Spokey Dokey

I found an excellent spoke calculator today at –

http://users.senet.com.au/~mitchell/misc/html/spoke.htm

This agrees with my actual measurements from the mock up wheel with each spoke needing to be 138mm long. I thought I could just cut the spokes to the right length and re-thread them, BUT threads on spokes are rolled onto the spoke rather than cut with a threaded die. This means that the major diameter of the spoke thread is greater than the diameter of the spoke. You cannot really see it until you look at it with a magnifying glass. So unless you have access to a thread rolling machine you cannot modify old spokes. I am going to get a price from a local company who can roll threads, but I am 99 percent sure that it will be cheaper to buy new spokes of the right length.

Rim to fork clearance and rim centreing

I took the tyre off so I can see how central the rim is in the middle of the forks. It needs to be moved about 4mm to the right side of the bike to be perfectly central.

Grinding away

I have ground back these aluminium lugs so that they are flush with the insides of the fork legs. Why? To allow maximum tyre clearance. This gives me 125mm between the fork legs. The lugs on the right leg are not used and the left lugs are for a cable guide which will be modified anyway.

Front wheel mock up

Finished assembling the 17 x 3.5 inch supermoto rim to the DR drum hub yesterday. The spokes will need to be shortened and re-threaded to suit the DR hub. I fitted the wheel with a 110/60 tyre which goes between the fork legs with about 5mm clearance either side. Will be interesting to see if a 120/60 will fit as recommended for this rim, but I do not think going down a size will matter. I will have to grind off the cable guide mounts on both sides to ensure clearance. Very happy with the result.

One step forward and two steps back….

I am seriously considering doing away with the upside down fork and disc brake front altogether, why? Drum brakes are definitely vintage and also less trouble with getting it road registered again. It doesn’t have to stay this way, but it probably will.

Night photo shoot.

I know that I have mocked-up a number of photoshop images, but at times its just good to throw a few parts on to see what it will actually look like from a different angle.

Thems the ‘brakes’ (package arrives)

I bought this Nissin brake set off ebay a few weeks back. I only need the front set, but at only $80 for the whole set including postage, I was not going to argue. I just need to source a front brake lever.