Mini-lathe - front stay spacers

 The mini lathe proved its worth again today and gave me two useful parts from some scrap.

These are 3/4-in diameter by 3/16-in thick spacers for the Model A and the W/NG, with 6.5 mm holes to clear quarter inch screws.

Here is where they fit - what they do is give you a little bit more room between the fork leg and the mudguard stay to stop the brake rod rubbing.

They will be chemically blacked in the next batch.

Model A - mudguard bolts

 Way back in the dim and distant past I made these mudguard stay and rack retaining bolts copied from the ones on the W/NG. I didn't realise at the time that the ones I removed from the W/NG had a thick spacer attached to them - and I had faithfully copied the bolt with the spacer in place.

With the collet still in place on the lathe, we'll remove these spacers:

That's better:

The proper length of these bolts allows the stays for the rear half of the mudguard to sit much closer to the frame such that the one on the near side no longer fouls the brake lever:

FH Front Mudguard

I have had a bit of a debate with myself about which mudguard to use on the FH. It arrived with this one, which is an A10 front mudguard and is not so odd as you might think - it fits, is larger and therefore more protective and it is much stronger than the proper Ariel mudguard which has a reputation for cracking.

It's ugly as sin, but it does suggest that the previous owner moved in Ariel circles as this is quite a common mod. Another option was to buy an earlier mudguard, the ribbed C section guard used with the single sided brake, which is much better looking and matches the rear mudguard.

The final option is to use this, the correct one (i.e. the one which is prone to cracking!), which came from eBay and is in pretty good shape. It does have the beginning of two cracks which will need reinforcing...

The A10 mudguard had this stay in it, which is actually an Ariel centre stay that has been extended in width to suit the BSA guard. The PO was clearly handy with the welder.

I've chopped a little out of the centre to bring it back to size and re-welded it.

It all fits, so that's another job off the list:

Model A - Front Mudguard

Since the FH is going to need some floor space pretty soon, I will need to move the Model A. I may even move the A onto the bench - we will see. I have had a front mudguard standing in its place for a while, which falls off every time i move the bike, so I really need to get that fixed.

I've had some black mild steel flat bar knocking about which I bought to make mudguard brackets like this and a dose of bending around various bits of scrap (a 6" length of scaffold pole is very useful in the workshop) had it more or less in shape.

The target shape was defined by various AOMCC members, notably Stan, providing pictures of original brackets.

I fitted the front stay first and let that dictate the mudguard's relationship to the wheel rim. I used an electronic level to establish the correct position of the stay, by measuring the angle from pictures of other bikes

The rolled edge of the guard needs to be flattened where the stay fits, in order to accommodate the width of this original stay:

Once I was convinced the guard was in the right place, I drilled the mounting holes to the forks:

Some time on the linisher had the ends rounded off and looking tidy:

In amongst the pile of bits that came with the Model A were both of the original number plate mounts and the number plate.

I placed these using a couple of reference pictures that I got from members of the AOMCC.

Model A - repairing threads

It's a wet day here in Norfolk, and I have some domestic stuff to do in the workshop so while I'm at it I might get distracted...

I'm looking at the workshop layout with a view to getting a bike lift in there, so I have shuffled them around and the Model A happens to be accessible, so we will have a look at a couple of loose ends. The front mudguard has been hanging off for a while (and still is) because there are a couple of dubious threads in the forks - one, a broken bolt, and then two other threads that are just fouled.

Here's the broken one - I have put a 1/8" hole through this broken 1/4" bolt, to see if it will come out with an Easy-Out. They never do, but I have to drill the hole anyway!

Of course, it didn't come out and I moved through the drills until I was one size under tapping size for 1/4" CEI. I then applied the 1/4" CEI taper tap and used it to clear the thread - it moved the remains of the bolt:

Next stop, same problem at the back. I made the mudguard & rack fasteners a while ago and could only fit one side, because I found someone had broken one of the 3/8" bolts in the frame lug, drilled and tapped it something like 5/16" and put a new bolt in. Today, I removed the broken 3/8" stump using a diamond burr in the Dremel and chasing out with a 3/8" CEI taper tap, so this shot shows it all back together with the stand spring fitted at last:

I also took the opportunity to chase out the chain adjuster threads. Grovelling about on the floor makes me realise that a hydraulic lift would be a nice addition to the workshop!

Back at the front, I now have both sides of the mudguard stay fitted - to cut the mudguard, I need the centre bracket and the front stand fitting - unfortunately I have run out of 5/16" screws, so that's the next job.

Comparing the next picture with my picture above, you can see I have the mudguard stay too far forward:

In response to a query...

In response to a comment on the blog, here is a photograph of the front stand bracket:

And some dimensions: