there's an SLR650 (actually an FX650 Vigor, but nobody knows what that is) for sale. It's all good to go, T&T new tyres, it's on a '51 plate. Drop me line if you're interested, looking for about £850
My new winter gloves arrived:
They're the "3 Finger" or "Lobster" type. A fellow club member had a pair and I could see the sound principles behind the design. The fingers are kept warmer because there are two in each part of the glove. That's more flesh in less surface area and therefore less radiated heat and warmer fingers. I can't get on with full mitts because of the restricted movement, but these allow 2 fingered braking and so you can do hill starts on the front brake with them.
As for the milling job detailed below, it failed, miserably. I ended up ruining the case and so had no alternative but to "recycle" it using my 6lb sledge hammer.
05/01/10
So it's time to deal with that snapped stud. I have a vertical slide for my lathe and an aluminium CNC plate that I'd mounted to a steel block that clamps in the slide. I've bolted the crankcase to the CNC plate and mounted the whole lot in the slide. Reason being that attempting to drill this stud out with a hand-held drill result in disaster as the drill wanders off the stud and into the casing. The crankcase is too tall to go in my pillar drill, so the lathe is the ideal solution. It enables the drill to be precisley placed and to run true.
I'm going to use a fluted end mill to cut the stud flat, then a centre drill and finally an 5.5mm drill bit to get the 6mm stud out. Let's see what happens......
The crankcase mounted on the CNC plate
The stud is the top one, just below the oil return hole
From above, the case is offered up to an end mill
The end mill about to cut
The big picture showing the CNC plate, steel block and vertical slide
03/01/10
I stripped the engine from the crashed C90 tonight. They're so easy to work on it's untrue! It took about an hour to strip the ancilliary components; clutch, oil pump gear change shaft. With the crankcase bolts removed, a few sharp taps with a rubber mallet had the cases apart.
The left crankcase with the gearbox still in situ
The right crankcase
The teeny little crankshaft, that's a 12mm socket lying there
This little git is the reason for the strip - I've never seen a stud so determined not to come out
Here's a stud snapped off in the iron barrel, should be easily sorted in the drill press
Here's an interesting design feature. It's a steel ring sweated into the crankcase. The main bearing is a sliding fit into this steel ring. I've never seen anything like this before. Normally bearing outer races are an interference fit in the case. The same method is employed on the head, where the ball race cam bearings are a loose fit in the head. I guess Honda knew what they were doing, but it's a bit odd.
02/01/10
I went out with the C90 Club lot. We were off roading in the snow on C90s. Great fun but very hard work, we all had road tyres on and there was some pushing invloved on the steeper climbs.
31/12/09
These C90s are still causing me headaches. The engine from the crashed bike had no compression. The head came off with a snapped bolt in the barrel. Removing the barrel needed a lump hammer and drift as one of the studs had corroded into it. With the barrel off it was time to get the stud out. It snapped off near the cases, so ludicrous amounts of heat were employed and the remaining bit clamped in the vice, I turned the whole engine around the stud and it then snapped off flush. So now the left crankcase is scrap. Getting a bit peed off now.....
I took the sidecar out for a blast this morning, very enjoyable, that third wheel helps on the slippy stuff!
Had a run up to the Roman Road (Houndkirk Moor) to have a look at the situation for the planned C90 outing on Saturday. There is a lot of snow...
The ride up there was very scarey, black ice and slush across the road. I nearly turned back a couple of times. As a result I'm trying to cancel the C90 run.
If you're out on your bike at the moment, be aware of the effects of altitude. There is no snow or ice outside my house, or anywhere on the roads in Sheffield, but up in the hills it's deadly...
28/12/09
Does anyone know why the camshaft bearings on a C90 are sliding fit in the head? I'd expect the bearings to be an interference fit, otherwise what's to stop the outer race spinning in the head? Answers on a postcard please...
Looks like I'll be taking a few fellow loonies from the C90 club off roading in the Peak District (yes really). What annoys me is that you mention the words "off roading" and it instantly turns into a debate about yobs, pitbikes, stolen bikes and anti-social behaviour. Off roading is LEGAL on public byways like Houndkirk Moor, it's no different to any other public highway (e.g. the A61), you have to be taxed, tested, insured, licenced etc.. All the normal rules of the road apply.
27/12/09
That '83 C90 is running lovely. I've measured the carb and it turns out that it's a C70 carb. I've ordered a pukka C90 item from "mylittlehonda", so that should sort it out.
I've fixed my Flute! The missus dissasembled it roughly and snapped a cork damper off one of the keys (and this with her being a professional level flute player!). A spot of impact adhesive saw the cork damper re-attached. It's a Chinese instrument which I bought to learn on but I'm amazed at the quality for 50 quid!
25/12/09
I've sorted that exhuast stud. I cut the head off an M8 bolt, turned most of the shank down to 6.9mm and ran an M6 die up it using the tailstock as a guide.
I then tapped the stripped hole in the head to M8 using a bottoming tap and voila - Job done :o)
That's why you need a lathe if you're running crappy old motorbikes....
BTW I always wear nitrile gloves in the garage these days, absolutely brilliant
24/12/09
Success! The '83 C90 finally has a good running engine. It's the engine that had the valve timing set wrong. With the valves lapped in and a polished piston and cylinder head it's a good runner. Only problem is one exhaust stud has pulled out of the head due to a dodgy helicoil. I'll just drill and tap to M8 and make an M8 to M6 reducing diameter stud - another job for the trusty Southbend Lathe..
22/12/09
I picked up a crashed C90 today for spares. It's gone into a car, hard, front wheel is folded in two the forks and the frame are bent.
I bought it for the engine, which is showing a worrying lack of compression. The saga continues...
21/12/09
It's the Winter Solstice today! This is the day that the sun is lowest in the sky, it's all upwards from here with the days lengthening out to the peak of daylight hours on the 21st June.
Our forebears celebrated this day as the turning of the tide, marked with candles, evergreen trees and gifts. This year I did sod all about it, but normally I go and visit the stone circle on the Baslow Road (no I'm not a wierdo I just like tradition).
I walked home from work today, it's about 3.6 miles and a lot of it is thorugh the woods.
I set off at 15:30 and arrived home at 17:05. It fell dark as I was travelling and the crescent moon looked stunning with Jupiter just 10 degrees below it. With the snow in the trees, the cold air and the ice in my beard it was a visceral experience.
I've decided to stop acting like a wimp and send for my Dragon Rally ticket - you only live once (and only die of hypothermia once too), Sarah is a girl and she's going - I can't let her show me up!
20/12/09
Wow, it's really snowing now! The C90 is proving the perfect snow bike. I have to go up a 1:7 hill to get off my road. Managed it by walking next to the C90 whilst operating the throttle and helping it make its way up the hill. Probably illegal but it got the job done. The saga of the '83 bike continues: I rebuilt the head and lapped in the valves from the engine that had the valve timing wrong. The valves turned out not to be bent (surprisingly) and so it looked good. I polished the piston crown and the thought I'd fit the new top end to the bottom end that was in the bike already, that bottom end being the one that had had the POS chinese top end. It all went together with no issues. Fired up immediately, no smoke or rattles from the top,but rumblings from the bottom. It turns out the mains are shot, couldn't feel any play before because the crank seal was holding everything firm. With the stator plate removed it was obvious there was a problem.
So now I've got to take that engine out and swap the top end onto the engine it was originally on and then fit the whole thing back in the bike. That spare engine I picked up was then basically scrap - thanks mate if you're reading this...
18/12/09
C90's, the most popular bike ever built. I've got two of them; an '83 and a '96 Cub. 120MPG is the main selling point, that and a pair of tyres for £15, a top gasket set for £7.99 etc..
The problem is that because Monkey Bike engines are derived from C90 engines there's an awful lot of utter cr*p out there. I bought a C90 engine, "good runner" it said. I fitted it, fired it up and it went "knock knock" at the cylinder head and smoked heavily. I ripped it apart and found the piston to bore clearance was nearly 0.5mm and the roller bearing cam journals were so loose that the outer race had spun in the head. The reason? It was Chinese monkey bike parts, utter rubbish! So now I need a genuine Honda C90 top end...
I bought another C90 engine on Ebay, it said "good compression". It turned out that the piston was hitting the inlet valve because some clown had got the cam timing 90 odd degrees out. How do you get cam timing 90 degrees out? I can understand 180 degrees, but 90 just means they can't have known ABOUT cam timing, so why were they messing about in the engine in the first place? I haven't left feedback on that one yet....
JAWA 350's are now available new again. F2 Motorcycles are the dealer. They do Urals and other wierd stuff. I guess that they're importing them and sending each bike for an SVA test. EU legistlation rendered two-strokes illegal because of emissions, but that only applies to homolgated bikes. If you present an individual bike for an SVA test they'll check all the usual stuff; brakes, lights, controls etc. but emissions are not tested! I bet those gits in Brussels didn't think that when they introduced the seemingly Draconian measure of the SVA test, that it would provide a back door for getting round all their vehicle compliance regulations!
I crashed my FX650 Vigor (like an SLR650) the other day. It was dark and wet and I was on an unlit country road. I hit something and the front end jumped away from me. I was wearing textile gear which had body armour and it did it's job well. Problem was I had my phone in my breast pocket, I hit the road hard on my left side and the phone fractured two of my ribs! So the lesson is, be careful what you carry in your pocket!