Saturday, 16 August 2014

TT Action Shots

Three great action shots of Phil Read in the 1971 Junior TT on the 350 Read Castrol Yamaha Special.   The wheels are off the ground in every shot, showing how hard he was on the bike, no wonder the engine mounting bolt broke and caused the frame to crack !




Pics courtesy of FoTTofinders 

Thursday, 14 August 2014

Up hill struggle cresting pt 2

I finally got the finish I wanted on the frame, thanks to Silvabronze of Alton.




Read-Castrol-Yamaha Cheney Frame # 101
August 2014

Up hill struggle reaches a crest...

Had lots of issues with getting the frame plated to a decent standard, but now it's finally done thanks to Silvabronze of Alton.

Here's the frame bring "worked on" at Cheney's....


Below is another Fath clutch conversion on a German TR2...



And here's a New / Old stock Fath clutch I found !!


Below is a 3D model I made of the clutch assembly. I need to make the actuator arm.





Thursday, 1 May 2014

While the frame's away

Been working on the rear wheel this week. I'm not sure what the rear hub is but it looks similar to an early conventional Yamaha or maybe a front hub from a Kawasaki Mach lll ? I don't have a disk or sprocket, but the sprocket is easy enough to replace. Anyhow, a new disk was sourced that should be just the job with a skim down...from an early Triumph Spitfire or Herald car !

Monday, 14 April 2014

nearly gave up !!

Whilst starting the rebuild after having the frame "reconditioned", apart from a shockingly bad nickel plating job, that I could have probably lived with.... it was noted that the swinging arm didn't want to fit very well and alarm bells rang clear when the shock absorbers didn't line up...yep, the frame was bent. As well as that, the steering head stock was ovalled.
At this point the project came very close to being abandoned and the experience put down to get another expensive example of if you want something done right, do it yourself...

Anyhow, after a couple of months cooling down, the frame was taken to those nice chaps at Motoliner in Maidstone to be jigged. After straightening it has now been dropped off at Beckworth in Alton for a proper coppering and nickel plating....

The Dunstall forks have had the brake cylinders bored and new pistons made for them, so that should help the braking!