The frame, engine plates, footrests, tank and a few other items have arrived and added to the pile of things that need to be assembled. I was a bit disappointed about the frame. It did not have quite the finish that I had expected. When looking at pictures of frames built by Roger Titchmarsh, his bronze weld seams are a work of art. In Denny Barber’s case they are not even close. Maybe it does not matter when it comes to strength but I think it could have looked better. Same thing with the engine plates. They do not look good at all and I will have new ones made. The ones Denny Barber supplied did not cost much and they will be good enough as templates for the new ones. I am dreaming of finding someone who can cut them with a laser beam after the drawings I will make. It will not be CAD/CAM but rather only CAM – Computer Aided Machining.

I am also experiencing the difficulties when ordering items from different suppliers. The tank e.g. will not quite fit the frame so I will make an attempt tomorrow to cut off a couple of brackets on the tank in order to make it fit.

Today I have added a couple of supports to my work bench so that I can prop up the frame and have it hang freely – even when the wheels are mounted. Yesterday I went to my local tyre chap and ordered the AVON tyres I need. Rear tyre available in the country but the nose tyre will have to come from the UK and will take 4 weeks. The Marvic people however said that the wheels are made and only await painting and will be ready to ship/pick up this coming week.

My engine supplier is starting to worry me. He is very irregularly answering emails and he does not pick up his mobile phone when I try to call him. Bad business practice, no matter what his reasons may be. Will get my full attention the coming week. Our Quality Manager comes in Monday and he will bring the rear wheel chain sprocket with him.. Another piece of the puzzle in place.

That was all yesterday. Today on Valentine’s day I spent a couple of ours fitting the tank. Needed to cut away some metal from underneath brackets.

It does not look bad at all. Next thing here will be to fix the tank in a longitudinal direction so that it cannot move forward when the driver brakes hard and the big belly pushes on from behind. The tank is held down on the four rubber grommets by two rubber bands so it can be removed in a snap.

Above shows the frame supported on the 2 height adjustable supports on the work bench. Engine plates are fitted and the red lines drawn mark where I will cut away metal to be able to easily fit the gearbox. This will have to be the next task since I want to see how the gearbox chain sprocket lines up with the swinging arm and rear wheel centres. The way it is made now I cannot get the lower mounting bolt out and can therefore not remove the gearbox alone – needs to come out together with the rear engine plates. In fact there is a similar problem with the lowest bolt fixing the engine to the plates. I will need to make a special bolt with one side of the head milled away, otherwise it will interfere with the lower frame tube. This will take some juggling until it will fit and work.

The picture below is a close-up of the above showing the engine plates and the beautiful footrest / brake pedal mechanism. Here I have rigged it up to experiment with the location. Note the push rod that goes into the rear brake master cylinder. This will take some thinking and fiddling until it both works and looks good.  The plastic tube serves as the reservoir for the brake fluid

And a preview of what the driver will see………..

So, with wheels coming in soon I need to get the rear wheel axle drawn up, material purchased and find somebody willing and able to do the turning and milling required. I have settled on the steel – it will be the European equivalent to the US Chrome Molybdenum 4130. Here it is called something like SS EN 10083-3. I know where to buy it – just need to overcome the hurdles of on-line shopping. I think I will order be the aluminium plates I will need for the new engine plates at the same time.   Saving on time, frustrations and shipping costs.