More Plating...It's been every evening this week...

Well I am persisting with the zinc plating while waiting for my Bantam engine to come back. I've reworked all of the engine fasteners now, not brilliant but usable, along with parts like the clutch adjuster. I've also plated a few spacers, chain adjusters & the brake adjuster:

Quite passable I think!

Carburetter

Well, while waiting for the Bantam engine rebuild to get moving (I'm waiting for the crankshaft to come back from Rex Caunt) I've been plating fasteners using a kit from Gateros.

While I had the tank out, I thought I would get the Ariel carburetter ready and plate the steel parts. I've been experimenting with aluminium cleaning with an electrolytic soda bath, along with various household products.

Here is a household product with which I have become acquainted:

I started with a spare Zenith mower carburetter I had knocking around:

I attacked one of these with Cillit Bang descaler and got this in a few minutes:

The electrolytic bath didn't help much. I started with the Solex 26 AHD from the Ariel, which looked quite horrible to start with. These carburetters appear on several small french cars - they were specified by Ariel because the constant vacuum from the four cylinder engine can prevent a spring return slide from closing:

But after a couple of hours with a small brush & Cillit Bang:

This is what it is supposed to look like:

The next step is to make some decision on how to plate the steel parts. I fancy a nice yellow chromate passivate...

Bit quiet on the bike front...

Apologies to my regular readers once again, things have been a bit quiet. I've spent a lot of time away this month - two trips to Norway & one to Scotland - but the smoked fish in Sandefjord was lovely!

No movement on the Ariel, but the Bantam is moving ahead at Rex Caunt racing. I've had to send my crankcases over this week as Rex has found some peculiar wear that needs investigating. The workshop is still choc-a-bloc with Bantam parts, and I am getting ready to try out some zinc plating on the fasteners for the engine. I have new clutch plates and springs courtesy of Howard at Bournemouth Bantams.

And I have a new toy! Years ago I bought a 1950's Hercules bicycle at an auction (a proper one where you go and wave your hands about) and I've been thinking lately that it needs a little more... excitement. So I have bought this at a very good price on the Bay of E:

That's right! it is a Cyclemaster! It is also about 1951, and sports 26 cc of 2-stroke technology giving 0.6 bhp of raw grunt. It is very original, with it's original Dunlop Carrier tyre & rim, and it's original control levers. It is however, or appears to be, siezed.

There is an excellent site about Cyclemasters at http://www.cyclemaster.co.uk/.

 

Broken Bantam

Regular readers may have noticed that there has been a wanton lack of progress on the Ariel lately... as I mentioned earlier, the Bantam has decided that it doesn't like it's crankshaft.

We were out for a nice little bimble about, such as can only be found in North Norfolk's finest countryside, when she started clattering and misfiring. After the usual carburetter cleaning, plug gapping etc. and a couple more miles with enforced stops, I turned to the points only to find the cover very loose and the screws backing themselves out.

So I pull it all apart, and find myself with the flywheel in the road:

This signalled end of play for that day, and for the first time she came home on a truck. Several weeks of DIY activity plus a trip to Houston and a busy time at work followed, until last weekend we had the engine out & stripped.

It's now on it's way to Rex Caunt Racing to have the mainshaft replaced.

Hopefully, since the Bantam is down (but not out) we'll get some Ariel time this weekend!