GSx1100 Dresda Solitaire (I may have had a Clivecident).

[imago]

Should be done tomorrow ready for Friday hopefully. It's a little longer than it would be ordinarily because it's in metallic grey rather than black so he can't do it with a batch of other stuff he's putting through.

[imago]

Following (another) bike part collection odyssey I now have the Saxon wheels from Tom, a decent JMC in lieu of the shagged Davida, and the frame is back from the powder coaters looking the bollocks in its metallic grey.

I'll have a brief fit up tomorrow, and then the next thing will be to strip the wheels so that the rims can be polished up and get the centres/spokes of for powder coating in the same metallic grey as the frame.

[clivegto]

Nice, I like that 

[imago]

4 minutes ago, clivegto said:

Nice, I like that 

More by luck than judgement I ended up with one of the swing arms with the slimmer box sections. With the Saxon wheels from Tom (previously Paul's) it looks really well balanced. I reckon leaving the arm polished along with the rims and getting the wheel centres in the same powder coat as the frame it will look spot on.

It'll be frustrating to strip the wheel and send them out now that it's all here, but well worth it once they're done. 

The only thing I'm missing now is a seat unit, and I've got to decide on a paint scheme for it. At the moment the favourite is something using shades of sliver/grey.

[imago]

Finally got to move things on a bit today. Lots to do to get it rolling and all the various bearings, shafts, and spindles to play nicely together.

I decided to start at the front so the first thing was to get the yokes to fit the frame. A quick measure up revealed that the slabby stem was 28 mm too short.

A rummage through the yokes I had turned up nothing particularly useful.

The plan then was to press out two Slabby stems and make a longer version with a bit of cut 'n' shut. The bolt in the top of the stem is there to prevent the end collapsing or distorting under the press. 

Stems out and the first is marked up and put on the lathe for parting off so that I have a nice accurate and square cut.

With the stem base cut to length from that stem I could measure the top section from the next on and cut it so that it was 28mm longer plus the 3mm for the parting tool width.

Now that I have two halves to make a whole of the correct length I turned down a slug to push into the stems and keep everything in line and used it to put the two halves together.

Put it onto the lathe to double check the length, and to make sure it's holding straight. A bit of 'tap-tap' and the run out is 0.1 mm so I'll take that.

Then cut a 'V' onto the two faces of the joint and four tacks with the MIG 90 degrees apart.

Weld it up, knock the top of the weld flat while it's on the lathe, press it back into the yoke and that's the stem extended. 

[imago]

The back end and wheels were both simpler and more complicated. The wheels were a matter of ordering bearings to suit the spindles, so they can be stripped down now for powder coating the centres and polishing the rims. During all the bearing removal and faffing with the wheels I noticed that either whatever they were fitted to before had a sprocket on the right of the engine, or the tyre was fitted the wrong way round. 

Swing arm spindle will just need a sleeve and spacers, so the usual top hat business there but I've yet to decide on a single stepped sleeve for each side, or a single sleeve and a pair of spacers. The rear caliper carrier will have a bearing on that so I'll need to sort that out first.

[imago]

What a massive ball ache getting old tyres off of delicate rims is when the tyres have gone rock hard.  

Anyway, they're off so the rims can go for polishing and the centres for powder coat.

[imago]

Today's episode of "I've had a Clivecident" is entitled "Careful what you wish for."

I wanted a JMC for the Throwback and eventually got one after nigh on a 2 year search for the right one. Then I wanted one for the Dresda, but couldn't find one which suited it as the ones available were either too rough or the very deep box section type which would have looked odd on a light tube frame. So I chummed the waters and put out requests. 

The search went well, and fairly quickly I got sorted with the arm in the pictures above which is off being polished. However, what I'd also done was to say "yes I'm interested' to a bloke with a pair of Metmachex, one from a GS and one from a Kwak.

The post arrived today. 

[clivegto]

Soon have more swinging arms than I do 

[imago]

3 minutes ago, clivegto said:

Soon have more swinging arms than I do 

 Come now, we both know that's an unachievable dream. 

On a serious note, Now that the Dresda and Throwback are sorted I can use one for the other ET that'll get built at some point, and the other will get moved on.

I've never been more happy that the G is a shaft drive other wise the spare swing arm would be the start of a trip down another project rabbit hole. 

[imago]

Now that some of the parts are coming back and others like bolts etc are imminent I can start bringing them together. 

[imago]

I'm starting to come back round to keeping the RG tail unit. The stripes aren't bringing anything to the party, but I reckon in metallic grey it could work well.

[DAZ]

It looks good in that the top of the seat is inline with the top of the tank ,and a darker colour may well make it less bulbous at the rear as the "bend" is highlighted by the stripes at the moment, 

[imago]

I reckon trimming the lower front edge to follow the frame line and putting a grille in the scollop will help the look? 

[DAZ]

Where you've written "cut" what if you made that more flowing rather than a sharp angle ,to maybe follow the curve of the frame just above the rear mount ? ....

[imago]

The final/actual cut will either be a radius or two angles as it will need to cover the brackets in the corner. 

[Rsvfletch]

It’s looking the part mate. Nice one. Incidentally there’s a scam one on Eblag at the moment!

[imago]

9 minutes ago, Rsvfletch said:

It’s looking the part mate. Nice one. Incidentally there’s a scam one on Eblag at the moment!

Yeah I saw that, not exactly a great scam though. I can't see what e/they are hoping to achieve with it?

[Rsvfletch]

1 hour ago, imago said:

Yeah I saw that, not exactly a great scam though. I can't see what e/they are hoping to achieve with it?

God knows. My mate actually owns it in the uk! 

[imago]

3 minutes ago, Rsvfletch said:

God knows. My mate actually owns it in the uk! 

There's some right chancers about. The way it's worded though I can't see how they'd make any money from doing it? Maybe it's just one of those data/identity phishing things? 

Whatever, hopefully karma will kick in and they'll end up with a foreskin full of fibreglass.

Haven't you convinced him to sell it to you yet? 

Edited November 30, 2023 by imago

[Rsvfletch]

1 hour ago, imago said:

There's some right chancers about. The way it's worded though I can't see how they'd make any money from doing it? Maybe it's just one of those data/identity phishing things? 

Whatever, hopefully karma will kick in and they'll end up with a foreskin full of fibreglass.

Haven't you convinced him to sell it to you yet? 

Not yet. I’ve got a few other projects to finish before 

[Dezza]

There's an interesting Bakker GS1000 project on eb@y at the moment but it's a bit spendy.

https://www.Eblag.co.uk/itm/285574337457?hash=item427d8e93b1:g:lMQAAOSwZTllYI7-

 

[imago]

4 hours ago, Dezza said:

There's an interesting Bakker GS1000 project on eb@y at the moment but it's a bit spendy.

https://www.Eblag.co.uk/itm/285574337457?hash=item427d8e93b1:g:lMQAAOSwZTllYI7-

 

It is spendy, but I imagine it'll sell if someone's looking for a special frame. More so if they're after a Bakker as the come up for sale so rarely, especially the early stuff.

[Dezza]

2 hours ago, imago said:

It is spendy, but I imagine it'll sell if someone's looking for a special frame. More so if they're after a Bakker as the come up for sale so rarely, especially the early stuff.

Yep, I don't think I've even seen a steel-framed Bakker on the road!

[imago]

1 hour ago, Dezza said:

Yep, I don't think I've even seen a steel-framed Bakker on the road!

Same here, in fact most of the steel special frames I'd only seen in magazines or racing. When you think about it that's not really a surprise given the small numbers made, Harris being the exception and the exception to the exception being the Mag 3. 

Once things moved on to aluminium there seemed to be a few more kicking about, but even then Bakker are a rare thing in the UK.