1970s Schwinn

My friend , and fellow Velocetteer Will Perry, from up in Seattle, gifted me this awesome 1970s Schwinn, a while back. A couple weeks ago was out and put on more upright bars at my request, & new tires and brake cables, and did a bit of maintenance, like cleaning & repacking the front wheel bearing that was feeling a bit notchy, readying it for more  'on road ' use. Then I had him take this photo of me on the steed. 

  My recovery from my prostate cancer surgery three years ago has been a slow process, and have been using the Schwinn in the driveway doing slow figure eights to help regain my balance, and stamina, and a change from my indoor stationary bike set up, when I have it mounted on a 'trainer'. 

My Isle of Man 'Manx Tweed' cap

 I still have and wear the Manx tweed cap, I got on my 1978 trip to the Isle of Man, though it is getting a bit moth eaten.

Oil Pump Tool used on Dave L 's MSS engine work

 I have been working on Dave L 's  1954 MSS motor bottom half, and thought photos of the oil pump tool  used might be of interest. 

The design is based on the drawing of the factory service tool in the Workshop manual. Geoff Blanthorn made up the tool for my workshop about thirty years ago, and Geoff added threaded holes so that hose connections could be made to be able to do flow testing.  The bolts in the tool are set up that one is used to slightly spread the legs allowing the oil pump to slip in, and the other bolt is tightened to clamp it down onto the body. The tool is used to align the oil pump body when re-assembling. The flow test holes are drilled offset , to align with either an early oil pump like a rigid bike uses, when the pump is inserted from one side, or if you flip the tool over, the longer Venom / Viper/ Thruxton size pumps fit and align with the flow testing holes in the tool. 

Dave L 's 1954 MSS rear mudguard

The rear mudguard on Dave L's 1954 MSS had been powder coated when it arrived with the kit of parts to assemble his bike. The rear mudguard had some sort of staining on it, that looked like something had been spilled on it, and had eaten into the powder coat finish. When I contacted him about it, thinking it must have happened when in the workshop, he said the rear fender and battery platform had been subjected to a bad battery acid attack, and probably had not been properly prepared before being powder coated. I decided a baking soda treatment to attempt to neutralize the lasting residual effects of the battery acid corrosion -

Last year, when my friend Dave Smith was over for a few months looking to help out in the shed, I asked him if he could grind off all the powder coating finish from the outside of the mudguard for me, leaving bright bare metal. 

This Memorial Holiday weekend, I treated Dave L's MSS rear mudguard to a bit of love. I unbolted it off his bike, here I had been test fitting it. Next was to mix up a solution of one part baking soda, to three parts water, and brush the solution all over the mudguard. then I mixed a one to one baking soda and water mix to make a thin past, and panted the whole mudguard - then let it sit for the day. . Next I washed off the mudguard with water, and used compressed air to blow it off and dry it. Next I gave it a good wash down with contact cleaner and and wiped it down to ready it for paint. Lastly I coated the battery platform and rear mudguard with POR 15 black paint / sealant.  This will leave me a nice base for top coating with black enamel. The POR 15 is brushed on heavy, and will have dust and bug spots, as it is a little slow drying, and I want to apply a nice spray paint finish on all the parts, so all the black matches -