What prevented you from working on your bikes today

[Greybeard]

Anyway, once I'd got the unit separated, I went to feel really crap again so went to bed

yep take it easy, it's not as if you're going anywhere any time soon, I'm finishing the new shed, a very little at a time, getting correct size timber is a problem, can't just pop out and get a bit and my 50% Scots blood doesn't like sawing up big bits to get small bits, however needs must

We had some solid doors waiting to go to the tip. I needed some 1" square lengths of wood. I clamped one of the doors to a couple of Workmates and ripped off plenty of pieces. Recycling.

[Swarfcut]

GB, When I moved to our new house, the renovation resulted in a big pile of structural timbers that the builders were simply going to dump.
 Thanks to the Chinese Economy and eBay, the trinity of table saw, mitre saw and planer came on the cheap, and the first thing I built was a woodstore.  Haven't bought wood for years.

 The small bench top planer is a miracle machine, converting rough skanky wood into lumber yard fresh looking custom sized pieces. The compound mitre saw saves hours of hassle, transforming my limited skills into almost professional ones.

 Now taking more than a passing interest in pallet wood as a source. This is usually very good quality straight grained material, too good to burn, and more often folks are happy just to get it taken away. EuroPallets have some value and are more substantial, less easy to come by for free, but other types are considered a disposable logistic aid and readily discarded. Ideal for homespun construction.

 Nice stove for your summerhouse,  I'm a bit jealous.


 Bill.. You could justify similar purchases in that you would be saving money,* and have the scope for yet more sheds. Works for me!

 Swarfy.


* Defies all logic.  Mr Spock

[Black Sheep]

Wife needed something rodent proof for all her gardening stuff so had to be a metal shed with a concrete base. Just got to insulate and line it next.

[Greybeard]

Wife needed something rodent proof for all her gardening stuff so had to be a metal shed with a concrete base. Just got to insulate and line it next.

I bought a small metal shed for our garden. WEAR GLOVES!!!! 

[Swarfcut]

  Black Sheep I've got one of those metal sheds.

 As GB says.....Gloves are a must. Other things learnt the hard way.......

 My doors slide open inside the front panels, so when it rains water runs down the doors, which are on the inside of the threshold, into the open ended door bottom guide channel. There is nowhere for this water to go except into the concrete floor. Masterpiece of crap design!

 In winter, it suffered from shower style condensation on the underside of the roof. Research showed this was moisture coming through the floor. Mine's just on slabs. Cured with a membrane, topped with a strandboard floor. Hope you put a membrane in your floor structure. Otherwise its a membrane and another concrete skim onto the existing floor.

  Overlap the roof panels so the overlaps face away from the prevailing wind, regardless of the instructions, and put a bead of flexible mastic on the roof panel joins as you go. Rectification is awkward as the roof won't hold you without additional elaborate support. Even after light rain I ended up with drips from the joins on some of the roof panels. It was quicker to strip the roof than struggle. A fillet of mastic cured it, but I never saw anywhere that water could get in, so a mystery.

 I also sealed the roof panel ridge joins, using a horrid greasy mastic waterproofing tape of yesteryear called Sylglas that worked a treat but I left a vent hole on each of the raised ribs. These are  covered by the ridge capping.

 Otherwise, like me, you'll wonder how you managed without it. Crude and simple, great for storage, but not as homely as a wooden shed.

 Swarfy.

[beezermacc]

An imposter has arrived in the workshop! I bought this pretty little thing off a local guy who had crashed it  ! Bent forks, dented front mudguard, twisted seat needed attention. I found some stanchions off a very helpful Enfield enthusiast down south, I adapted a new Tiger Cub seat and gently eased the dent out of the mudguard. A couple of interesting problems were encountered along the way. The bottom yoke didn't match the top yoke - centres were about 5mm further apart and the fron number plate had been mounted on the wrong end of the mudguard! No wonder it all sprang apart when I was dismantling it! I removed tyhe number plate and filled the holes with shallow stainless bolts with the heads almost completely turned off and I daren't say how I fixed the bottom yoke but a hacksaw and arc welder were involved.
My RGS rebuild is probably going to take 18 months so I need a little bit of a distraction every now and then!

[olev]

You have done a nice job on that Beezermacc.
I love the smell of 2 stroke in the morning.
Two strokes always seem to be primeval.
They are noisy and they stink - bit like me.
cheers

[Black Sheep]

The Turbo Twin is in my view the best 250 Enfield. I was very proud of my Crusader Sports as a youth but a decent ride on a Turbo Twin made me realise that there was a lot to be said for 2 strokes after all. It was a better bike that my Crusader.

[beezermacc]

I had a Crusader Sports as well, my first bike on the road which I kept until I passed my test then I had an A50. Actually I loved my Crusader Sports as it blew away all the other British 250 singles of the day! It was incredibly reliable. A mate of mine had a Turbo Twin but I never got to ride it so I couldn't make a comparison. I think the Villiers 2T and 4T were very underrated in terms of performance but I'm not sure how well they stood the test of time. You only needed to get the oil mix wrong once to wreck the engine, obviously not the fault of the bike, but vulnerable in the wrong hands, and us kids knew how to wreck a bike! My Crusader Sports was incredibly reliable, looking back it took some serious abuse and never punished me for it!

[Ted_Flash]

I had a Turbo Twin in the early 80's.  It had been made into a cafe racer with a long fibreglass tank.  Very smooth - I remember once looking down at the engine when it was doing 50mph wondering if it was still running.  The only problem was starting it with the energy transfer ignition.  I lived on the outskirts of Sheffield so it was downhill all the way into work.  I must have bumped started it as many times as I used the kickstart.

[Greybeard]

I had a Greeves Fleetwing with a 4T engine for a while. It was a lovely bike.

[muskrat]

G'day Fellas.
Get well soon Wortluck, keep that positive attitude.
Just spent a week up at the "new" house. Getting things done on the inside to the wife's specifications before I even think about the shed! I lied, I re-used the carpet out of the house and lay'd it wall to wall in the shed (that took a day). Can't have the bike tyres getting cold!
Think I'll go shopping on the A7 tomorrow.
Cheers

[morris]

Yep, the  MOT exemption for cars over 25 year old officially ended in Belgium. 
Cars over 50 years old  need to have an MOT every 5 years now so preparing the Morris Isis for it's first MOT in 30 years... last time I needed to go to MOT was when I bought it. At that time it was just a simple "a see if it stops within reasonable distance" check.
Did the front suspension a couple of years ago and attacked the rear suspension now.
After cleaning it came out surprisingly well, except for the obvious worn dampers and perished rubber bushes.
I had ordered new bushes and dampers a couple of years ago together with a new handbrake cable.
Problem is that I just found out the handbrake cable is for a right hand driven car ... I bought the cable in the UK, and neither I or the vendor thought of the fact that my Morris is left hand driven which needs a different cable. 
It's a sort of two in one cable, but the two cable ends are of different length and it's not a simple matter of turning it around.
The cable connects to a bracket on the right side of the rear axle where it splits out to the wheels. It's a simple bracket though so I'll make a new one and weld it to the left side of the axle then... should work.

[Swarfcut]

  Morris,   Is that a single piston cylinder? If it is the cylinder body needs to slide in the backplate, otherwise you are only braking on one shoe. It relies on Newton's Third Law of Motion, and disregards the effect of seizure in the real world.
    Learnt that the hard way on an early Ford Escort Van. One shoe worn out, other almost untouched. Took some shifting, but transformed the braking performance.

 Apologies if you are familiar with this, but the design is so old, younger viewers won't believe such a (penny pinching) device was in common use.

 Swarfy.

 Additional... The Morris Oxford/Isis is still in use in India, as the Hindustan Ambassador.  Fancy a handbrake cable off the shelf from over there?

[morris]

Yes it's a one piston sliding cylinder on the rear.
The handbrake cable pulls a lever that moves the complete cylinder upwards. Pulling the dustcap back and a little squirt of penetrating oil from time to time keeps them moving.
The front brakes however have double pistons.
For it's simplicity, and the fact that it's a heavy car,  the brakes work surprisingly well. Pushing the pedal hard enough locks the wheels!