Having got myself a set of forks ‘ready to go’ I started to think, “What else could I work on in isolation” and in a very small apartment with no garage. The swing arm seemed like a logical thing to do, so (when I finally started on a project) I could just bolt the swing arm and the (now completed) forks onto my frame giving me a good base, and head start, when building. As such the forum and web were trawled until I managed to find a “Complete” swing arm at the right sort of price. The deal was done and despite the German postman cursing the bloke on the second flood who kept getting heavy parcels…the next piece of the puzzle arrived.
The swing arm was indeed complete as described, but was properly dirty and in need of some serious attention.
As always the process started with a full strip down to see what we had to play with and what work would be required.
Not having access to ….well anywhere really to work, I had to improvise. As such I would go out onto our tiny second floor balcony armed with a pile of bike bits, large plastic tub, some petrol, brushes and anything else I could find to clean them up. Thankfully I managed not to spill anything on the neighbors below and incur their wrath, but I am still sure I must have been breaking about a dozen of the local rules.
Well much scrubbing later and I could at least see what I had to play with:
(Yes that is the kitchen table and No the Mrs was not in at the time)
What I did discover under all the dirt and grime was that the hub had been seriously abused throughout its life.
Simply swapping it out for another would have been the easy option, but as I had time on my hands, I decided to try and resurrect the hub with a bit of hand filing. These were taken about half way through the process, but already the ‘teeth’ are starting to take shape again.
A bit more filing and blow over with some paint at the end and it certainly looked good enough to use.
As some of the eagle eyed out there might have noticed in my last post, amongst my zinc red cross parcel from Tim, were many bits from my swing arm build. Many zinc coated and some others just blasted ready for paint/powder coat. As such here are just a few gratuitous before and after shots:
Before:
And after:
Mmmmm shiny – thanks again Tim, I still owe you a very large beer or two.
A fresh delivery from CMSNL arrived along with a Renthal sprocket and a new rear brake disc, which was sprayed up ready to be added to the re-assembly.
Having got all my bits back from the UK, new bits (from various places) and finished cleaning and refurbishing the rest….it was time to nail it all back together along with the rear calliper that had come along with the front ones a bit of Carbon fibre and a very liberal use of Ti fastenings.
Amazing what you manage to do on a balcony / kitchen table
Swing arm complete and ready to bolt on.
If the cunning plan works out Santa will be delivering a headstock stand about this time next week so then I can start to put together a framework with the frame, forks, swing arm(potentially rolling chassis) to work on whilst the engine work is still in progress.
Happy Christmas to all and standby for more in the New Year.