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Lord Gruntfuttock’s 1975 Ironhead Café Racer…


Lord Gruntfuttock

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Been riding this old girl for the last week during Munro challenge, and forgot how much I enjoyed it... 

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Sadly the oil situation is getting out of hand, so might put rego on hold and start the work that needs done.  After sitting for any length of time the primary case fills and needs draining before I can change gears, suspect a leaking main shaft seal. Primary should hold around 900mls from memory, this pan was half full when it finished draining to correct level, so a good 4-5 litres of frothy goop came out... 

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Once drained however the old thing ran like a champ, and a good time was had talking bikes with the many visitors. I did have some starting issues due to failing pushbuttons, and the smoke and oil leaks are getting a tad embarrassing, so my list of tasks goes:

  • Fix main seal leak 
  • Fix other oil leaks, stripped threads etc
  • Replace starter motor contacts
  • Replace starter rubber seals
  • Replace horrible HD switchgear/master cylinder
  • Re-lace front wheel with twin disc front hub
  • Fabricate caliper brackets, fit and fettle brakes
  • install electronic ignition
  • Install kick starter
  • Re-route oil lines
  • Fabricate rear sets
  • Change to RH shift (reverse pattern) and LH brake
  • General tidy-up

 
Snapshot of oil leaks, it's everywhere man...

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Before I parked her up I did a warm engine compression test, had a moment of panic as first test was only round 100psi, till I remembered to open the throttle, both cylinders were just over 150 psi, which was pleasantly surprising (has leaked down a bit before pic taken)...

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And plugs were a nice light brown...

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So seems there is nothing too wrong with it, only really concerned that once I start it'll sit in bits while I faff about get on with life. With decent brakes and switchgear, and not having to drain/get covered in oil I would probably use it much more however, so that's the incentive. Plus how cool would it be kicking this beast into life next to all the overly chromed, catalogue Hardleys... :)

So that's the plan, as of Feb 2019. I already have most of the bits required, and have just bought an engine bench stand, so that'll help...

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How have I not seen this until now. Fantastic work...so cool. 

Proportion is the key to good design, it can be made out of dog shit and still look awesome if it's proportions are good. Or made of diamonds and gold and look stupid if the proportions are off. You've nailed it! Nice job.

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3 hours ago, Kimjon said:

Proportion is the key to good design, it can be made out of dog shit and still look awesome if it's proportions are good. Or made of diamonds and gold and look stupid if the proportions are off. You've nailed it! Nice job.

Absolutely, you see so many builds that have aaaall the ingredients but just look a bit, wrong. I re-made the tank mounts several times till things lined up, made a few cardboard seat pan/rear humps, and even the likes of stripe dimensions take a bit of effort to get right. Still looks awkward from some angles, but given it was an ugly duckling to start with, and is a stock IH frame, I'm pretty pleased with the overall look... :)

(It's going to lose some old-school aesthetics with new Kawasaki-sourced switchgear, but should be better to use, and I'd rather be riding than sitting stranded with style-points)...

Incidentally, Lowbrow has the best tracking system. Been following the updates on my engine stand and had to look up the towns on GoogMaps...

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Be interesting to see what Youshop charge from Portland -> NZ

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So seems a heavy steel engine cradle can be sent to NZ via Youshop for $37, yet a pack of cheap gaskets costs $51...? Can only assume it is in a giant box and the volumetric weight is screwing me. Can't consolidate apparently. Didn't even need the gaskets tbh, only bought them cos they were cheap.

Ah well...

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