5 day trip to western NSW

 Amazing trip in the middle of the NSW drought out to Broken Hill and back.

Lots of dead wildlife on the road as they come out of the dry bare paddocks to try and find some small amount of green picking along the road edge. A huge amount of feral goats, lots of kangaroos.

It was an eye opener seeing a pipeline being built from just outside of Mildura to Broken Hill, some 270 or so kms. Why?...What are the real motives?...Who stands to profit?...Who stands to lose?

The MAD MAX II Museum was great to see and so was the view over the Mundi Mundi Plains.

It was also real cool to stay at the Palace Hotel in Broken Hill. While we were there in the dining room, at 6.45 the nearby underground mine blasted as they do every 12 hours. I know someone who used to work at that mine and yesterday they mentioned that a shaft is only about 350m from that hotel. No wonder it sounded like the roof was coming down. 

Interior shots of the Palace Hotel.

Me above with my 84 FXRT at the lookout over the Mundi Mundi Plains. 

What a bike, what a spot.

The Machine Show 2019

If you are into vintage motorcycles of all types then come along to our shindig 29th - 31st March 2019. This will be our third show and we hold it in our local town Braidwood on the southern tablelands of NSW Australia.

For a full rundown of the weekend have a read over at The Machine Show.

We are in the process of updating the site with all the dates but the concept of our show is well explained there.

so good its crazy huh....

1954 KH Harley-Davidson

This KH came to me with a lot of issues. The scavenge pump was not working, which took a long time to diagnose because basically you have to remove the motor to get at it. It had suffered oil starvation problems at some time to the top end and the bores were scored. After resolving all those issues i had also noticed that the backbone on the frame was tweaked left and that had put the rear loop frame bolt-on out of wack. Too many other projects and work to get through over the last few years meant it sat in the corner looking sad. 

I have many projects set aside to complete over the next couple of years but last xmas i did some serious thinking as to how i should progress getting onto and completing these projects.

To be frank, I was actually feeling depressed that I wasn't progressing as fast as I would actually like on those projects and it was weighing heavy on me. To the point where after returning from Born-Free last year I didn't even want to step foot in the workshop.

My solution was to ask for help from Brado Miller my friend because he is the ONLY person in the world I could possibly trust to do work for me. I am very stubborn with regard to design on anything, let alone on custom work on motorcycles, but I have faith in Brado's ability to actually understand what i would want to do or see on my bike and that makes the whole process a lot easier. There are a couple of photos at the bottom of the post showing the bike before the teardown but the concept is to turn the bike into a show-bike. Even though I will not be pulling the motor apart again, it will get a dress up. The rear bolt-on section was always too long for my liking. Too much gap between the gearbox and rear wheel, and the bike was too low and needed to come up an inch at the rear.

Brado stripped the bike and has replaced the top tube and totally remade the rear loop bolt-on subframe shortening it by around 60mm and lowering the axle plates in order to raise the bike an inch or so.

Originally Brado put forward the idea to have stainless axle plates but we didn't have the material on hand so we went for stainless skids as a compromise, but I think actually will look even better. No more chipped paint as the axle slides back and forth. 

Couple of shots of the bike when I got it. 

The front brake was non-existent and has been ditched in favour of an original K drum with an adapted Triumph ventilated brake setup.

shovelhead gas tank

Some progress shots of the aluminium gas tank I made for the shovelhead. 

Its fairly well done and prepared for filler now. Cap is fitted and also petcock from the Prism Supply guys. Its a fantastic part, looks so clean.

This is prior to welding the bottom in< I spent a long time getting fitment spot on before I started tacking which made for a much easier weld around the perimeter when I was ready.

status quo

whats the current status?

1975 Norton Commando MkIII

After ten or so years waiting, my Norton Commando MkIII is all finished up bar a few little things.
I've heat cycled the motor and done a couple of shakedown runs but I'm going to change up the gearbox sprocket to give it a bit more in the legs first up.

Also, I have a problem with the chain tensioner so I will look into that while its apart as well.

Very happy to have this bike all finished up after all these years dreaming about riding it. The restoration was done by a friend of mine Steve Atherton in Sydney. There is no way I would have had time to do this project with my work load over the last few years. The paintwork was done by Peter Flemming of Star Enamelers and its as good as his work usually is. He is an amazing painter no doubt. Most of the parts on the bike are original and came to me in many boxes of bits...maybe baskets even. Im looking for a very good original (not repro) set of MkIII mufflers if anyone is holding. I love Nortons.

1969 Shovelhead progress...

Have been working in the shed again. I found it hard to get motivated over the last year after we came back from Born Free but I'm really trying to get my shovelhead finished before the end of the year. 

this is how it sits at 14th July.

I have the gas tank and oil tank mostly roughed up but I will aim to get them completed in the next two weeks.

Am I back?...

....not actually sure, i'd like to be, but i've been here before and couldn't do it. I'll have a go and see what happens.

here's a shot of the knucklehead Brado and I built for born-free this year (2017).

BF8 45 Frame

Here is the frame I'll be using for my 45 build for Born-Free.

Its a frame that was altered in the early 70's by a bloke in Sydney who fitted up a Triumph four speed box. Its in fairly good nick as you can see but has had a bunch of stuff brazed on like brackets and the whole bottom transmission cradle. 

The two lower rear legs were also replaced and the left lower has a flattened section that has obviously been bashed flat. Choppershit for sure. Ill be reworking this area and the cradle to make them a little less bushrepair like.

There's braze everywhere as you can see. The main castings are all in great condition. There are also a couple of brackets that i will remove, including the rear fender bracket.....very ugly.

My hope is to finish this frame really well, meaning very clean and smooth for paint. I want to highlight the cast sections but there is a possibility i may remove the neck and turn up a new one to fit the J model springer ill be using. If I do, I'll probably lower the neck and rake it just a touch to get it sitting right. Not sure about that yet, Ive got a few alternatives, including another Norton girder like the one fitted to my Norton Atlas.....I really want to play out this J model front end and see where it goes first though.

Born-Free 8

I'm so excited to have been asked by Mike and Grant to be a part of the Invited Builder line-up for Born-Free 8. To stand alongside all these other amazing blokes who I've been following for so long and be building a bike for everyone to see is just a total spin out.

I'm very thankful to everyone who has encouraged over the years to follow this crazy dream of building motorcycles, especially my beautiful and amazing wife. I'm hoping she will be able to come with me next year and see what a totally amazing show Born-Free is. 

I'm going to try and get really serious with my blog posts to keep everyone up with what I'm doing. I don't want to keep anything secret and I don't want to leave anything for last minute so I'm going to make regular posts here as well as on Instagram to keep momentum up and make some headway.

I feel so privileged that I'm the first one to represent Australia, there are so many great builders here who build better than me and do this for a living so I'm hoping to do them proud too.

Norton Atlas 2015