Snorton gets a bit of a makeover............

Picked up a nice period fiberglass comp tank on Ebay last week, so I set to this afternoon and pulled the old heavy and leaky tank off the Norton, temp fitted with some foam underneath til I get the final position sorted and backed up with a Wassell single scrambler seat, think I might attack the rear muddie next!

Backyard Casting

I used to do a bit of casting as part of my "day job" in our family run jewellery workshop. Mainly using silver and gold I used a delft clay and some aluminium flasks to produce one off pieces that could be finished off by hand. I had some success with this process and found that it was great for reproducing detailed reproductions of existing pieces. The downsides of the method for producing bike related parts were mainly that you couldnt melt enough metal to pour the size of pieces I would want without having some sort of forge to get the metal (aluminium usuall) to 1340 deg to pour it successfully, and the 4" flasks were quite limiting!

I have been looking at the possibility of casting some of the hard to find pieces I need/want for my Indian projects, and found a couple of really informative sites

Lanstrom's Foundry Where the Warpath Indian cases are cast - awesome!

Backyard Metal Casting some great how to's and a whole lotta source info here


So I'm off into town on monday to buy me some fire cement and fireclay bricks! I'm gonna build me a forge ;-)

Bridge

A man was riding his Indian along a California beach when suddenly the sky cleared above his head and, in a booming voice, the Lord said,

'Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish.'

The biker pulled over and said, 'Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want.'

The Lord said, 'Your request is materialistic. Think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports required reaching the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! It will nearly exhaust several natural resources. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind.'

The biker thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, 'Lord, I wish that I and all men could understand women; I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, why she snaps and complains when I try to help, and how I can make a woman truly happy.'

The Lord replied, 'You want two lanes or four lanes on that bridge?'

Tim's TriBSA 3 and a bit.........

Moving on toi the motor and gearbox, the clutch seemed to be disengaged when kicking the motor over there was no resistance, so last night I pulled the primary cover off and found that there were no plates or springs in the clutch basket. This morning I had a rummage in the shed and found a Hayward belt drive alloy clutch basket c/w a full 4 spring clutch assembly, I temporarily nicked the plates, springs and pressure plate and fitted them up, motor spins quite freely on the kickstart now so at least its not seized up.
I'm going to take the single chain primary set up off and keep it for the Indian Junior Scout, which will be running a Triumph 4 speed box. I'll get the right size of belt from Tony H and fit the belt drive kit with an alloy pressure plate to the TriBSA.

Tim's TriBSA 3

A good day today, had a couple of hours down in the lockup, stripped the B40 of its front end, swing arm and wheels. Set the TriBSA up on the stand and pulled the Yamaha back wheel off and put it in the Ebay pile. Fitted the Montesa rear wheel in the BSA swingarm, the spindle is too narrow so I'll have to take a run over to my mate Colin's workshop where I keep my lathe and turn ap a couple of adapters and a spacer. The Ceriani front end c/w matching front Montesa wheel was an easy swap I will need to make up a 3/4" spacer to take up the extra spindle length in the yokes but other than that the jobs a goodun!

Ripe for renovation or rusting relic?

Otter frame for the B40

Decided to change direction with the B40, its been a while since it got put together, kinda lost interest in it and got distracted by the Tiger Cub trials that I was using at the time - which ended up being sold to a fella in Germany. The ex MOD B40 motor was stripped and checked over, we reckon its never been used, it was absolutely perfect inside, its going over to Colin at Loch Ness Restorations for a clean up and rebuild with new gaskets and seals (been lying for a long time) an Otter trials frame has been ordered from Faber Frames, expected delivery in May. In the meantime I'll get all the other bits n pieces together!

Heres a pic of a finished Otter to give you some idea of where its going

Tim's TriBSA 2

Using parts from the unfinished trials BSA B40 which is going in a slightly different direction now, the TriBSA is slowly taking shape. a set of NOS Ceriani forks, 1970's Montesa conical hubbed Akront rimmed wheels, alloy BSA comp tank and a single bates style seat for that Catalina racer look

Morning routine.....

Every morning I take a ride up the hill to check on our horses, rain or shine, snow or frost, this morning it was a bit chilly!!!!

Minimalist Tribsa Hillbasher

F'kin snowin agin !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tim's Tribsa

Last week I got a call from my mate Tim, he had just bought his old Tribsa back from his mate in Orkney, it was coming down the road by lorry, could I bring a trailer and help get it home for him. We met the lorry at Tore at lunchtime today and pulled the beastie off the lorry (surprising how light it is!) trailered it back to my lock up and had a good looksee.

Its got a close finned ally Tiger 100 motor and BSA box in a mid 50's B31 frame, back wheelis Yammyhar front is BSA, tank is from a Starfire 250 a fibreglass seat unit and a set of dodgy bars complete the picture. definately a good start for a scrambler/hillclimber!

Grounded!!!

Waiting for an new inner tube to arrive, tore the valve out on my last outing :-(

note the Speedshop copyright fencepost paddock stand !!

The Missinglinks new header pic

I just wanna be there!!!!!

Missinglink's Blog

Cool ebay find for today 8-)

WANTED 19" Borrani or Akront flanged ally rims

WM2 x 19" 40 spoke for the Indian Junior Scout 45

Also looking for a pair of WM3 19" rims to take a pair of 545X19 flattrack tyres to try on the Sport Scout for a change of wheels

Bo'ness Hillclimb

Just found out that the Bo'ness Hillclimb is being run again, I plan to get an Indian together and have a go, my Grampa, Bobby, raced an MG there back in the 30's

GN Spyder gets thrashed up the Bo'ness track

Flying Eyeball tail light

I just ordered mine from the guys at Slice n Dice Customs

The Bikeriders BSA

I recently got hod of a copy of Danny Lion's "The Bikeriders" some great pictures of the Chicago area bike scene in the 60's, I really like the unit BSA scrambler in this pic - just the way I want to go with my '62 B40

I woke up this morning ................

and the snow was gone, it wasnt raining and the Norton was sitting outside with a full tank.
So, I rode up to the stables to put the horses out and enjoyed the long way home along the Eathie road and back via the harbour, cant feel my thumbs cos its so cold but life is good 8-)