Enfield Tracker: War Pig Rennaissance

AgentX said:

Hey, so you think it's cool left bare alloy? I go back and forth on it. In the end, it's a minor detail compared to having a working bike, so it's not a big question for me right now...and I kind of like highlighting the fact that it's all handmade.

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Bare alloy, no question. It's a work of art.

It picks up small amounts of bright work on the bike, like the muffler.

AgentX said:

'I wish we could do this all the time and never stop.'

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I wonder how many times I've said that about bikes. So cool that your daughter is into it, as is mine.

I keep forgetting to mention that I like your A-ha avatar.

Thanks! (And now I will have Take on Me stuck in my head during the 2-hour meeting I am about to endure.)

Glad to hear your little one is in the fold, too.

In other news, I got the new tach hooked up on test leads last night, but couldn't get it to read RPMs at all unless I had the unit set for negative pulses but I ran the lead to the positive terminal on the coil. Inaccurate and inconsistent, but the needle moved...otherwise, it was stone-dead.

Waiting for some word from Koso tech support. Really like the look and the build of the unit, for sure.

I also had my decompressor cable shed its ball end. So much for my quality home-built awesome superbad custom cablework.

Did you create the ball end of the cable? I've heard of riders doing that with JB weld with good success.

My little one is no longer little. She is adult sized and 17, and now thinking about a bike of her own.

No, I dip-soldered it after slipping it over the cable, fraying the end, and applying some rubyfluid flux...


Yesterday, the tach company said they'd send a signal filter to get the unit working properly. I have some diodes sitting around which I believe will accomplish the same thing, but was attempting to test the setup when my daughter appeared, and predictably asked to go for a ride before her morning playdate.

Every ride, I swear I spend 3 hours fixing whatever I broke in the ten minutes I was out. I meandered down a dirt path with the kiddo on the tank...a few minutes later, I'm showing her what it's like to go a little faster over the rough stuff, when I catch the primary on a rock, punching a hole in the outer case and busting the linkage rod for the rear brake. Nothing horrible...not much of a bump, even.

Thankfully I had another rod setup I could put in place, with an articulated in-line connector I'd originally planned on using. Think it'll work better than it had been.

As for the hole in the primary case, #1, I'm super-glad I run a dry primary now. #2, I don't think of it so much as a jagged hole, but a chance to add that forward drainage and ventilation I'd planned on...lemons, lemonade, etc.

Thinking of lemons and lemonade made me think of this all morning, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeiSx5MNDvg


The fight continues.

As it was, in better light than the carport provides.







Today I managed to install the new tach, which reads the correct revs count, mounts up neater, and eliminates the massive triple pigtail of sorta-weather-sealed wire that supported the dual bulb setup.

That is such a cool bike; I'd love to find one in my area.

I've been thinking about the heat paint issue we were discussing before. I know of cheap brush-on heat paint; would you benefit from that? Perhaps I could mail a half-pint to you.

That Amy Schumer vid had Mrs. Weldangrind and I laughing out loud.

Thanks, man. A few issues regarding the paint; PM'd you.

If you're serious about looking for an Enfield, 1) you must be a masochist 2) you can check out www.royalenfields.com, where they have an automated round-up of Enfields for sale across the web. (The ultra-geeky fanboy blog aside.)

Problem is that so many people buy them, barely ride them and/or don't mesh well with the "personality" of the bike, and try to re-sell them thinking they're made of vintage steampunk solid fucking gold. $4000 for a mid-2000s model? Eat my shorts. Worst are those who "cafe racer" them with some overpriced bolt on bits (although certainly not rearsets, and probably not clubmans, because they're uncomfortable, and certainly not clip-ons because there's the casquette to deal with...just some shiny bodywork and the slow plodding stock engine) and try to sell for $6000. The Ace Engineering discussion board on Yahoo is an interesting place if you're interested in these.

Amy Schumer is my new favorite.

PM received and responded to.

I'm well aquainted with masochism. I own (and love) several Chinese bikes and atv's.

I checked out the RE site, but it seems to be more US-centric. Prices are notoriously higher in Canada, so if I find one that I can get by my CFO, it'll likely be a basket case. At least it'll be consistent with all of my other bikes.

I have a friend from India who thinks he can help me find one for cheap, and I may go that route. I'd like to grab a 350 for plodding around, because insurance (in my Province) nearly doubles after the 400cc mark.

You could get a 350 in India very cheaply...but to export to the US, I had to find one over 25 years old to qualify as a classic, which put a premium on it. $1000 for a 1977 ex-military, non-running. Kinda crazy. A friend got a 2002, completely "restored" (hah, right...it's India and it was a hunk of shit...) for less than that, I recall.

I found this on Vancouver Island: http://victoria.craigslist.ca/mcy/4984104094.html

$2800 seems a tad much, but if they're not readily available where you are (and 350s are rare in the US; dunno about Canada...due to your laws the lower-displacement model may have been more popular) it might just be the cost of doing business. Finding one for $1500-2k elsewhere and shipping it in for $700 might not really be a comparative bargain compared to something you can just go inspect and drive away with if it checks out.

You might be able to do cheaper with something from India, but you're really rolling the dice on that prospect, both cost- and product-wise. What happens to Indian machines over time is abominable. Cylinder clearances are set using the mechanic's thumbnail, and wires are twisted together then just electical-taped over. And you're also hedging your bet against the potential issues importing and registering it. In the end, I doubt you'd save a huge amount.

If my buddy goes back to India to visit his family, I trust that he'd find me a good example. He seems to know ways around shipping costs, and I'm sure I could register it once it landed. I'll keep that in mind.

Decompressor threads in the head stripped out. I think I have tracked down the source of the problem which led to this (besides the unholy marriage of Indian metallurgy with British 1950s engineering) but now need to remove the head and get the threads repaired with an insert. Thought I would send to the US but may have a local line on someone I trust to do the work.

I would try to do it with the head on the bike, but I know for sure that aluminum shavings have dropped into the chamber anyhow.

Edit: got some advice from a rather revered Enfield guy on doing the repair in situ and clearing out shavings w compressed air. May be able to do the job at the local Toyota dealer, after all. Their chief maintenance guy is French so I should be able to work OK with them...

well damn.

Can you find inserts locally without much trouble?

I think the local shops can do it. Cross-threaded spark plugs must be prrrrretttty common 'round here. Local co-worker tells me it's no problem. We'll see. Hope to get the bike to the Toyota guy tomorrow.

Edit: Decomp threads are the same as the spark plug, which is nice.

Annnnd, nope. Although locals say it can be done, the technical manager of the only reputable car dealer here tells me he can't do it in his shop, and that I would be doubleplusunwise to do it in the country unless it was a true emergency.

I'll be in the US soon, so I'll either mail it on ahead or hand-carry it home and let my engine guy do it himself. I'm not half-assing something as critical as this.

Head is ready to fly back stateside with me in two weeks...while it is off I have taken the wheels off for new tires and the fork to hunt down a little shudder I have felt from time to time in the front end. Head bearings seem fine, but I am continuing to explore the issue.

Also trying to get my brake adapter trimmed to fighting weight. Speedhole locations are an optimistic affectation...I have to get the outside contour right before anything else, and I want to be careful not to make anything too weak. Probably won't do it at all.

I am working with a hacksaw and a skilsaw, and a small vice not affixed to anything, so it is rough. I may get out a handheld band saw we have at work, but the only bench grinder I know of is all the way at the machine shop I have used before...big pain to get to.

Get you a set of 1/8" shank carbide burr bits that you can run in a Dremel. Then you can literally sculpt your parts.