Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Shaky Jake]

Congratulations on the Sunnen. It certainly opens up new possibilities in rebuilds. It also opens up holes...

I finally got some friends together yesterday to help me wrestle it down out of the trailer. Fun fact, if you slosh some honing oil on the floor you don't need a dolly to move it. ;-). Now I just need to put my engine hoist together to lift it off the pallet.


Kevin

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[AdvenJack]

A guy can reread this thread at his leisure time and again, and enjoy the process quite a lot!

[Shaky Jake]

I'm so taken by this thread. You must feel so wonderfully satisfied with your efforts!
I really do tip my hat to you.

Thanks Jack. I really appreciate that.


Kevin

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[AdvenJack]

I'm so taken by this thread. You must feel so wonderfully satisfied with your efforts!
I really do tip my hat to you.

[BoschZEV]

Don't you love the OSHA red light mod on top?

Ah, I missed that feature. Mine didn't come with a red light like that so yours clearly is a better equipped model. I'm jealous.

[Shaky Jake]

Congratulations on the Sunnen.

Thanks. Don't you love the OSHA red light mod on top? I'm going to leave it there.


Kevin

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[BoschZEV]

In other news, I found this in a local FB ad...

Congratulations on the Sunnen. It certainly opens up new possibilities in rebuilds. It also opens up holes...

McMaster-Carr will deliver tool steel rods this afternoon that I need to rebuild my Ariel's oil pump, and without the Sunnen to finish the internal bore as well as do the final sizing of the plunger at a level of a ten-thousandth at a time to set the clearance I don't know what I'd do.

[Shaky Jake]

My front saddle bags were looking a bit crusty from being rode hard and put up wet, so I decided to give them a little attention. My barber restores saddles on the side and he recommended this paste called Saddle Secret. It seemed to work pretty well. My riding gloves were looking pretty rough as well, so I put them on and used them to apply it to the bags.








Kat thought the whole thing was pretty exciting.








In other news, I found this in a local FB ad. I'm pretty excited about it. I used one of these back in the '70's when I was a teenager, for rebuilding connecting rods and stuff. It is now sitting in my box trailer in the driveway until I can find a couple of strong young men to help me wrestle it into the shop.







It will probably be this winter before I get time to clean it up and start playing with it.




Carry on!


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

And vice versa. As far as I can tell, ours are the only two 2018 Cannonball builds on the web.

And vice versa.

I think Chris Tribbey has a blog out there somewhere, otherwise all I've seen is a few Facebook posts from the other folks. Your build blog is pretty amazing. I heard there might be some kind of award for best internet documentation or some such thing. If so I'd say you have a good chance at it. Are you riding your Ariel yet? Sorry - I've been working a lot and got behind on reading your blog.

Us "revisionists" got to stick together!


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

You might not be getting a lot of feedback from guys like me, but that's because I'm lapping up everything you post and watching with intense interest. Thanks for documenting your work so thoroughly and taking the time to share it...it's very, very cool!

Thanks Harry.


Kevin

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[pisten-bully]

You might not be getting a lot of feedback from guys like me, but that's because I'm lapping up everything you post and watching with intense interest. Thanks for documenting your work so thoroughly and taking the time to share it...it's very, very cool!

[BoschZEV]

And yes, I'm also following Charles' build,

And vice versa. As far as I can tell, ours are the only two 2018 Cannonball builds on the web.

I'm looking forward to meeting him in person in September.

And vice versa.

[Shaky Jake]

Thanks for the comments guys.

The cam followers got delayed when the machinist I was using had some parts failures (bubble memory etc.). After several attempts to fix it, he ended up getting out of the business. He got me through the prototype phase though (we made three prototypes before I finalized the design). I have now found a new CNC guy and I should have Parts soon. Yes - it will be the subject of a future post.

And yes, I have become a bit of a Parts hoarder, and I have two additional bitsa-bike projects going.

On the far back burner is a 1919 PowerPlus. It's in the parts collecting phase. I have a frame, some wheels, engine cases, transmission, and a few more parts. I'd like to put a sidecar on that one. I'm looking for ~1919 cylinders if you know of any.

On the near back burner is a 1914/16 singlespeed racer. This will be done in the style of a privateer board track racer with 1914 style pedals but a 1916 PowerPlus motor. I have most of the parts for that one, I've started on the engine, and I'll probably start on tin work this winter. I've already talked to a painter, this one is going to be shiney not crusty. I want to modify a PowerPlus clutch to work like an earlier Hedstrom era single speed clutch. If anyone has details on the early teens single speed clutch hub and worm, for a bike with pedals, I would take any information I can get. I need to make a custom clutch hub to mate the pedal crank to a PowerPlus clutch.

I'm planning to start blogging about the racer soon. I took a vote on my other forum, and they think I should include that bike in the same build thread as the Cannonball bike, rather than start a new thread, so I'll probably do the same thing here unless anyone objects.

And yes, I'm also following Charles' build, though I'm a bit behind on my reading. I'm looking forward to meeting him in person in September.

Cheers and thanks for posting!


Kevin

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[TechNoir]

Hi Kevin, well done on progress so far and I am also very much enjoying the ride.

I like your rubber band idea for keeping the con rods safe until the cylinders are fitted, I might borrow that one.

I also chuckled when you commented that you now have 7 sets of cases because I seem to remember that at the start of this you had never had a bike anything like this old. It seems that you are now fully immersed in these old bikes.

How did the final version of the cam followers turn out or is that the next installment? I will be interested to see how they improve performance.

Keep it up, there are a good few of us guys who are following both yours and BoschZEV's progress and hoping that all is well once you finally get underway.

John

[frichie68]

Love the details I would never have thought of . . . Thanks!