Thank you. I have a murry frame that I’d like to do someday as a five speed
MBBO BAD INFLUENCE!
- Thread starter Pondo
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I took a little trip down to @CRASH 's muscle bike restoration emporium today to pick up some parts. We did a little surgery on the Dragster while I was there. First up was to use his cool frame spreading tool to open up the rear triangle to fit the 5 speed hub. It was just a little too narrow.
A little shove here, a tweak there and it's now a good fit.
A little shove here, a tweak there and it's now a good fit.
Next up was to repair the bent dropout
Then align the dropouts
And fit the Huret derailleur
Much quicker at Crash's shop than I would have been able to do at home. I think it took all of 20 minutes. Thanks Crash!
Then align the dropouts
And fit the Huret derailleur
Much quicker at Crash's shop than I would have been able to do at home. I think it took all of 20 minutes. Thanks Crash!
I also picked up another project while I was there. It's a complete and really nice Murray Astro-Flight that Crash had started to restore years ago and lost interest in it. It's a fantastic project and I can't wait to dig in. But it's a big project and I won't have time for it for this build off. Maybe next year if we do step-thru again or for the main build off.
And when I got home these were waiting in the mailbox for a pedal project I'm going to do that may wind up on the Dragster
And when I got home these were waiting in the mailbox for a pedal project I'm going to do that may wind up on the Dragster
If you want to thank me, crop out my flip-flop feet.
Seeing your pictures makes me realize how much of a mess I work in. After the MBBO I’m not going to take any more clients and clean up!
MattiThundrrr
Rattus All Terrainus
Me too
Parts have been rolling in. There are some good options now.
I bought this really cool NOS slick from Crash. It’s a really neat tire but very grungy from sitting around in shops and storage for the last 50 or so years. Broke out the Westley’s, an old tooth brush and some rags and an hour or so later had a very presentable tire. It is a “Groove Tread”, it reminds me of the old cheater slicks they made for street racers back in the day that had just a couple of grooves to make them street ‘legal’.
The Westley’s worked so well on the tire that I tried it on a pedal. I just did the block on the right for comparison. The results are less impressive but it’s still pretty clean.
The Westley’s worked so well on the tire that I tried it on a pedal. I just did the block on the right for comparison. The results are less impressive but it’s still pretty clean.
I also picked up this drag fork kit project. The legs aren’t exactly the same so I’m going to try to tweak them into shape. My dad is a retired (emphasis on retired, he’s kind of over it after 35 years) welder/fabricator and has a tubing bender so hopefully this is doable.
I just had to do a quick mock-up to get a visual. Not so easy with the fork pieces all loose. But, man, this thing is going to have a stance! Just noticed in this next pic, the shop inspector is totally unimpressed.
I just had to do a quick mock-up to get a visual. Not so easy with the fork pieces all loose. But, man, this thing is going to have a stance! Just noticed in this next pic, the shop inspector is totally unimpressed.
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Once you have the fork legs with the same bend…
The farther up you pull those legs up through the base plate, the more horizontal you’ll get the bottom of the legs to the ground. I suggest installing the rear wheel with tire, and bolt on the front wheel with tire to achieve the look you want, using the front wheel, you can tweak it to ensure it’s straight. Fully install the headset with the base plate and the top plate and the lock nut to get it all together. Use the front wheel, and the top plate aligned to the bottom plate to get the forks in just the right position. Once it’s there, hold the legs tight and tack it to the base plate. The forks may have slightly different lengths at the top. That’s ok. What’s important is wheel alignment in both the roll and yaw axis while having the top and bottom plate even with each other. You can always grind the top of a tube to match the other… which you’ll probably have to do.
Hope that makes sense
The farther up you pull those legs up through the base plate, the more horizontal you’ll get the bottom of the legs to the ground. I suggest installing the rear wheel with tire, and bolt on the front wheel with tire to achieve the look you want, using the front wheel, you can tweak it to ensure it’s straight. Fully install the headset with the base plate and the top plate and the lock nut to get it all together. Use the front wheel, and the top plate aligned to the bottom plate to get the forks in just the right position. Once it’s there, hold the legs tight and tack it to the base plate. The forks may have slightly different lengths at the top. That’s ok. What’s important is wheel alignment in both the roll and yaw axis while having the top and bottom plate even with each other. You can always grind the top of a tube to match the other… which you’ll probably have to do.
Hope that makes sense
What pedals are you using. I’m thinking of doing this on my Barbie build
Yep, that all makes perfect sense, thanks for the detailed info. I'll take all that stuff when I go visit my dad and we can get it all tacked up and I'll finish weld it at home with my good welder. I'm going to weld in a brace to mount the brake and fender to as well. But I'll work on that after.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/394893668890
Crash goes through how he does them in his Midnight Flash build, post 57
https://ratrodbikes.com/threads/midnight-flash.119743/page-3#post-1280831
16mm dice, spacers are about 1/8"
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I used these in my last build. Nice that they come apart. I subbed out vintage white pads for what it came with. Gonna look fantastic!
I was able to get some work done on the forks today. You can see the legs don’t match.
We used my dad’s bender and expertise. You gotta love the homemade die made out of pressure treated lumber.
It took a fair amount tweaking but we were able to get them pretty darn good.
At this point I thought we were done but Dad rigged up a little jig so we could see the relationship of the fork legs to the dropouts better. It was off just a tad so we tweaked it some more. We did all of the adjustments on the mild steel leg using the stainless leg as the model. Now the long and short sections are parallel to each other in relation to the dropouts.
The radiuses aren’t perfect but the difference will be barely noticeable. I’m very happy with the results. Hopefully I can get these forks welded together without botching it up too bad.
We used my dad’s bender and expertise. You gotta love the homemade die made out of pressure treated lumber.
It took a fair amount tweaking but we were able to get them pretty darn good.
At this point I thought we were done but Dad rigged up a little jig so we could see the relationship of the fork legs to the dropouts better. It was off just a tad so we tweaked it some more. We did all of the adjustments on the mild steel leg using the stainless leg as the model. Now the long and short sections are parallel to each other in relation to the dropouts.
The radiuses aren’t perfect but the difference will be barely noticeable. I’m very happy with the results. Hopefully I can get these forks welded together without botching it up too bad.
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