OK, my turn. This one might cause a bit of upset.
With ASBO14 still not finished, my sanity was brought further into question when I er... heard the pile of Electra-X engine bits calling out for a frame... OK, you win.
First job was to get an engine together, at least the bottom end. Cue spare set of crankcases with broken cam follower, this being an excuse to try a few modifications. First of all I'm probably not the only one who struggles with getting reliable oil dipstick readings depending on whether the tide is in or out, so to speak, so a sight glass seemed like a good idea for practical reasons as well as a bit of retro cool. For this not to spew oil out of the top will need a well-ventillated oil tank. I have a plan. The other change was to ditch the snap-happy AVL cam followers for a set of proper ones from a classic Bullet. That's outside of my level of skills and equipment, fortunately Bullet Whisperer in sunny South Wales was well capable. I also had a previously rebuilt 350 AVL crank (rebalanced for an Electra-X) piston lying around, so I got him to fit this with a nice new set of mains while he was at it. A set of plain cam follower spindles was added for something less to have to keep adjusted.
The frame, purchased from our hosts, was originally from a '62 Bullet. That got shipped off for blasting and powder coating black. Swinging arm is Indian Bullet, which will fit the Redditch frame with an Interceptor spindle and thrust washers, plus a couple of spacers to get everything lined up with a pair of slightly modified Hagon shock absorbers, to allow for the Indian swinging arm being slightly narrower.
Engine plates and a centre stand were available, as well as my old Electra's right-foot 5 speed gearbox, so it was time to think about running gear. I wanted a disk brake on the front, so what forks to use? Early leading axle C5 UCE forks, unlike modified drum brake forks, are designed to cope with the disk brake stresses better but still take traditional style-mudguard stays. Early versions with the threaded stanchion tops also screw straight into Redditch alloy yokes like the cut-down vesion I would be using. Thinking about wheels, I COULD have used my old Electra-X wheels, but hey, I fancied something different. Thank you for reading this far.
I also managed to bag some nice tin/fibreglass ware. The side panels were meant for the bike that never was, the Interceptor Series 3 (OK, there are a couple of prototypes that survive).
The idea was for a Matchless-alike front end look with a separate Lucas MCH61 headlamp shell with the speedo inside, but have you seen the price of even a used example lately? Still, MZ headlamps are a bit cheaper, I found one that uses a standard 7†headlamp unit, and a flanged bezel chronometric speedo fits perfectly – as our American friends say, who knew?
Time to start assembly:
Nice unicycle!
This one's intended as a tourer, hence the pannier frames.
The Goldie stainless front guard from Autocycle Engineering looks better than the Armours 21†version. I've decided I will be using a normal 7†Lucas-oid headlamp instead, though I'm keeping the chrono, it's going in the cafe racer top yoke off my old Electra-X. The bike is still not finished as I got married last year and had to finish ASBO14 off once I got back into the garage, but hopefully it will be ready by the end of the year.
A.
