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F.o.a. Sqweaka. . . . . . . And my pre war Bobber build . . . . . . .or rather strip

14K views 62 replies 22 participants last post by  Olliminium 
#1 · (Edited)
So not a rod and I have already received some mild abuse on a bobber ? ? ? ? ? and another modified bike forum, go figure that one out? So some folk may not like this but what the hell, I'm posting for a friends benefit kinda by request so here goes.
Forgive the pics. there all taken in very limited space. but my progress to date for anyone interested.

I decided I wanted a bike maybe 10 years ago but only really started looking for one 5 years ago. There is a tale behind why it took so long but I'll not go into that. Suffice to say I still don't have a license but i have finally found my perfect donor. This is my first bike and my first learning experience working on a bike.
I'm glad it took so long to find my donor as my direction has changed a little. The base bike was always gonna be girder folks and hard tail pref vellocette, triumph or b.s.a. Direction was always gonna be bobber and i always fancied something nice and shiny but the direction that changed was period and patina influenced by many of the bikes at hayride over the last couple of years. I always wanted to keep it simple but now I want to keep it simple and as period correct as possible tho I may have ballsed up a little on the rear tyre and battery. :incheek: Big thanks to Ian and Dan for support and encouragement.

The bike choice happened by mistake I read the word Triumph saw it already had hard tail and girder front and got a little excited making a couple of offers through ebay. The bike was in Germany but even that didn't set off any alarm bells ringing.

So i turned up 2 days after boxing day 2012. Looking like this with a seized engine and 2 flat tyres and a bucket full of patina, wish me luck.



Choice of rear fenders changed several times from a triumph cub item, too modern. . . . . .









To a ribbed ariel item that i decided was the one.



Until I accidently placed the o.e. fender removable back piece on top of the new tyre while cleaning up and it looked just right. This made me happy as it means the only Items I have added to the bike are the headlight and glass knob on the jockey shift.
Everything else has been achieved purely by stripping and modding.

I've kept the original exhaust but raked the back pipes upwards at the rear.











Changed the headlight to a ratty brass lucas item which is much smaller and imo suits the stripped back appearance of the bike.







Even had to modify the glass lenses as they were too big for the unit so i carefully ground them down.



Yellow?



Or clear?



I'm leaning towards the yellow myself.

Mocked up but far from finished.



I'm trying to keep the original number plate and rear light but not sure it will work yet.

 
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#5 ·
Interesting choice of 'bike...

Should be great when it's finished - glad you've gone down the route of using what's there rather than just buying in loads of trick bits. Best of luck with it...
 
#8 · (Edited)
Thanks, I'm happy with it to date. Constructive criticism appreciated but I don't really pay attention to the haters. Besides it was Sqweaka who took the abuse on my behalf lol. But like I mentioned before, The worse of it was on a bobber build forum. Think they were just into Customs and chops really and didn't understand the concept of bobbers.
If I was to start over there is only one thing to date I would do different and that is try get a bit more sweep in the exhaust bend to make it flow better but I thought I would have trouble with the kick start so bent it just behind the kick then realized I could of pulled it in behind the kick. But like I said. Its my first ike so there's a bit of a learning curve and no real guidance just trial and error, error, error. lol.

So today I cut down the rear fender and moved a unnecessary piece as I wanted to keep some of the bikes original character.

So i started out with this.



Cut it down to this



And moved/kept this just cos i liked it. It could easily have been lost, it no longer really serves a purpose but i like it.



So yes, today I cut the bike and did a mod that would be mildly difficult to resolve without buying another part yet my dick did not fall off. go figure!!



Rear fender bobbed and assembled Mk1. The first cut I've made the rear fender longer than the mock, don't know if I'll keep this length or cut a little more out yet. In the mock up the rear fender sat higher and made the rear tyre look fatter but it was also impossible close to the tyre as it was only rested on top of the tyre. The reason I have trialed the fender this length is so the luggage rack could be used if it needed to be without looking too stupid. However if I'm not happy with fender length when bike is finished I''ll lop off a bit more.



 
#11 ·
Leave the rack on - you'll need it to carry all your emergency tool kit... :pmsl:

Seriously, I'd keep the rack - so handy to bungee your lid to on a sunny summer day...
 
#21 · (Edited)
Shame that, is the frame going begging? Send me some pics of the new one mate.

Loving the bike mate. Great to see you making mods to stuff you already have rather than buying stuff off the shelf.

Nevermind the haters, its your bike, you do what you feel with it.

Keep posting pictures too...
Oh I plan to :) So far all I have bought new is fuel, battery and tubes. It's keeping me well under budget altho my time budget is a bit behind as I've been too busy with work to touch the bike for almost a month now :(
But so far I couldn't be happier with the direction and look.

I love your bike. Plenty of support on here so ignore the haters. If the haters aren't seething then you probably aren't trying hard enough!
If you try to placate them then your dick will fall off! :lol:

Enjoy and keep sharing the pics.
Thanks for the encouragement can't wait to stick it back on there finished without a nod to the other thread to see if anyone recognises it or still bitches about it lol.

looking better an better. nice one.
Cheers fella hope to get some more pics next week when I have a bit more time to play.
 
#23 ·
Don't know if there is a recommended safe limit. Half n inch or so should be ok. Also you could get an offset sprocket made (I think Talon will make you one) but you'd have to move rear sprocket as well to keep chain in line. Or you could make a nylon guide for the chain to run on or even a chain tensioner off of a motor cross bike will keep chain tensioned so it won't have so much side movement.
 
#25 ·
Five to ten mill' should be okay on a rigid if you keep the chain adjusted and in good nick.
The idea of a tensioner half way along will tension the chain which will, in effect, reduce the amount of sideways play - the shorter the unsupported run, the less sideways play (to a certain extent).
Personally I'd try as is and keep an eye on the tyre wall for any damage - if so a bit of thin ally sheet behind each sprocket might well be enough to sort it but you might run into clearance issues on the outer side of the front sprocket then.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Thanks for the reassurance. I had the old girl running today for the first time in a couple of decades. New plug, new battery, fresh fuel and bit of wire bridging and after 6 attempts she fired into life. Not bad to say it was totally locked up solid when i got the bike at Christmas. After shooting a load of crap out of the exhaust ran fine on tick over without me having to give it any throttle. Suffice to say I'm over the moon. The chain is quite tight and didn't seem to bounce at all but I'll still look into fitting a tensioner if needed. If needed the rear sprocket looks easy to space but front I'm yet to take a look at the front one as its behind a case.

I do however have a couple of questions.

this pic shows a hole in the outta casing, now I know not all bikes are the same but surely some others are alike?



Now the hole has a isolated metal tunnel passing through it, I thought it would touch the internal connections to bridge them but it doesn't. However if i stick a screw driver in the hole it bridges the contacts and I can start the bike. So my question is, am i missing a part from within the tunnel?

 
#32 · (Edited)
So I took it out for the first ride today and was pleasantly surprised to find once I'd stopped making a fool of myself (thought it had four gears in my head so kept selecting a third that wasn't there lol.) it shifted nicely through all the gears not bad for a bike that had not run in over 30 years. No front brake yet so a bit sketchy. Was also surprised that once you operated it the once, the jockey shift was easier to use than I expected. We live on an old private country road pot holed to hell but quite secluded so had the chance to run it up and down a few times.









 
#38 ·
Please don't even consider swapping engines for tests - it's just not worth it.
Whilst it sounds a cool idea they've made the tests as difficult as possible recently without taking them on something older than your dad, with crap brakes, no indicators and highly likely to instil a certain amount of prejudice against you... Many moons back I took my test on a semi chopped BSA 250 complete with apehangers and an open dragstack, I pretty much knew I'd failed by the look on the tester's face when he first laid eyes on it, after failing I took it again on a GSX 250 custom with mirrors and indicators and breezed it... and all I had to do was not hit the bloke with the red flag... :D

Bike's looking good tho', did you work out what the hole in the casing did?
 
#39 ·
lol, you miss understand. I ment swopping engine out once I had done my Cbt on one of there bikes so I could get some road miles under my belt while I find the time to do my full test.

The hole was/is the ignition on/off. It has a spring clip in the hole so at a guess you force a little metal plunger in there with a grove in it to secure against the spring clip which in turn bridges the 2 metal contacts providing the closed circuit. I intend to put a key switch in the tool tube and by pass the odd ball ignition.
 
#40 ·
Well Haven't posted for a while as I haven't had much to report. at mo I'm 1 step forward ten steps back. Bikes back in bits summer is almost over and i still haven't done my C.B.T. let alone my Direct access. So bikes back in bits.



Gutted I've had to take the vintage good year off the bike the tread pattern was amazing but it never spun trueand it was square. At best guess its been run on a side car. But hey, I picked up a vintage firestone at Hay ride for a fiver. Score.





 
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