Monday, August 19, 2013

Very cool finds....

A while ago, I purchased a vintage manual for the Bridgestone 90 and 175 on Ebay from a chap in Australia.  It's no secret that I love old things.  Sorry, I meant 'vintage' things. This includes bikes (obviously) clothes, books, music, etc.  This is nothing new, I grew up excited to visit thrift stores and garage sales looking for undiscovered treasure.



As it turned out, this was an old Clymer manual from the late 60's in very nice shape.  I didn't pay much, once again shipping being more than the item itself!  I have every conceivable Bridgestone manual produced on PDF, however I need to have something in my hand when I am working.  This is partially due to having a poor short term memory and also hauling a laptop around the garage seems like a recipe for disaster.

As I flipped through, I spied adverts for other manuals and books advertised in the back pages.


$8.95?  Considering that contemporary manuals were around $3.95 or less, this was quite a sum for a book in 1969.  My curiosity got the best of me so I started hunting for any existing copies.  I found a few, mostly for ridiculous sums (in the stratosphere of $60.00 to $100.00!~)  which left me unimpressed.  I looked around a little more and found that Goodwill in the states has an incredible selection of used books online on Ebay.  For a much more reasonable $4.00 (plus $11.00 shipping, naturally) I took the plunge.

Fast forward a week or so and.......



You have to love any book that has a picture of Dean Martin on the back riding a small Honda!

This is actually an excellent read, with thorough articles about how to teach someone how to ride, camping on two wheels and an exciting craze called 'Para-Kiting' . In case you were wondering, this involves riding in the desert while someone wearing a parachute is dragged behind!

Apart from the odd fads, this tome covers racing, scrambling lots and lots of history as well as models of bikes that are scarcely seen today (Parilla Wildcat Scrambler anyone?)  It was evident that Floyd Clymer was deeply passionate about motorcycles, I would guess that this book was purely a labour of love.  At the very least a love letter to motorcycling.

If you can find one, get it....I am saving the remaining chapters for winter reading.

In other news, I am waiting on my NOS Dual Twin cylinder to arrive in the mail.  I hope it gets here soon so I can get this engine back together!

I also managed to find a suitable replacement battery for the Bridgestone(s).  This was at www.batterystuff.com after getting very little help from local retailers.

One bike shop wouldn't even check for me unless I brought the old battery in!  This, despite having the measurements on hand (what would he have said if I didn't still have an original battery?  I should have hung up, called back and found out using a fake accent)   Were his measurements somehow more accurate than mine?  Did he possess some variety of magic tape measure only available to motorcycle shops?


I digress, however Gandalf won't be getting my business again anytime soon.  For a mere $30.00 (plus $20.00 for shipping...less for once!) One can buy a sealed gel battery ready to run.  I am expecting this shortly and will let you know how it works.

Stay Tuned!

Monday, August 12, 2013

Rise of the Bridgestone Baron?

I'm not sure how it happened.  A scant few months ago, the word 'Bridgestone' was hardly in my vocabulary, save for the tires I just had removed from my Triumph.

Fast forward 2 months and I am deep in the throes of bringing a 175cc Dual Twin back to life with a 90cc sport waiting in the wings.  Over the weekend,  my father and I left for a 7 hour round trip through scenic cottage country in Ontario to acquire this;



Yes, it is another Bridgestone...The big one, the most desirable one.  An early GTR, 350cc the biggest bike the company ever made.  When new, these were only $80.00 to a $100.00 less than a brand new Triumph Bonneville!  It is estimated that fewer than 8,000 units were ever produced and at that buy in price, that's hardly surprising!


This all started innocently enough, I swear.  I may have mentioned before that the most expensive aspect of restoring a bike these days is shipping costs.  There have been items I've purchased that were more expensive for me to ship than buy!

I thought perhaps it might be best to reach out to the motorcycle community and see if anyone had any bits and pieces lying around.  I got a response from a very nice gentleman who had this 350 collecting dust in his garage.  He offered it at a price that I couldn't turn down, even when factoring in the purchase of gas and the cost of renting a van for a day.  I had actually never seen one up close and personal before and they just don't seem to exist anywhere, let around these parts.

The seller was really a Honda guy at heart, he had about 7 of them!  I wish I had taken a picture of his immaculate and unmolested 1971 CB350.  It was a true survivor and a rolling time capsule.  It didn't feel right to ask to take the pic, he seemed like a fairly private guy so I wanted to respect that.

In addition to the bike, he also threw in these goodies;




I haven't gone through the box yet, I did notice an NOS crank, spare tail light lens, extra carb and sprocket.  The extra tank is in better shape than the one on it, so I will clean, polish and swap.

Here are some better shots after a bath in warm simple green (great product by the way) and a spray down.  I have given some of the chrome a light polish with WD40 and steel wool to see what I am up against.


Could this be the actual mileage?



I haven't delved into this bike too deeply yet.  I am inclined to believe that this could be a 5000 mile bike based on a few factors from my initial impression.  The tires are matching Bridgestones, which could very well be original.  It also appears as though everything is original and further to that in fairly good condition.

  I won't be getting into this one too deeply yet, she has good compression and kicks over freely.  My plan is to actually get it to run and clean up as much of the rust as I can.  I really don't want to restore it, I prefer to have an intact original with some great patina.  Also, it's unlikely that I will be able to afford to at this point!

Next post I will discover what year this gem was built in, catalog some parts and get back to some 175 business!  Stay Tuned.....

Please enjoy the fantastic John Barry theme song from 'The Persuaders' one of my favorite shows of all time.




Thursday, August 8, 2013

Bearing the brunt...

I apologize for the delay in posts!  I have managed to accomplish a few things in the last week or so, however not as much as I would have liked.  I am very proud to present my first 'mock up'  with the newly refinished seat.



This seat kit from Pit Replica was very easy to put on and is decent quality for the price.  Once the foam was built up in the weaker sections (as seen in previous posts) it went right on, the material was flexible enough to get over the back and sides without stretching.

Next step is the wheels, I started cleaning these up in order to get this beast rolling.

before- front

before- side view

after- front

I have a set of new bearings and new tires, Duros that are unfortunately made in China.  Finding 2.75 x 18 is not the easiest thing to get in a street tire, however at $33.00 a piece I shouldn't complain.  Why unfortunate?  I won't start a whole symposium here on Chinese goods other than to say I don't trust the quality of their goods;  I also resent the western reliance on such cheap goods, putting many jobs and the economic future of our young people in jeopardy.

This aside, one challenge I will face in this rebuild is the complete and utter unavailability of inner races or tapered bearings for the neck.  Inner races are the pieces where the ball bearings sit and mate withe outer races in the neck.  For some bizarre reason, outer races are available in abundance.  I was taught that when rebuilding a bike always replace bearings and races as they are likely worn.  In the case of tapered bearings there is not a single manufacturer that makes one to spec for any application.  I suppose these are the vagaries of Bridgestone ownership.  There is the joy of having boxes of NOS parts available but oddball pieces that are impossible to replace.   

I will have some more photos in the coming days of my progress! 

This weekend, my father and I are going on a little adventure......if all goes well I will have something very exciting to show you in the next post, stay tuned!