Gamble Gold

Construction Diary

Never got round to doing one for this bike as i made it in such a short time(was still finishing it the morning of the show)... a few photos follow of it in the build stage with a description.

These photos show the changes to the forks i made from the 'Dickinson Special'. The new rocker at the bottom was made from two lumps of ally bar and due to the posistion of the wheel put alot more leverage on the spring making it much softer on the front. Also note the candy twirl pushrods which look much more stylish.

Some early photos of the frame being made followed by a final mockup. Once the rear wheel and engine were posistioned i built the rest of the frame up over the engine, this allowed much tighter tollerances and helped enhance the look of the bike i think.

Another modification from the original 'Special' was the lightening of the final driven pulley. This was more do to with looks than lightening. I did this on a rotary table on a bridgeport universal mill. along with the pully i made a new axle out of high tensile steel and some aluminium caps for the end to hide the bearings.

After starting again two weeks before the speed freaks ball this is what happened

I bought a centrifugal clutch for it from zoomkarting. Although the clutch is sweet the keyway was on the wrong side of it, and i have to have the bell housing facing out otherwise the chain wont tuck into the frame properly. This was resolved by making a crankshaft extension out of silver steel (see the first pik)

As the bike is completely custom a tank was needed. here you can see it coming together and the hole being opened in the base for the fuel tap. I decided to go with a diamond tank because i could make one so easily out of sheet steel without having to work it.