Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[exeric]

Al McRoberts makes very accurate, and strong reproduction clincher rims. Look on page 82 of our latest club magazine. I used his rims on my 1919 Henderson and they look perfect.

[painterdale]

Thanks, Kevin and Eric! Eric, what did you use for spokes on your Henderson? Dale

[Tom Lovejoy]

Thanks Kevin, I too am enjoying watching your progress. Really like that brake drum, going to have to call Ziggy.

[Shaky Jake]

Thanks Kevin, I too am enjoying watching your progress. Really like that brake drum, going to have to call Ziggy.

I can't remember for sure, but I may have bought his last one. If he makes another run of them, I'd probably buy one to put on my spare wheel.


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Front Wheel

The front wheel that came on my bike appears to be from an earlier model year, as it does not have replaceable bearing cups. On this one, the cups are an integral part of the hub, and they have some visible pitting. I decided to clean it up, assemble it with new balls, replace the broken spokes with old spokes from the spare rear wheel, true it up, and mount a tire on it. I will keep it as a spare wheel for the Cannonball.

Like the rear wheel, it was not too far out of true, even with the broken spokes:








This is after fixing the spokes and truing it up:








Tires mounted on both wheels, and both wheels mounted up:








I now also have a proper 1916 front hub, that I will eventually build up with new spokes and rim to be used as my primary front wheel. I'll post on that some other time.




Kevin

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[pisten-bully]

Like what you're doing Kevin! Keep on posting your updates, they're good reading and just like when I was a kid, lot's of pictures!

[exeric]

Thanks, Kevin and Eric! Eric, what did you use for spokes on your Henderson? Dale

I'm sorry Dale, I just saw your post. I got my spokes and nipples from Mike Smith but I don't think his sons are still carrying that line. Early nipples are different than what you can get from Buchannan's. Early nipples usually have 2 flats, whereas, modern nipples have 4 flats. I think there is an ebay source for an accurate reproduction of the early nipples. The early spokes are also different from the modern reproduction but I don't think it is easy to spot. The nipples are the item that stands out. Regardless, I think AMCA judging looks at the best available reproduction, but safety is the first consideration. Even if it's a low speed, neighborhood runner.

[Shaky Jake]

Like what you're doing Kevin! Keep on posting your updates, they're good reading and just like when I was a kid, lot's of pictures!

Thanks PB. You know what they say about pictures. A thousand words and all that.

Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Rear Fender

At this point I haven't decided to restore the tin work with new paint and stuff, but I did decide to tap the deeper dents and bends out. Here is a before picture of the rear fender. The sheen is just from a generous coat of Strongarm preservative, it's not clear coated or anything:







My dad had given me a set of real body tools; hamers, hand held anvils, etc., so I decided to put them to use. After an hour or so of tapping away, the fender is still pretty crispy but it looks better, fits better, and is generally a lot straighter:








The bolts that the fender was mounted with were all over the place as far as size and length, so I decided to fabricate some matching ones. As I mentioned earlier you can't get 1/4 - 24 bolts in very many sizes, so I took some long shanked 14 - 20 bolts cut them off, and tapped them 24 tpi:








I put the bolts in the lathe and cut the SAE markings off of the bolt heads, so they would look period correct. Eventually I'll have them nickel plated. It all mounted up nicely:






Kevin

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[exeric]

I love what you're doing Kevin, and your documentation of the project is thorough, and very detailed. Your photographs are excellent as well, and plentiful. Just for what it's worth, Indian fasteners had a taller head than modern fasteners. I make all the nuts and bolts on my early bikes because hardware store fasteners are just not close enough. The Machinist's Handbook has the dimension for 'Heavy' bolts and nuts, but since most m/c manufacturers had their own automatic screw machines, they made their fasteners subtlety distinctive. I buy hex stock from a metal supply company and single point the threads on the bolts, and lathe tap the nuts. I also use Casite to case harden fasteners that need that treatment. Finally, Indian fasteners were nickel plated, and no other finish was used to my knowledge.

[exeric]

I should add that I do use modern Grade 8 fasteners in applications where safety is critical. In particular, the 4 bolts that clamp the leaf spring assembly to the rigid fork.

[Shaky Jake]

That about catches me up to date, as far as where I'm at with the Indian. I'll get back to it in a couple of weeks, when I get home from North Carolina. I've worked the last 45 days straight (13 hour days) but it looks like I'm going to have a couple days off this weekend. Maggie Valley is less then 3 hours from here, so I'm planning to make a run down there to the motorsickle museum. I'll try to remember to get some pictures to post. Other items on the list this weekend include drinking, sleeping, drinking, and sleeping in. And then I'll have a beer and take a nap. TGIFF,

Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Back from NC / Wheels Thru Time

I'm back from two months of working 13 hours days in NC. I did get one Saturday off in the middle though. And, somehow, to my wife's amazement, I did manage to do some cyber-picking while I was gone. Here's what my den looked like when I got home:







As anxious as I was to get home and see my wife, and to get back to work on the Indian, I decided to stay an extra day in NC and drive down to Maggie Valley and visit the Wheels Through Time museum. Maggie Valley is near Cherokee, and the southern end of the Blue ridge Parkway. It's a definite must-do if you are in the area. I feel I owe it to you all to share some pictures, so here goes.

One of the first things I saw was this sign, which made me feel right at home. Those of you who know Omaha know that the area where the track was is now the middle of the city. Ramer Motors was a major M/C dealer in Omaha up into the current century. I'm not sure if it was the same family?







Wheels Through Time is a homey place, that kind of makes you feel welcome:






If you like old bikes, this is the place for you (they have some cars too). This has got to be one of the earliest long distance adventure bikes, with the camel back tank and the torpedo tank:






This HD sidecar rig is pretty much the definition of a 'Survivor:'






Another sidecar rig. Streamlined and tastefully customized in the day. Note the old bobber trick of moving the front fender to the back:







That's a start to it. I've got about 30 more pictures from the museum, including the two rarest motorcycles in the USA, so if nobody objects I'll probably post them up. I might even share a video of Dale lighting a fire in some of the old iron.

Stay tuned.


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

More Wheels Through Time

Here's some more from the Wheels Through Time museum.
An early Indian racer with open exhaust and a custom front damper:












This is Andy, one of the museum employees. He told us the story of the 1916 Traub, a one of a kind motorcycle that many people think is the rarest motorcycle in the country. If you haven't heard the story you should google it, it's a good one.








According to Andy, however, Dale (the museum owner) thinks this 1913 Indian prototype is more rare than the Traub:




It used two single cylinder magnetos, driven by a chain rather than gears:




It appears to have a reserve fuel valve, as well as hard piped primers rather than priming cups:




I thought it was interesting that the stops on the 1913 prototype rear stand are similar to the 1917 and newer style stands. Also visible in this picture are leather straps that hold the rubber bump stops in place. Most old Indians that I see seem to have baling wire holding them on, and some (like the racer above) have a little metal tab held on by one of the bolts. I'm not sure what they originally came with.




I also thought it was interesting that this 1913 prototype has the front fender safety strap that, I thought, Indian didn't start using until about 1917. In the next picture you can see the strap goes through the loop of the spring, so if the rear tabs that hold the front part of the fender on break, it can't drop down and lock the front tire up.






more to come...


Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Still more Wheels Through Time

Here are some more pictures from my visit to the Wheels Through Time museum:


Everybody loves a knuck! I call this picture Knucklehead corner:






A Henderson four survivor:





This Ace four is just a beautiful, sleek machine, regardless of when it was made.





Dale started it up for us, it sounds as lovely as it looks. Here's a quick video. It's short, so listen fast.






This '09 Reading Standard is another exceptionally beautiful machine. It makes you wonder why they cover the machinery up on modern motorcycles, rather than celebrating the basic aesthetics inherent in the mechanisms.








The Crocker was another fundamentally attractive conveyance, in a "form follows function" kind of way.






An Indian Single. I believe the big red thing is a battery pack:






This is Dale's Cannonball bike:






I've got a few more, I'll post them up later.


Kevin

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