willedoo

To each his own. Nev, you do what you enjoy in life and I'll do the same.

I think I'll enjoy this project for a couple of reasons. Firstly, by it's nature it will be a fairly long term project and a nice way to play around in the shed on rainy days. It's all about the journey, not the destination. Secondly, it's not a registered road bike project. Not having to be road legal means one important thing - total freedom to do want I want. No concern about rules and regulations, no dealing with difficult bureaucrats and naysayers, and not having to march to someone else's drumbeat. It also helps a lot that I have a passion for rusty junk, which is how this thing will most likely be described.

I just noticed in those photos the gal trailer looks rusty. It's only 12 months old and it's not rust, it's leaf tannin stain from when I parked it under a tree for a while without a cover.

Picked up some ratty bike bits today. 2x 1984 model CBX750F Honda 4's. One assembled that's a potential runner and a second complete one in bits, motor with a stuffed crankshaft. There's bits and pieces there I can use and might part some of it out eventually. All the plastics and fairings are there (in the back seat). It cost bugger all.

The man who would be king is a good old movie. He was good in the hunt for red october as well.

A bit off topic, but on the subject of workplace accommodation, here's ours in early 1985 - a two man maggot camp. For those not familiar with the terminology, a fly camp is a junior off shoot of a main camp and a maggot camp is further down the pecking order from a fly camp; the term obviously comes from a maggot being the offspring of a fly. A fairly basic setup - a swag, a foldup shearer's cot, a cardboard box of tinned food and a golden circle pineapple tin for a billy. The reason we chose this spot is because we could have a shower after work. There was a small turkey nest full of water where the drillers had been filling their water truck and they'd left the pump and lay flat hose there. After getting back to the camp after work we could fire up the pump and there were enough holes in the lay flat hose to provide a good spray jet to have a bogey.

Didn't 007 have one in the passenger seat of the Aston Martin, or am I imagining that? I remember it had the pop up bulletproof shield at the back.

I need to make up the inside part. At the moment it's just an empty steel shell and is like putting a bucket on your head. A mate of mine is a leatherworker and does a lot for the medieval reenactment fraternity that he's a part of. He said the inner liner is a stand-alone separate part and not built in like the leather strap harness style you see in some flight helmets.

They might not fit inside the copper boiler/sidecar body. There's a MK.2E Martin Baker (or part thereof) in the shed that might be narrow enough though. Sans headbox, but the main seat is there.

This bike build project will have to progress in tandem to the shed renovation project. Until the 6x6 metre workshop space is properly sorted not much mechanical work can go on. There's a fair bit of structural alterations needed in there. A few more steel diagonal braces will have their brackets relocated so shelving and benches will sit against the wall better. One set of braces will be removed and the timber frame wall between the steel upright shed poles will be upgraded to a bracing wall to compensate for the loss of the diagonal braces. That section already has a timber wall frame attached to the poles, which also serves as a wall for an attached 3x3 metre room, so it's just a matter of fitting some more tie down and adding bracing ply. If I put bracing ply on both sides of the wall, the kN of bracing should exceed the original diagonals. In the short term, I've been clearing out the attached 3x3 metre room to put some shelving in to hold components for the bike project. As per the attached photo, the inside wall is unlined, so I'll insulate that and cover it with bracing ply, paint the wall, then put the shelves in. Before the shelving goes in, the adjoining wall at right angles to it (the one mentioned above) will have the corrugated iron cladding removed and be replaced with bracing ply (it's the rear side of the wall where the steel diagonals will be removed). In a fit of madness years ago, I fastened that corrugated iron internal cladding with roofing nails instead of roofing screws, so that's added a lot of extra work to removing it.

I don't think I'd like have that horse on the right with the big white blaze. It would be a perfect target; Jacko would see it miles away.

That colourised photo definitely shows water in the background. It would either be the coast near Gaza or possibly the Sea of Galilee where they stationed after the fighting to rest and reorganise. This photo is one of the ones at the Sea of Galilee, also called Lake Tiberias. The horses look like they could do with a rest to fatten those ribs up a bit.

That's great thanks Peter; I'll send that one back to my sister.

This is an interesting video featuring an original, unrestored 1948 Indian Chief.

My sister found this negative in a packet of old family photos and had it reversed on one of those online sites. I can only do 35mm with the attachment on my scanner whereas these old photos are are much bigger size negative. Among all the old photos there's a few like this one that have no corresponding prints. It would have been taken by my great uncle, but have no idea who the bloke on the horse is. It looks like the beach at Gaza in the background, which is one place they were in 1917.

I remember a few years ago listening to an ex SAS bloke on Conversations with Richard Fidler. He'd written a book about his experiences. One thing that stuck in my mind was his description of the long term physical injuries that he ended up with (in his case mainly back issues) doing what they had to do. One thing was carrying heavy pack loads, but he also described the physical strain of ambush and/or observation exercises where thay had to sit in the one spot and not move for many hours or days on end. Movement is the main give-away on a stakeout so he said it could take 15 minutes or more to have a drink of water. A lot of time spent very slowly signalling others to take over his arc of responsibility, then virtually a millimeter at a time going through the motions.

The airflow in and out, but particularly intake air, has to take a lot of undesirable paths on a flathead V8 which restricts effeciency and performance. The trade-off is that it contributes to that unique sound they make. Cool sound at the cost of performance. Even stock standard they sound good. I think rodders mainly use them for looks and effect.

That's a treasure; it would be great to hear it running one day. Beautiful sounding engines, the flathead V8s. Not that efficient of a design but the sidevalve setup gives them that nice unique sound.

Yes, the Goldwing motors would be ideal. A lot of car motors are too tall for having a traditional bike tank on top. This one looks like a GL1000 Goldwing motor.

Just a project update, bearing in mind the whole harebrained idea is only a week old. At this stage, until a decision on the engine is made (do I put the V6 in it or source a more sensible motorcycle engine) there's no point doing any frame, tank, front end or side panel work. The rear wheel and sidecar wheels can be worked on, hub, brake, bearings, axle etc., and some initial sidecar chassis setout. This week I might see if I can set up a dedicated shelf area in the shed for components or component contenders. It would help to have it all in one place and readily visible. I'd like to avoid new hardware bits and pieces as much as possible and use mainly components that have some history and a bit of a story behind them. For instance, I've still got my Norton number plate from the early 70's, and a couple of days ago found two small spotlights from my old HJ Holden ute I had in the early 80's. Instead of things going straight to the pool room, they can go straight on the ratbike. As far as nuts, bolts, washers, piping, electrical harness and other small, odd fittings, I have stacks of scrap bin aviation stuff from various aircraft. That could be an initial job - sorting all that stuff into categories. With enough aircraft bits, maybe it could be classified as a rat bikeoplane.

That Flying Millyard is quite amazing. He even made his own carburettors.

Thanks for that info onetrack. I've got a heap of them all mixed up so I'll sort them out. With a bit of luck there will be a reasonable amount of the 2117 rivets.

I found a video on the 2 litre thumper. It wasn't in Norway, it was a German, Fritz Langer, who built it.