Refurbishing The Chassis
Refurbishing The Chassis
The chassis restoration entailed the replacement of the rear suspension unit with a New Old Stock (NOS) unit uncovered at the Stafford Show! The rear linkage was freshened up with all new bearings and seals, and new pivot bolts, as the originals were bent....I did say abuse became more evident as I stripped it down! The front forks were rebuilt with all new bushes, seals and re-chromed stanchions, while the sliders, calipers and disk centers were repainted. The calipers had new pistons and seals, although for now, the original hoses have been refitted. The frame was discovered to be twisted, so off I took it to SeaStar Super bikes in Norfolk, to be jigged straight! Its an amazingly painful process to see the frame buckle and twist as its forced back into shape! Check out the Before & After Gallery for more pics of this.
Basically, the frame, complete with crank cases, is aligned, all level and square, onto the jig, then a long pointer is placed through the steering head to a scale, that runs along the center line of the frame, this tell the engineer how twisted the frame is, and the scale tells you the rake of the forks. This is then manipulated using powerful hydraulic rams, acting on the triangular blocks where the top and bottom yoke would be, they can be seen in the pic below, to force the frame back into shape.
The frame, swingarm, yokes rear shock linkage and sundry brackets were powder coated by Triple S in Batley....this thing has done more miles in bits than it ever did under its own power!! The wheels were powder coated by a local 'specialist' who shall remain nameless, and new Bridgestone tyres fitted.
This was quite exciting to see the the bits on the shelf at Triple S, I knew the rebuild was about to start in earnest!
This is the rear shock link, coated, with new seals, bearings and bolts.....a small fortune that thing!!
This was the end of the first day of rebuild, it felt immense to achieve this, especially as it went back together so easily thanks to the care taken by Triple S. Highly recommended, as all threads and bearing recesses were free of powder coat, minimizing prep work for the re-assembly, powder coat in threads and bearing seats was a total pain in the arse on the wheels.
The wheels look great, new bearings were fitted, and the disks cleaned up and repainted, but the bolt holes and bearing races were full of powder coat, I knew I should have let Triple S do them! New Bridgestone BT-45's were fitted. Tyre choice is quite limited with the 16" front wheel.
I must admit, these are a total transformation from the shoddy things I removed from this bike.
Its was a really nice feeling to get the thing back on its wheels after what felt like an age in bits!! Don't forget to fit the airbox before the engine.....else you'll never get it in without cutting something!! The fairing bracket is a nightmare, as its so easily bent a in a crash and has to align the 3 bolts for the clocks,along with the holes in the top fairing that the mirrors go through....after hours of heating bending trial fitting etc, it too went for powder coating. Time to start on the engine I think!!
