Fixing and tweaking stuff

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Lurker

Lurker

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Jan 29, 2010
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I was kind of on the fence about you painting this bike drab green. I didn't want to say anything about it at first but I must say it looks pretty neat. I'm not into military history but I know a lot of people who are and I'm sure they would think this is really cool.

Changing the fork made a huge difference in the appearance of the bike for the better. I just have one question, Is the stem on backwards? I have never seen it like that on a vintage bike before, it makes the handle bars look a bit cramped.
 
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cobrafreak

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Feb 16, 2011
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It is on backwards, but it's not by mistake. I've seen this on turn of the century motorcycles before with a near-zero stem. I believe there is a pic or two of this in the old motorcycle book if I'm not mistaken. A zero stem would put the handlebar directly on top of the stem. Near-zero is basically right against the stem, as mine is. If I would have flipped it it would only make a 1" difference anyway. I was shooting for "old funky look". Something people may never have seen before. It's so comfortable to ride now. My upper torso is vertical the whole time. literally what the doctor ordered lol. Veterans
really dig the bike big time. I may need to take it to Travis AFB for their air show as they have a lot of military vehicles including motorcycles on display.
 
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cobrafreak

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Here is some tech about the Monarch II "motorbike fork". If you use this fork and you are running the Sturmey Archer 90mm brake hub you are going to have the brake arm hit the bottom of the rear left hand side fork tube. It will prevent you from being able to activate the brake 100%. The fix is to take a grinder and take a little metal off the bottom leading edge of the left rear fork so the brake arm will clear. It's so minute I didn't notice it until I went for a test ride. Be sure you grease the rocker bushings and don't tighten them up too tight or they won't activate quickly when you go over a bump. I really like the ride quality of this fork. You won't regret it.
 
harry76

harry76

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Apr 16, 2011
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cobrafreak said:
It is on backwards, but it's not by mistake. I've seen this on turn of the century motorcycles before with a near-zero stem. I believe there is a pic or two of this in the old motorcycle book if I'm not mistaken. A zero stem would put the handlebar directly on top of the stem. Near-zero is basically right against the stem, as mine is. If I would have flipped it it would only make a 1" difference anyway. I was shooting for "old funky look". Something people may never have seen before. It's so comfortable to ride now. My upper torso is vertical the whole time. literally what the doctor ordered lol. Veterans
really dig the bike big time. I may need to take it to Travis AFB for their air show as they have a lot of military vehicles including motorcycles on display.
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Ive noticed some bikes on this site with the stem on backwards for that vintage cruiser look. I cant have a look right now but i believe it was either Louie McMann or Cannonballs builds that used this method if i remember correctly.

And i agree with Lurker, im not into the war history stuff either but the army drab green is growing on me too.

Now you just need to build a civilian Indian to replace it.
 
harry76

harry76

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Apr 16, 2011
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cobrafreak said:
Hmmm, I could also put a sidecar on and run with a fake Vickers or Lewis mounted machine gun on it. Think this would get attention? Lol.

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Just a thought CF, but have you considered plating the side of your front fender (mudguards in Australia) like in the photos for that authentic look?
 
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cobrafreak

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harry76 said:
Just a thought CF, but have you considered plating the side of your front fender (mudguards in Australia) like in the photos for that authentic look?
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I don't know exactly what you mean. Do you mean like leather flaps in the back of the fender or do you mean making the fender wider on the sides? I was toying with the idea of a leather flap. I made some for my bicycle and they look pretty good. I don't have a lot of room due to the fact that the springer fork doesn't have a lot of room. I barely had enough room to fit the existing fender.
 
Mr.B.

Mr.B.

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Oct 21, 2008
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Upper Mississippi River valley
The Lewis gun would be good, but dam a big Vickers with a bullet belt & water jacket with tarnished brass showing through distressed paint would be cool!

Another good American option would be a water cooled M1917 Browning- They were used at the very end of the war. And without flutes in the jacket it would be a lot easier to replicate.

I’ve always thought that pre-war stems for girls bikes have a nice short and stumpy early motorcycle look... Nickel plated too.
 
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cobrafreak

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Next up for my upgrades is a slightly larger capacity fuel tank that will now be made of galvanized 18 gauge steel rather than un-galvanized 20 gauge steel. I wasn't happy with my first tank and wished I could start over, so I did. Feelyx is going to help me with the silver soldering and other details as he has more experience and better tools than I do. This new tank should be tight.
 
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cobrafreak

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Here is something you don't see everyday. A working tank mounted fuel gauge. I was originally thinking of having two gas caps, one on each side and then Feelyx showed me this gas gauge he had laying around and we thought it would be neat to add. The tank will probably be done and painted in about a week or so. It will be slightly larger capacity and more reliable than the original. I'm learning to silver solder properly thanks to Tim. I can use this new skill set on a host of other things as well.


 
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cobrafreak

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The bolt size is 1 1/4", plenty big for a gas station pump. I had the same size on my former tank as well. You just put an O-ring under it and it's gas tight. We are going to lathe the bolt head to look close to the appearance of the fuel gauge so it's symmetrical. I had a copper coil on top of my old one for a breather. It looked neat and retro but it occasionally leaked droplets of gas on my tank and thus, my antiquated patina paint job was born, lol. This time I will have an internal copper coil from the bottom of the tank to the inside at the highest point to vent and release pressure and protect paint.
 
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