torsdag 26. mars 2015

Buco sport shield

Sometimes a job might become far more complicated than first thought. Like restoring an old Buco sport windshield I bought on e-bay a while back.
I wanted to fit a Buco sport shield to my 39 Knuck as I like to ride with a windshield. Having tried to bid on several on e-bay during some time I found there was obviously more people than me in need of those, hence prices have been pretty stiff. Then, this really smashed and beaten old Buco sport shield came up for sale. I could see that at least the frame had some potential. final bid was mine, 1 USD!
When the package arrived and opened I have to say I thought, puhh, this is going to be tough. I managed to make all the frame parts straight with some hammers and punches, and I even managed to clean up and carefully by adding heat get the red lower part pretty OK.
Now the hard part came up. Buco use very thin sheets in their windshields, and make them keep their form by adding a solid acrylic rod as edge trim, this edge trim is then secured by the windshield frame.
I was quite sure such a edge trim would be available to buy, I could not be more wrong.
Nowhere, I checked and e-mailed and even visited several guys working with plastics to earn their living, negative.
I ended up buying a solid rod, 5/16" (8mm), was very reasonable priced to my surprise. But how do I get a 5 mm deep and 1,5 mm wide slit in a piece of this rod?
Again I went to a professional, but sorry no they could only make 3mm wide slits as a minimum.
Back home I decided to make my own tool to make this slit, MKI by using a high speed wood edge trimmer, no luck as the high rpm`s got the saw to melt the acrylic.
MKII, now a drill with an adjustable rpm motor was used, far better at low rpm but when adding water to the saw during the cutting things really started to work well.
At last I had a 4 feet piece of rod with the correct slit.
Then came the job in carefully heating the rod with a hot air gun such that it could carefully be bent around the new made upper windshield piece I had made.
Whow did I get my neighbor sweaty as he was chosen to help me out in this matter.
Finally we where able to mount both windshield pieces in the frame, was not at all easy cause we had just four hands available, should have been at least six.
Lessons learned;
buy the expensive windshield on e-bay if you get a chance or you might get a handful of challenges that of course in its turn give a load of experience you might or might not need along the way.


Acryl rod slitting saw MKI, to high speed, didnt work as the acrylic got to hot and melted.


Principal of construction.


Acrylic rod slitting saw MKII, now low rpm by regulated drill motor.


Even with lower rpm the best solution was to water cool the saw when cutting in the acrylic rod.


Saw with a slitted piece of the acrylic rod laying in the back.


Making a template for the new Buco upper windshield part. The straightened Buco windshield frame resting in the back, waiting for the screen parts.


Old windshield parts and the finished template.


Ahh, finally done, unfortunately there was no pics from when cutting the acrylic rod nor when heating it to get it bent for the new shield. Both those operations demanded full concentration, picturing was no option.


Mounted on the 39 knuck.


Looking good?


Riders view.

Pics from Yesterdaze!

Two photos from Northern Norway, or to be more specific in Sulitjelma. Sulitjelma was and is a mining community where large amounts of copper have been mined during more than a hundred years.
This W registered Harley used to be ridden in Sulis. We can only imagine if it has survived.




mandag 23. mars 2015

Getting ready for a new season

Pooh! Spring is coming closer so fast. I just realized I had a lot of work to be done to my bikes and Bessie girl was the first in line.
Had a pair of new Allstate Diamond tires for her, got them (and several more) from Takushi in Japan, thanks a lot.
I have already driven roughly 8000 km`s on Bessie in two summers since I completed the restoration.
As usual when there are no troubles I just ride, though I know I should have paid some attention to maintenance along the way.
Anyway, starting at rear working my way to the front I think all the issues are now taken care of.
The most surprising find was the amount of slack in the steering head bearings, I am really surprised this have happened and even more I havent noticed along the way during braking etc.
Another issue is I find there are quite a bit of depositions in the bottom of the oil tank around the magnet plug that I have used as a replacement for the drain plug. To make sure there was no issues I removed the timing cover checking the internal dirt traps. They was both OK, everything else looked find in there too, still I am a bit alerted.
Will try to change oil more often this summer.

Who is the next in line? Oh well, I  will not run out of work.










"A bikers work is never done"

onsdag 11. mars 2015

Bror With.


There are reasons our motorbike heritage rely on just a small number of survivors.
Back in the days, motorbikes was not scrapped, they was reused, again and again in various creations of technical character.
People had in general less money, hardly none, this was good for creativity and ingenuity. Like in this picture, where an old Excelsior have shared its engine and rear wheel to make a snowmobile.
The guy behind the steering wheel is Bror With, a Norwegian to become famous for his inventions, among them the "Rottefella" ski binding, the "Dromedille" speed boat and more.

Apparently young With inventions started with butchering old motorbikes.

lørdag 7. mars 2015

American Motorcycles Norway / Pics from Yesterdaze


This proud young gentleman is dressed in the latest motorcycle fashion and ready to take off on his dark green Excelsior from the Schwinn factory in Chicago.

Bike is equipped with acetylene lights front and rear, manual Klaxon horn is located such that sudden braking should be avoided. This is an early photo, easily recognizable as there is registration plate only at front of the bike.
That the Schwinn water transfer decal on the primary cover is still intact tells us the bike is pretty fresh from the shop.


Another pic of this beautiful Excelsior motorbike. The rider with his back towards the camera observe his mates checking out his ride.
This is one lucky lad!


D-1593 - a small Cleveland two stroke motorcycle is all this local farmer needs to get to town.


Two lucky couples out for a ride on their Injun Motocycles.
One of the Ms`s ride the sidecar, the other on the pillion seat of those early PP models. This is another early photo, front bike have no reg plate at rear, the combination have reg plate on the sidecar, both are details from the early years of Norwegian motorcycle sport.