My pics of Joe & his 1914s
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Back to bikes: next week's Mecum story concerns the 'Slow Joe' Gardella Collection. Joe was a Cannonball buddy we caught on MotoTintype in 2012 beside his 1914 Harley-Davidson V-twin - that's our 'Famous' header photo above. We became friends after I passed 'Slow' Joe at 70mph in a flat stretch of the Rockies, riding my 1933 Velocette KTT Mk4 (The Mule), and was very surprised minutes later to see him pull up beside me on his 100yo single-speed 1914 Harley-Davidson 10E V-twin. I hotted up the pace, he matched me, and over the next 10 days I peppered Joe with questions about his bike. "How?" Joe spent hours explaining every part he'd modified or re-engineered for better breathing and higher performance - absolutely everything inside the motor, from the bearings and crankshaft and rods to the pistons, rockers, the shape of the intake casting, the valves, etc. The engine was a visual simulacra of a 1914 Harley-Davidson, but there the resemblance ended: he'd taken the tuning secrets that made those early 'pocket valve' V-twins into 100mph board track racers, and added modern materials and a century of air flow research. The result was simply awe inspiring: if early Harleys are your bag, pay whatever you have to and buy this bike.
Copied from Paul d'Orl'eans The VintagentLeave a comment:
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I just read on face book that Joe is out this year, hope that's not the case - cause, I really wanted to see that belt drive make the run. Thought if anyone could it would be Joe to do it.Leave a comment:
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Under Pressure
Yes I am still working on the Twin every day. Posts have been missing due to constant computer issues , several posting attempts have crashed prior to hitting the send button. Parts are arriving and being made on a daily basis. The hub project is looking good and now down to brake plates and actuating cam and worm devices.
Today I will be picking up finished exhaust pipes and working on the front hub cam , after the customer base is satisfied first. After all, still have to go to work to pay for this flurry of activity.
joeLeave a comment:
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Not that you could be feeling any pressure, but the Cannonball starts in only another ~10 weeks and it's not clear from your recent updates how close you are to having an operating motorcycle. How many more hours of work do you estimate it will take to have your bike all together and ready for the first road test?Leave a comment:
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Spending time at Bruce's shop bending pipes. Bruce a friend and fellow motorcyclist owns a tube bending shop and is pitching in on this build with new exhaust head pipes for the twin. Bruce's pipes should be spot on, already his rear head pipe has the best offset of any remanufactured pipes I have seen.
Bruce picked up data from an original set of pipes off the 13 twin I raced at Barber last year. We tested his prototype pipes on the 12 Twins mocked up motor , frame , muffler combination , close..... The rear head pipe has a peculiar offset to clear the cam chest , the front head pipe has the reverse bend rotated at the lower end ahead of the muffler Y pipe.
Most of my time is still spent on the Okuma making parts. The rear hub needs special threading tools for the coaster device since $3400 dollars is out of my reach for the EDM sinker . The front hub is also nearly finished, it will be fully serviceable virtually without tools. The hub shells will be wire EDM cut for the brake plates , the wire price should be easier to handle.
Back to McGuire Spring shop today for wire snap rings to hold the front hub assembly together. Ron wound 15 turns to cut 15 wire snap rings out of the music wire.
Computer failures are adding up its time may be near..... Three and a half hours to send seven scanned copied documents and write this article , not productive. On line problems continue with Verision wireless.
joeLeave a comment:
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Paint....
Rob
On this build the paint supplier botched the blend and has been tinting it for the past month to correct his error . Currently the primary gray has a tan hue , not good. Harley's gray paint is most likely a blend of two primary pigments "lamp black" (blue shade black) and white with a minute amount of blue tinting to get the desired shade.
The current blender most likely mixed my gray paint with primarily "carbon black" pigment (yellow shade black) and white resulting in the "tan" hue gray. He has re-tinted several times to achieve a match from a 1912 / 1913 tank back side where the UV light has not affected it's original paint.
These two black pigments have been in use for more time than my source can account for. My brother John (source) has 30 years experience as a color matching guru. specializing in field and in house tinting / matching paint pigment for the automotive industry. Lesson , should have had John mix the paint.
A while back on this forum the color of Harley's striping was a hot topic. I was brought into the fray and asked my opinion (we all have one) of the true color of Harley's early striping . I claimed the large stripe as a slate gray blue strip. Gray is the color choice of some of the researched people and the other guys typically use blue. I stand on the gray blue due to the pigments available, "Lamp black" has a natural blue hue in it and as pigments fade difficult arise for anyone to be absolute on this color shade.
When I built the Ghost the paint tinter re-tinted the dark gray blue striping paint several times to get away from the predominate blue of his original mix based on the same original paint fuel tank. The result is still more blue than I desired.
Back to the Twin, Hub parts are still the primary focus but many other items are materializing and being repaired , welded and machined into a usable form. I thought of posting several photos tonight as Cory is still on board but to much time was dedicated to the righting this article , the photos will have to wait.
joeLeave a comment:
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joe, is the color the same for your 12 twin as an 11 single? if so please share the paint code with eric (2cam) he is ready to paint his 11 and needs help.Leave a comment:
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Brakes....give me a break.
Wow three months remaining until Cannonball and painting , plating , or assembly have not begun .... yet. To compound matters this damn computer keeps locking up , losing unpublished posts , sorry.
Pedal crank and eccentric parts machined over the weekend , tough steel. If the bike falls over on the side walk the pedal crank won't yield to the pressure , the side walk will break.
Speaking of break , taking a break from the hub project temporarily to stir up parts in preparation for coatings. Parts must be assembly ready prior to sending out for plating. Painting might be an in house affair on this bike although to move forward my painter may be brought in , more hands on deck will probably win out. Remember this is not an all out restoration, many damaged rusty banged up parts are being used on this flat tanker.
The hub project has consumed more time than I imagined. From conception to completion more time will be spent on the front and rear hubs than anything else in this build or the previous Gray Ghost build combined .
Signing off for now before this computer locks up again .
joeLeave a comment:
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Change of pace.
Wasn't up to cranking out hub parts tonight so , fired up the Bridgeport mill and the Parker Majestic surface grinder for work on the modified / welded belt tensioning lever. New for 1912 the Freewheel clutch with hand lever operation. Harley underestimated the force on the belt tensioning hand lever resulting in lever failure . 1913 brought on wider stock for the lever. The twin will get the correct for 1912 lever with reinforcements in critical areas adjacent the drilled holes where friction and pivot points are located.
USPS lady arrived this afternoon with two packages. One package , a set of Jeff Willis pedal cranks and eccentric crank carrier . Jeff a long time friend and sponsor of both my cannonball builds has provided me with quality castings for many years. Jeff produces many type of castings for our antique mtorcycles and can be found in the club membership roster , Ohio section.
Also from the mail lady came a package from Molalla Oregon's Jethro Smith. Jethro has been instrumental in this bike , he has restored the seat and now built an oil tank / tool box combo. for the twin. Once again Jethro has provided a quality product . Thank you Jeff and Jethro.
Finally a rare delivery by store manager of Production Tool following a shipping error sending my package to a wrong location. Production Tool supplies me with many items , this time cutting tools for machine work on the outside of a exhaust valve guide of one of the cylinders where damage was repaired by welder Andy..
Does anybody know where Cory is?
joeLeave a comment:
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