Cobrafreak's board track racer project, has ended

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Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

For Thanksgiving I, My Wife, and My Son went to the Turkey Day Ride in Sacramento CA. It was a blast! So many great custom and retro rat rod bikes that it took hours just to look at them all. In the middle of the event there was a ride around Sac Town about 4 miles long or so I guess. At one point I got ahead of my Family and waited by a light pole for them to catch up and my Son snapped this picture, that looks really cool. I was bending over to check on something.

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Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

OMG! I never win an Ebay bid, but I won this one! A 100 year old "Old Sol" brand Carbine Motorcycle headlamp, fully intact. This is going to look sweet on the bike!
OldSolheadlight.jpg
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

BAD ... light! Awesome score!
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

That will look perfect on your bike.. :D
A option is to run in on carbide instead, i got one in a thrift shop and just cut new gasket for it out of some thick rubber and it worked great.. mIght not be enough light for night time riding in traffic though..
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

K-dregg said:
That will look perfect on your bike.. :D
A option is to run in on carbide instead, i got one in a thrift shop and just cut new gasket for it out of some thick rubber and it worked great.. mIght not be enough light for night time riding in traffic though..
Click to expand...
I thought about this long and hard and thought because of my fuel cap tank vent being within 10" or so from an open flame it would not be a safe idea. If I tipped the bike over with the light on it would be a disaster waiting to happen. BOOM!!! :( I think this is one occasion where modernization is a good thing.
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

Don´t tell me you´re planing to turn a 100 years old lamp into led?
If I were you I would place one of those mini led flash light inside without modifying the hundred year old one.
Mini_LED_flashlight.jpg
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

(chanting) CUT IT UP, CUT IT UP, CUT IT UP, CUT IT UP.

I had some people get upset at me for cutting up the Excelsior. But it's mine.

IMO, it's OK if you modify something old, as long as it ends up being something cool that you can use.
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

Trust me, I don't take modifying a legitimate antique piece of americana lightly. I will do great care to not haphazardly chop it up. If at all possible I will do modifications that will allow it to revert back to it's former glory. If a small hole needs to be made here and there so be it, but I know the holes can easily be brazed shut and undetectable. But the open flame is totally out. No way I'm rolling with a bomb between my legs. Also if one uses carbide the used up waste that is left over is very hazardous to animals and humans for 3 days after use. Caustic Lime. Very poisonous. After three days it chemically changes to become inert and you can dump it in your garden. Still, too much to deal with. It will be hooked up to the Sturmey Archer Dynamo Hub for power.
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

New light! My Ebay ancient carbide motorcycle headlamp came today and I made a bracket and put it on. Lots of patina! It has small dents and places where the nickel has corroded showing brass. The Rubber seals were stone hard. It would need to be rebuild to run on carbide, but since I'm not running carbide it is great. I did not need to make any holes to run wires as there are holes everywhere for the venting of gasses, so I did not do any permanent modifications. Currently running on hub dynamo power. I may upgrade to LED and capacitor so there is light a couple of minutes after stopping, but it is alright for now. But it looks very very old school now!
light2.jpg


light.jpg


light3.jpg
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

Light is looking great!
Just for the record, I have no problem chopping of antiques,
but I thought this one deserved to look "original" to keep the look intended.
One thing I think could help, is replacing all plastic parts and pieces you currently have,
just to accentuate the old school look.
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

Gdcast said:
Light is looking great!
Just for the record, I have no problem chopping of antiques,
but I thought this one deserved to look "original" to keep the look intended.
One thing I think could help, is replacing all plastic parts and pieces you currently have,
just to accentuate the old school look.
Click to expand...
I believe that if something has survived for a century in some forgotten barn somewhere that it deserves to stay as intact as possible. It is only going to stay original only once. I hope you were not offended in any way. I agree with you about the plastic, which is why the headlight came into the picture, to replace the largest plastic on the bike, the temporary headlight I had before. Only the tail light, valve stem caps, bar grip caps, and clutch lever ball remain plastic. Do you think wood or brass would be better as a clutch knob?
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

Me offended? Not at all!!! It takes a lot to offend me!! :wink:
Besides, this site is called RAT ROD BIKES I love to chop and cut stuff! But I also respect the value, and not talking about money here, of such a beautiful piece.
I also believe you are a very talented guy, and in reference to the clutch knob, and considering this bike is a racer, I would incline my self for a wooden knob, you wont have any trouble building one. But that´s just my two cents.
This bike gets more awesome day by day.
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

Hey there.
Awsome project.
I've had a bad experience with wooden knobs. With me the tend to crack, specially if you have it threaded and screwed to the shifter rod.
In this case I would try to insert a nut in the knob and then screw it on the rod.
Keep rollin'
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

stocksucks said:
Hey there.
Awsome project.
I've had a bad experience with wooden knobs. With me the tend to crack, specially if you have it threaded and screwed to the shifter rod.
In this case I would try to insert a nut in the knob and then screw it on the rod.
Keep rollin'
Click to expand...
Now that you mention it I need to remember that this bike is outdoors a lot and wood just doesn't wear very well in the elements. As far as I know they had Bakelight which was sort of like plastic, metal, and rubber for knob material in addition to wood. Maybe I need to reconsider.
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

There's an australian Kustom and hot rod magazine called "Chopped" that has an article about making knobs out of resin with a cast. I've got all of the issues, so if you'd like I could scan it for you. Maybe it's a good idea. You can also google it and see what you find.
Keep rollin'
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

The plain black knob on the shifter looks about right to me. Although the ones I'm remembering weren't quite as old as what you're modeling after, I recall the stock ones being pretty much the same slightly pancaked round Bakelite knobs you would find on an old walk-behind mower or rototiller.
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

Hi everyone. It's been a while. Busy with Christmas. Merry Christmas to one and all! I did my LED conversion of my antique motorcycle headlamp and took a picture of the front and rear for posterity. Check out my cool retro helmet and goggles. I am assembling a vintage wardrobe so I can look period when I ride in the local 4th of July parade. That should be fun.

LED_1.jpg


LED2.jpg


The bulbs are standard LED replacements for regular auto turn signal lamps that you can get at any auto part store. I had a few extra laying around and soldered some leads to them and hard wired them in. These bulbs are designed for a 12v auto system, but they work great running on my 6v 3w Sturmey-Archer dynamo front hub brake. They are more bright connected to a 12v system but they are adequate on 6v. There is a flicker of the lights at low speeds. I investigated and found out that the LED's are so fantastically quick to power on that they are as equally as quick to power off, and the front hub has a couple of dozen or so electric poles, so the slower you go, the more noticeable the flicker. The fix is to either run a battery or a smoothing capacitor between the + and - just before the bulb. The battery would supply constant power so the lamp is constantly getting power, and the capacitor would store just enough power to keep the LED powered till the next pole can generate power. I will get to this after the holidays. I am getting an irritating "buzzing" vibration from the engine. I did not notice this before. I had recently fixed my front two engine mounting bolts as the old ones were always vibrating loose, and as a result the engine vibrates at a certain section of RPM's. I am going to attempt to rubber mount the engine to the frame mounts using some strips of thin rubber from the hardware store to isolate the engine from the frame. This is just for comfort. I know that British twins are notorious for engine vibration and the last year of Norton, 1975, they fixed the problem with big rubber "O" rings. If it worked for them, it will work for me.
 
Re: Cobrafreak's board track racer project now COMPLETED!!!

Another way to ger rid of the engine "buzz" is to use a smaller sized rear sprocket.. A lot of the vibrations comes from the engine working at a high rpm.. Mine felt like it was trying to shake it self loose at wot before i switched to a 40 tooth..
 

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