all the kings horses and all the kings men...

...couldn't get that goddam bolt out of the swing-arm. Silent block bushings were not the best thing the Brits ever came up with for motorcycle technology.

long term project year 2 TRIBSA cafe racer

I started collecting parts about a year ago for some sort of ground up build. I wasn't sure at the time of what I wanted, only that I wanted to use a triumph 650 pre unit engine in some frame other than a standard triumph frame aka a special. Well after helping my neighbor rescue his 55 A10 from 40 years of deep storage, I started thinking about the beauty of the A10 frame. TriBSA cafe's are much less common than the Triton (which everybody seems to be building these days - most of which are not done very well).  I have a frame and swing arm, a stock oil tank if needed, a possible set of forks, though I'm thinking Norton Roadholders, a massive twin dual lead front brake from a GS750 and a basket case pre unit 650 with trans with an extra set of cases, gear box case and the option of cast iron or alloy jugs. I need to figure out the rear tire, the gear ratio, carbs (thinking going balls-out twin AMAL GP's which will require a different cylinder head) Lucas competition mag and an assortment of engine mods and tuning to make it a road racer aka high compression pistons, race valves and springs race cams etc.... basically anything to make this run well at high speeds. This bike will NOT be a daily rider, but more of a street legal competition bike that eventually will see the track. I need to figure out the rear brake situation. I see a lot of people using conical brakes of OIF Triumphs or BSA's, and some using Norton Commando brakes. I know manx brakes and other super rare and expensive braking systems would be awesome, but short of a really great bargain find, I doubt I'll drop that kind of dough on the rear brake. Something later will be fine with me I have a rear wheel thats period correct for this frame but with the mother of all front brakes, the rear brake I have seems wimpy. As far as styling - I guess it'll all depend on what type of tank I can track down. I could go for a beefed up Goldie look, or more of a Manx style like the botton bike - though I'd probably use a manx seat at that point. The trim is the last thing on my mind right now. I want  performance!

Any advice?

And now begins the tedious process of cleaning EVERYTHING

Just started bead blasting all the little parts. Looking good so far, but this will take a while.

Hodaka power washed, ready for paint stripper

Got all my parts laid out on a table. Everything with paint gets stripped and blasted, any usable chrome gets polished or blasted and powdered. Engine will be cleaned and rebuilt. New parts on the way to replace all the unusable stuff. My lift is now cleaned and ready for my bonneville rebuild.



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Hodaka tear down.

I finally had a chance to tear into the Hodaka I picked up last week and it's been an adventure.

1st glance, the bike looks complete minus the gear shift side engine cover, tail light and coils. Heavy surface rust on most parts.

The surface rust on the forks came up withg a little WD-40 and some light buffing with steel wool.

Good enough for me, I want this to be a rider, not a show bike.

Aircraft stripper  applied to some of the first loose parts that will be repainted. I bought some "early Hodaka red" paint from Strictly Hodaka.

I powder coated the replacement tail light bracket I bought on ebay. So far so good.

Tail pipe had a fair amount of soot inside. I took the outside to the wire wheel to clean off the rust and then gave it a fresh coat of high temp flat black paint. Nice.

Headlight bucket and tabs have been stripped and bead blasted.

Bike is starting to make my garage smell like Parts Blaster. Lots of rusty nuts and bolts. I'm finding that most of these will need to be replaced since their so rusted. For every one bolt I remove successfully, two break.

 New engine cover arrived. Needs some cleaning but looks ok.

The battery must have leaked acid because everything in that area is rotted out. New Battery Box has been ordered.

Every time I tap the bike dirt and rust rain down from parts unknown. It seems like rust is whats holding most of this together.

Dead soldiers.

Tool box is rough, but clean replacements are scarce. I have an Idea for this, more on that later.

The seat cover is amazingly intact, but the foam is dry rotted underneath and part of the seat pan is rusted through. The seat cover is brittle and probably should be replaced with the foam. The pan I may try to repair. You can see one tab needs to be welded back on.

With a sharp blow from a mallet, I knocked the fork bolt (partially unscrewed and sticking up a half n inch) down to loosen the forks from the clamps. Looks like I need a new top clamp now as well. Doh.

Frame down to just the lower fork clamps. Need a special tool to remove those. Hopefully I'll come up with some other way to remove that part. I have to remind myself that there are loose bearings inside the fork neck. Can't lose those....

Engine needs a cleaning, but turns over and has compression, I'm hoping for the best but bracing for the worst.

More coming soon.

Winter project number TWO! 1970 HODAKA Ace 100

I've been wanting a Hodaka Ace 100 for quite some time, and finally a very reasonably priced 1970 bike came up on craigslist. It has the title and the engine is free. Some part were robbed and some are too rusty to use, but I ordered everything I need including the official Hodaka Red (more of an orange really) for the frame and the badges for the tank. I'm not looking for factory finish, just a well sorted motor in a clean body (patina intact). This bike WILL be ridden.

51 Speed Twin winter project.

After sorting out most of the issues with the BSA thunderbolt, I decided it was time to get into the 51 Speed Twin. The ugly seat had to go, so I ordered a vintage 60's era Bates Style solo seat and a repop pillion pad. I need to get the fender stays for the rear before that goes together. The front wheel was in bas shape, so I pulled that off and polished the rim before adding a new Dunlop k70 (3.5x19). The forks bottom out, so I dismantled them and found some pretty skanky fork oil inside. Waiting on some parts, but I'm trying to decide if I want to keep the 19" front wheel or go 21 with an Avon Speedmaster and drop the forks a couple of inches similar to the Salt Ghost. I need to play around with this for a bit.