My café racer all finished...

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Jean,
I was looking at your wiring diagram and have a couple of questions. There are the resistors going to ground on the turn signal circuit. Are these to make the flash rate correct? What is the purpose of the diode in that circuit? What is the purpose of the resistor and diode going to ground on the high beam circuit?
 
littlefield said:
Jean,
I was looking at your wiring diagram and have a couple of questions. There are the resistors going to ground on the turn signal circuit. Are these to make the flash rate correct? What is the purpose of the diode in that circuit? What is the purpose of the resistor and diode going to ground on the high beam circuit?

Those are for the flasher indicator and for the hi beam indicator. I had to add load resistors to my flashers since they are all LEDs but they are not shown on the diagram, a modern flasher unit will work correcly with two bulbs or one bulb and one LED but it requires load resistors when working with LEDs only.

If you look at the diagram, when there is voltage on either one of the resistors for the flasher indicator, it will light up. I was able to fit the indicators and the resistors inside the handlebar control as can be seen on this picture;

My café racer all finished...


Jean
 
Hi Jean... beautiful work... as long as you're answering questions,
How much time and money? (just kidding, wives may be reading)
Your profile says you're retired... from where, NASA? (just kidding again)
That belt drive setup is sweeet!
All kidding aside, that bike is a rolling work of art! I think you're the envy of this forum.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Don
 
Jeandr,

Very well executed. A stock build has its own trials and tribulations but when a fellow builds a "special", I can only imagine what you've gone through to pull it all together and make it work. Nice marriage between old world and new. The only thing I don't like about Ludwig's bike is that it is in his shop and not mine.

On the welding machine, I've had good success with a Lincoln 185 (square wave) but I would suspect that any good "name brand" unit would be decent these days. You very well know more about welding than I but if you forsee tigging any heavier alumimun in your future, you may want to look at keeping the available amperage up. Miller builds great products, as well as, I have an old (15+ years) Miller mig welder that just keeps going and going.

Z
 
DonOR said:
Hi Jean... beautiful work... as long as you're answering questions,
How much time and money? (just kidding, wives may be reading)
Your profile says you're retired... from where, NASA? (just kidding again)
That belt drive setup is sweeet!
All kidding aside, that bike is a rolling work of art! I think you're the envy of this forum.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Don

OK, here goes... I have no clue about costs because purchases were done over a two year period and there are many parts I did not pay for and probably never will since they came from my buddy's shop and the agreement was that I would give him the bike in my will :lol: My best estimate would be between $5K and $10K My main expenses were the carbs ($900) back wheel and tires ($600) paint and powdercoating (~ $1000), machining and welding (~ $800) belts and pulleys (~ $400) aluminum stock (~ $400) and stainless steel hardware (~ $600). As for hours, lots and lots, but I would work in spurts sometimes not touching it for months especially during the summer when I would take time to go riding either my puhy or my RD400.

I was forced to retire when my boss lost my service contracts, but that's OK, this year I have a severance pay, next year I will get unemployment and then I will retire. I used to fix supercomputers for a living, pay was good and working from home was just great, gave me lots of time (and money) to make this bike. I am a lot happier about this than any investment I ever made, even if I never get a dime back from what I put in.

"a work of art" that is basicaly the way I see it, sculpture takes many forms and this is mine.

Jean
 
And that is exactly what you have, an artistic expression of what a Norton can be.
 
Jeandr said:
I am a lot happier about this than any investment I ever made, even if I never get a dime back from what I put in.

"a work of art" that is basicaly the way I see it, sculpture takes many forms and this is mine.

Jean

Well said Jean. It's too easy to run yourself ragged these days and still not get anywhere. We have to make time for these things we enjoy.
 
Yet another example of the good work one can do, if your government does the right thing, and covers your health insurance!
 
DonOR said:
Yet another example of the good work one can do, if your government does the right thing, and covers your health insurance!

You got that right, unfortunately there are wealthy interests trying to privatize it (rich get richer/poor get poorer). The propaganda machine is rolling. Don't know why Obama is getting so much resistance, health care is a good thing.
 
Hall o Jean Nice work on the bike I do like your thinking out of the box
Could you let us know what is in your keihins? choke size etc
that oiltank should give no problem as I have run an kneeler-outfit with commando-engine for claasi racing with the oil-tank lower than yours No priming was needed
Have you run her yet and what did she do?keep us informed!
 
As for the health care any time somebody is making millions of dollars they don't want to rock the boat.
Jean, Tm sure you thought about his but my little brother uses aviation gas. He has to get it for his Cessna anyway and he tells me it is far more resistant to gelling and does not have alcohol. What are you going to use this season? A few gallons? It would be worth spending the extra money to protect that nice tank and the carbs until you lined the tank.
 
lynxnsu said:
Hall o Jean Nice work on the bike I do like your thinking out of the box
Could you let us know what is in your keihins? choke size etc
that oiltank should give no problem as I have run an kneeler-outfit with commando-engine for claasi racing with the oil-tank lower than yours No priming was needed
Have you run her yet and what did she do?keep us informed!

The Keiheins are FCR35 so 35mm choke size. The manifolds take this choke size down to 30mm at the head. I just purchased new smaller jets and I will try Brian's adjustments and starting routine to see if everything goes better. I was sure I would not have any problems with the oil tank sitting lower, Jim Comstock's old race bike had the oil tank below the engine and I have pictures of a racing Velocette with an undeslung oil tank both these examples were running OK, your testimonial adds another one.

Jean
 
Not to mention the millions of vehicles with the oil pan below the engine. How about the old Royal Enfields?
 
Cookie said:
As for the health care any time somebody is making millions of dollars they don't want to rock the boat.
Jean, Tm sure you thought about his but my little brother uses aviation gas. He has to get it for his Cessna anyway and he tells me it is far more resistant to gelling and does not have alcohol. What are you going to use this season? A few gallons? It would be worth spending the extra money to protect that nice tank and the carbs until you lined the tank.

You may have missed it, but the tank is lined so I don't need avgas. Also, I found that gas from Esso (Exxon in the US) did not dissolve my Fastback's tank like gas from Petro Canada so not to be a sucker for punishment, it has a tiger in the tank to paraphrase their adds :D Here not all gasolines have methanol or ethanol, but some have nasty additives which may have worse effects on fiberglass than alcohol. I did a test on the liner I used and so far (2 weeks) there has been no adverse effect on the liner, see gas-tank-sealer-t4653.html

Jean
 
Jean, hope those carb settings help. If you are able to improve on them, please let us know - there's always room for improvement.

And room for more pics of that beautiful bike, too..... :P
 
BrianK said:
Jean, hope those carb settings help. If you are able to improve on them, please let us know - there's always room for improvement.

And room for more pics of that beautiful bike, too..... :P

The settings are a big help, starts easier and settles down to a nice 900-1000 rpm idle, very quick on the pickup too with the accelerator pump.

Jean
 
Drive belts are great. The belt and pulleys on my X1 Buell have now done 80,000 kms (50,000 miles) and I'm just now getting a bit of chipping of the hard chrome on the teeth on the rear pulley so I'll have to change that out, but the belt is fine.
 
I'm working on the exhaust system, this is what I have done so far, the pipes will then go under the engine to a 2 into 1 "muffler" and then exit as two pipes, one to each side. This is one of my first welding jobs, I will probably grind down the welds which are not nice enough to leave as they are and then paint the whole thing black.

Jean

My café racer all finished...
 
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