New Old guy - England

[Beachcomber]

First my thanx to Hoosier-Daddy over on the DTT forum for pointing me in this direction.

I've been into bikes as a hobby and business for the past 55 years. Recently sold up my replica Sports car business and now have time to play with my real hobby - bikes.

I only became turned on to the Boardtracker style 2 years ago, and ever since have been collecting parts for a build. I'm still building other bikes - my 1960's Brit Bike inspired Cafe Racer [ Yamaha TR1 based ] and a BMW K100 Streetfighter.

As I had accumulated a couple of spare TR1s [ XV 1000 ] that seemed a reasonable powerplant / donor for a Boardrtracker inspired build.

I'm looking forward to getting some ideas and inspiration from this forum.

 

[Ludwig II]

Welcome from B37. Dougy's up in Southport and has been through SVA to register, I've gathered mucho info as well, and am slowly collecting bits for my own build.

Will you be going rigid with the boardie, and will you buy and modify a chop frame or make your own?

 

[Beachcomber]

Welcome from B37. Dougy's up in Southport and has been through SVA to register, I've gathered mucho info as well, and am slowly collecting bits for my own build.

Will you be going rigid with the boardie, and will you buy and modify a chop frame or make your own?

Thanx for the welcome Ludwig.

I'll be posting up on a build thread soon, but essentially my Boardie will be built to be ridden. Thus - rigid rear - suspended front.

I'm hoping to gain inspiration / help on this forum. I have accumulated most of the parts I need for the build, but am as yet undecided about the front braking - small drum for looks - or disc/s for self preservation !

I have a firm idea about the style of the frame, but due to tight funding I will have to contemplate a self build. In any case, nobody outside the US currently makes this style of frame - and $1800 + shipping is out of the question for something that would have to be modified anyway for my power plant.

I have another plan on the boil using a smaller powerplant [ v twin ], but thst will have to wait until my BMW Streetfighter and TR1 60's style Cafe Racer are finished !

 

[Ludwig II]

You could always put a pair of big skinny sls drums on it, as they'd be "old looking"? Or what about putting a hydraulic motor/pump in the hub and throttling the flow from it? Is it practical?

 

[Beachcomber]

You could always put a pair of big skinny sls drums on it, as they'd be "old looking"? Or what about putting a hydraulic motor/pump in the hub and throttling the flow from it? Is it practical?

Ludwig,

there are several constraints on my builds / projects.

1. Being built from Government Pocket Money - ie OAP
2. Lack of facilities - lock up garage with [ currently ] no power and only recently a leak free roof !
3. Lack of practical skills - welding, turning, machining etc and also lack of any pals with such skills / facilities !

So, in general it has to be what I can find / alter to suit my needs. Yes, leads to compromise, but it WILL get built.

 

[Ludwig II]

Yeomans isn't far from you. I don't know what they have lying about, but it's a reasonable place to start. http://yeomansmotorcycles.com/spares.htm

Also, over outside Malvern is Paul Harker. He has a lot of odd and sometimes rare bikes about (he actually had a bunch of pre flying torch MZs in a few years back). I don't have a number for him.

There's this page here: http://motorbicycling.com/forumdisplay.php?f=38 and that page there for more info: http://www.motoredbikes.com/forumdisplay.php?94-Heritage-Lane

The garage, make it as secure as you can, once you start fettling in it, people will get nosy and then you have to worry about thieving gits. I have an up and over door, and 2 padlock tabs of my own going through it from mounts screwed to the frame as well as the mickey mouse standard lock. Power, see what you can get in the generator line, more watts the better, so you can practice with an Aldi cheap stick welder.

Get yourself over to Dudley on Wednesday, see what's what, get on the email list with them: http://www.astonsauctioneers.co.uk/west_midlands_police_auction_catalogue.html

Hope this has been some help.

 

[Beachcomber]

That's what I love about forums - 30 minutes and already I have a wealth of info. - thanx Ludwig.

BTW - here's the 1920's La Francais Diamant tank.

Additional holes for oil filler cap and oil pump - which I now have courtesy of E-Bay £4.50 !!!!

I've also collected some pre-war 2 gallon petrol cans, initially for the brass screw caps, but I'm using one [ cut down ] to hide the battery and all the electrics - fuses, ecu, etc.

Fortunately my garage is in a secure private road at the back of our houses - just about close enough to run an extension lead. garage is also up and over door, and again like yours with additional hasps / staples and padlocks. Fortunately we are in a very low crime area - and we are not blighted with burglaries and the like. However, owning a GBFO Doberman does help.

 

[Ludwig II]

That's beautiful Do you do autojumbles like Newark etc? There's a huge amount of stuff. A lot of tat, but also some real bargains, you can pick up almost anything you want. I even found a 19mm downdraught Amal, nobody has any idea what it came off, but the style is post 1945.

 

[Beachcomber]

I tend to be an E-Bay trawler - saves petrol !

As well as the UK I subscribe to the German and French E-Bays.

I normally go to the Classic Bike shows at Stafford, but some of the prices there for parts is getting ridiculous. Bikes there have been ridiculous prices for the past 10 years or so !

I'm going with 2 x 1 1/2" SU's on the Cafe Creme project. Had a brief flirtation with suck through Turbo - but it didn't look "right". Still an outside possibility if I can figure out a good packaging. At least with the SU's you can get virtually all the parts new - as you can with Amal !

 

[Ludwig II]

It just occurred to me that if you want a vintage style seat at a reasonable price, you could get a Ural pan seat from MPC or F2 and recover it in brown leather, or get a saddlery to do it.

 

[fasteddy]

Welcome to the forum Beachcomber. I'm on the west coast of Canada and I really understand the constraints of a government funded build. I'm working out of my O.A.P. as well.
For the U.S. members, Old Age Pension is our name for Social Security. They seem to like to stick it in our faces that we are old. As if we need reminding.

Start a build thread and post the build as you go along. You will have a bunch of eager followers.

Steve.

 

[Beachcomber]

Welcome to the forum Beachcomber. I'm on the west coast of Canada and I really understand the constraints of a government funded build. I'm working out of my O.A.P. as well.
For the U.S. members, Old Age Pension is our name for Social Security. They seem to like to stick it in our faces that we are old. As if we need reminding.

Start a build thread and post the build as you go along. You will have a bunch of eager followers.

Steve.

Thanx for tha Steve - yea only so much you can do with £80.00 per week ! Good job Mrs. B is still working and bringing the bacon home - she IS 15 years younger, just in case anyone thinks I'm a slave driver !

 

[Ludwig II]

We're on Pension Credit. Unbless she's earning something decent, you may well be entitled to more than you're getting. Have you checked it out?

 

[Beachcomber]

We're on Pension Credit. Unbless she's earning something decent, you may well be entitled to more than you're getting. Have you checked it out?

Ludwig tried that 5 years ago - we're still RE-PAYING the alleged "overpayments" at £5 / week !

They were the ones that worked out the payments based on wage slips and etc. - then obviously got it wrong - paid us something like £2000 in the year, and we're repaying £3,200 ?????????????????

You have no redress - as if you refuse to pay, they simply stop it at source from wages.

I now rely totally on good old E-Bay. My last TR1 donor was bought for £400, sold off all the squitter for £750 - ergo £350 toward my project and a free donor.