That's more like it!

I got the frame back from the powdercoaters yesterday, and I'm happy to report that this time around it looks great. The satin black finish gives it a lovely "factory" look that I really like. And in retrospect, the matt finish that I went for at first, maybe wasn't the best idea, since it might have proven too difficult to keep clean.

I got a few other bits and bobs painted as well. More on that later. Next up: compiling a list of all the bolts I need and ordering those from tastynuts.com. With the frame and the rest of the components looking as good as they do, I can't very well bolt it together with anything other than top of the line fasteners, now can I?

It all adds up...

Almost two months ago I ordered 12 countersunk, stainless bolts from a company called McMaster-Carr in the states. I needed them to fasten my sprocket and rear brake disc to my PM rear wheel, which uses a really archaic bolt pattern and 7/16'' bolts. A month passed without any bolts arriving. Then a further two weeks. A call was placed and met with the suprising answer: "We cancelled your order due to export restrictions". "-Come again? Export restrictions? I wasn't aware that old imperial bolts were covered by some sort of non-proliferation treaty", I replied. "And why haven't you informed me of the cancellation?" Since the customer relations person at the other end couldn't give me a satisfactory answer, I hung up. Annoyed, to say the least.

Since McMaster-Carr were the ONLY source I could find for the bolts I needed (stainless 7/16'' contersunk must be the rarest bolts in the world), I had to resort to having them custom made. A company called Acme Stainless in the UK made the ones in the picture and had them sent to me within a week. The cost? £65 including postage. Aouch!

Halfway there.

In this day and age of iPhones, nano-tubes and what not, it's easy to overlook some of last century's high tech, like the CNC-mill. In essence 1970's technology (invented in the 50's), it still makes my mind boggle at the sheer precision of the thing. I understand the basic principles of it all, but the way it moves in 1/1000 mm increments back and forth, and even more amzingly, mills perfect circles in solid blocks of metal is just astounding to me.

As you can see, the upper triple tree is almost there (lower part of picture), while the lower tree is still a big, but not heavy, piece of billet. The difference in weight between these and my steel prototypes is amazing. Next up: machining the "slots" and the threads for the bolts that will tighten the clamps around the fork legs.

Dangerous times.

At the moment I'm waiting for my frame to come back from the powder coaters and my tank and seat unit to come back from the guy in London who's doing the flake job. Until I get the frame back, there is not much I can do on the bike (apart from finishing the triple trees which is pencilled in for for Monday) and my brain has started whispering: "–screw this project, let's move on to the next one... It will be much more fun than this... Haven't you've always said you were going to do a cafe racer... I bet there is a nice paralell twin engine somewhere on eBay..."

Must. Not. Start. New. Project.
Must. Finish. This. One. First.

What's wrong with this picture?

I'll give you a hint: there is something missing.

I've had a bad really bad day today; suppliers screwing up, customers complaining, horrible [even by airline standards] food on the plane from Stockholm etc. So when I got a call from the powder coaters that the pieces I gave them a week ago were ready for pick-up, I envisioned a weekend locked in my basement, finally assembling my tracker. Suddenly my other worries melted away. But, alas, it was not to be. And it's probably my own fault. You see, I wanted my frame, swingarm and a couple of other brackets and stuff painted with a kind of powder that leaves a rough, semi matt, almost crackelated finish. The guy had limited experience with the stuff, but told me he would give it a try.

To say that it looked shite is like saying emo-rock sucks. Rather than the slightly bumpy, semi matt apperance I was looking for, it looked as if the frame had been left out in the rain for ten years and then coated with a thin, shiny black film, exposing the rusty, pitted material underneath. I was gutted. The shiny pieces (see image) where fine, but the rest has to be redone. To his credit, the painter didn't argue, and promised to media blast the pieces again and redo them. Plain old satin black this time. Oh well, what's another two weeks?

Flake.

I got a paint sample in the mail today from the guy who is going to paint the tank and seat unit. It turns out that flake paint is not like ordinary paint in the sense that you can mix in some other colour in order to change the shade – like add a bit of white to turn a blue colour into light blue. Instead, it's the small flakes themselves that are coloured. So in order to change the hue of the finished paint, you have to use different background colours "behind" the flakes. The left part of the paint sample was painted red before the flakes were applied, and the right part was painted black. As a result the right part of the sample looks darker from some angles, but not all (you cant really see the black base paint). From straight on it's hard to tell the difference, but from a more oblique angle the difference is clear. I really like the "red flake on black background"-colour. It looks a bit like the old Husqvarna "Ruby red" paint (image here). I think I'm going for that as the base colour.

Yokes 2.0

After getting some excellent feedback from #15 (among others), I've decided to change the design of my yokes. The "integrated indicators"-design that I had in mind is now out. I got a little bit carried away with that and maybe it was a little bit to elaborate for a street tracker? I now have a different idea for how I'm going to mount the front indicators, involving a bent aluminium tube that will sit under the yoke (more on that later). And yes: I need indicators for my bike to pass the final M.O.T. After that they can, err, fall off. I guess...

While I'm at it, I'll add 10 more mm of grountrail by shortening the offset to 30 mm, giving me a total of 100-105 mm ground trail.