Monday, June 22, 2009

Building Tools

It's been said, "you can never have too many tools", and for the most part I agree. It is possible to have too many to fit your tool box or available workspace, however. I'm not in that position but I was in the position of needing to true two Triumph Tiger Cub wheels so I decided to remedy that situation.

With only one trip to the building supply store for the necessary raw materials I pieced together a fairly sturdy wheel truing stand. Nothing fancy, as you'll see from the picture. Just some aluminum angle-stock and some fasteners (until I add a welder to my tool set). I think it could still use some additional lateral stability but it can be easily added. I've only two wheels to do so it doesn't have to be heavy duty. I don't think I'm going into the wheel-smithing business but if someone wanted a set I may be willing to entertain the idea. I've got all the pictures, and now tools, to do the job.
Wheel Truing Stand
I started on the front wheel last night and have things pretty well finished. I'm not sure what the tension on the spokes should be so I'm going to do a bit more research before I call it 'done'. Starting with a new rim made the job very simple. There wasn't a lot of wobble to fix.

The rear wheel is another story. It was the old rim and it has a bit of a wobble currently. I ran around the rim putting even tension on the spokes, now it's just a matter of working out the bumps by tightening/loosening pairs of spokes on the appropriate side and place on the wheel. The process can be a bit tedious but very satisfying when the wheel is running true again.

I'm one rebuilt fork, one painted frame, and two rebuilt or new shocks away from a completed rolling chassis. If the fork and shocks don't take too long I'll have the chassis rolling, but not complete, in a few weeks. Not many things have gone as smoothly as expected so it may still be a while.

I'd better get the barrel and head sent off to the machine shop so I can start the engine work. I've started a list of the parts I'm going to need. It's a looooooong list.

Monday, June 15, 2009

New Front Rim

My new front rim arrived today after a month of waiting. Not as bad as I had feared when the supplier told me it was back ordered and coming from his supplier. They told me it might be up to six weeks. Since they are in the UK, I feared it would take even longer, so I was quite pleased with a four week turnaround.

As you can see from the pictures below it's quite lovely. Straight and covered with a very bright, beautiful chrome. I had to polish up the old spokes a bit before I could consider putting them into the new wheel. I really should have purchased new shiny spokes but that would have meant ditching perfectly good parts from the original bike - which I said I didn't want to do. So, after some quality time with the spokes they are as shiny as 45 year old parts can be.

Armed with the pictures I took of the original wheel before dis assembly I made short work of lacing up one side. My hands couldn't take polishing all 40 spokes in one night so the other half must wait until tomorrow. I think I spent about 90 minutes getting one side of the week relaced. That includes the spoke polishing. The other side should be about the same, so if the garage isn't too hot tomorrow I should have a fully laced front wheel by this time tomorrow night.

Next, I need to build a truing stand to finish the wheels off. I've got a plan in mind as well as some picture of a stand another Cub enthusiast built. Looks like I'll be making a trip to the local home improvement store later this week for building materials. I'll be picking up some supplies to build my mini-paint booth too so I can get the frame sprayed and a rolling chassis... um, ... rolling.

I'd like to keep up the progress I'm starting to make. My original goal, which is still my current goal, was to have a running bike by November. I think it's still attainable but I can't afford any more long lapses in progress.

Enjoy the pictures.














Front Rim - new from the factory
Front Rim - New Chrome
The newly arrived rimVery shiny chrome
Front Rim - 1 side ready for lacingFront Rim - 1 side relaced
Ready for nipplesOne side laced