Look what I've done!

Well, well, well, (three holes in the ground)...
What a surprise, the re-build has begun at last and over this weekend I managed to bolt some parts back together.

Prior to beginning this stage, I put some thought into how to best utilise the limited amount of space in my shed. As it gets built up, this project is going to have to share room with my daily runner, the Bandit, as well as what appears to be half the junk in Sydney. I am too cheap (read: poor) to afford a bike lift platform, so I decided to build a mobile platform strong enough to take the full weight of the bike and yet be easily movable by an old fart like me. Last weekend was spent building it and I am very happy with the way it turned out. The result can be seen in the first pic below. It is now a simple one-man effort to push the platform out into the middle of the shed for work, and then back to the side when I tuck it in for the night.

The other invaluable item has been the engine stand. Thanks to Marcello Forestieri for the loan! It has made the one-man assembly of the sub frame, center-stand and frame a doddle for even a newbie bike builder like me, haha!

I engaged the services of my teenaged son to assist in lifting the engine onto the stand, after which he quickly exited stage left. I have not seen him since! Oh well, motorcycling can be a solitary past-time...at least the faithful dog stuck by me.

Ready to rock. Mounted on engine stand and my home-built mobile work platform

Front view. Lovely Jubbly!

I then spent the rest of the day fitting the sub-frame and the center-stand. I am very glad I took some pics when I tore the bike down because this was like putting a jigsaw back together.

Sub-frame and center-stand fitted

Center-stand up and mounted. That is as clean as it and the gearbox
has been for over thirty years.

The knee-bone's connected to the thigh-bone, the thigh-bone's
connected to the hip-bone...

Last job for the day was to fit the steering bearings, steering column and lower triple tree to the frame while it was free and easy to turn upside down etc. After that I would be finished for the night and happy and ready for a nice feed and a cold beer, right? WRONG!

Before I could get out the door, the gorilla-man cameth.

You may remember from an earlier blog that I had to fabricate and weld a new steering stop to the frame. How proud I was of that job. And gee, it looked really pretty and all shiny and powder-coated, too. Except for one thing...I discovered that it was the wrong angle and the tabs on the triple-tree were barely making contact. Arrgghhhh!!!! I think I may have sworn and said a few naughty words at that point. For some reason, the dog was eyeing me closely.

What to do, what to do? The gorilla man in me suggested that it would be simple to put a little leverage on it and bend it to the correct angle. How hard could it be? Surely this would be a simple ten minute job, then I would be off inside for that well-earned cold beer.

What happened next reminded me of the story of the golf-pro who taught his pet gorilla to play golf. On the first tee, a 550m par 5, he handed the gorilla a Driver and it whacked the ball an incredible 550m, stopping a mere three inches short of the hole. The pro thought to himself, "Wow! This gorilla is my meal ticket to the big time". They walked up to the green and the pro handed the gorilla a Putter. The gorilla walked over to the ball and whacked it another 550m...

Out came my big shifting spanner which I used to grasp the tip of the wrongly-angled tab. A little upward pressure and...nothing. Hmmm. Maybe just a bit more pressure is all it needs. I pushed up harder and STILL nothing. Nothing to do now, but give it the full gorilla. The veins on my forehead started to bulge as I gave it my all. The dog inched closer, sensing the excitement. Memories of all those years as a kid, reading about the Bullworker on the back of the comics flooded back to me and I gave it one final mighty heave-ho, and CRACK!, I broke the f@#%ing thing clean off.

This time the words I uttered caused all the paint on the walls to blister. The dog took off out the door at speed as he sensed what may be coming next and he did not want to be any part of it! So much for that congratulatory beer... Needless to say, I did not sleep all that well that night.

Like the trooper I am, I was up early on Sunday and out to the shed, looking (praying?) for a solution. In desperation I started looking through my parts bin and there lying at the bottom of the pile I spied the prototype steering stop that I had made. It was a bit small for the original job and had been chucked into consolidated revenue. An idea flashed up and I realised that with a bit of grinding and fiddling it could be drilled and bolted up under and against the welded piece that was now sans-tab. Necessity is definitely the mother of invention and an hour or so later I had a working solution. It works a treat and is possibly stronger than my original design. Relief!

As you can imagine, after all that carry-on the rest was relatively easy: On with the frame and in with the bolts. I removed the bolts from the Menani rearsets and slotted then into the frame, and of course, the essential battery tray was bolted on to mesh the gearbox and frame. All bolts/nuts bolts are firmed up, but not yet fully tightened to spec.

This is beginning to look like a motorcycle again.

Steering in

There is a full bike in there somewhere, just waiting for someone
with half a brain to build it!

Next:
A replacement U-joint is due this week hopefully, so next job will be to get the swingarm, rear suspension and final drive on. I may also spend some spare time putting the wheels together with their carriers and discs.

Stay "tuned"...