Craig Marshall

The back wheel is now on and sorted, I had a problem refitting it the first time. As I didn’t have a new valve, I fitted an innertube with an angled valve inside the newly painted wheel, but the tyre was so difficult to get on that I scuffed all the new paint (should have waited 48 hours), and I also pinched the inner tube. So my dad came over to help me out, I then patched the tube, and we got the tyre on together and it’s held its pressure for over 12 hours, so I think it will be fine. I’ll just have to touch up the paintwork.

I have taken the handlebars, instruments and panels all off the front end in preparation for cleaning and repacking the steering head bearings with grease, when I noticed that in the accident this bike had, the steering must have forcefully been jammed from neutral (straight ahead) to the right hand side, because the collar that sets the steering limits had been bashed and had flared out causing the grinding and squeaking, I filed this to the correct shape, applied rust remedy and it is now perfect.

I have also tried to rejuvenate the rear brake cable with the funnel of blu-tack and thin oil trick. This is underway at the moment, and may work fine, but I also noticed a while ago that a section of the rear brake cable had been caught in between the back wheel and the transmission
casing. I have inspected this further today and noticed that it’s ripped the outer sheath off and has mangled and rusted the steel coil inside slightyl. I am about to research prices for new cables, but I still have hope for this one. It’s a shame, the inner seems fine, just a little rust-stained.

My new transmission rollers arrived a couple of days ago, so I am almost ready to fit those, after these couple of jobs.

When removing the tyre from the scooter, I realised that the paint was bubbling up and coming away from the alloy wheel, due to corrosion, which makes me think the tyre bead or the valve might not be sealing due to corrosion too

I decided to brush off the bits of corrosion that I could see, then take the wheel to the bike shop, then get them to check the tyre for punctures to be sure. They suggested putting an inner tube in the wheel if the tyre was okay, which was an idea I liked, but I didn’t like the idea that the wheel was still corroded and half-painted. I decided to buy the inner tube, and to take it home to do myself. This gave me a chance to strip and repaint the wheel properly inside and out.

Here is the wheel before stripping. You can see corrosion inside and out of the rim, and also around the valve. Not to mention the rusty glazed brake drum. No wonder that back brake was sticking on.

Here is the other side of the wheel after stripping the paint off. I used normal paint stripper from a tin, a screwdriver and a wire brush to do this, and it took about 90 minutes to do it thoroughly. And I didn’t burn myself once!

Here is the same wheel after two brushed-on coats of “Hammerite Special Metals Primer”, which is a water based etch primer for non-ferrous metals, aluminium, brass, etc:

And finally after 3-4 coats of satin black  (acrylic from a spray can):

Just waiting for the paint to harden fully before I manhandle the tyre and tube back on. I know it will probably work without a tube now the corrosion is taken care of, but I didn’t buy a replacement valve, so I’ll stick to the idea of using a tube. When the tyre is eventually replaced, it can be replaced normally, of course.

Well – the speedfight starts and runs now. I’ve spent another day or day and a half on the bike, and here is what I’ve been up to:

• Clean and refit carb
• Replace reed valve block (including adjusting length of reeds, they wouldn’t open..
• Weld up a new exhaust mounting bracket, and fit exhaust
• Disassemble transmission, clean cones, check belt, check rollers
• Rollers were heavily worn, so ordered replacment rollers
• Replace oil filler cap
• Determined that the rear tyre needed repairing/replacing, it kept leaking air every time I pumped it up

Here are some pictures, you’ll notice the rear wheel is off at the moment, as the tyre needs looking at. You can also see the new/old exhaust now. From the side:

And here is the bike from the front:

And finally, the bracket I made for the exhaust, the original lugs had snapped off, so I filed a flat on the casing, tapped a couple of metric holes, and welded up a steel bracket to hold the exhaust:

As I said, the bike starts nicely now, with the kickstarter only at the moment.