Hitchcocks Forum

I'm renovating my old 2007 350 bullet. It's had a hard paper round and since the engine is out, I took the rest of it apart too for a clean up, repaint and re-task as a light road-trials machine.



The frame is going to need partially stripping and repainting too because there is a fair bit of rust about. Seems like an ideal opportunity to brace/weld any weak points, especially if I'm going to start throwing it up steep gravelly hills and along stoney, rutted dirt tracks. Where should I be checking for existing damage/cracks? Anywhere I should beef up just in case? The triangular plate with the hole in that the swingarm bolt goes through could stand being meatier if I'm any judge?

Getting the entire frame blast cleaned is cheaper than you might thing, after it has been blast cleaned and before powder coating many balst cleaners and powder coaters are able to carry out crack texting.

I wasn't going to go for powder coating with this one, once it gets chipped or dinged, it's a bit of a pain to retouch/repair and the rust can get in under it. I was going to go for a good quality machine enamel. Probably dark grey or green because black isn't a standard colour.

the good old principal of ‘’if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’’ applies here



haven’t there been enough bullet”s butcher by ‘’improvements’’!!!

You can still get the frame blasted and etch primed, THEN enamel it. Or treat yourself to a Rickman Metisse rolling chassis for it!



A.

True, but tell that to any Cub 90 owner who doesn't get the top shock mounts welded up. I have a distinct memory of reading about some bullet frames being prone to cracking in places. That being the case, I wouldn't call welding a gusset plate onto a stress point "butchering".



Anyway, I'm butchering mine by riding it until it falls to pieces. I'm just trying to slow that process down somewhat. If it's going to do another 80,000 miles before it gets a second lick of paint, I may as well do some proactive preventative maintainance at the same time.

It will be many years before I would consider a 2007 Bullet to be old. When a bike is as old as me then I consider it to be old

I'm with Norm.
if 2007 is old what would you call the 1992 Bullet or the 1952BSA or the 1941 me>

It isn't the age, it is the abuse the frame is intended to be subjected to. A blast clean and crack test every two years is common practice with many riders who do "abuse" their motorcycles in various ways they were not designed for.

Exactly that. It's like an airframe, they don't measure their useful lifespan in years but in hours. High-stress use will increase the hours more rapidly.



I recently fitted the 9th rear tyre to this bike. First deviation from safety mileage because I got a cheap wheel with an Ensign road on it. It has also done quite a few of its miles with a trailer fitted.