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7VEN's Oldschool Steeds


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Hello,

Well, I went on an OE to London 7 years ago and never came back.

These are 2 of my current projects:

1) 1952 Villiers 10D (122cc) powered Francis Barnett Merlin:

In 2010, I decided I needed a motorcycle in my life so went and got my learners licence.

Was on the look out for something suitably new school learn on and was looking at some relatively new Yamama YBR 125's on the bay when I chanced upon this. Not very practical to learn on however the oldschooler in me decided that it would be perfect for me.

Here's the pic from the bay. All mine for £610.00. Advertised as a non runner with known issues being:

No speedo

No clutch cable

Shabby paintwork etc

No rear stand

Wiring previously eaten by mice

Not registered with the DVLA

Perfect for a learner with no indicators or mirrors.........

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Here's what they looked like from the factory

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Engine was pulled out and rebuilt and rust and old petrol oil sludge cleaned out from the inside of the tank and coated

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Engine apart on the bench

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New piston in. Engine was ultra sonic cleaned then vapour blasted to get it as close to the original finish as possible

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Here's a clip of the engine running on the bench

Being an English bike and being in England, you'd think parts would be fairly easy to come by. They're not. Most of the parts are hoarded by 60 year old men who aren't on the internet so finding parts for a non popular make of bike is extremely difficult. I managed to track an old chap down who had about 20 bikes and happened to have a NOS rear mudguard. Spent 3 hours having a tour of his garage and a lesson in all things Francis Barnett. He was one of lifes true characters.

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The bike was also missing the lower chain guard so I snapped this NOS item up of him as well.

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Some reproduction gear lever and kickstart rubbers that he also happened to have

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I managed to track down a rebuilt 55mph Smiths chronometric speedometer. I think this one came off a Bantam.

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Old chap also let me have this front numberplate template for a fiver

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I searched high and low for a rear stand (type that swings down) for 6 months but then resigned to the fact that they just don't exist so had one made by a local metalworker based on a drawing that the old chap gave me.

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The guy that made it did an outstanding job.

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True craftsmanship using oldschool techniques.

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Tyres on, sprocket on, hubs cleaned out.

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Starting to look like a bike again.

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New rectifier, battery and wiring complete and she runs!

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Runs like a dream and am going to keep the shabby paint etc for the foreseeable future.

2) Tetanus inducing Hercules build:

I have a problem with buying things of ebay you see, so after a few too many beers, decided I needed some oldschool cycle action in my life so I picked this up for £20.00.

Anyway, turns out that it's much rustier than first thought so the plan is to turn it into a dutch style cruiser using a combination of new and old parts.

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And kind of the direction that i'm heading with the build.

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  • 1 month later...
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So the old Hercules frame was just too far gone to save so I picked up an old Pashley Trade/Butchers/Postman bike frame for next to nothing. Front tray means large ammounts of beer can be carried.

It's really solid and heavy and well made. The balloon tyres are too large to fit under the mudguards to I took them off and quite like the look.

I had to by a new sealed cottered bottom bracket so I can run the Rudge cranks/chain wheel.

Starting to come together finally.

Pashley.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

My latest addition to the ever growing collection.

A genuine dutch bike, a Batavus Locarno with a five speed internally geared rear hub with a coaster brake (and no front brake :D)

Quite possibly the heaviest bike that i've ever come accross. All it needs is a bit of air in the air in the rear tyre and both wheels trued and I'll be cruising for summer.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Well, I've had the week off work and have been making some decent progress on my projects.

The Pashley came back from the powder coaters and they did an absolutely mint job.

My 5yo daughter is on school holidays and she absolutely loves to help and has been really interested to learn about all facets of bike assembly.

It's just about fully back together ust need to get some headset spacers, put the BB axle on the lathe

To take a little meat off it so it fully goes into the cranks/chainwheel etc, and find a pipe cutter to tale about 2" off the seatpost.

I'll post some more pics of the Francis Barnett on Friday.

Fresh back from the powder coaters:

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Bottom bracket shell:

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An idea of the flash smooth finish:

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New headstock badge and transfers:

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My 5yo helper with the torque wrench:

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Just about finished:

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  • 3 weeks later...

What do you do when you have a whole day to yourself, you take your Francis Barnett out for a pre-MOT shakedown (off road of course) that's what. And the casualties? One of the fasteners that holds the seat on sheared off, Speedo and horn not working and oh, the numberplate fell off! Ah the joys of old motorcycle ownership.

On the flip side, the sound it makes on the trailing throttle is out of this world.

Video to follow.

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  • 2 months later...

OK, so i'm keen to attempt to build something like this 'boom case' with a mains chargeable battery, cord to plug in i-pod etc for some slealth mobile sounds on the go. Can't seem to find any places to start looking as to how to assemble the parts necessary. can anyone point me in the right direction?

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