Tidying up

There have been a few things that I just couldn't put off much longer and I thought I'd get off the decal thing for a while. Here's a shot of the old exhaust and long dipstick tube: The original exhaust from the front cylinder passed back along the top of the motor where the back cylinder tee'd in. Together they dropped down the back. I knew I wanted them to drop down individually but didn't want soot directly on my foot or on the clutch or countershaft. Here's what I came up with. The front pipe: The rear pipe: I hope it sounds better.... and louder! I kept the outside line of each pipe the same length. They should rust pretty quickly and fit in again. You can also see the cropped dipstick tube. Here's another shot of it: I also fabbed a cover for the "primary drive." It is actually quite similar to the cover found on the street version of the Cyclone with the exception of the clutch poking through. I don't mind my foot hitting the spinning clutch as it is smooth and to cover it completely would have put the cover in the "too wide" category like the ill-fated floor boards. BTW, notice they are no longer on the bike. Somehow, despite measuring twice, I came up short on this cover and had to graft in 1/2" to the length to prevent rubbing. I added the 1/2" strip to the apex of the large end so as not to create a step in the cover's taper. The cover attaches to the motor in two spots and onto a standoff welded the bottom of the left chain stay. Here's the back side of it on the bike. There's 3/8" to 1/2" clearance for the counter shaft pulley.

... and the drama continues

Everywhere I turn there is incompetency! I don't mean to sound arrogant but the older I get the more I notice this. Am I alone here?! I finally found a laser printer at an undisclosed location - neither a print shop nor a copy center. I was able to get a copy or three done. I chose to practice with the least favorite decal sheet on the first tank I built that's still in bare metal. So what's wrong with the above picture? That is NOT the white decal paper I ordered. It's clear! Not only are the white drop shadows invisible (as white is actually printed only on an Alps printer), but the whole thing is translucent and bland! I thought to stripe the white drop shadows by hand but the remainder would be too muted. Looks like I must reprint after buying white decal paper - dare I order from the same place? I might have a dented tank if I allow a second chance and am let down again. Another option is painting a white backdrop for the entire logo, using a paper mask cut from a regular paper copy of the logo, then applying the decal over that. I shouldn't have to do that and that puts me back into the effect of a vinyl decal - any scratches would reveal a white base.... and all too thick IMO. If you want anything done right - don't even try it in the first place!!!!!!!! I am beginning to celebrate the pride and snootiness of anyone who perseveres with a project and rises above the masses. You deserve the attention you earn!

The closer you get the more problems arise!

........ it's like some waiting ghost that loves to spoil things the more you are seeing the end in sight. "Walk away from the light..." The decals have turned into a major pain. There are two kinds of water slide decal paper - one for ink jet and another for color copier/laser copier. I went with the latter. Apparently home ink jet printers are going the way of the dinosaur and I have read many online posts of others using color copiers at Kinko's, etc. with success. I thought my biggest issue would be UV damage over time and what clear coat might be effective to help block it. Actually, I can't get that far yet! After a total of I'd guess 12 hours cleaning up that image in Photoshop I might be forced to hand-paint this logo after all. Kinko's wrinkled three pages, Office Depot says they had jams before with decal paper and that their color machines were the same as Kinko's(I opted to pass). A local sign company tried but their ink was water based and never dried OR they had an ink jet(wrong for my paper) and wouldn't say so. Two more sheets gone. The Kinko's copies made almost one full logo before jamming. The unfinished part was yellow powder that smeared but the completed part of the logo was not only nice and bright but water proof as well. The sign company's showed the black and grey but the red beaded up as if on wax paper. Two days later it still smears to the touch. They did almost convince me to go with thin vinyl logos.... almost. That will be a LAST resort. Vinyl will last longer than any other part of the bike and might show it. If I was going with a thick clear coat or an overly glossy street rod look it would be fine. Here are a few of the mishaps. To the left are the color copies on paper I had them do each time (as a test). Kinko's was significantly brighter than the sign company's. Then you can see two from Kinko's. The employee tossed the first one. Next are the still-wet ones from the sign company. I ran water over the corner of a Kinko's copy and it stayed true. The ink from the sign company's copy just ran off like water - even the set-looking grey and black. They look almost like the reverse side of decals don't they? That's how weak and faded the red is. More issues. After some time-consuming fabrication of the floor boards, I think I will ditch them in favor of pedals. A friend said, "They look a little big for the bike." That's all it took. I have to agree but on the original street bike and stripped stock racers, they were closer in as the motor was quite a bit narrower. I think it might detract from the theme of the bike. The floor boards themselves are not too wide but the brackets are..... and I made them wider yet to allow room for the boards to fold up out of the way or collapse if/when the bike falls over. What do you think? Any last votes to keep them? I made a new stem bolt today. I basically brazed a "cap" over the existing turned down bolt and then milled the eight sides and turned a radius on the end. Looks much more like the original and better fits the beefy stem. Oh and BTW, a Mesinger Motorcycle Racer in high upturn brown is on order with Larry Heilman.

Cyclone!

Psych! Okay, this is a low resolution image of what has taken me about 8 hours in Photoshop to reconstruct with enough detail to print. You didn't think I would post the 32MB image did you? I sure would have loved to stumble upon one of those too! If you need the image, just ask. We'll barter. ;) I'm waiting for some decal paper as I feel I must have water slide decals on this tank - thin, detailed, and easy to chip and weather. Hand painting would take too long and vinyl would look funny IMO. The "Joerns Motor Mfg. Co." text isn't perfectly accurate but I decided to reproduce it and the associated drop shadows rather than try to fix up the scan I had. I'm okay with it as is. I am hoping a light coat of clear will block enough UV to maintain some color. Much thanks to Kevin Hulsey for sending me a high resolution image he had shot at the 2007 Legend of the Motorcycle Concours D'Elegance in Half Moon Bay, Ca. Until then, I was unable to enlarge and visualize the decal in enough detail to Photoshop it. Tonight I worked on those floorboards shown earlier. Here are a few shots: First, I removed about .060 for an inlay leaving a .250 lip around the edge. Here I have already removed the Dykem and masked for the spray adhesive. I used some "rubber" floor runner from Home Depot as the inlay for the boards . It's unusual for me to find something to meet my needs so easily. In this case I had already produced the inlay so I was really fortunate to find a rubber mat that fit my need so well. Rant: Seriously, I don't think you know how rare this is. A buddy and I have often joked about our typical visits to a home building center for the one-off odd DIY piece we seek. "May I help you find what your looking for? Says the vested helper. We then explain how we are needing some do-hickey we once saw there, what we think it was for, and how we want to modify and re-purpose it for something else(insert completely random and unusual DIY project here). At this point the "helper" always says, "Oh we don't have anything like that around here." Except they do have it but are just incapable of visualizing our purpose! It's gotten quite old really! I could describe "a pointed object with a handle and a flattened tip that you turn by hand to tighten screws with......." and they couldn't show me a screwdriver! Once an elderly, limping employee in his 80s offered help as I was looking overhead at flexible spa tub PVC tubing for yet a different application(aquarium). He actually refused to get it down for me saying (in a grumpy old man voice), "Aw, that wouldn't work." And hobbled away shaking his head. I felt it endangered him to climb up the ladder so I decided to pick up my jaw and laugh. Bought it the next day and guess what has been working for me for years? Now when I go shopping it's like this: Helper: "Hello. What can I help you find?" Me: "No!" End of conversation. End of rant. Anyway, with the help of a variety of simple templates I transferred the inlay shape to the rubber. The remaining 5' or so of rubber mat will be used to make some modified way protectors for the mill and lathe. Anything left will go in the garage or entry to reduce the amount of chips I've been dragging into the house. Sorry Linda. I cleaned the rubber and the boards with acetone and with a little 3M Super 77 contact adhesive I mounted the rubber. I ran a very small bead of black RTV around the rounded edges of the inlay to conceal any small gaps. Looks passable to me albeit a bit modern Harley-esque. Of course they'll have to fold so mounting them will be a whole post I'm sure.

Okay. Compare this with the prior shot of the throttle mech. Using a bellcrank, another bend in the throttle cable is eliminated. Also, the opposing force of the return spring is isolated from the throttle pivot itself. Finally, by having the return spring on the same arm and close to the pull cable, there is minimal load on the bellcrank pivot point. It now works with little resistance, returns fully every time, and because of the different length arms on the bellcrank, it allows the throttle tube more travel than before for much better feedback. It's all hand-fabricated, including the bracket, cable holder, pull rod, and adjustable ferrules, except the bellcrank which I pirated from the original B&S parts. I might replace it later with a more cast looking part. I am much happier with the way this works!

More stuff

I put a radius on the fins of the flywheel today. Now each fin is like lathe tool bit - curved with a little relief and about 25 degrees of rake! Sure they aren't pointed any more but now I just have another 1/4" before I get chewed up. A guard is in order for sure. I sealed the tank today as well. I used Por-15 and that tiny little can easily flowed throughout the whole thing. It looks pretty much like thin metallic silver paint. They say not to save it after draining out the excess but to my surprise I got about 4/5 of the can back! I decided to pop the lid on it and keep it for later. Who knows? If it looks the same when I open it again, I'll use it. Here are a couple shots of the floor boards I'm making. I decided on them as they were on the street versions of the Cyclone as well as on the "strip stock" racing models. I'm using 1/4" 6160 and I'll build some nice supporting brackets for them. I came up with 13.5" X 4.5" as that looked about right. I might try to checker them using the mill or maybe adhere a rubber face on them - we'll see. Oh, and here's how I finished the throttle up. The tensioned return spring is way too strong but needed for now. If left this way the throttle plate pivot will eventually wear an oval shape into the carb body, make it difficult to modulate, and eventually cause total failure. I will try to mount a small compression spring in the hand control to push the inner cable "plug" back to the idle point. Oh, and I started it today too! I jacked around with a charger for a bit but when I used cables from my car's battery, it fired right up. With a bypassed vacuum fuel pump, lightened flywheel, no air cleaner, and no muffler, it fired right after a few cranks. Though I'm not done, I sure thought the combination of mods would make it difficult to start - especially since the carbs are different on gravity fed B&S models. The throttle worked as planned as it scratched it's way backwards on the driveway. I am developing an honest fear of this thing.