Tag: 8XE

After reading the last post I realised that I haven’t put up any photos of the completed 8XE. I‘m pleased with the outcome. She is an up and running motorcycle now, some six or seven years after I got her.

The paint finish is with broad black striping, edged in carmine, and with a gold centre pinstripe. I just need to find a source for some white rubber pedal blocks.

The magneto came back from the painter and we have installed it on the bike. Some time spent making adjustments and she is now finally up and running.

When the Coronavirus lockdown is over we will take her out for a few miles and get her dialled in and sort out any other niggles. For sure we need to look at the rim on the rear wheel.

Stay safe everyone.

Well with everything else that’s been going on I just haven’t looked at this ’12 in a while so I thought I should make a start. I pulled her apart yesterday and will now send everything out for paint, plating and odd bits ready for the re-build. I think the motor should come apart as well for a polish and to plate the smaller parts.

I spent some time this afternoon tidying up some of the smaller jobs that I have been putting off. I made the spacers for the front wheel hub and did the threads for the carb and timing cable clamps. On the magneto side the threads were over-size and had been taken up to 5 mm. On the carb side two were standard size and the others were again 5 mm so I upped them all to 5 mm. Interestingly, on the carb side the frame was drilled in two places suggesting that the cable has been secured in different places during the bike’s 100+ year life. Original photos show both versions with the higher clamp position being on the earlier models. In that instance the cable is carried again under the tank on its way to the carb, in a similar way to the 10s and 11s. That is the route I will use.

I also went through all the parts in the handlebars and installed new cables. Again the old ones work well and look great on an original bike but rather than clean and re-nickle the old ones I’d rather save them for later and install new ones for this build.

I installed the seat post and put in a new seat post pinch bolt. I have originals of both but I think these will look and work better (the bike will be ridden). The recovering of original seat was done by Jethro Smith.

The new compensator sprocket came from Competition and the lock ring I had on the shelf.

Kevin came over today and we fitted the wheels he has built up. The front has the correct Eclipse hub and the rear has a copy hub but with a mainly original clutch. The cover and most parts are HD but the missing parts came from Competition. The rims are from Al McPherson and we have used ‘mock up’ spokes and nipples to get the lengths and offsets correct. They will be rebuilt again in due course.

The dilemma is the old one though. Just for fun after lunch we put on the old gas tank,  the handlebars and we balanced the old seat on the frame…… So now I’m wondering (again) whether this should be the ‘old parts’ bike or if I should use the restored parts on this build and keep searching for more old parts and put them on the belt drive.  I just don’t want to repaint this old frame as part of the restoration.