Duke Blackwood

Rego day. I took it for my first ride this morning, no helmet, kicked it into gear and the clutch was stuck, sledged across Dads wet driveway with the front wheel locked and the back wheel spinning. It must have looked awesome haha.

We just cut the factory peg off it’s steel mount, drilled a hole through it and mounted an FXR foot peg equipped with its own shift and linkage which didn’t require any modification, they were even the same internal spline!

So I had a conundrum with the shifter where I could run it back to front and it would work easy but the shift direction would be reversed (race shift) and I HATE race shift, so I opted to engineer a new shifter linkage, sources tie rod ends etc and then Dad Blackwood was like “why don’t you just pinch one from one of the spare bike frames lying around?” So we did, and with little modification, it fit like a glove. Thankyou FXR150 frame haha. Also repaired kick starter and locked in a lot of the wiring, just have to repair fairings and install an Oiler really and we’ll be rolling for Rego! Pics to come

I opted not to modify my motor and instead have simply re-installed it with fresh gaskets. I’ll worry about my oil setup once I’ve got her assembled; I’m really starting to fret about the looming Urewera trip and ensuring that she’s ready and reliable. I’d really like to be looking at a shakedown ride in the next couple of weeks, but there’s a lot left to do. Getting all the lights to work and secondering a legit plate will be two major hurdles. Repairing and installing the kick start and shifter will be bigger jobs as well. In the background I have sourced a replacement intake manifold from the local wreckers for $20 (win) and Dad Blackwood machined me a new rear shock pin to reduce the massive swing arm play. I’m also one weld away from having a functional exhaust system. Gotta maintain momentum otherwise I’ll have to ride, ‘gulp’, a normal bike...

Re-pants chat, I mean, compulsory...? ‘Cause I chafe

Did 6 hours of ass conditioning yesterday on the hard-tail, in preparation for the big ride, checked out the classic bike racing at manfield, also practiced road-side mechanic-ing when Itchybear’s Harley packed up....

I love TVRs for the exotic-ness and the fact that they were always so hard to drive on Playstation1, I didn’t realise that there were affordable models around until reading this post. I had never heard of the Tasmin but now when I win lotto tonight I am going to buy one. Keep at it man, this thing is so damn cool.

Good man Fletch, you’re quickly becoming a shed night staple

That looks awesome thanks Anglia4, that will give me a bit of piece of mind when I’m doing gravel jumps on it at this Urewera thing

Right lads I’m at a cross roads and have a decision I need help with. The TS185 has a three bearing crank, the outside bearing is on the left hand side and it WAS lubricated directly by the oil pump which also mixed oil with the fuel. My intention was to swap to premix, purely so I never had to worry about the pump failing or mounting a separate oil tank. But if I do that this bearing won’t be lubricated and will seize. I’ve heard of people drilling through the cases beneath the barrel to tap into the gallery that would have lubricated from the pump and allowing fluid in that way.... but is that huckery and unreliable? I’ve had the barrel off to investigate and the piston, ring and bore look mint. Pics to follow. And then, opinions please fletch has been making appearances at shed night and brought something along for show and tell.... a smaller bike, with a bigger engine!

Made up a rear engine mount to try and prevent frame snap-ages

New fuel cap from China fits like a glove and cost beans, stoked

I also had some ali express clip-ons sitting around but they were the wrong ID so Dad Blackwood turned up some bushes and they fit mint

Fuel petcock was ROOTED so I've just ditched it, made a little flange and a nipple which I'll plump to an inline tap and filter

Waterjet cut some new sprockets and sourced the worlds cheapest chain

Yeah I did that too actually. I think the problem was that I hadn't quite drilled my clearance hole deep enough on the front side and I had cut one thread in it... so I had threads on both sides fighting... but I've sorted it now haha. I'm learning a lot from this project. I'm not a traditional engineer (gigolo by trade haha).

That oughta do it

New fasteners on the original shit too, jeez it grinds me when I find a totally rooted screw that has been re-installed

It looks good, I'm happy with it, but it doesn't pull quite as tight as I'd prefer, so I shimmed it

anglia4 and myself are intending to participate but haven't signed up yet as we're still building our bikes. We'll camp if we have too.

Gone machine-in'...