1963 650SS Australia

hi Bernard, yes they certainly loaded them up, sirens lights, crash bars, can't see any radios though, might have another look.

There is also some maintenance information, looks like one of them had main bearing problems (1964), and all where serviced just prior to the Easter weekend 1964, the one with main bearing problems, being the only one not to make it into service for the Easter break, not so bad one would think for 83 bikes, I wonder what happened to the other 81 of them , might have ended in the scrap bin , hope I come across a couple more of them?
Burgs

heck, did they still rely on telephone boxes back then?

Burgs said:

Hi Rob
Sleeves arrived today look good.

Fitted valve guides today and timed the cam plus fitted oil pump, have to get back and do some machining otherwise I will not have money to finish .
Also rebuilt the forks. Burgs

Click to expand...

Re your split inlet tracts; are you going to run a single carb or has someone opened up the ports too much?


Re your split inlet tracts; are you going to run a single carb or has someone opened up the ports too much?

Hi Bernhard
These are as per the original sleeves, basically going back to standard.
I have new Amal twin Monoblocs as per original as well, one chopped

Photo of when I was sorting out the mounting studs and SHCS.
Burgs

Hi
Got a few more bits done, had to remove the tin plates (Seal?) from the inner primary cover as they were stuck, there was a mass of dry silver paint between them.
Machined the case to fit a Commando setup with a felt seal.

Front forks are finished and today did a trial fit up of the new handlebar and not happy as the brake and clutch cables are headed straight for the top yoke, not sure what to do here so in the too hard bin for a while.


Burgs

Bar risers do exactly what you want. I bought some from Demon tweeks but they were dearer than other makes and I had to get some long allen bolts from another source. They also needed a little packing ,someone must do something better,lots out there.

Hi
Must be the shape of the bars or where the cable exits the controls, looking at photos it is hard to see but the cables seem to clear OKay, may have to wait until I get the wheels/tyres and seat on to look from the riding position.
Burgs

If you ride a bike with the levers at those angles you will get tennis elbow, nasty!, bar risers will allow you to achieve the correct arm/hand line and the cables will clear the fork tops.Simples.

I had tennis elbow from playing squash not much fun, couldn't use a screw driver for ages.
I have a contact who has an Atlas I will have another look at it see what he has done.
Reading through the forums I haven't really found out what the definitive fulcrum length is for the hand controls, I have been told 1 1/16" from the suppliers?
I have currently put on a set of 1 1/16" Triumph Daytona hand controls that I have on hand, to see how they go.
My 55 Manx (laydown g/b) has 1 1/8th and 72 Commando 1 1/16".

Burgs

The AMC box MUST have 7/8th fulcrum clutch lever (no adjuster), however the brake can be larger (and surprisingly was supplied like this on my 99) but 7/8th will work better if the brake is not spongy or oval. The SS clutch is just about bearable with the right lever ,a nylon lined HD cable and correct springs (bad pattern ones about!) ,anything you can do to improve the set up (risers!) will make the bike much more usable (not going to be a trailer queen is it?)

Hi, no trailer queens in my shed ok tracked down a pair of what appear to be 7/8" levers at Andover just waiting for a reply from them to confirm so.
Haven't looked at the brake drums (visual look only) yet but am about to now, the original linings are worn out so have new ones to fit up.
Also waiting on new rims and spokes as old ones rusted out, once the wheels have been laced up I will check for ovality/run out and correct if required.

Some of the cheaper shoes are Indian made and useless, marked as Ferodo!.Try Red Rubber grease on the chaincase band.

I used a Norton Commando bend bar 06-1046 on my 650SS with a slight rise they give a very comfortable ride and do not look out of place.

I trim approx. 3" off the ends.

Hi Nortonbob
Hopefully they are okay, they are Ferodo trademark Federal Mogal Italy on the box and looks the same as the ones on their web site.
They look the part at least, fitted the front shoes yesterday.

Hi Possm
Andover list 06.1046 as a semi western handle bar, looking at the photo is a higher rise than what I have on my Commando at the moment, both too high in my opinion?
RGM list a "19405SS HANDLEBAR - VERY SLIGHT RISE - DRUM BRAKE MODELS ONLY" might see if they will give a dimensions?
Also somewhere I came across a handle bar with a 1" rise, hopefully I have kept the information.
I have a set of bars I had bought for a TR5 restoration, they are 8" longer and have a rise of around 2 1/8" and are swept back a fair bit they also look out of place.

Burgs

If you can pull up my old posts of my 650SS rebuild [as I now struggle to post photo's on this site] you will find they are not that bad, I have purchased another set to use on the Atlas that I am currently working on.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you ( linings) , I bought a set of similar looking shoes off E Bay for the rear of the Atlas , could not feel any braking effect.swapped for some "gold" ones from RGM (expensive!) ,and now can lock the wheel.

Hi Possm
Ok had another look at your build and they don't look as bad as I thought, but I still like the lower profile, most rides/rallies we do are around 200 k with a couple of 350 to 590 k thrown in so at this stage I can still handle a low set of bars especially if we are running at a good rate. My GT750 with sit up and beg style is hard to run at speed after a while, wears me out (wind) and it is more than capable of keeping up a good pace without complaining, not as much fun as the Commando though.
How is the 650SS going?

Hi Nortonbob
I got the brake shoes from Feked, looked at the RGM ones and thought they looked the same, both gold, but as I was ordering parts from Feked I bundled them in?
Do you machine the shoes to suit the drum, this way you get maximum contact of the shoes to the drum, with instantly good braking unless the linings are too hard?
Fitted a new set of shoes/linings to my GT750 and it would not even hold the bike at stand still on a slight slope, ripped them out, set up in the lathe and turned them to suit the drum and now can lock the rear brake if need be, although I don't like locking the rear brake as I once hit the deck at over 110kph from locking the rear brake on my ZX10 when it had no weight on the rear wheel, boy didn't that hurt, couldn't climb stairs for a couple of months. Had to ride over 1000k home after getting the bike sorted enough to ride.
I will let you know how they go.

Burgs

When I said gold I meant the linings, which are called that and have a woven yellowy/gold look. Also used by Villiers servies in the uk to reline your own shoes, The RGM site only shows this type fitted to rear shoes ,but that may be just what they have in stock, Linings came up very full and had to be sanded and bevelled well, then a perfect fit,no turning needed. I think the dud shoes may have been EMGO or copies?.

Yep had Emgos in the GT750, but as I said after turning to size they have been good.
Burgs