Rat Bike Project

[willedoo]

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.

[facthunter]

The Main problem with Flathead motors is the Heat near the exhaust port cracking blocks and distorting the Cylinders causing excessive Cylinder Blow By and oil contamination. The Large combustion chamber area and volume makes them impossible to get High compression Ratios.  Nev

[willedoo]

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

 

 

[facthunter]

It's not a good idea to Put a Bike like that back into use without a complete strip and Inspection> Fair chance you will damage it in some way. also the Indian Tooling was Worn out during WW2 and the Postwar bikes were not a good standard. They went broke a few years later with some badged English Made Bikes wearing the Name. The BLACKHAWK Bigger inch variant is quite troublesome but by some regarded as the one to Have. There was a "Brockhouse" Brave and various "Badged" Royal Enfields made at the  Redditch Factory Before they Migrated to INDIA . Later revived by Polaris Made Models..  Nev

[willedoo]

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.