Plans & Ideas - Shorty

Wheels
As the cost of new rims and spokes are prohibitive at the moment I've gone for the cheapest solution and painted the wheels green with black hubs. Not ideal but not that bad either - hopefully this will allow me to get the bike on the road by the Autumn...................

Sump / Engine Shield
Had a good look at the old 3mm thick mild steel "Bash Plate" that I used to have fitted on the bike - think It's much to heavy and over the top now, although I still would like to give the engine a reasonable amount of protection from rocks etc. Probably make something a bit lighter from a piece of Duraluminium or similar, have put up some photo's now of the old mega armour plated bullet proof steel "Bash Plate" - just for fun.

Rubber Mounted Solo Seat?
Decided to completely remake the solidly mounted trials seat as I remember all to well how unpleasant the bike was to ride over a long distance when it was last on the road, don't think having heavy duty sidecar springs in the plunger units helped with this situation at all! Would like to build some sort of cantilever sprung or rubber mounted seat arrangement to make things a bit more comfortable. Got some ideas and some bits and pieces put back for this already, also now considering using a rear suspension unit off a mountain bike, probably just about the right sort of strength for this project............

I have been testing some springs and rubber cones and was surprised at the strength required for this type of design, and I'm only 16 stone...

... Probably now going to use some spare heavy duty sidecar springs from the rear plunger units!

Chain Guard
Cut 3.5" off the front of what was left of the original chain guard and reshaped it to fit the primary chain case, also now have cut off the bottom edge and raised the bottom mounting point on the frame up an inch to save it snagging on things.

Overall Gearing
Keeping the primary drive ratios standard on this bike with a 19 tooth to 45 tooth final drive which puts it somewhere in the middle of the standard sidecar (49) and solo (42) gearing, hopefully this should be a good compromise for green laning.

Anyone got a spare wide ratio gearbox or know how to make one?

Petrol Tank
Decided to use the larger and original Golden Flash tank to give the bike a more reasonable range, don't seem to be as many petrol stations around as there used to be! I was surprised how tidy the tank looked on the bike considering the shorter wheel base and the other mod's etc., think it's going to be painted black when I get around to it.

Frame
You guessed it the name "Shorty" gave it away right? Many moons ago I cut 3.5" out of the plunger frame and then put it all back together again. Think it's the same wheel base as a Montessa Cota now, I have also moved the footrest further back and higher up into roughly the same position as on the Montessa - the plan was to improve traction on the rear wheel and make the front a bit lighter for going over obstacles, jumps etc., also made it really easy to pull wheelies..................

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Cylinder Head
Bit of a disaster with the cast iron large fin head which I had intended to use, after many hours cleaning and fettling discovered a really terminal crack between the spark plug and the exhaust valve on one cylinder! Not to be defeated I have now managed to restore another similar single carb head which I had put aside previously because it had been so knocked about - a couple of small fins around the exhaust ports had been broken etc. so cut the opposite fins off the other side of the head to match, quite a bit of work but very pleased with the results.

New guides and valves have been fitted successfully now, had them in stock for over 20 years, got to organise the head gasket etc..............

Exhaust System
A high level custom made siamese from stainless steel milking machine parts, no don't you dare laugh, its really quite a nice job even though I say so myself, should be finished soon, looking forward to hearing what it's going to sound like now.

Oil Tank and Filter
As there is no dynamo on this bike I have mounted an alloy oil filter housing from an Austin Healy Sprite on the side of the front alloy engine plate.

Chopped the back off the oil tank and welded up again so now it clears the rear mudguard! The theory being that the extra capacity of the filter offsets the smaller tank volume looks about right but I've not checked this accurately yet.

Tyres & Tubes
The standard set up for trials, a 4.00 x 18" rear and a 2.50 x 21" front, special thanks to Ray Cooper for helping me out with these....says he never goes on the internet cause he's always busy in the workshop, if you know Ray please let him know he's mentioned on the StarChaser, cheers Ray!

Folding Kick-Start
As the footrest have been mounted further back it is now necessary to have a folding kick-start as a standard one gets in the way of your leg, I would prefer not to have to make this from scratch so I'm currently on the look out for one.