A philosophical question

Never get angy with your bike, if you throw something at it or hit it you only got to repair it, when I come across a problem I sit down with a cuppa or a beer and look at it for a while, if its late at night I just go to bed and think about it, usuauly it don't take long to work it out, I have even worked out how to make tools that will get the job done just by looking at the part for sometime making my whats left of my brain work a bit harder.

I worked with a groundsman and when something didn't start after about 10 attenps he would just pick what ever it was at the time and just smash it to the ground, he just lost the plot, usuauly it was his own fault that it didn't fire up in the first place and costly repairs after he done the damage, if only the bosses knew what releay happened he would have been out of a job long ago.

Ashley

You calm collected mechanics have not run into bent crank shaft with distorted torque twisted cases locking them together on dowels, nor rusted fused swing arm spindles with worn lips that take many, way over a dozen tons PSI to remove nor fussed brake caliper caps that almost shear off the hard tool pegs as about tears vice off mounts before moving nor wheel bearing trapped by spacer that won't move aside to get a bite on even a tiny edge of bearing w/o damaging spacer by brute force to do so, nor sheared off TS cover bolt below surface that's mess threads up so loose in hole but still trapped in TS case. I don't throw Norton parts in angry frustration as waste of time so I curse them sanely safely with cutting torches, bull dozer shop hydraulic presses and sledge hammers relief. Finding broken copper inside intact insulation that conducts fine until insullation warmed softened to resonate apart intermittently only at some road bumps at certain rpms can push me over edge of polite behavior.

I feel lucky that I haven't been dragged into the restoration business. After my 2+ years at N-V, I'd have love to have brought a new Commando with me to the States at Boeing's expense, but I was so skint trying to raise 2 kids on the pittance engineers were paid back then (I was getting about 1500 quid a year), I couldn't afford to buy one, even at the employee price of 380 pounds.

Boy, could I have made a killing once I'd got it here! Water under the bridge! After seeing the little old ladies in their gargantuan Buicks driving 45 mph on the freeways, looking through the steering wheel. I quickly came to the conclusion that a street bike wasn't for me. I'm still relatively hale and hearty at 73 as a result - 46 years on.

Sometimes when a problem arises on a bike project you do need to walk away and let it sit. During the away time you usually find the solution you're looking for. My Norton project sat outside in a salvage yard for 25 years.It was a total mess,but it was given to me as a gift and I was going to see it to it's completion no matter what. Being a life long Triumph guy ,the Norton project took me out of my comfort zone,but not too much. Early on I decided to not build a stock bike so that I could incorporate all of the modern upgrades and techniques for building a reliable machine. I'm not a purist,so I trash canned all of the troublesome stuff. With the help from forums like this I'm sure that you'll get through it. Remember this,it's your bike,so build it to your liking......PhillySkip

I totally enjoy working on my bikes (there are nine of them now).

On Saturday I spent 13 hours in the shop (building a custom other brand bike).

Many trials and tribulations. Some major other's not so much.

It is part of the process. For me, that's what makes it so rewarding, when you overcome the problems or find the right parts or solution to a problem. Maybe I have a different mindset.

The only thing that bothers me sometimes is how much I want to finish...especially when the project gets close and is turning out nice...then I want to ride it.

I take breaks from the bikes. Work on something else or go fishing, or travel. That always makes me want to get back to the project and I will go at it like crazy when I get back to it. Rejuvinate...don't make it a job (unless that's what you do for a living). Too much time can make us impatient and that's when it's no fun anymore.

Just my two cents.

I acquired my MK3 circa 1992. It was mostly in one piece but in very poor condition. I completely disassembled it and began a 12 year restoration project during which I moved twice. Nothing was easy. Most things had to be done twice or even three times to make them right. Finally, in 2004 it ran for the first time, but that was really just a new beginning of learning how it actually worked and how to tune it properly. It runs very nicely now but is still a work in progress - and that is by choice.

Over the years I'm sure I've spent at least $20,000 on it and put in countless hundreds of hours. More of that than I'd care to admit was wasted on repairs that needed to be redone later, but that was part of the learning curve.

During all that time, I've had a modern motorcycle to ride when I wish, which allowed me to contemplate my "Norton issues" at liesure. It's a challenge and most times I enjoy it, although it's frustrating sometimes. But without that frustration, there would really be no challenge, would there?

With all the effort that we put into these bikes, always remember to enjoy, thoroughly, those rides when everything is working properly!

I got to a stage a while back where I could not even walk into my shed, so I concentrated on making music DVDs from Youtube clips. I've actually regained my enthuisiasm, and a few days ago I pulled the exhaust of the Norton, linished off the rust and repainted it, and it now looks a million bucks. My biggest bone of contention was my racing two stroke project. I'd made the spine of the Egli frame a half inch too short, so the footrests were too far back, as was the tank, so I couldn't sit properly on the bike. I cut the front tank hold down tab off and moved the tank and still couldn't make sense of it. It is impossible to move the Egli seat back due to a curve in the side of it. Anyway, I had the bright thought. I've got two TZ350G seats and one will fit perfectly (looks a bit different, however almost OK). So the mind bending bullshit has come to an end - I can get the correct seating position, and the tank mounting will work out fine.
I know it is silly stuff however for a long time it was destroying my enthusiasm. I've also now worked out how to get a set of chambers onto it. The motor is a 500cc H1 Kawasaki with Yamaha RD350 rods, pistons and shortened barrels with the reed valves giving a capacity of 600cc with TZ750 port timings. The crank has labyrinth seals between the cylinders.
I know you guys probably hate two strokes, however a few years ago I had the urge to build a competitive historic bike and started playing with this silly stuff again. There is nothing like two stroke bikes for destroying the most valuable urge.

Strokers, are fun....sometimes...I filled up my RZ 500 with gas and headed off into the sunset, first round about the back end stepped out abot a couple of feet, thought not a lot about it..mayby put the power on a bit early? Next round about the bike went sideways!
I thought a flat rear tyre, pulled up to see the whole of the rear end dripping with fuel! It was running out of the belly pan like a tap.
Struggled it back home, missing and farting.
The lower left carb was running fuel out of the overflow..like a open tap, the float had stuck down. I appears this is a common problem..via the RD owners web site...its really put me off the bike...its like a accident waiting to happen.

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies! Oh man...Since my initial post I've had another week of vacation time to pour into the bike, at the end of the first week I just had to step away and take a few days break, as a lot of you suggested. It was just doing my head in. I had made a bad mistake of allowing a company(who'll remain nameless), to work on it and so I had to undo all the crap that they'd done and start the assembly again from scratch. To cut a long story short...I got ripped off badly.

In a lot of ways the whole project has been a loaded deck from day one. Here's a pic of what I started with;





I know that it might not look too bad, a bit tatty, but useable. The trouble was I started to dig. I found an almost endless list of stuff that was either bent, worn out, missing or not far off from breaking. How I made it home after buying it...Is a testament to Norton, rather than the previous owner. I was thinking about how much of the bike in the pic above I still have. Probably about a third? The rest was scrap.

This is what it looks like now;



Like I said, sometime times it feel like the thing is fighting me tooth and nail. It took me over an hour just to get the tail light fairing to sit straight, when you have something like that, or I've not gotten the sequence of assembly right, or the thread on a bolt has been cut too short, etc...It feels like I'm wading through treacle, trying to reach the final destination. At the w/e I wanted to button up the timing case. Could I find the little conical camshaft tool? No. Two hours later...lol. Now that I've spent another week on it, am nearing the end (still got lots questions though!), I'm finding (weirdly),that I'm not so angry at it anymore. I'm still pi$$ed at being so badly duped, but as my Mrs said; Just suck it up and move on. Sheesh...that is so hard to do sometimes.

Hegel

Your bike does look fit, I like the look.

J

My brother builds a few historic speedway sidecar outfits, mainly Vincents however also one JAP and one JAWA. He doesn't usually do the engine work himself - simply farms it out to guys with a reputation for doing good work. Even in that situation, he still finds things that are inherently wrong. You really need to concentrate on your bike with the confidence that you know what you are doing. I suggest that reading Phil Irving's 'Tuning for Speed' is essential if you are going to play with this old garbage. I would never pay someone to build a whole bike for me, reliable fast motorcycling is all about 'attention to detail'. What do you get when you are just another wood duck to the builder ?
And that is only talking about old four strokes - when it comes to two strokes, they might be less complicated however a fast highly tuned one is in another whole new dimension of potential expense.

Thanks auldblue!

I like it too, ever since I saw the SS I decided to steer that wreck of a bike to something I'd really wan to ride a lot.

JRB,

I had a similar moment, which I'd borrowed a friends CX500 and (unknown to me), he'd broken the fuel tap and had (would you believe it!!), epoxied it back on again.

So there I am riding down the road, all of a sudden I get this really strong smell of gas. I glanced down and noticed the tap flapping out in the breeze, still attached to the fuel pipe....And of course the fuel was gaglugging out onto a hot engine. I'm still not sure how I didn't turn into a mobile fireball. I screeched to a halt and lept off. The fuel was still streaming, looked like steam pouring off the bike as it was vaporizing. Me being the young and skint fellow ran over, lifted the seat and ripped the tank off. I guess there must have been about a 1/3 of a tank left.

Guardian angels A+ that day I can tell you.