Engine In

As I hinted at in my previous post, the Steel Steed has come back home.  I took a few minutes and slapped the frame together from it's disassembled state.  Looking at it's lines and angles, I was once again reminded of how far I had come, how much road I still had to travel, and how much I liked this bike. 

Fig. 13: The artistic grace of the minimal.  Plus, check out my new (to me) tool box!

For me, it's usually not a good practice to let such moments of emotional commitment go by the wayside, so I rode the wave of elation and dropped the engine into the frame.  Believe me when I say that it took every drop of that wave to get the job done.

 Fig. 14: Intimidation

For those of you fortunate enough to have avoided putting a four cylinder in-line back into a double downtube frame, congratulations.  For those of you who have performed this task, then you know that it only goes in one way, and then only when you have removed, say, the breather box cover, and maybe the oil filter casing too.  And you know what, better drop the points cover too, for good measure.

Fig. 15: Halfway there (maybe)

My engine was no exception, and I was doing this by myself, with no buddys, jacks, or lift assists.  When I had at last finished, I knew there were only two remedies for the pain I was in.  The first were near fatal doses of ibuprofin, the second was to put the tank and seat on the bike and....just....look at it.

Fig. 16: Agony

Fig. 17: Potential

Fig. 18: Ecstasy

(not the drug, kids)

To say I am happy with where this bike is going would be an understatement.

The job did bring a few things to the table however.  For one, make sure you label all of your bolts and what-not very well.  There is no telling when you will put things back, and digging through the rubble of three seperate bikes with only a vague notion of what you're looking for can be un-nerving.

Fig. 19: One of these bolts is the right one for the job...

For two, I will be using the passenger peg mounts as my rearset location on the frame, so the current pegs are not needed.  However, those unwanted pegs are attached to the frame via the lower engine stud bolt.  Once the pegs are removed, that bolt is going to be a good two inches too long.  I am going to have to shorten that stud and re-thread it for the engine mount nut.  Not a big job, but fine thread metric dies can be hard to come by, so I'll either have to do it with an Standard die and swap the nut, or do some searching.  We'll see.  Enjoy the pictures lads and jennys.

Fig. 20: The Steel Steed

Fig. 21: Cannon

Fig. 22: The Steel Steed AND Cannon

(It was cold out that day)