Summer is on the way and Spring has well and truly sprung so I am trying to get my backside into gear and get my bike back on the road and do some riding.
This is the first of my two Dukes which came out of a twenty-three-or-so year slumber a couple of years ago. The good news was after a bit of coaxing the engine burst into life and ran really quite well; Although it looked a bit of a dog as it was running a dented orange tank and the cases needed a lot of elbow grease.
I got the bikes out of slumber as I had had to get rid of my Gixer K8 for financial reasons and was bikeless. I used most of the Gixer money to 'deal with things' and what was left got the old girl back on the road. I had some really epic (but slow) rides on it, the Gixer became a distant memory and I remembered exactly why I had like this bike so much.
In between times I lost both my parents and they were kind enough to leave me something; I think they had a pretty good idea what I might spend it on and both my Mum & Dad were great believers in thoroughness. That's my excuse for what is undoubtedly something I have always wanted to do properly but never had the means.
So I decided to take it off the road last April and really sort it out in time for the V Twin Rally. I didn't quite make the V Twin much to the amusement of my mates who drank my portion of beer and all I can say is I hope they all had hangovers (FX: Mutter, mutter).
When I finally got the whole thing back together a week after the V Twin, I was very disappointed with the stove enamelling on the frame; They had used red oxide primer, the paint was thick and so soft the cable ties were digging in. The black frame looked dark brown in strong sunlight. Also the guy who did the paintwork did a beautiful job in terms of quality of finish, however the tank stickers make the bike look like it is about to take off from Cape Canaveral; Needs fixing! Anyway, here it is running my spare wire wheels and missing it's fairing...
Even worse, when I fired up the engine with the front head rebuilt by Pietro with new valves, guides and all bearings (including the self aligners), it was obvious there were deeper and darker problems with the engine.
So I ripped it down again, it felt like all the hard work and family money I had put into the bike had been squandered - and I'd failed to reach the rally. Here is the naughty engine awaiting tear down...
I took the engine to Pietro for dismantling & inspection. The news was 'really quite bad'. Big ends on the way out, pistons had some scoring (although not too bad) and the oil pump looking a bit sad. The engine was still on it's original 86.0mm pistons.
The bill was going to be a stinker whatever I chose to do. Not wanting to repeat the rebuild for as long as possible I decided to address what I perceive as all of the main problems with the bevel engine, and do this without any external giveaways that this engine is one that might last. One that might last by design, not as a result of being the lucky engine assembled on Tuesday by the line's best engineer with a very fortunate set of accidentally blueprint perfect parts of perfect materials and running oil/filter changes every 500 miles by a diligent altruistic owner.
Anyway, that's the plan.
I am quite happy with the performance of the bike so no overt tuning mods going on, perhaps a quick gas flow and that's about it.
Already quite a lot parts have been procured and work done, The changes are:-
So this rebuild is really about the engine.
I have been really interested in what Martin has been doing with Eelco's Darmah and although a late arrival I have been watching it come together; Martin is approaching the oil filtration from a similar direction as I. I have almost had enough apart from a few pickies so I'll bung in the oil filtration stuff into my next post as I have just made some really nifty progress.
There is some good news in that the bevels all look good as do the cams & rockers. Both heads are getting new valves, guides, bearings & seals anyway. Here is the front head which has seen about an hour of use before being pulled off - at least it is completely done and re-shimmed so it can go straight back on.
Bottom end has been rebuilt by Godden Engineering and uses standard SS rods with new pin & Lacey needle rollers. It hasn't arrived yet and I can't wait.
Anyway, here is a nice new gearbox cluster from Andy@mdinaitalia
And a nice new straight cut gear set from Nova Engineering
And like many things, far more interesting from behind.
That's it for now.
This is the first of my two Dukes which came out of a twenty-three-or-so year slumber a couple of years ago. The good news was after a bit of coaxing the engine burst into life and ran really quite well; Although it looked a bit of a dog as it was running a dented orange tank and the cases needed a lot of elbow grease.
I got the bikes out of slumber as I had had to get rid of my Gixer K8 for financial reasons and was bikeless. I used most of the Gixer money to 'deal with things' and what was left got the old girl back on the road. I had some really epic (but slow) rides on it, the Gixer became a distant memory and I remembered exactly why I had like this bike so much.
In between times I lost both my parents and they were kind enough to leave me something; I think they had a pretty good idea what I might spend it on and both my Mum & Dad were great believers in thoroughness. That's my excuse for what is undoubtedly something I have always wanted to do properly but never had the means.
So I decided to take it off the road last April and really sort it out in time for the V Twin Rally. I didn't quite make the V Twin much to the amusement of my mates who drank my portion of beer and all I can say is I hope they all had hangovers (FX: Mutter, mutter).
When I finally got the whole thing back together a week after the V Twin, I was very disappointed with the stove enamelling on the frame; They had used red oxide primer, the paint was thick and so soft the cable ties were digging in. The black frame looked dark brown in strong sunlight. Also the guy who did the paintwork did a beautiful job in terms of quality of finish, however the tank stickers make the bike look like it is about to take off from Cape Canaveral; Needs fixing! Anyway, here it is running my spare wire wheels and missing it's fairing...
Even worse, when I fired up the engine with the front head rebuilt by Pietro with new valves, guides and all bearings (including the self aligners), it was obvious there were deeper and darker problems with the engine.
So I ripped it down again, it felt like all the hard work and family money I had put into the bike had been squandered - and I'd failed to reach the rally. Here is the naughty engine awaiting tear down...
I took the engine to Pietro for dismantling & inspection. The news was 'really quite bad'. Big ends on the way out, pistons had some scoring (although not too bad) and the oil pump looking a bit sad. The engine was still on it's original 86.0mm pistons.
The bill was going to be a stinker whatever I chose to do. Not wanting to repeat the rebuild for as long as possible I decided to address what I perceive as all of the main problems with the bevel engine, and do this without any external giveaways that this engine is one that might last. One that might last by design, not as a result of being the lucky engine assembled on Tuesday by the line's best engineer with a very fortunate set of accidentally blueprint perfect parts of perfect materials and running oil/filter changes every 500 miles by a diligent altruistic owner.
Anyway, that's the plan.
I am quite happy with the performance of the bike so no overt tuning mods going on, perhaps a quick gas flow and that's about it.
Already quite a lot parts have been procured and work done, The changes are:-
- new 3 dog gearbox - the old one was worn but not overly so. However the combined separate parts costs to make it close to as new made it a no brainer to replace the entire cluster
- straight cut primary drive gears - nothing wrong with the clutch basket or gears however the helical gears try and move the crank from side to side and it has been said the incessant forces can disintegrate crankshaft end float shims. So goodbye helical gears but I am retaining the (new) wet clutch for aesthetic reasons. Excitingly the straight cut gear set is a lot lighter than standard which will help the engine spin up more quickly
- every bearing in the engine is being replaced except the plain bearings for the lower bevels and kickstart shaft, they were fine. Yes, that does include self aligners/lower bevels & supports. All bearings
- high capacity oil pump & full flow lubrication system. Doing this means I can use modern oils which may well be the single largest gift of longevity I can give the engine
- chassis wise, the only real change is I have had new rods made for my original Marzocchi ET85 shocks, so the Fontana's will be used elsewhere and this bike will have it's original shocks back on
- the frame is being blasted and re-stoved (again) by someone else.
So this rebuild is really about the engine.
I have been really interested in what Martin has been doing with Eelco's Darmah and although a late arrival I have been watching it come together; Martin is approaching the oil filtration from a similar direction as I. I have almost had enough apart from a few pickies so I'll bung in the oil filtration stuff into my next post as I have just made some really nifty progress.
There is some good news in that the bevels all look good as do the cams & rockers. Both heads are getting new valves, guides, bearings & seals anyway. Here is the front head which has seen about an hour of use before being pulled off - at least it is completely done and re-shimmed so it can go straight back on.
Bottom end has been rebuilt by Godden Engineering and uses standard SS rods with new pin & Lacey needle rollers. It hasn't arrived yet and I can't wait.
Anyway, here is a nice new gearbox cluster from Andy@mdinaitalia
And a nice new straight cut gear set from Nova Engineering
And like many things, far more interesting from behind.
That's it for now.
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