So it’s decided, it’s now going to be a board track racer, was going to be a ‘Gentlemans bike’ but as macs ‘Arley is looking sooo tasty we need to pull out the stops.

The main difference as I see it is Gentlemans motorcycles have comfortable handlebars to sit you in a distinguished position astride your propelled velocipede, board track racers lean you over your finely tuned machine in the racing position, this position cannot be rushed as your wedding tackle must be arranged correctly to avoid watering of the eyes, even before this machine has reached it’s first shake down ride I already am quite careful to mount corectly due to an experience I wont share…

Now to build the petrol tank, this is my first so may not be the right way to do it but hey ho..

I needed to decide how high the gap would be to fit this contraption in so I used wood and magnets as I had these in front of me.

Now to work out the shape, I had a good look on google images to find a period shape and got the cardboard out and started cutting, very Blue Peter!

Got a shape I was happy with and transfered it to ‘Luminum..

The great thing is at this point you can just sit on the bike with an angle grinder with a flap wheel and just sculpt it to look just how you want it.  I made the bends using a precision bending machine, I certainly diddn’t bend them over an old fire extinguisher using my knee..! Ok so I did, you dont need bending equipment, just use what you have but tell people you have fancy equipment.

Traditionaly the tank is mounted using crappy mounts that look like conduit clips, I’m not keen so I came up with a plan, mount it using tubes that go all the way through the tank, what could go wrong…!

Easy peasy lemon squeasy so far but now we need some sides, break out some engineering cardboard once again.

Just lay on a piece of cardboard too big, mark it out with a sharpie and trim to size.

Transfer to aluminium sheet and trim with sheers.

Add some tack welds to hold it all in place, dont whatever you do weld up one side as it will distort more than you can imagine.

Starting to take shape, time to add the second side.

OK, so you can’t add the second side without somewhere for the heat to go or the weld just blows back at you and makes a mess, lesson learned..

Cut a hole for the filler to allow the heat to escape, works wonders!

Once you are happy with the fit and shape you can seam weld it up and make a platform for the tank to sit on.

I made up a leather gasket to hopfully reduce vibration.

Time to make the mounting rods, I welded a drill in the end of a 8mm rod so I could drill at a distance, it was a bit of a wobbly process but it worked well.

Don’t look too bad, it’s mounted quite secure and it looks alright, fairly happy with how this came out, next time I make one I will use thicker sheet as 1.5mm is just a bit tricky to weld.

No I’m not going to paint it, just a pin stripe the same colour as the frame, Burgandy red.

Sarah’s Bike lives…….. or at least lived.

Cooperman popped round and over a couple of visits got the wiring complete and fired the old girl up …. and the Guzzi.

All was going well for a few turns of the key until a Fzzzzzt and pop from the starter and a plume of smoke suggested the demise of the only cranking aid to this old girl. – Have to wait til payday to find a replacement then …. see how she fairs at the bike show(?).

Making a start on Heisenburgs frame last night – only to find that the girders he’d bought left a little to be desired. Not one to shy away from a little bit of work he just shrugged his shoulders and decided to make some of his own using the originals as a pattern.

The girders I bought were nasty, no bushing and cheap castings, looks a bit brittle for my liking so a quick trip to see ozzy and score some materials on the cheap, I haven’t paid for this lot yet but it will be a fiver or some biscuits, it’s always a good deal.

I turned the headstock out of the rusty peice of water pipe you see in the last picture and bought some bearings, oh…and some oil-lite bushing to keep it all rocking sweet, blown the budget a little though as now these girders are going to cost well over 20 quid… i was aiming at a fiver….such a dreamer.

I’ll leave these now for a bit as I’m going to build the frame so I’ll wait to see what the ride height is, may aswell weld the pivots when we have more information. H

Found a little time to move forward with this project this week, made the mount for the spring.  Found the spring attached to an old kart abandoned in the wood yard, as you do..

Eye’d it up for size and it’s a little tall but it’s all I have so it will do.

Whilst continuing my scavenging in the wood yard I came accross some ‘wood’, fairly common as it happens so I utilised this new material to produce some award winning girders!

Turns out wood is actualy ‘5h1t’ as a building material for bikes so I moved on to a new material called ‘metal’, (not the same sort the Indians use…)!!  Ok the wood was just to get an idea of scale, but a good idea as it’s really quick to do.

So now we have an idea of scale it’s obvious the spring is way to big and I don’t know how to cut one down so I have ordered one off ebay to suit a mountain bike, second hand unit with 230mm centres made by Marzocchi, looks like a retail price of over a ton so I’m happy at £35, got over an inch of adjustment too, be here in a few days.

I have ‘installed a lump of wood’ in place of the new shock for the time being,  postie has been kind and sent me some new tyres, starting to look good, better than a certain Harley.. so I’m told! (by myself..)

Winning a prize in the Brackley show has become somewhat of a competition between Harley and me, I am a bit worried that my efforts are all in vain as Mac rubs shoulders with all the right people, he is a ‘Hobnobber’, he knows all the winks, nudges, trouser shakes and secret hand signals needed to influence the judges decission, my chances are dire at best.. my only hope is a bribe to the right judge so I’m going to bring out the big guns, I have a bottle of 1986 sloe gin and a signed poster by Rick Astley and I’m not afraid to use them!   Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you…..