Ducati 250

Ducati 250

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Tonight I have been mostly

Building a bike table



Scored the beams for free, paid £35 for the ply top and used the off cuts to make a base for my lathe and spent about £6 at the friendly local steel merchants for a few metres of threaded bar and a bagfull of nuts and washers, couple of hours labour and hey presto - beats spending £300 on one.
This thing could hold up a tank.
Just got to sort out a ramp - might make something using a bottle jack.

Saturday, 14 January 2012

Frame mod

Bloody wheels still aren't built, thats six weeks now and counting and they're holding me up. Anyhow, I was scratching my head thinking what to do to move things on and decided I could get the seat mounted.
Had a couple of ideas and mocked the seat up in various positions, but in the end, decided that the cross tube on the hadtail was too far forward.
I've always thought this - seems to be made so you can put a 21" wheel in the rear with plenty of clearance, its not the first problem with the hardtail either - took me a day of messing about when i first got it, trying to get it lined up, which eventually ended with some cutting and welding.
Anyhow I got a replacement tube cut and the ends radiused, stuck a surrogate rear wheel in the frame to brace it and welded the new tube in place, with the old one still there so nothing moved too much with the heat.


That was easy enough, but it was a right pain removing all trace of the old one - got there in the end though.


eventually got round to starting the seat mounts, but, its Saturday night and I can hear Sailor Jerry calling out for me - they can wain till tomorrow.

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

New Lathe, first project



Been after a Lathe for a long time, finally bit the bullet last week and brought one. Its brand new, Chinese made, but very popular worldwide, with lots of tech articles and parts avaliability - also comes with a warranty.
Its only classed as a 'mini lathe' as its 7" x 14", but should be plenty for all I need - for the time being!

Received yesterday, I spent last night cleaning all of the packing oil / grease off and setting it up. Spent tonight on my first project - as pictured above - a pair of recessed bolt holders which will be bolted to the axle plates and will carry the fender mounts. I'm chuffed to bits with them, I know they're not the most complicated thing,  but I've not used a lathe since college, so tonight was a steep learning curve, I think they turned out really well.

Saturday, 31 December 2011

edit

Thanks Trevor, had a think and cracked out the grinder, several roloc discs and 20 minutes later:



Loads better, looks more pro!!

Oily stuff

Got back on the T100 recently, fabbed up a bracket which ties the oil filter in with the engine mount:



Some months back I brought a DIY oil tank kit from Lowbrow Customs, got round to building it up today. I saved a few quid putting it together myself, but it took me almost 6 hours to complete! However, its a tremendous sense of  satisfaction doing something like this, I'm really pleased with how its turned out.
Still got to weld the neck in, just waiting till  get my new Lathe, so I can spin it up and clean up the weld around the join, also need to decide on mountings.
Not completely decided what to do with the welds at each end yet - don't know whether to grind and smooth them or just leave as is? Might be more trouble than its worth smoothing them off, plus, I like the look of a Tig bead, but not sure if mine are up to scratch!




Sunday, 27 November 2011

Mountain Cub

The latest acquisition:






Been in storage for the last 10 years, so I'm giving everything the once over before firing it up. Got some bits on order, including a carb rebuild kit, Boyer power box and a few odds and ends. Really looking forward to pootling round on this.
Engine is mint externally, and speedo reads 290 miles, must have been rebuilt at some stage.
Thats it for now, I'm spent out and have all the bikes I need.

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

New sideline

Picked up this CB160 cheap on e-bay, its a fresh import, sold with a seized engine:

Saw some lovelly examples of these in LA, they're raced in the states and I'll be going for the pint sized racer look - this is a nice one:


It got delivered today, so while I'm waiting for parts for the triumph I made a start. Had the engine out in no time and got the top end stripped. Pistons are rusted in the bores, but the bottom end looks clean and appears to turn freely, cam and valve gear looks ok although there is some rust in the combustion chambers which should clean up ok. Fingers crossed I can get the pistons out easily and it will just need pistons, rings and a rebore.