Tools & Maintenance

You may remember me remarking on the inaccessibility of various items for maintenance, notably the oil strainer and the gearbox top bolt.

Well, as if to demonstrate this needless fact to myself I decided to cover myself in oil, last time I did the change, realising too late that the funnel I had to direct oil into the can really was too big to fit under the oil tank and no I couldn't squeeze it to fit...

So, I needed a small funnel with an offset spout. Could I find one? No. So like all good engineers I set about making one...

This is not actually a paper Shewee. Its a paper model of my funnel that I made to make sure my design would fit in that teeny tiny space under the oil tank. 

Here are the tin parts. I took the paper she-wee apart again and pasted the parts onto this old oil can. Cutting around the parts with two different pairs of snips (snips are designed for cutting straight lines, or right and left hand curves, in different pairs of snips) I came up with these:

So let's stick it under the oil tank and see if it fits. Despite the narrow space around the drain plug, this will do the job. What we will need, though, is something to stop oily, slippery drain plugs disappearing down the funnel. More on that later.

This is the top of the funnel. It has a wired edge for stiffness, made by rolling the tin around a 2.5 mm copper wire, which is then wrapped around the funnel shape and joined, again using the wire and a small soldered flap

So here is the wire-edge rim and the funnel soldered together:

And here's the funnel & tube section fitted together & soldered,

As you can see this produces a funnel which doesn't align with the top of an oil can

So it needs a crank in it, like this:

And now it fits happily in the can

And it fits under the oil tank, whilst its in the can. now I can drain the oil hands-free. All I need now is something to stop the drain plug disappearing down the funnel. 

And here we are, a simple mesh made from interwoven 2.5 mm copper wire:

So there we have it, an operational funnel made to fit in a couple of hours from scrap - an old oil can and a bit of 2.5 mm twin & earth, knocking about in the garage. Tools used are simple too - a 100 W soldering iron and a pair of snips.

A New Tank

I've had this tank in the loft for a while, in fact since July last year. It's in reasonable shape, but...

There are a couple of dents on one side, but nothing too bad:

And one of the rear mounts is full of lead, presumably where someone put an over-long bolt into it and split the bottom. The crossover pipe and the tap are there, with the knee rubber mounts:

It looks like it has been stood on its end, since it's rusted out. Its like this on both sides at the bottom:

So, it's off to be blasted, to see what it is really like, and to see what repairs we will need to do. More later...

Shameless Plug 2

The second in my series of articles for my favourite bike magazine, RealClassic, appears in the July 2015 and starts on the story of the rebuild, from the arrival of a basket case in a van in October 2011. 

This one has some pictures of the engine rebuild, the instruments and the KH tank in glorious Technicolor. Back issues can be obtained from http://www.realclassic.co.uk.

It's an excellent magazine, and I'm sure you'll find Frank & Rowena's writing, along with that of their regular contributors enthralling. Buy a copy, then when you've realised how good it is, take out a subscription.

Old Bikes & Morris Dancing

This weekend saw the annual Potty Morris Festival here in Sheringham, with 36 teams from all over the country visiting to dance in different traditional styles & costumes. Saturday & Sunday saw the town filled with folk in various regalia with bells ringing on every street & the sounds of the melodeon, fiddle & drum playing to accompany the dancers

The Bourne Borderers, from Lincolnshire

This was the 22nd Sheringham Morris Dance Festival since the event was set up by Clive Rayment & Reg Grimes. For the first time the event was unfortunately without the Sheringham Lobster Potties themselves, but 36 other teams danced Cotswold, Border, North West & Molly traditions over ten dance spots all over the town.

Leicester Morris Men

Holt Ridge Morris at the Crab & Lobster Festival, May 2015

Potty Festival is not complete without Real Ale, and the pubs were filled with revellers & more musical entertainment in the evenings.

Sunday saw us among the motorcycle exhibits at the Vintage Transport Festival. The bikes park up on Sheringham station platform. The loco, a BR Standard 4 number 76084 was outshopped in 1957 so she is contemporary with many of these bikes. Here's a lovely Norton Dominator 88 with my Bantam in the background, a C15 and another Dominator.

Same scene, a bit later in the day. The sun has gone but we have a Rapide and a Commando Roadster.

Very handsome Dominator, hiding my Square Four from view

A Silver Bantam, and the Suzuki AC50 & BSA SS80 Sports Star seen at the recent Classic Car & Bike Show.

A group of scooters:

A Matchless G9 with a very interesting looking Gold Star:

There were a lot of Velocettes this year:

A nice BSA A10:

The silver Bantam again, with Amelia in the background just to prove she was there:

Shameless Plug

This is a bit of a plug for my favourite bike magazine, RealClassic, and for a series of articles I've written about Amelia's rebuild.

The first one appears in the June 2015 issue and chronicles the history of the four from Edward Turner's 1928 fag-packet sketch to the demise of the Mk 2 in 1959. 

Subsequent articles cover the rebuild from the basket case shown earlier in this blog to the eventual start up, and the impressions I've formed and the trials & tribulations I've experienced whilst running it it in.

The articles are profusely illustrated and span several pages - I think I wrote some 12,000 words in all. Back issues can be obtained from http://www.realclassic.co.uk.

It's an excellent magazine, and I'm sure you'll find Frank & Rowena's writing, along with that of their regular contributors enthralling. Buy a copy, then when you've realised how good it is, take out a subscription.

Sheringham Classic Car & Bike Show

Well, its that time of year again. Sunday brought us bright sunshine, hoards of people, dozens of cars and a few motorcycles into our little seaside town for the annual Sheringham Carnival Classic Car & Bike Show.

Of course, I took Amelia for the first time this year. We were the second bike to arrive, after this lovely G2CSR Matchless which was in the same spot last year. I have a soft spot for these, and my own G2CSR has its own blog page.

Despite living about 300 yards from this parking spot, it took ages to get here. All those little lanes and that sunshine were too tempting, but I can report that the front brake is much better now and while not powerful has a good feel.

I took my Bantam as well, which needed a good polish up after the winter and a some general neglect. Sorry Beattie... She always attracts a lot of attention, and we had an eight mile run to get here:

Smart modern scooter:

Very nice 1974 Suzuki AC50:

Every year, a group of local ladies dress up and go about the town collecting for carnival funds & the RNLI. There is a different theme each year:

Groovy Hippy Chick collecting for the Carnival & the RNLI

A nicely patinated C11 next to my Bantam:

One of the most modern cars at the show was this Tesla, which aroused much interest:

In case you were wondering what was under the bonnet of a Tesla

This Tesla Model S belongs to local artist Brian Lewis and is charged in his garage by solar panels. Brian's pictures are a delight enjoyed by many folks all over Norfolk and depict local scenes, towns, buildings, dogs & seals - all in Brian's inimitable style:

Beside the Waves - Sheringham's western slipway

Brian's website is at http://www.art-e-mail.com/, which operates an on-line shop where you can buy prints of his work.

Here's a smart BSA SS80, and  a Vincent Comet:

Apparently this Comet has an electric start. The only give-away is the big red button on the handlebars and the owner's sheepish face when he doesn't use the kick start:

This Commando special appeared near the end of the day, and I followed it up our street. I'm not sure who was making more noise...

Next event is the NNR Transport Festival. Details at http://www.nnrailway.co.uk/page.php?pid=35. Beattie and Amelia will be there!

Shark Evoline 3

Back on the Ariel after a two week work break and it's on with the Hi-Viz Shark Evoline 3, my new helmet:

It's a flip front (or modular for you guys in the US), homologated for open face or full face use:

Looks a bit ridiculous on the CycleMaster, but safety is paramount and its great for the other bikes. Visibility is excellent and it is very comfortable.

As for the Square, the steering is much better now I have sorted the head stock bearings, but the forks definitely need re-bushing. The front brake now has a lot more feel, and I have nipped it up a couple of notches.