Model A - front stand

 Whilst working on the forks I made a little side project out of the front stand. Whilst I have the forks in bits I want to make sure that the mudguard and it's stays are all in the correct places, which of course includes the front stand and it's fixings. Sorting that out will also allow me to trim the front mudguard to the right length

We have the original front stand with the Model A, but unfortunately it's rotted out. I always seem to end up welding these stands for one reason or another, and this one is no exception - the stand retaining clip is missing as well.

I've had some suitable heavy wall tube knocking around since the FH project which needed its front stand extending by about an inch. It's a blessing that Ariel didn't change their design every 5 minutes and the stand material used here is the same as is used on all my other bikes - consequently there's about three feet of suitable tube in the material bin that I can use to fix this stand.

I use the Rothenberger Superfire 2 blow torch to make freehand bends using the old stand as a pattern and eventually end up with a complete bottom section that I could weld to the old arms

The linisher is very useful for squaring up joints in tube work which in turn makes a very straightforward autogenous butt weld:

Before we go any further, we need to make the clip at the back of the stand to position it in the right place to get the arms the right length and in the right orientation. This is the clip on the W/NG:

I've made this out of a piece of 16 gauge steel sheet cut to a strip around 1 in wide and I've drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the strip to receive the annular part of the special nut which is used to retain these stands. I folded the strip in half and cut a slot to clear the 5/16 inch bolt to which the stand is fastened.

I made a few of these special nuts on the lathe some while ago, probably for the WNG. The Model A was in the pipeline at the time and I knew I would need a few:

I've used this electronic level and some pictures provided by fellow club members to set the stand in the right place to determine the position of the hole for the clip:

With the hole marked and drilled, and the mudguard cut to the right length, I fixed the new stand section in place with the new clip:

With the bottom section in the right place, I can measure the length of the arms and tack them in place:

It's a very straightforward job which finishes this area ready for paint.