Beezerpost 33 (A lesson learned!)

On Thursday night last week the bike was finished and we fired it up. The engine ran like a dream and all was poised for a first run this weekend.

On Friday evening I got home early and planned to spend an hour on the farm practising to get the carb and suspension set up and see how it felt compared to the previous frame.

I pulled it from the shed but try as I might, I just couldn't get it to start. All the usual checks gave no clues (big fat spark, fuel getting through, vales opening/closing correctly, clutch disengaging etc). The only thing that felt odd was that with the plug out just turning the engine over on the kickstart was quite hard and felt somehow a like there was a non metallic resistance of some type.

On Saturday morning I took it over to Dad's workshop and we pulled the engine back out of the frame and took the head and barrel off. By this time, we were unable to turn the engine over and could only just about move the piston back and forwards but not up and down.

Fearing a main bearing problem or similar I took the engine over to Pete Kirby and thankfully Pete dropped what he was doing and pulled the engine apart for me.

Whilst doing so, the engine was turned upside down and what I can only describe as oily gloop (about the same texture as snotty blancmange) ran out of the engine. This didn't look good at all!

As the engine came apart we found more and more of this oil that appeared to contain fibres in it that had clearly got into just about every part of the engine. As we got to the crank it became clear just what had happened.

When we bought the frame it was advised that a modification was required to the oil pump cover on the bottom of the engine where the scavenge pipe is cut short and the original cover is replaced with a flat plate that is milled out to allow the oil to pool and still be picked up by the shorter pipe. This mod allows a flat bash plate to be fitted as it does not protrude as far beneath the engine as the original cover.

It now appears that when the scavenge pipe was cut, a rag was put in the engine to ensure that no metal particles fell into the engine. We think that the subsequent fitting and milling of the new cover took place and it was fitted but the rag may have not been removed!

So, the engine ran when it was started but in the 5 mins or so that it was run, the rag was pulled up into the engine, wrapped itself around the big end and crank and the fibres from the cloth contaminated the oil and ran around the engine.

Quite fortunately, the engine refused to start and caused no damage to the engine apart from some slight scoring on the big end shells.

Pete has now been tasked with the job of completely flushing out the engine, removing any traces of the contaminated oil and we have decided to change the main bearing and big end shells as a precaution before a full rebuild.

It is a shame that it didn't go to plan this weekend but it could have been oh so worse and an engine rebuild and missed trial was the only real damage so not the end of the world. The pictures are of the engine as we found it when the cases were opened up......

I know I like to polish my bikes and keep them clean but I think a polishing rag in the engine whilst it was running might have been a little bit of over kill ;0)

Pete The Builder

I just need to say a big thanks to my Dad, Pete......

He really is a star and I am sure that he enjoys seeing the the final product when he's finished a bike almost as much as he enjoyed actually riding trials himself.

He makes the bikes exactly how I want them without ever complaining, even though I am never satisfied and probably a huge pain in his arse most of the time.... I know he doesn't agree with some of my ideas at the time but quite rightly he's always proud of his work when the finished article rolls out of the shed...... and so he should be!

All we need now is a rider that can do the bike justice ;0)

Beezerpost 32

Finally it's ready to go!

I will give it a run on Saturday to see how it goes but finally tonight we put some petrol in and run the engine and it ran as sweet as a nut. I will update the BLOG following this weekend's trial at Welshpool where the next round of the BMCA championship is being held.

Beezerpost 31

Just got back from collecting the tank from Piers Dowell. As you can see, I wanted to keep things traditional on this bike (even though I did contemplate a George Cross flag in a similar design to the Sprite).

I am really pleased with how it has come out - the subtle shading between the black and silver with the gold logo's and striping looks really good. I hope this comes through in the pictures!

I also had my name painted into the tank on this one - I am hoping that this will prevent me from selling it like the others if someone offers me a good price!!!!

Beezerpost 30

The exhaust came back from the metal finishers on Friday and a fine job they did too! The bending scrapes have been polished out and it now looks almost chrome. As you can now see, the bend is a bit different which was intended to give a full 22in of front pipe before the silencer. Running it this weekend will show whether any true benefits have been gained in power delivery.

Another small piece of work that Dad this today was to make a stub for the Amal carb. This is to enable us to switch between carbs as i want to experiment with a Del Orto carb to see what is possible with the engine/carb set up and once I know what is possible, then I will look to tuning the Amal to see whether something similar can be achieved. I might even see what can be done with a Villiers carb too!

I heard from Piers Dowell yesterday and things are on track with the tank and we should get it back at some point mid week.

Beezerpost 29

I have received a few calls and emails regarding the clutch that we have put on the bike so I thought I would add a couple of pictures of the clutch kit and also the complete clutch when installed in an engine.

There has been quite a bit of development done on these now so that the feel can be tuned to your preference and unlike a lot of other dry clutches I have tried, the on/off feel has gone and there is a progressive feel to how it engages and disengages and more importantly it works the same all the time rather than changing as it gets hot or cools down.

If you are interested give Peter Kirby a call on 07886 745942. I think he's also working on one for a Cub engine but I am not sure what stage of development he's at with that one.

Beezerpost 28

The build is now almost complete after a productive day yesterday. The brake rod was pretty much the only thing that actually required making up and the rest was a case of assembling the parts following the previous dry build.

There is now oil in the bike and we are merely waiting for the front pipe and the tank to come back so that the job can be completed.

Beezerpost 27

Great progress made today by 'spanners' Pete. As you can see from the pictures, the bike is taking shape nicely and will be soon on its wheels.

Today I found a nice little metal finishing company that specialises in classic bikes and cars near where I work in in Stroud, who will turn my stainless exhaust pipe around in just a few days. The pipe had been marked by the pipe bending machine when it was made and I wanted it finishing and polishing up so I should get it back on Friday, by which time I would imagine it will almost be finished and waiting for the tank to come back from painting.

Beezerpost 26

Well, we're off to a quick start on the build thanks to Porl Joynes at Redditch Shot Blasting (Tel 01527 529659) who turned the frame around in one day!!! Dad dropped it off this morning and collected it back looking all black and shiny this afternoon.

Looks like the build will begin (tomorrow) much sooner than we had expected.

In addition, I had some good news yesterday after a brief chat with Piers Dowell (you might recall the union jack paint job that Piers did on my Sprite tank)and he has agreed to put a bit of paint on the new tank. Watch this space on that - he thinks he can turn it around in a couple of weeks so it should be done just in time for the next BMCA championship trial in a couple of weeks.

Today's picture is of the frame on the stand this evening waiting for things to begin. I will post pictures of the build as it takes shape during the coming days - hope you like it....

Beezerpost 25

Here are a couple of pics of the complete bike before it gets stripped back down for painting and the final build....

Beezerpost 24

Just got back from collecting the bike and thought I would share a few pics of the work that has been done.

The bash plate has been made up along with the rear brake pedal, both of which were part of the frame kit but were missing when I collected it.

I wasn't too keen on the seat that came with the kit so I asked for a slightly modified seat that was a bit smaller and fits on by wrapping round the frame tubes at the front and then is secured with a single bolt from the rear that doubles as the mudguard mounting point.

The tank is a similar style to a James tank but has been cut out to sit lower on the frame and is mounted with a single bolt through the centre of the tank.

The exhaust is a narrower gauge stainless pipe that loops round at the front of the frame to get some extra length before meeting the 2 stage silencer which is actually 2 silencers with a space between the two all inside the same case and sits snugly inside the frame to keep the whole thing away from my legs.

Finally, I was going to have an air box made but it really wasn't a practical solution with the space available due to the oil filter, therefore we decided to just have an adapter made that screws onto the back of the carb and points the filter inboard to keep it from being caught by my left leg.

The bike will now be stripped this weekend and will visit the powder coaters next week before its final build. I will post more pics as the build takes place.

BSA Update

Thanks for all the emails and calls about the BSA and the interest in its progress. Well, the wait is almost over for me and this weekend (we have been told), the work has been finished by Steve Gagg and we can go and collect her.... i will post some pics over the weekend before it gets stripped for painting and final build.