16.  To all my loyal blog viewers
Been busy poor old rickman took a back seat. Had to press cagiva into action albeit with new offset yolks, r6 forks (with my own secret springing tweak), 19 inch knockon rear wheel, 19 inch spool hub front, both shod with maxis finest rubber. to cut a long story short it transformed the bike I still am not on the new limit so more to come whoopee.








  Gary Nixon genuine wheel

wheel forks yolks tyre all new

tyre cutters are brill

flat track lair

15. The clock is ticking 53 days to the first meeting !
 Better get the engine together then.

The pistons cleaned up and inspected . Then they was inserted into the bottom of the liner (the least worn part of a bore) there was  0.004in. clearance that is the recommended minimum clearance so thats all hunky dorey.








 



new piston ring being checked for end gap funnily enough all 4 compression ring were spot on but both oil rings needed a smidge removing.

 

 

 

Little trick to fit "tight" gudgeon pins into alluminium pistons. Pour boiling water onto piston they are used to much higher operating temperatures so they wont mind. This expands and enlarges the g pin bore and allows the cold (preferably fresh from the freezer) g pin to slide into position. Do not forget to place the circlip facing the center of the engine in first as its easier to put the last circlip in the uncluttered side of the piston facing out .

14. fork off (well the lugs anyway)








 
  B4


 Here we have a R6 Yamaha fork leg (you guessed it another  ebay "bargain").
As front brakes are not used
the lugs are surplus unsprung weight. I dont want to be dragging these useless lumps around a race track all year they can be discarded.

Steady in vice and hack away at the freeloaders.

Shorn of lugs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tidy up in lathe. Did you know fork sliders are oval. No i didn't either.

Obviously time to do the other one now - must dash

13. POWER TRAIN OFF THE RAILS.

With the engine central in the frame and the dula box trapped by the rear mounting plates (likewise centraly, in line astern) . The NEB clutch sprocket is inboard by 20mm (just over 3/4 inch). This is not exactly satisfactory. I fear the primary drive chain may complain about this situation and quite rigitly so. I suspect the standard norton clutch would not have this problem but i need the NEB because its the real deal for getting off the line.
 Now if i space the rear right plate outwards the 20mm offset and the gearbox moves with it we will put the powertrain back on the rails.
Over to the steelrack to find some nice aluminium then a casual stroll to my mate Mr Myford.  This is the sort of jobs lathes were invented for. 20 minutes to drill and part off all the spacers is what it takes. Lathes, every home should have one.

Spot on! its amazing what a few spacers will do.
















12. FRAME SHENANIGANS.



The engine could wait for a while i have to check if i can get an engine in. I saw a Dula 2 speed gearbox for sale and rang up SPEEDWAY SERVICES for a bit of advice. "its a modified amc gearbox they used to race big weslake sidecar motorcross using them, pretty indestructable realy" came the reply. That is what i wanted to hear, box bought. 2 speeds is not a disadvantage in flat track racing, at Buxton the shortest track we used last year i used 2nd all day. At all other tracks i shortshifted up into 3rd before turn 1 and it stays there until the flag (or i fall off) so if geared right  2 speed will do nicely . The engine plates arrived from WASP and i went for a trial fit.


she fits with a bit of fettling. By the look of the barrel studs the engine should slope forward. just the way i like it

old suspect cases used as a dummy

clutch actuating arm fouls engine an easy fix

Note Dula gearbox . The bulbous right kickstart casing is gone along with the kickstart and mechanism and a fair bit of exess weight. Gear lever is directly attached to gearchange so its direct no slogger, no slop, just sweet.

With the engine central in the frame the undrilled front mounts could be drilled. 

 

Marked in situ then removed and drilled on milling machine just
 measure gaps and turn up nice alloy spacers to keep motor middle for diddle.

11. Don and Dericks frame up.



Two brothers going by the surname of Rickman were having considerable success scrambler racing. During the winter of 1958/9 they designed and manufactured a new frame to race and the rest as they say is history. The frame has been produced ever since by several different chassis constructors. This is not a flat track frame it has a lazy steering head angle (27 deg) being made for jumps it is well built and strong but  that makes it a bit on the heavy side we are talking dress size 12UK not clinicaly obese.
One builder of the frame kit is WASP MOTORCYCLES they build to all original specifications only in the finest 4130 chrome molytubing. The tubing is brazed together as in the old days oddly this is still the optimum technique after all the years of manufacture. Then the whole frame is bright nickle coated. As you may have guessed this is going to be my frame of choice. Ebay turns up almost anything sooner or later.

Known as the" Mettise" (French for female mongrel) Surely "magnifique" would be more appropriate.

 

May i introduce the Rickman Wasp chassis. This item of aesthetic beauty was advertised as a Matchless G80 frame but i reckoned one old British engine is roughly the same size as another so i should be able to squeeze a Triumph in somehow.  I bit the bullet and here we are. She has never had an engine in her. I rang the very helpful man at Wasp motorcycles with the frame number and he confirmed it was a G80 frame they made in 2006. I enquired if they did Triumph preunit  engine plates this they said they did but two things to note.

1. the mounting plates are only available for amc gearboxes

2. the Triumph and Matchless frame downtubes are subtly different so they would not be a bolt in fit .Between us we decided if they left the front plate frame mount holes undrilled i would take care of any discrepancy.

 

 

 

 

10. Dave Nourish to the rescue.


With regard to the flywheel and the" hairy" camlobe competing for the same bit of space at the same time. Who do i know thats been here before ? Dave Nourish the supplier of the cams, manufacturer of Weslake race engines and guru of triumph/weslake race engines. Daves advice "You need about 0.015 inch (fifteen thou) clearance to take acount of crank whip at high revs. Just turn it off the flywheel outer". So cases apart and rods off. Stroll over to my favourite colchester lathe. Bung it in the 3 jaw chuck. Stick a revolving center up its oilfeed bore. Bang a dial test indicator on flywheel. Yup running true. Touch 45 deg tool on put 0.020 (twenty thou) cut on for good measure and feed it in. Approx 40 seconds later clearance problems gone. Cam and flywheel will no longer be bound in an intemate relationship and just be close neighbours independantly going about their own business. How civil .

No point in asking an experts advice if you dont act on it.