Ogg Make Thing With Firestick.

Ogg like fire, Ogg like firestick. Ogg make firestick work last week. Ogg use firestick, make thing for motorcycle. Ogg Happy!

I needed a rack for the bike to hold the saddlebags, as well as supply a way to mount the rear fender to the bike. The closest thing I've found is a rack from an old military Triumph TRW, and it's about as easy finding one as it is pulling a rabbit out of a hat. So I went down to my local firestick store, got the acetylene and oygen tanks filled, grabbed some tubing and a little firestick rod, and went at it. Got a good rough start happening, first I took some measurements and played with locating funky bends. I cut a few pieces to length, then the firestick was used to bend the tubing to about where I needed it bent. A few tack welds were done, giving me the thing you see here.

A few words of inspiration for those who are going, "Golly, I wish I could do that!" Well, buddy, you can. See, my current welding skills would have resulted in the Exxon Valdez incident looking like a spilled cup of coffee compared to the damage I would have wrought if I were working on an oil pipeline.

Notice the use of the word "current". I still have a lot to get re-acquainted with in the world of using the firestick, but that doesn't bother me. My welds look like shit today, but with a little...er.....lots of practice, they won't. Before another weld gets done on the rack, I'm going to cut several little itty bitty pieces of tubing, and spend some time getting it together and making things look and hold together nicely. Yep, I'm gonna' PRACTICE doing it right until I can, THEN I'll go gonzo on the actual rack.

Not just the rack, but tabs for holding the exhaust and other little goodies to the bike will need to be made. The brackets I'll have to make to attach the Lycett seat to the frame will give me lots of practice using the firestick to make clean bends, and I'll even make one of those groovy bolt on sidestand bases out of some seriously thick metal. Yep, Ogg has practice to do, but Ogg will make lots of things with firestick!!!

Dodged That Bullet

Ah, the joys of country living! The past two days were supposed to be spent playing with lots of fire, metal tubing, and a hammer, but Mother Nature decided that things were not to be so. She put a damper on the fire routine with her own water spigot, repositioning my efforts in the direction of getting things picked up from the lower zone and moving them to the upper zone. To help further ensure there was a bit of chaos, at 12 hours til "Move 'Em Or Flood," it was time to fire up the neighbors RV for the pull out, (Umm, not the one in this photo, a different one not pictured....). That went well with the aid of the battery charger and the jump from the truck- that is until we discovered the recently swiss cheesed hoses the nest of mouses decided to build in the dude's engine compartment. Two or three spliced water hoses later, and things were finally ready to rock. (Mental note: THIS is why ya fire the engine once a week- it seems that little mouses don't like their nest heated to engine temp at least once every couple of weeks, so they find a different home with other groovy little hoses and wires to chew on!)

A long two days- lotta good people down here- the ones that could gave help, the ones that needed accepted it, and all worked out this time around.Time for a glass, and a little celebratory "It Didn't Flood" drink! (Now maybe I can get my bloomin' torches out, and start playing with fire again!)

What's better than a glass of wine and a fire after the rain and prep work ends? Only this is needed to complete the cycle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzqzFExGp10

An Encownter With Al Cowda........

I decided to go out undercover today- in the white Ranger. Although I had no clue as to what the trip would bring, I discovered the scouts for Al Cowda- our local terrifying bovine thugs- and got photographic evidence of it!

But the journey must begin somewhere......

As it has been wet, things have sprouted, in many various shapes and colours and sizes:

 My path took me through the enchanted bits of forests, passing what appears to be a reconstruction of an early Russian guard tower here on the California coast. The construction is very simple and, well, it's just large, big fat boards and posts, it is built in the same style as nearby Fort Ross, an early Russian post.

As I left the Fort Ross area, I entered the cow zone. Their souls trapped forever in this unending misty zone, trapped indeed by mere rails of steel, they lie in wait for the errant car driver or motorcycle rider......

Now these aren't no average cows. These are members of the dreaded Al Cowda, and they do their dirty work with the precision of a well tuned guitar. We've passed each other a lot, their arrogant sneers hardly masking their contempt as I ride by wearing full leathers, and I've seen them at work. Using deer and squirrels and raccoons as their minions, they try to thwart the unwary traveler by staging roadblocks and suicide ramming attacks. A well coordinated lot, they are hard to identify as they blend in seamlessly with the local bovine population.

That cow zone is an area best traversed with a watchful eye, for the evil Al Cowda will get you if they can!!!

Oh yeah, I also played "Ogg Make Thing With Fire" later on in the evening.....

Now that should be a right proper luggage rack when I'm finished!

Let There Be Light!

Thus, Abraham begat Isaac, who in turn begat......oops, wait a minute, wrong book.........Uh, let's see, we're talking motorcycles right?

Taking a break from playing with rear frame sections, it was fun to play with that tail light I'm making. First, most of the grunge was scraped off, giving a slightly cleaner appearance. The red glass lens arrived from E-bay...(Gawd, how I detest a PLASTIC lens!), and the cat's expertise was called into play. Needing an outer ring to help hold the glass in place, little Fluffy was more than willing to contribute her fair share of work, and promptly devoured a can of cat food, leaving me with an empty can.

From this can, a nice ring was cut to act as a retaining plate for the lens, both held in by a wire clip.

The almost finished tail light, still needing a bit of electrical stuff.

I went to my local junk store, and craftily stated that I needed the guts out of a tail light, ya know, kinda' like the ones ya find on a boat trailer. (I say craftily, as had I stated that I was "repurposing it" or "up-cycling it", that probably would have doubled the price. Hey, guts are a lot cheaper than up-cycling.....) The aforementioned guts were removed, reshaped, stamped, bent, and mangled to get them to cram inside this little itty bitty tail light. But guess what? It WORKS!!!!!!    Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

 

Now all it needs is a bit of paint, and an approximately 80 year old lamp is back on the road!!!!!

Ohmigawd, What Have I Done???

Oh no! There's only HALF a motorcycle in the shed!!!

But let's back it up a step or two, o.k.?  With the original hardtail rear section on, a couple of 4 x 4's were shoved under the front half after the pipes and mufflers were removed. This gave the rear wheel about two inches clearance off the ground, and a little bit of wiggle room to remove the rear wheel.

I took the opportunity to compare the new 0" drop, 0" stretched section to the one still in place by positioning the two side by side with close to identical mounting points. (This is how I figured that the original hardtail was 2" drop, 0" stretch. ) For those of you wanting to learn, it ain't too hard. Let's start with stretch- it's just that. A zero inch stretch will give you the same wheelbase as stock, providing you haven't massacred a good frame and raked the neck or extended the front end. A 4" stretch-well, you get the picture, that'll make it four inches longer, and is usually done to give a chopper look, as well as supply more space to mount a battery box and oil tank.
   As for drop, it's a bit trickier to understand. No matter what, if you are still running a 4.00 x 18" tire, your axle center is going to sit at about 13" off the ground. However, if you run a 2" drop frame, the frame section is made in a jig that changes the frames shape and angles, leaving the axle center still at the 13" mark, but lowering the frame 2". Point being, when shopping for a hardtail, the amount of drop is lowering the frame AT THE REAR AXLE PLATE MOUNTING vs. THE REAR FRAME CONSTRUCTION. This will change the look of the frame, with different angles than a 0" drop would have. It will also leave your engine sitting higher in the front than at the back--to maintain level with a 2" drop rear hardtail, you would also need to shorten the stock fork tubes by about 2"........

Here we see the 0"drop, 0" stretch in the foreground, background with fender is 2" drop, 0" stretch.

With the wheel and fender removed, I had a clear look from the rear at the oil tank, and will be moving it outward an inch or so, that will give me more room for mounting coils next to the oil tank. Just under the oil lines extending over to the chain will permit a plate to be welded to make a nice base for the battery box.

At this point, the original rear section was removed, leaving me with half a motorcycle. This simply would not do, so the new 0" drop 0"stretch section was bolted into place. A nice piece, it almost aligned itself with the front frame mounting holes with no problem! The rear wheel was put back on, and lo and behold, even on the 2 pieces of 4x4, it now sat on the ground, whereas the old frame section had the wheel 2" off the ground on these same 4x4 pieces. I just gained about 2 inches of ground clearance, and now the engine will sit level like it should!!!

Now comes the fun part, taking care of the details. Tabs will need to be made for things like oil tank relocation, exhaust pipe and muffler location points, fitting the Lycett solo seat, and a rear rack/saddlebag mount. Oh, I did play just a hair....I found this fairly trashed sidecover:

and with a little bit of hacksaw power, started the conversion into this rigid frame side cover instead.....

Of course, a little more shaping is in order....

That's it for tonight! Next time it's onto tabs and oil tank and the rear rack, which will not only hold saddlebags but also be some of the rear fender support.

One little bit at a time....

Today found me out in the shed for a little bit- got a couple of things sorted out. It was a test fit day- got the nacelle where it should be, although at this moment I left the gaiters in place, rather than the steel covers normally there. I also tried out the 4 gallon tank, and found I want to drop the front of it down a half an inch to provide better clearance with the nacelle when the handlebars are turned to their full swing. I did a little mock up with the Lycett that just came in, it is going to need some decent mounting done. Over the next couple of days it will be a game of what fits where- a full mock up to make sure it all fits together and the right pieces and parts are where I want them. Then all back down to the frame- and paint!

I've decided that I want a little more ground clearance for sure, so the rigid rear end is going to be swapped for one that has a 0" drop, rather than the current 2" drop it has. This will also level the bike out nicely, although I find the slightly raked look nice, I like the value of the ground clearance more.

The Build......

Oh my... A bit of time has drifted by, and it's time to add a bit more. Things have changed due to Southern California events........(by the way, for those of you who read this stuff, the goal has been figured out. Sometime in the next couple of years, I'm just gonna say "Fuck It!" and be done with the regular citizen crap. This bike is a part of that- the goal to build a nice rigid 1950's lookalike that can pull a trailer as I wander about the countryside trying to make a buck to keep things happening. Those of you lucky enough to catch this post- well, you are at the beginning. You'll get to see the bike built, the trailer built, the fact that I will sell the home and hit the road, finding work to support me and the bike along the way. At some point I'm gonna just die and that'll end the blog, but it will be a heall-uv-a lot of fun in between............,.

Fast forward to the end of a very long month, and things have changed yet again. I know it's hard to beat a nice short-framed rigid with a nacelle, but it happened.....

Scanning through the L.A. Craigslist, another 'chopper' with no price in the title appeared, so I popped it on the screen to take a look. I was a bit blown away to see that it was the same basic dreambike I wanted to build, no nacelle, but a couple of other goodies. Two weeks later I rolled it outta the truck into the driveway of it's new home.............

At first sight, it had almost exactly the lines I wanted! The Sporty rear fender may be a bit much, but we'll see how it works with the saddlebags- I do like that much side-fender keeping mud and crap off of things!





As I studied it a bit more, a few extra little goodies became quite evident: the Joe Hunt magneto will definitely sell as I really prefer the clean lines of the stock points cover and being able to fix the points in the middle of nowhere; and that BSA oil tank sure looks like it holds a bit more oil that the regular Triumph rigid oil tanks one finds! The fact that it also has a 750 top end is kinda neat, too!



The Vokes air cleaner is a nice touch as well, but a little remounting may need to be done, as it is taking away a little space where I need to mount the coils when I go back to points.



Another nice treat was the belt drive:



But the best thing of all was getting handed not only a valid title, but also a registration that uses what I believe to be the original black and yellow California plate! The Ed Kretz and Son chromed surround doesn't hurt either! Last time I had a chance to get a Triumph with it's proper black and yellow was almost thirty years ago, so I am QUITE stoked!




I still have yet to start it up, did compression test, made sure it sparks (and STOPS sparking when I push that little button on the handlebars) I mostly need to get fuel tank and lines set up for that.

This bike was previously owned by Keith Moore of Anaheim, and was supposedly being set up to be the mail bike-there were going to be two big baskets stuck on that Sporty fender so he could take shipments to the mail. I am talking with the current folks at the shop- hopefully they can throw more details at me. The motor has got a 750 top end, so I'm hoping if they might be able to tell me to what extent a rebuild may have been done on the lower, seems that too many goodies have been added to just throw them onto an old, unrebuilt engine.... I do have the three main parts of the nacelle, a local shop will be able to make the lower covers that I'll need; I also have a beautiful 1950 tank already painted and ready to go. The rear end is not stretched, just dropped a couple of inches, so I may have to revert to the 0 drop 0 stretch hardtail I had made up earlier this year- it also seems a bit more beefy. Yep, things will all get figured out, as it's going to need a down to the frame repaint at the very least. I'll keep ya posted! Joe

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