Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Shaky Jake]

I thought I'd show off these awards that Patience earned at the Lincoln Highway National Meet in Lincoln, NE.



She got a Century Medallion and pin, a Century Recognition certificate, and a trophy cup for Period Modified. As you can see, we already put the cup to good use.




Kevin

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[BoschZEV]

I thought I'd show off these awards that Patience earned at the Lincoln Highway National Meet in Lincoln, NE.

Congratulations on these awards, but most of all congratulations for having successfully ridden from coast to coast with full points on a century-old bike you completely rebuilt yourself at no small effort.

After almost two months of searching last week I finally found something that met my "specifications" so today I bit the bullet and put down my non-refundable deposit (I would have done it last week but I was out of the country and I won't do anything financial over hotel wifi). Unless you use a different bike in 2018 I'll be in a different class than you (i.e. pre-'29 single) but should see you every morning and evening, if not along the way each day as well (hopefully, not with you passing me broken down on the side of the road...).

[Shaky Jake]

Congratulations on these awards, but most of all congratulations for having successfully ridden from coast to coast with full points on a century-old bike you completely rebuilt yourself at no small effort.

After almost two months of searching last week I finally found something that met my "specifications" so today I bit the bullet and put down my non-refundable deposit (I would have done it last week but I was out of the country and I won't do anything financial over hotel wifi). Unless you use a different bike in 2018 I'll be in a different class than you (i.e. pre-'29 single) but should see you every morning and evening, if not along the way each day as well (hopefully, not with you passing me broken down on the side of the road...).

Congratulations to you too! I'm looking forward to riding with you. I actually texted you a few days ago asking if you found a bike yet. I'm guessing you were out of the country at the time. Are you going to have a build thread?




Kevin

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[BoschZEV]

I actually texted you a few days ago asking if you found a bike yet. I'm guessing you were out of the country at the time. Are you going to have a build thread?

I didn't mean to hijack your thread, but when I'm overseas I activate the "do not disturb" setting on my iphone to eliminate 3am phone calls and beeps from text messages from people who don't know, or forget, I'm traveling.

I'll definitely have a comprehensive build thread, but probably not on this site. The bike is British so there are other sites better suited for that.

As I'm sure you know, pre-'29 British bikes are pretty short on the ground in the U.S., and those that are here have been restored so they look great on the outside, but all too often not-so great on the inside, so a complete rebuild is needed to minimize the chance of you passing me broken down on the side of the road. Anyway, after chasing a half-dozen promising leads around the world I finally found "my" bike in Europe. I'll have it confirmed at the end of the week that it indeed is the '27 or '28 (and not a '29) the owner is "pretty sure" it is. The owner is currently in the U.S.

My reason for looking for a British bike is that "everyone else" will be on Harleys or Indians and I wanted something out of the mainstream (although I wanted something different, I didn't want to pay $100k for a Henderson to be that different). I'm not being coy in not mentioning the bike itself but I don't want to jinx it until its age has been confirmed.

[Shaky Jake]

My reason for looking for a British bike is that "everyone else" will be on Harleys or Indians and I wanted something out of the mainstream (although I wanted something different, I didn't want to pay $100k for a Henderson to be that different). I'm not being coy in not mentioning the bike itself but I don't want to jinx it until its age has been confirmed.

I love old Brit iron. I hope it works out for you. If it does, please post a link to your build thread so I and others can find it.


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Back in time

So, I was looking through this blog and I see that, in the final rush to the start of the '16 Cannonball, I had to skip a few details in the build. Now that I've given you a taste of the Cannonball itself, I want to step back in time to cover those details.

The things I see that I haven't covered yet in the making of Patience are, the clutch, the carburetor, the exhaust pipes, the oil tank & chain guard & other miscellaneous tins, the steering stops, how the compression release works, the Cannonball wheels, the lights, the luggage rack, the spare transmission, and a few other little details. So stay tuned for that.

I also have plans to make some improvements for 2018 that I'll cover because, as I said earlier, my goal next year is to not only do all of the miles, but to spend less time working on the bike and more time having fun with my friends. On that subject, I came to realize that I met a lot of you all last year and I don't have any pictures with any of you. That is just wrong. Please, if I meet any of you next year make sure that I get a picture of us to post. Most of the folks that I met were at the finish line when I rolled in. It was always a thrill for me to meet someone who is familiar with the blog. At that moment that I roll across the finish line I'm usually tired and thirsty and hungry and looking for the van. And on many nights there is a planned dinner to attend. Here's a tip: if you want to get a flavor for the Cannonball, walk around the hotel parking lot after dinner. On most nights there's a good chance that most everybody will be drinking beer and working on their bikes in the parking lot.

Anyway, I'm going to get started organizing some of my pre-Cannonball built pictures, and I'll plan on getting them posted up soon.




Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

Mounting da clutch

I covered assembling the clutch in an earlier post. In order to mount it, you have to disassemble it back to the point that the hub can be slid onto the tapered output shaft of the transmissionand the nut can be installed. Remember to put the key in the key way. Here is a picture. Note that the back plate and sprocket are still on the hub:



Before the nut goes on, there are two lockwashers that go on. A larger on that gets peened into the slot in the lock ring and a smaller one that goes through a hole in the larger one and into a hole in the hub:



Here's what it looks like with the nut on. Remember that the nut has left handed threads. I used locktite.



Then the inner clutch disc with the pretty new Kevlar lining goes on:



The outer disc goes on next. You might have to lean the bike over to the right a bit to convince all the discs to stay in place for now.



Then you slide the spring plate and springs in place. You can use as many as 16 springs. In this picture I have install 8, that is where I started. After riding the bike and fiddling with the adjustments, I ended up at 12 springs being the the best number for me.



Then the spring tension plate goes on with the tension plate adjusting screws and lock plate as I showed earlier.




Kevin


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[Olie]

Where did you get your new clutch disc's at?

[Shaky Jake]

Where did you get your new clutch disc's at?

The all metal outer disc, I think I got it from the Smiths in Molalla, Washington. The inner discs are old ones that I had refaced by Energy One Performance Clutches.




Kevin


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[Bills37]

I'm a little late coming to this thread but I just got done reading all 56 pages. Much respect & admiration for the work you put into the restoration and running in the Cannonball.
That had to be quite the endeavor. Good luck in your future runs. Bill

[Shaky Jake]

Exhaust pipes

I had an original muffler, but no header pipes. As far as I know, no one is reproducing them, and without a set to copy, having a set bent was not a possibility. The pipes are made from 1-1/4 tubing, which is an odd size that none of the exhaust pipe places seem to have a mandrel for. My options were to hot bend the tubing myself, or to cut and weld pre-bent pieces of tubing together. Because of the complicated three dimensional shape of the front pipe, I decided not to try to hot bend the pipes. That left me with cutting and welding pre-bent pieces of pipe together. I'm pretty proud of how they turned out. I don't have any formal training in welding or machining; what little skills I have are self taught.

One of the problems is the flange at the top of the pipes. Some people have made forms out of wood or medal, heated the tubing and peened or pressed the flange onto the end of it, similar to making a flare end. I decided to make my flanges on the lathe. I started with 1-3/8 inch OD steel tubing with a 1/8 inch wall thickness. I turned down a length of the tubing until it was the same OD as the 1-1/4 inch exhaust tubing and then I parted it off at about a 1-1/4 inch length.














Kevin


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[Jim]

I have never used a metal lathe, but I was wondering is there a way to CUT the pipe off using the lathe? It looks so NICE!

[painterdale]

Kevin, the pipes look great! Obviously functional. I realize they are finished now but if you still want a set to copy, you are welcome to borrow mine. Just want to put the offer on the table.
Dale

[Shaky Jake]

I have never used a metal lathe, but I was wondering is there a way to CUT the pipe off using the lathe? It looks so NICE!

Jim, yes, there is a lathe tool that's called a 'parting tool' that I used to cut it off.




Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

Kevin, the pipes look great! Obviously functional. I realize they are finished now but if you still want a set to copy, you are welcome to borrow mine. Just want to put the offer on the table.
Dale

Thanks Dale, I might take you up on that when I make my next set.
Did you peek ahead at my SmugMug account?




Kevin


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