A Major Milestone Today
My work takes me away for a couple weeks, so I wanted to get some goals accomplished on my bike, before I left. I don't know if anyone is really interested in this, but I guess I'll continue to post until is finished and I'm happy to have a good update today.
Even though the bike looked almost "ride-able" in the last post, NO, not even close! There were about 4 major things I needed to tackle this week.
First of all, I wanted to do a lot of work on the rear axle mount. Movement was not an option. I'm extremely happy with the solidity of the result. (I have a thread on it, in the discussion section, so I won't post a photo of it here) I feel, as far as the axle mount, it turned the cheap Wallmart bike into a more substantial bike,
that I'd bet my life on!
Next, I came up with a solution to secure my muffler. So easy in concept.... but for me, it was so difficult in practice. Three different dia. tubes, running at slightly different angles to each other, yet, I wanted the muffler mounted solidly to the down tube?? After running through different approaches, I visited "an old friend" once again...... JB Weld Steel Epoxy Putty. The engine was anchored like a rock and the exhaust pipe was also solidly mounted, so it was a matter of waxing the two pipes and forming the putty between the two! It partially "wraps" around the two tubes and with the addition of the worm-drive clamp..... It's just what I wanted; a custom fit. The JB Weld is rated at 250-300 degrees, but I still decided to lay a buffer of steel between the muffler and putty, just to be on the safe side. The putty will be painted with the high temp. black paint.
As I mentioned before, the replica, antique leather seat needed a tremendous amount of work to want to stay in one place. All three axis had to be dealt with and additionally bolted, but I really like the seat so much..... I was willing to do whatever had to be done. Interesting that the seat (including the $20 seat post) cost as much as the bike itself! LOL It's funny how uncomfortable the seat
looks, but it is surprisingly comfortable! Crazy design though..... Talk about a challenge to modify.
And last, but not least, I saved the most "foreign" task for one of the last jobs;
the drive chain. When you think about it, I've spent a ton of time, during the last month and a ton of money, and today, for the first time, I drop the drive chain between the two sprockets (that are like the Rock of Gibraltar)
and pray, they are inline!!! I would say, I was cautiously optimistic....... more caution than optimism! As difficult as everything else was on this project, I was pretty sure there would be a major issue or two that I would have to address...... but there wasn't! My goodness!! The chain went on, like the bike, engine, sprockets were all made for each other. (far from it) About 1/4" of clearance between the tire and chain! And, my chain-braking went well. It's as though the bike just decided to give me a break and cooperate 100% for this final, all important fit. Boy, was I grateful!