'61 Greeves Hawkstone Scrambler

[Tracker]

Originally Posted by TRexRacing

Any progress or good news?

The Greeves is a bit stalled right now. Between the state employee furlough days and the chrome shop losing my rims I can't do a lot. I'm still doing the little details - I just don't want to get in a position where money is an issue on how something can be done.
The Greeves stall has allowed my son to catch up to me with his '73 RT3 project. He bought a 2007 Ninja this morning which will be good for the old Yamaha. Now there isn't much chance it will become a daily driver. It's turning out nice. We got some perfect reproduction graphic decals from a guy in Canada.

[TRexRacing]

Thanks.Just curious.Keep at it brick by brick and it will get built.

[Tracker]

Tuesday I woke up thinking about somebody else having my rims and it started to bug me. Since Arnold is giving me 3 days a month off I figured I would do some running around. So, I headed east on the 210 and ended up at Buchanan's in Azusa. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted but I had brought the rims I was mistakenly given by the chrome shop and I took them in to speak with a rim expert.
Holy crap do those guys know their stuff.
I explained what had happened to me and the guy glanced down at the two "wrong" rims I had and he said, "Well- These would work for you if you want to use them. Let me check something". He then reached to his left and pulled out a small folder and went to a tab labled, "Greeves". There on the first page was a photo of a paddle fin hub and a lot of notes. After looking at those handwritten notes he said, "These rims are drilled .250 and your spokes should be .300 but other than making the holes bigger these rims will work.
Again: Uh Oh. Decision time.
I thanked him for his time and told him I needed to think about the whole thing.
When I got back in the truck I started thinking that there was probably some poor SOB somewhere in the same predicament as me but with different symptoms. I started imagining a cherry BSA sitting on blocks for lack of rims and I just couldn't get the picture out of my head.
Nope. Don't drill.
So I went to the chrome shop, told myself to be polite, and walked in with the rims. The guy behind the counter said, "I guess someone called you? These just got here. Here's your's", and he put two cherry Dulop rims on the counter. He remarked that the other guy was going to use my rims and still didn't believe he had picked up the wrong ones. I gave the counter guy a diagram and explanation of the differences and just walked out scratching my head.
And I bought a lottery ticket on the way home.

[TRexRacing]

Great.Progress is progress no matter the amount.

[Tracker]

Well, I've had a little medical down time from work which has allowed me to get some bike work done. After all the painting was complete I just had to lace the rims and mount the rubber. Of the 4 different lengths of spokes, two were within 3/8" of each other so yeah, I got to do it almost twice.
The front tire is a 3.50 X 19" "Avon Motorcycle Trials Supreme" and the rear is a 4.00 X 18", Barum "Desert Racing" 6-ply knobby. Both are NOS from a warehouse high in the mountains in Colorado which is supposedly the reason they are still in perfect condition for their age. That rear tire was the stiffest one I've mounted in a long time. It won't matter much if it has air in it or not.

I'm glad I decided to save and re-plate the original spokes and nipples. They came out nice and it was actually a little cheaper than buying new ones.

[Tracker]

The weather has been good and I've made some more progress. I now have a rolling chassis:

I took Mainjet's advice and didn't paint the ammo can on the front. I like it.

[VAL]

Loving this thread. Keep the updates rolling.

[Tracker]

You gotta have a helmet that matches the vintage ride, right? Yes, I have a Jofa Mouthguard to go with it.

Having worked at Bell helmets as a kid growing up in Long Beach, Ca. made it a simple manner to freshen up one of the old the skid lids. A couple stickers off Ebay were a nice finishing touch. Ernie gets credit for reminding me about Blendzall.

[OLDMXRACER 393]

I see is things are still moving forward on the project Tracker. Cool stuff. Do you know if Bell will refurbish a helmet bringing it up to current standards? Never have contacted them and I'm assuming they wouldn't because of liability. I still have my RT and Moto 3 that would look great at the vintage races....

[Tracker]

Originally Posted by OLDMXRACER 393

I see is things are still moving forward on the project Tracker. Cool stuff. Do you know if Bell will refurbish a helmet bringing it up to current standards? Never have contacted them and I'm assuming they wouldn't because of liability. I still have my RT and Moto 3 that would look great at the vintage races....

I don't know for sure but I was told that Bell moved operations to Italy. I don't know if it is even the same owners. If it is i would say no- They used to go to a lot of expense to prove how often helmets should be replaced and how they become unsafe with age. There was a guy that worked down the aisle from me that spent most of his days putting weights in helmets and dropping them on to different shaped edges. Then he would study the damage while noting the helmet's age. If you look at your helmet's chin straps you'll see the date of manufacture branded in. He told me that fiberglass actually gets harder with age but helmet shells need to flex.
When I went to refurbish one of my own helmets I had to bring it in on a Friday, (we worked four tens) and still, the supervisor made me feel guilty about even having it in the building. It was a PITA to work on too because it was a model that wasn't made any more (90 degree Star) and the work stations were tooled up for current stuff only.
The materials to do it yourself are available at regular retail outlets like fabric stores and home improvement centers. The only step most can't do at home is sewing the cloth / foam interior to the ABS inner liner. I use 3M 77 glue.