Indian Tadpole

[fasteddy]

I've been keeping a tally every month of just how many people look at the thread and when I see how many of you stop in or are following along I do feel guilty that there hasn't been a lot of action. It will change now that our poor winter weather is leaving and my health improves at snail speed.

I am both amazed and certainly humbled by the numbers and all of you have kept me going when I would rather have scrapped it all and moved on. Here's what I mean.

December 31, 2016 to January 28,2017 there were 5,553 views.

Here is a link to the Photobucket pages for anyone just seeing the thread.

Thank you all.

Steve.

http://s866.photobucket.com/user/sp...uild/DSC_0008_zpsjp1jbkbm.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

 

[fasteddy]

Curt, my Dad was born in Kenora, Ontario in 1906. He and his two brothers were allowed to travel with the Ojibwa for a couple of weeks at a time in the summer. As Dad said he saw the last of the old ways of Ojibwa life before they were swallowed up by the White Mans life style..

Dad went into town one summers day and a traveling preacher was setting up on a street corner and he commenced into his H*ll Fire and Brimstone to the assembled crowd of sinners. Standing next to Dad was an Ojibwa chap who was one of Dad's friends father. They stood there for about 15 minutes listening when his friends dad turned to Dad and said" Much noise on stairs, no one come down." and left.

Steve.

 

[curtisfox]

That's funny. I use to work with the local Ojibwa chief, at the paper mill, some of the stories he use to tell. ..............Curt

 

[fasteddy]

My whole life was hearing stories about life as Dad grew up in Kenora. His dad was the superintendent of the paper mill in International Falls M.N. I'll have to ask my brother what years he was there but it would be the teens or early twenties I'm sure.

Steve.

 

[curtisfox]

Ya about 20- 30 years before my time. My dad was a rail roader, lied his age and got on the chain gang at age 15, had 43 years in when he retired.
Lots of stories from him also........Curt

 

[fasteddy]

There weren't any roads into Kenora in those days. Kenora it's self had a mile and a half of paved road and apparently the pavement ended and there were two wagon ruts going off into what was left of the forest. Everything came into town by rail or steamship in the summer and a large amount of it was from Minnesota.

Your Dad must have worked on the rail road that the trains ran on to bring things into Kenora. Small world indeed.

Steve.

 

[curtisfox]

Ya! Back then it was Northern Pacific RR, and i can remember riding the train from deer camp. 18 mile south of International Falls, little town of Ray. So i could get back to school, been up there a few times and to Kenora.

Then tracks are no long there made to a bike trail now. Like Ray was just a cross road stop then, back in the 50's i can remember the big general store. Had the good Canadian made warm cloths, whole pants, seemed like 1/2 thick, and still have a pair of double thick chopper mits.

Can remember my dad was wrecking crew engineer, run the steam crane. He was up in the Falls for a week or so. Pulling fully loaded pulp cars out the swamp, after a big wreck. Had the wrecker bobbin on 2 wheels doing it, ( found out through the grape vine ) saved the RR a lot of money. OCHA would forbid now................Curt

 

[fasteddy]

Curt, OSHA would have gone berserk if they saw that. Fines would have rained down like it was snowing. In those days you did what you had to to get the job done.

Steve.

 

[curtisfox]

Ya said he took a bath in a creek,washed he under so had clean for the next day. Tough old boys then. Just never thought about the danger and did like you said , make do..............Curt

 

[fasteddy]

First great day in a long time today. Garage door open and the sun streaming in and it was 50F. Sweet mercy it was enough to make a fella break out into song despite the neighbours being so upset by that.

I look through the internet every so often to see if there are any new period Indian motorcycles being shown and sure enough there was one being assembled by the Barbour Museum using new and old parts. Not a tri car but they showed a lot of the gas/oil tanks in close ups.

Amazing just what two period correct brass gas petcocks cost. Sixty dollars to my door. They are going to look great on the new oil tank I build today. I think it's #6.but then it could be #7. I'll get some photo's tomorrow.

Nobody's happy until the large fella's happy.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

Here's the 1905 Indian. The oil tanks I made were to narrow across the front but this one is I think spot on.

Steve.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=...Single&usg=AFQjCNEiZWgeIFwj3sKC_jSx-0CuoDt_UA

 

[curtisfox]

Don't feal bad now, going through about 6 skate board wheels to get one right for tension clutch spreader...........Curt

 

[fasteddy]

Be a Lot easier Curt, if we didn't insist on perfection. All I do now is laugh and press on.

Steve.

 

[curtisfox]

Ya! My problem was clearance for activator arm, hitting pulley, think i have it now. ..........Curt

 

[fasteddy]

Here are 3 photos of what the old and new tanks look like. I am going to weld a strip 1" wide and 1/2" steel thick inside the front of the front tanks so that I can drill and tap the outlet holes and screw in a 3/8"-1/4"reducer for the gas line.

The new tank on the left fits and looks much better.

Steve.

http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab228/speedydick/Indian Tri-car Build/DSC_0010_zpshhqny9hm.jpg

 

[fasteddy]

The two petcocks are ordered as well as the cloth covered ignition wires that go from the battery box to the coil and then to the spark plug.

The universal joints that are on the handle bars that operated the gas and clutch have been ordered. and as I wait for everything to arrive I'll get some aluminum cleaner and wash down the motor as well as finish up the gas and oil tanks as far as I can.

Upholstery needles for doing the Hiawatha's seat are on order as well. The weather people say we should have better than average temperatures starting soon so if it stays dry things will move ahead quickly I hope.

Steve.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Sounds like you're going all out for the old traditional look, cloth plug wires and all! Takes a lot to make a tank from scratch, kudos to you for going the extra mile!

I was recently working on my bike and found two problems. One actually is already fixed.

I noticed imperfection in square tube I welded onto my frame when I built my motor bike when I built it. The tube is for where the foot pegs attach. It has a slight lean.

Since I just finished making my adapter bracket that allows me to now use the Honda 125 dirt bike foot pegs, I noticed a forward facing photo I took shows the tilt.

Since I was using a level all the while making the adapter bracket and mounting the new foot pegs, it was corrected in the adapter brackets.

The second problem I noticed was my rear tires as I watched it with the center stand down and throttling the engine, it had a bump in it.

Looked at info on the web and it is said mostly due to bead not seated right. I looked at the side mold mark as I hand spun the tire and it did go blip (upward) at one point. Then I checked the rim and notices no dents and no blip (upward) there though.

Going to try putting the tire on again with a little dish soap diluted in water to help it inflate and get the bead all uniformly seated, so that the tire is going around without a bump.

I always check the tube size and use a lot of talc and then dust off the excess. This I hear is good for keeping folds in the tube from forming, but I don't think that is the reason, just the bead seated right.

Another of the same tire with very little wear I may just put on as it was on the front wheel that was when I was using the original fork that was a 26". With the swapping a while ago to a fork with shocks that was using 24", I now have a spare 26". I did have a blow out when I last pumped up the tire after doing some maintenance and deflated it and later re-inflated it.

It just went puff about 20 minutes afterward as it was just standing still. May be time to just throw the more used tire of the two away. But I'll check the rear wheel rim real careful.

Now for the weather, that is another story, have to wait to test it out. Should be a good test after the rain stops and puddles and mud and small stream going across trails should be good way to test out the better grip of these MC pegs.

 

[fasteddy]

Hi MT,

I'm trying to make the tri car as visible correct as possible. As I said in the beginning it will be in the spirit of a 1905 Indian. It's been a world of fun getting it to where it is with long periods of doubt that almost ended many times with it being scrapped. Thankfully the interest in the build kept me going.

Really happy to hear that you bike is going ahead even with the problems we all encounter. So much taking apart and rebuilding but when it's finished the time spent is entirely worth it.

Weather. I certainly understand about the rain. I'm glad for it but it sure does slow up a fellas plans.

Steve.

 

[fasteddy]

Interesting day today and a tad expensive. Our answer to Harbour Freight is as I've mentioned before Princess Auto. Named after the street it started on. Kind of up scale Harbour Freight. They now have a large amount of my money and I have a really good bench top drill press and a bench top disk and vertical bench sander.

Also a self igniting propane torch with an adjustable flame. Nicer than the one I bought recently which is like trying to solder with a flame thrower. Didn't look to see if the flame adjusted on that one.

A shop apron to keep the metal filings off me and to put my long suffering sister in law happy since she won't have a trail of metal filing leading from the garage through the house despite how well I brush myself off. Bought a leather welders apron so I won't reduce the few shirts I have left without burn holes in them to work clothes level. I have far more work clothes than I ever plan to work.

Tomorrow the build continues.

Steve.

 

[indian22]

Steve I bought a bench top drill press (Harbor Freight) to use at home before I started the Harley Peashooter build, and also an Ebay, $150. 110 volt, flux mig for tacking my fabricated pieces together. Money well spent and saved me countless trips running back and forth to the shop. The Harley was only in the shop one time and that was to bend a few pieces of tube and to finish weld the frame and cradle, just a couple of hours total. My "Harley" is truly home built, but without those two relatively inexpensive items I wouldn't have attempted to build it in the driveway. You can do a lot with a little...though you do need a little to accomplish much. Rick C.