The Rider Pegs Stay

It's been a while since I checked in with Cliff, the fella I was planning to work on the tank with, and admittedly, it's all my fault.  However, when you leave a high paying job for one with the city, you get gain a lot of satisfaction, but not as much extra cash.  Add that to a pricey divorce, and you're left with a tight budget and no furniture.

So, as I'm waiting to hear how much I owe on taxes, living from paycheck to paycheck at the moment, hoping to afford the new carburettor next week, the one thing I can do is research.  Weirdly, the more I look into the new cafe bikes, the more I see the brat bike making a huge push.

Originally, I intended to make the BSA a single-seat cafe racer, but now that I've been dropped back into the dating pool, I'm going to have to say that I want this bike to be able to carry a cute girl on the back.  That means a 2-seater butt cushion and rider pegs.

What does that mean for the overall design?  Well, I'm going to have to figure out a new solution for the battery box, since it's not going to be hidden in the tail hump anymore.  The old version is a piece of shit that used to hang on the outside of the frame, under the ugly side cover.  Bad design.

I love the original oil tank - very sexy.  However, I'll need another consult with Cliff, because it seems that it might now be necessary to build a custom oil/battery combo unit to keep the bike clean and sexy.  It's a labor of love, and it's going to take as long as necessary.  (I have to keep telling myself that.)

Greasy Ol' Gearheads

 
Mark and I got moving on the motor this week, and it seems that when the weather gets nice, his buddies like to come over to the garage, hang out with their bikes and drink beer.  Then we work on motors for a while, have another beer, tell dirty jokes.  If, in 15 years, I'm having half the fun that these fellas are, than I know I doing something right.

As for the motor, we took it apart and put it back together about 4 or 5 times, getting it set up perfectly.

The rods are in, the pistons are in the bath, and Mark says it should be done by the end of the week, if we work hard and stay on task.  In my opinion, I don't care if it takes another 6 months, if I get to have this much fun, hanging out in a garage, working on bikes with a bunch of grizzly bastards, eating pork rinds and drinking cheap beer.

2/1000ths

So, after all that nonsense with the crank, we figured that it was so out of whack that I was just going to have to break down and get a new one.  The couple hundred bucks that I'd spent on machining this one was just a cost I'd have to eat.  Oh well, shit happens.  Hello, eBay.

Then, on Thursday evening, as I'm enjoying a steak dinner, I get a call from Mark, telling me that his machinist buddy was with him at the shop, having a couple beers and he took a look at my crank, just to show him how boogered up it was.  They decided to mess with it, and sure enough, after 6 months of delays and feet dragging with the damn thing, they had it together with perfect tolerances in no time.  Turns out, it was just shitty machine work from Quinlan.

Awesome.  Best way to round up a great birthday week (and an half).

Cranked Off

After all that work to get the crank machined, and dealing with the colossal assholes at Quinlan, it turns out that my crank is bent, and I'll have to purchase a new one.  Hundreds of dollars down the tube, and we're fairly certain that it was dropped (possibly intentionally) by the assholes at the machine shop...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

After a crummy hiatus, I was finally able to rustle up some time to get back over to Mark's shop and dive back into the motor.  It was great to finally feel back on track, and the awesome BSA parts were all spread out to see.

Now, the bad news.  We apparently overlooked the obvious, and decided to put the crank on the lathe, to see if it was true.  It wasn't.  Basically, that means that all the money and irritation I had to deal with, with the old one is gone forever.  I need a new crank.  Bollocks.

Luckily, a crank from an A50 is the same as one from an A65, and they're in abundance, so it looks like it's time to hit eBay and the swap meets.  Mark's making a few calls, and I'm doing my research, so hopefully, we can get this worked out within the month, but don't hold your breath.

It's the Little Things that Trip You Up.

Dear everybody who's been following this build blog,

I'm a miserable bastard for not keeping up to date, but truly nothing's happened for a few months...  Well, nothing's happened with the bike.  For me, I took a new job as a Creative Director/Designer, then quit after 2 months to take a different job as the Arts Director for the city of Indianapolis. (I felt really bad about dicking the ad agency around, but when the mayor asks you to be the executive arts guy, you say yes.)  I also broke it off with the wife, so I'm losing a big chunk of my immediate build budget, which blows.  Additionally, the focus is to get the motor finished before any other work, and my buddy Mark (engine god) has been swamped with work over the summer, so between the two of us, there has been zero time.

SO, that being the case, we're hopefully looking to get rolling again this month, but who the fuck knows.  I love my job, don't get me wrong, but it's seriously cutting into my fucking-around time.

Until then, I'll just leave you with a pic from the movie "Girl on a Motorcycle":

Glaciers Move at Slow Speeds Too

It's either as hot as the infernal bowels of hell, or raining in biblical proportions these days, so very little riding is getting done (not much garage time either).  On the other hand, it's ideal to make lots of phone calls, emails, and get plenty of research done and design ideas worked out.

For example, I've been toying around with a custom badge for the side cover of the bike, and I think this would look nice:

I thought it looked nice, so I made one for a CB350 for fun:

(The wife says no.  We'll see.)

I also finalized that Amal DOES INDEED make the 626 carb in the premier setup, but I've found most dealers to be complete pains in the ass when it comes to ordering one with my specs.  Apparently, there's basically only 1 or 2 distributors here in the states, and they haven't yet stocked them.  I'll get it eventually, even if I have to order it from the UK...

Additionally, I got in touch with Cliff Meyer, the sheet metal genius behind MeyerBuilt Metalworks, and if all the pieces fall into place, he'll hopefully be building my tank and tail.  Here's some of his work:

It looks like I'll also be getting the headlight from Benjis Cafe, since I want to eliminate the big clunky gear cluster, and do a speedo-in-headlight setup.  That means a tach delete plate, but I'm not planning on red-lining it, so I don't really NEED it.

Lastly, I'm still contemplating how I want to do a painted tank, and this version looks beautiful!

Although, I'm not sure about the 2-tone tail.  I love using the polished aluminum as a design aspect.  OOH!!!

Oh yeah, one last thing, I forgot to mention that I'm thinking very hard about clear anodization of the polished aluminum parts.  Awesome.

Y, Oh Y!!!

I've spent all day compiling research for the bike, and I've come to a realization about "Y" everything has been an uphill battle, as far as parts are concerned.  It has everything to do with the "Y".

Now, this isn't my motor, but is an example of a "Y" bike.  What does that mean?  It means that between 1967 and 1970, the BSA Motorcycle Co. was asleep at the wheel when it came to everything, including the VIN numbers, and even the model years of their bikes.  From what I've gathered:

a) BSA had thousands of 1967 model bikes, and they made updates to them and resold them as 1968, 69, and 70 models, while still retaining the original 1967 paperwork.  Some confusion occurs due to the extra stamping of the "Y" after the VIN on the engine cases.

or

b) The factory fucked up.

or

c)  Who the hell knows?

Bottom line: I'm not the only one with this issue, and I'm 99% certain that my '67 BSA A50 is actually a '69/'70 model that was confusingly titled as a '67... whatever.  What does that mean?

Well, it means that I'll be using the '69/'70 books as parts reference for one.  Other then that, very little is different between the years, so it's not as bad as it could be.  If I were going back to stock, I'd be in bad shape, but I'm not, so it's all good!