1963 650SS Australia

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Dec 14, 2013
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Well this year is the year I finally got to work on my 63 650SS, which I found in Bathurst a few years back April 2013.
The plan is to complete the bike this year, time permitting.
Bike had been stripped down in the seventies after are spending time on the race tracks around Sydney, so the previous owner said.
The engine was in an old trunk stripped down to just about the last nut and bolt.
There was a busted conrod and evidence marks in the timing side case of the conrod making heavy contact.
In the box of engine bits there were two Commando rods and a set of well worn 99 pistons.
Bores were out to 0.020" oversize.
The head was fully assembled, the original Monoblock carburettors were intact except for the slides and Caps/nuts.
The frame was a roller with gearbox still in place, clutch was complete.
Most of the panel work seemed to be there and in reasonable condition, missing at the time of inspection was the exhaust pipes and front mudguard, the previous owner found these prior to delivery, he delivered for free.

1963 650SS Australia

Best regards
Burgs
 
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Please change your font color from white. It does not show up on a standard white background.
 
Hi
Frame was bent and twisted straightened out using a 50mm thick mill table and panel beaters jacks.
The table has a heap of holes drilled and tapped that allowed me clamp the frame down using the swing arm spindle as reference.
The rear left hand top shock mount was higher than the right hand side by about 12mm, and the top left-hand rail had a dip down wards.
Jacking the rail out bought the shock mount back in line, had to have a few goes, I had to jack way further than I thought to get it to come in line.
Steering head also had a twist at the bottom, but this also came back into line.
I machined a set of cones to fit a piece of hard chrome rod I had to check the alignment of the steering head.
 
Talking about jacks - I saw Jack Forrest win a race at Bathurst on one of those.
 
Hi Al
They were quite successful in production racing in Australia and other places for sure.
I have been looking for one for many years and just luck I guess when we found this one.
We were at the annual Bathurst week long rally and someone in our group thought they would like to check out the shed next to the caravan park for bikes, when they spotted the owner they dully chased him up.
They came back and said not much there except an old 650ss in boxes all over the place, waited till next day and the rest is history.
I have had the crankshaft reground, bores rebored to plus 0.030" and fitted one of my reed breathers.
New cam old one badly worn, new cam bushes and of course new mains.
1963 650SS Australia

1963 650SS Australia

Test fitting new Monoblocs, and sorting out missing stud and SHCS.

Burgs
 
Looks like a very fun project.

Did you see that Manx bodywork kit in the for sale section?

Broken link removed

Sounds like a fair price...
 
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Ordered some sleeves yesterday, how did you end up with yours, are they still in place?
Got most of the tin bits ready for painting, need to get some dents out of the chain case first.
Broken link removed
Brake pedal was broken at some stage had a piece welded in, ground out the welds and rewelded and cleaned up
1963 650SS Australia


1963 650SS Australia


1963 650SS Australia
 
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Burgs
Where did you order your sleeves from?
I wasn't aware they were still available
I've got twin Monoblocs on my '64 but no sleeves.
Cheers
Rob
 
Bob Rosenthal has a 750cc Atlas which he raced in A-grade road races against proper racers, in Victoria in the 1960s. The other guys used to get upset because he left the rear number plate and tail-light on it while he blew them to the weeds. Another friend had a 650cc Manxman - it surprised me - it was much faster than a 650cc Bonneville of the same year.
I think that Jack Forrest would win on any bike he rode - he was a work's rider for BMW in Europe. One of my mates who raced against him, hates him because of his big mouth.
 
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The simple fact is that in Australia, in the 50s and 60s most of us played with Triumphs, not Nortons. There were far more Triumphs imported. Nortons of that era are pretty rare. I'd love to have one, they are the sort of bike that let's you feel the hair growing on your chest. A unit Bonneville is always good, but a featherbed Norton twin is better. The Norton is more substantial and usually doesn't piss oil.
 
Grandpaul
Been there done that with café racer bit, I still have a project using a Trident engine I have acquired, currently more interested to getting things as close as possible to original.

Rob ordered sleeves from RGM hopefully they are correct, Part # 067860, they look right in the photo.

Al, real good riders are like that, they make it look easy.
I bought a 1958 99 in 1968 that basically never had a spanner on it, until I got hold of it and turned it into a café racer that is, the things you do, still have the gearbox and fuel tank!
Spoke to an old racer at Broadford a few years back and his advice on going out on the first few laps was to get to know the bike, gear changes, brakes, then work on going faster a little bit at a time, I was at the time trying to work out how to ride a two stroke, he was on his Manx, took his advice and got better every lap.

Burgs
 
The guy who originally made the crank for my short stroke 500cc Triumph motor, worked for the Triumph factory and came 12th in the Senior on the IOM in about 1948. He told me that when I started racing I should force myself to go slow. But I was too smart for that - I went fast and crashed a lot. I still think I don't deserve to be alive. You don't get fast by riding bad bikes, but you learn how to avoid crashing. When I built the Seeley Commando, I went almost straight to a good answer - experience counts. If you have raced a two stroke and solved it's problems, an old British four stroke is much easier to deal with. The problems are similar but different - especially valve timings and exhaust systems.
 
My engineer manufactured a pair of sleeves from pictures posted on this forum by beng.
 
Rob yes I had those pictures to, but when I saw RGM had them I took the easy route.

Both footrests had been broken off and had bits welded to them, had a go at restoring them but scrap bin jobs really so have a new one from RGM so far and will get the other in the next couple of weeks.
No side or centre stands with it either and haven't been able to source off ebay or local swap meets, so most likely I will have to order new ones, which I will do after this week, as there is a swap meet at Nabiac, that sometimes turns up the odd bits.

Burgs
 
My engineer manufactured a pair of sleeves from pictures posted on this forum by beng.
possm - I've been chasing those drawings for a while - could you post them here? (or PM me and I'll give you my email)
Cheers
Rob
 
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