AirHead Drag Bike

[paul cardy]

Picked the frame up today from Trestan's great service as always and a 1 week turn around. Finish is super smooth in satin black.



Next up the headstock bearings were the old ball race type like a push bike which had seen better days so we have gone all modern with a tapered races. Outer race fitted like it was made for the job.....




The swingarm was rubbed down and given a couple of coats of satin black from a trusty spary can, didn't think the bearing would like 200 degrees at the powder coaters and it was in good condition so........




The seat pan pop riveted in place


Putting the engine in is a 2 man job now its all pretty so awaiting my able assistant returning for his hols and hope to make some good progress next weekend.

As a side note finally joined facebook to see what's going on in the bike world posted a few pics on a site called "BMW 2V Boxer" and seems to have gone down well, looks like there is a drag race series called "The Sultans of Swing" and they are keen to have some new competitors so that's 2017 holidays taken care of......

 

[paul cardy]

The rebuild moved forward today, used the same technique to get the engine in the frame by suspeding the engine by a barrel then threading the frame up from underneath - this time round with the frame freshly powdercoated there was lots of tape present. Then on to the gearbox new SS allen bolts for mounting and remembering RM saying dont forget fitting the clutch release shaft and bearing even got this right + starter motor.

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Then on to mounting the wiring loom and starter button and kill switch + MSD ignition box and swing arm, wiring looks a bit of a rats nest but rest assured it wont stay like this for long....

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Oil pressure line

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Now its waiting to pick up the bolts etc from the platers and the remaing parts from Trestan's

 

[paul cardy]

So tommorow its boys day out, the van will be full of fairing, tank and other sundries and were off to see Chris at CT Motorcycles for indepth discussions on the paint - hope he knows what he has let himself infor but should be a good day and looking forward to this next stage, load of bits back from the platers and powdercoaters so no excuses to move this forward another couple of stages.

 

[paul cardy]

Just noticed I started this thread almost 1 year ago to the day............

 

[paul cardy]

Had a geat couple of hours with Chris yesterday couldn't wish to meet a nicer chap - even made the tea.....

The plan has been set and it just awaits for him to provide his magic - no pressure.......

 

[paul cardy]

Work continued over the weekend, it never fails to suprise me how long things take even when some of it has all been fitted up before...+ a few issues along the way.
Had the front wheel balanced a few weeks back and bought a tyre clamp - the sort of thing used on a motorcross / trials bike to stop the tyre walking round the rim when used with low pressure. This needed a new mounting hole drilled in the rim, what it didnt need was me nicking the tube in the process so too late in the day to get a replacement so the fun of trying to put this lot back together is left till next weekend ( the telling look when i bought the clamp should have put me on more notice...)
The front forks were going ok until we came to how to mount up the top yoke - now this was the first time we had the new roller bearings fitted (the old type were just balls in a cup) now the logic was not to fit the bearings until the frame was back from the powder coaters so in theory this was the first time to assemble the whole shooting match and yes you have guessed it was a bust. We alos wanted to retain the steering damper which came with the bike but the replacment top yoke which was an aluminum casting from a later bike and the steering stem didnt want to play together, we could have come up with some cunning mods but luckily we had a spare steel plate top yoke which was pressed into service then after much scratching of heads and a few new drilled holes the streering damper was also re fitted so a load of faffing but ended up ok.
All the wiring cables and front end complete with front wheel and now finished
So jobs to do
#fill with engine and gearbox oil
#Add fork oil
#fit tube and tyre + clamp + new brake shoes
#Fit rear brake rod + gear change rod
#stand back and take a bunk of photos
#rig up a temporary fuel tank and book the rolling road with RM

To be continued

 

[Shep]

Had the front wheel balanced a few weeks back and bought a tyre clamp - the sort of thing used on a motorcross / trials bike to stop the tyre walking round the rim when used with low pressure. This needed a new mounting hole drilled in the rim, what it didnt need was me nicking the tube in the process so too late in the day to get a replacement so the fun of trying to put this lot back together is left till next weekend ( the telling look when i bought the clamp should have put me on more notice...)

We just used to put half a dozen selftappers through the rim into the tyre's bead, very effective and far easier to fix a puncture quickly! Try and get the regs for the series you are intending to race, whilst most are sensible, different organisations used to have different criteria to achieve a pass through the scrutineers, good luck! (apologies if i'm teaching you to suck eggs ) Nice bike BTW!

 

[paul cardy]

Hi Shep

I have seen the screws through rim and I am sure they work but its just doesn't look right + at the same meeting they also had bikes with the same clamp arrangement so both look to be acceptable, I do need to read the NSA regs again but don't remember this being covered + I added to my to do list...

 

[paul cardy]

So jobs to do
#fill with engine and gearbox oil y
#Add fork oil y
#fit tube and tyre + clamp + new brake shoes - well re used old ones as teh new ones were not the right type y
#Fit rear brake rod + gear change rod - gear change needed to be modified and still needs a further tweak to get some adjustment y
#stand back and take a bunk of photos y
#rig up a temporary fuel tank and book the rolling road with RM - not yet

So here it is was a nice day so pushed it outside and took a few photos.....














Thanks for all the nice words and encouragement so far its really appreciated.

 

[Kenny]

Certainly one of a kind

Can see this at the Staffordshire Show in a few years time getting admiring glances !

 

[Wreford Miles]

Wonderfull ... when will it first race

 

[Robh1664]

Very impressive, a credit to you Paul C.

 

[Weekday Rider]

Very, very nice. I like that a lot.

 

[markjackson]

Just wonderful, and something quite different from the norm; vision and skill turning the most unlikely ingredients into a really nice surprise result! I'm a fan.

 

[paul cardy]

Guys thanks for the comments - first race will be 2017 guess April time but the 2017 events list does not get published for some time yet...

Can't wait.......

 

[paul cardy]

Bit of an update of sorts as like all good projects there never finished....

Put in all the fluids and checked levels - not sure if the engine oil has gold in it but when its done in the bike may have to see if they give you a credit on return..

The wiring loom had been all laced up but remained untested and RM was keen for me to turn the engine over before any rolling road sessions which sounded and proved to be good advice.

So we jury rigged a battery up (the final one was still to be purchased at this time) by this stage we had also plumbed the oil pressure gauge, bike turned over on the starter button and after loosining the pressure line to bleed it we also had a healthy 80 psi cranking pressure. At this point the managment box was looking remarkably un interested and true to form we should have been seeing an led light flash as the crank sensor passed the trigger

Traced out teh wiring and if you can believe this the kill switch which was on a lanyard so if you fall off it kill the engine... well this bugger only made a curcuit with the lanyard disconnected - needless to say this now in the bin so a couple of quick wiring alterations and bingo flashing led :0.

Been speaking to RM and now have 25L of Sonoco race fuel at almost £5 L good job its only 1/4 mile a time... still hoping to get the the RR this side of Christmas and should also have the painted tank and fairing back soon cant.....

 

[Weekday Rider]

How's it going? I'm missing this lovely bike.

 

[paul cardy]

How's it going? I'm missing this lovely bike.

Hi Jim

Slow - its the waiting game, Chris has made good progress on the paintwork and looks to be in front of his planed completion date so hope to have it buttoned up over the next few weeks or so, the early photos look wow but waiting to see it all in the flesh....

My new plan is to take it to the local town get together on Boxing Day where everybody meets up for a cuppa and looks at bikes and cars of all types, usally a good turn out so as long as its not raining....snowing....

In other news I have made lots of progress on the R100R which has filled in the time, wanted to do a build thread on this on here but early response was not positive when I posed some questions so although its going to happen / is happening - bike completly stripped and engine should be back from freshen up next week.....I didnt want to get lynched as its going in a completely new direction from the base bike

Thanks for your post its always good to keep the thread moving - getting excited all over again - it must be cold shower time

 

[ChasF]

Hi Jim

Slow - its the waiting game, Chris has made good progress on the paintwork and looks to be in front of his planed completion date so hope to have it buttoned up over the next few weeks or so, the early photos look wow but waiting to see it all in the flesh....

My new plan is to take it to the local town get together on Boxing Day where everybody meets up for a cuppa and looks at bikes and cars of all types, usally a good turn out so as long as its not raining....snowing....

In other news I have made lots of progress on the R100R which has filled in the time, wanted to do a build thread on this on here but early response was not positive when I posed some questions so although its going to happen / is happening - bike completly stripped and engine should be back from freshen up next week.....I didnt want to get lynched as its going in a completely new direction from the base bike

Thanks for your post its always good to keep the thread moving - getting excited all over again - it must be cold shower time

Looking forward to the new thread on the new project. Hope it's as creative as the drag bike.

 

[peepingtom]

Looks brilliant