Pic`s from Ronald

Got an e-mail from Ronald whom in a very short time have completed the rebuild of this beautiful looking 48 WR, YES the real deal down to tha bone WR.


The other sporty narrow tank bike in those pictures belong to Vegard, the engine builder / tuner whom`s wave of knowledge I surfed to get my Panhead crank balanced and trued.

Its like I wished I had these two guys in my neighbourhood rather than at the other end of the country.

Thanks for sharing Ronald, good luck at KALA.



Picture from Uffe "halvtopp"

Swedish Uffe is one of those not afraid of using his old iron as it was meant to be from the makers.


I am lucky enough to get pictures from some of his rides every now and then, which is a great inspiration to me.

The enclosed picture is from one early spring ride in the Stockholm archipelago where Uffe "halvtopp" rode his 29 to the far left in the picture, his mate Fredrik rode the all original 33 Chief and to the right is "the other Uffe`s" 27.

Let this picture inspire you as me to get out and ride those old iron of ours.

 



Norwegian Peashooter racer`s!

In an e-mail a while ago I got some pictures showing a fellow NVMC member`s Harley Peashooter racing project. This is a Norwegian chassis where an engine purchased on e-bay have been installed. Looking forward to see the result of this restoration.


Harley Peashooters are cool. They where really fast motorcycles on the tracks in their time with their tiny OHV engines, meassuring just 350 cc / 21 cui.

In Norway the single cylinder Harley`s sold in small numbers compared to their bigger V-twin brothers of either 61 or 74 cui (1000/1200 cc), and most of those that got sold where sidevalve models, cheaper and more reliable for every day use.

Personally I have never come across one OHV single cylinder machine with Norwegian origin.

From studying old photos from the twenties I know there have been Norwegian OHV Peashooter racers in action on our race tracks. In the enclosed photo is one of those captured at an ice race event. As seen from the photo this one have a license plate, thus allowing its owner to use the bike off the tracks as well as on.

As we most likely will never get to know if the engine in this bike is as sporty modificated as the rest of the bike, we can only guess.

I have started investigations to find who this rider could be, will post when or if I figure this out.
In the meantime I hope Lars will get further inspiration to work on his replica racer from looking at the picture of this original Norwegian Peashooter.
 



7/64" and other oddballs

When at the Ekeberg swap meet recently, yes the one with snow! I didnt find any parts for my projects. Tools tough I found several, some I needed and some I just had to have, like a bunch of odd tapps and dies. i can never get enough trhread tools, never ever.
Amongst those taps where a set of brand spanking new 7/64"`s and 13/64"`s, I love such strange tap sizes.
Ok they where shelved when back home and honestly I didnt think I would need them for other than knowing I had them (makes me feel good inside).


When riding my Henderson I have several times found I could need a small oil can to give a drip of oil here and there, every now and then, one can easily located to reach without too much hassle.

Some days ago I found it was due time to get this sorted, sourcing trough my stash I found one cool can that I since long had forgotten, unfortunately the tip to close the can from leaking missed. Correct, the threads on the tip of the can where 7/64`s, and I could make a cap by using my new taps, great.

Making a device to fix the can to the handlebar was another challenge, still great fun and I think the result looked pretty periodic and as if original for the can.



Instant mountain tour

Again as usual, weather change from bad to nice when its time to get back offshore to earn some money. OK, it might very well be just a feeling and I should probably not complain.




Yesterday I woke up well aware there was not going to be any motorcycle riding in quite a while, and weather was just brilliant. I got an urgent feeling to get by bike into the mountains, roads where opened for traffic last weekend, and I had heard there was plenty snow still.



Raats, the mountains are not in my backyard, still I trusted my "not so dirty nine" would manage an instant tour reaching the mountains, cross them and get back in one day. I had to manage this without any technical entertainment; I was to leave early this morning for work.



To be on the safe side in getting to the mountains (to ensure I could capture some impressive photos from the snow) I followed main roads from my home up the Setesdal, cruising at 60mph for hours on a 45" is not to bad, the engine hummed and did not let me get any worries.



When reaching the village where the road into the mountains start I felt sorry for the engine, a road so steep I didnt get any higher than second gear for miles and miles, did I hear someone mention HOT engine!!

Luckily the road ascending into the mountain is close to the river where the melting water are in color from green to ice blue and the mist from the water is helping to cool my poor 45" as I am climbing.



All of a sudden there starts to be dots of snow along the roadside, then more snow and soon the most part of the entire mountain plateau is covered by white, this as well as the air temperature is getting sharper.



It is time to take a halt to make photos when snow banks along the road get as high as 3-4 meters (9-12 feet).



OK, I did reach the mountains and its still just passed midday. I decide to take the narrow paths back home. Its so cool, if you know where to go there are alternative routes passing so many great views and sceneries, traditional farm houses and there are traces still from how former habitants travelled up the valley. This was mainly by steam boat, as lakes where connected by an ingenious water lock system allowing the small steamers to be lifted by water from one lake level to another.

Up Setesdal you can still travel, using the restored steamer Bjoren through original water locks to get from one lake to another. Cruising down the Setesdal I feel happy inside, comfortably carried by my seventy three year old companion. When my old W was young at age, steam trains still carried the farmers to the first lake where they changed to boats. I imagine the final part off the travel would in most cases be as passenger on a horse carriage, cars and motorcicles where still rare.

Times change, now everyone travels in a vehicle where the engine is feed by an electronically controlled injection system. If a technical incident occurred there is no need in rolling out your tool pouch, call 911. And still even if their vehicle are close to technically perfect , hardly none have time to travel roads other than the main roads, there is a lot to understand.

I get carried away, I feel like I`m representing resistance to technological developments that make a road trip to an event without any challenge and substance.

Oh well.

A Saucerful of Secrets

With this rather psychedelic melody by Pink Floyd in the background, its time to share some thoughts on hubcaps, which in a way is just saucers too.

Initially when planning the Panhead dresser build I knew there had to be hubcaps to get that correct fat attitude to the bike.
Got my re-popped caps from one AMCA guy that I learned to know trough the e-bay, great workmanship and excellent finish on the chrome, still I soon understood there where issues.

First off, when building my wheels I forgot to locate the valve to the opposite side of the break drum, argh! Had to tear down the wheels to get the valve to fit the cap, fair enough I didn`t do my homework in advance. I then found the screw holes in the cap where the hole for the valve is located where all located towards a spoke, hence all holes had to be re-drilled like 7 mm away from the original holes. I find the only reason is the maker of the repop rim didn`t locate the valve hole exactly as on an original rim?? This really annoyed me a lot!
OK, then there is the previously mentioned limited access to the grease nipple in the hub center. I made a kit allowing the grease nipple to be located in the right side hub cap slightly off the center, this allow greasing without removing the hub caps, quite satisfied with this one.
Then I found there is no way you could add the caps to the wheel, slide this onto the brake drums to finally slide in the right side spacer, NO WAY.
Solved this by remaking both front and rear spacers as two halves, no big deal, still, what did the guys do back then???

My final conclusion is; OK, you don`t get dirt stuck in your spokes by using hubcaps and it IS a cool detail, else from that it is, ahhh, a stupid idea creating several hours of work!

Ekeberg Swap meet

That is one swap I will never forget. Rode my secret life Bmeer sidecar outfit 300km`s to Oslo and back. Saturday morning when arriving at the swap site 0700 sharp, all off a sudden it all became white. WHITE, SNOW, imagine, in May. Some great folks where there, thanks a lot to the military surplus guys for selling me a raincoat, gloves and extra sweaters, they where all needed. Prices where low thanks to the weather and lack of people, the only positive issue I can remember. Riding back home Sunday in an average temp of 4 degree C, imagine.

True fun, eh or rather is truing fun?

So you dont think there is any progress in the Panhead project as long as there are no posts on the subject. Wrong! There are still umpteen issues to be sorted, rebuilding the hubs, wheel axles need to be straightened, rear drum had to be straightened (you didn`t miss the point , the drum needed to be tweeked and bent to shape before a couple of tenths of a mill had to be removed from its internals to get it back to its former round shape). Then I find new parts don`t fit old parts, the well known re-pop issue. As some of those parts are hardened they need to be ground to fit, this mean a support grinder have to be installed in the lathe. Fuel tank had umpteen layers of paint, as well as loads of molding, when removing this it appears the bottom of the tank is leaking as a tea strainer. Well, for sure this require a cure of hammering small dent`s, then filling those with tin. Finally a double cure of internal tank sealer. Upon testing with hot soap water and pressure it seems all this effort is worth the hard work. Lower oil tank mount is fuc#"¤%ed, grind off and replace, no other cure for this. Electrics, another issue. Getting the wires trough the passage in the rear mudguard as well as the handlebar internals Electrics, another issue. Getting the wires trough the passage in the rear mudguard as well as trough the handlebars, need I say more? Today I have devoted myself to getting rims and spokes to the hubs. Truing wheels, a sport requiring practice, more often than every second year. According to the book, 11/64" from hub brake side flange to rim and 1/32" runout limit, hmmmmm! Riding my Panhead, will get there eventually.

Get out them bikes, spring is here

Its May, and the old saying; "with may comes the good weather" have come true.
Have spent the last 4 days atop of my Henderson, what a thrill.
Saturday I was out riding for 10 hours, the old Hen purred like a cat, pulling as a train. Mountains, hills and slopes are easily climbed in high gear without affecting the speed. At running speeds like 45-50 miles the gearing of my De-luxe is great.

Started early Saturday morning, Geir coming along on a classic Yamaha , we are taking smaller country roads eastwards to the annual spring gathering of the local Vintage motor club, AMK.
More bikes where there than ever seen before, Rune and myself took care of presenting US made cicles to the public. Compared to them European made scooters etc. its fair to say; "nothing beats cubic inches".

As most AMK guys are older fellas its time to break up at lunch time, now heading North to celebrate the 30`th annual Evje motorcycle gathering. This meeting is considered as the start of the season for most touring riders. Had been there at their third meet back in 84 and all that I could reach when not at work, most of the good guys and girls are still the same, what happened to the growth of the motorcycle society?

The following days where used to tour local country roads, Rune now riding his Pan had no problem with gravel roads, Øyunn on her Bmeer rides along whatever the roads are like, hmm them Bmeers are boring for sure, but what great bikes still.

All in all I am so pleased with my rides on the Henderson, no fuck ups, no stops for maintanance, maybe I one day will trust this old girl?