A few people have asked me for an update on Cafe ala Carte.
It has been a while as work has had me buried since October and family life with the kids is running me ragged but I have made some progress. Things are calming down so I am starting to get seriously rolling again. Well here goes the update.
I made it through my titling late last fall. I went in for my inspection Oct 7th. It was very short notice as first I thought I had 3 weeks lead for an appointment then it as 5-6 weeks which put me into November. This can be an ugly time in Minnesota to prove a bike "can run". So I called in and all of a sudden they had an opening the next week. I scrambled to put the finishing details on it so that it would be "fully legal" bike that ran.
To understand the significance of this realize that the frame I am building this bike around is a 1968 Montgomery Wards Mojave 260 frame. That bike was actually made by Benelli in Italy and was a knock off of a Rickman racing frame. Orginally built for a 650 twing but scrapped before it came into production it came out of the factory housing undersized 260 and 360cc engines for MW in America. Now this frame that is 40 years old and has never had a title. I did have written signed history dating back to 1969 from the guy I bought it from. The DMV said bring that and all my reciepts of all parts and a running motorcycle and they would inspect it and then I could file for a title. So the initial 9 months was slamming together a bike that would run. I did not want to sink much money into it until I knew I could get a title for it. So I did what I call the "title" build. I built, not the bike I wanted but something that would run.
Nervous as all get out I showed up with all my paperwork, and my bike. Turns out the inspectors look at the title for the bike my savage engine came out of, look at my written history on the frame, write down the engine number and the frame number and checked the box that says PASS. They handed me the sheet of paper, wished me luck and sent me on my way. Never asked to have it started, never asked to see a single reciept. Whoa...out the door in 7 minutes. Took me longer to unload and load than the inspection. Far cry from some of the horror stories I had heard from others.
So this picture is of the bike last fall right before the title inspection.
Now I had to wait 7 weeks but my title finally came.....with the wrong year!!!!!!!!!!!! Feeling like I was walking on thin ice I went back to the DMV and politely told them this brand new title for a 40 year old frame was WRONG and it was THEIR FAULT. After a week of convincing them selves that my paper work did indeed say 1968 and not 1965 they asked me to return my title and issued me a new one with the correct year. My bike is now offically a 1968 Montgomery Wards! I just happens to have a 650 in it rather than a 260!
So Christmas vacation (manditory this year by the company) was spent ordering parts! here are some of my goodies......
new shocks from Works Performance. Gas charged dual rate spring Street Trackers.... sweet! These were made for a BSA650 and the guy didn't come through with the payment so Works had them on their ebay store discounted about $150
Next I ordered my fiberglass fender from Glass from the Past. Great glass at a great price...$50
Then I ordered up my digital dash. It is a Trail Tech unit kitted for a DR650 so it has the 10mm spark plug temp sensor. Got it for $101 delivered to my door from an Ebay storefront.
Here is the mid 60's head light that it will go in.
so it will look something like this once I make a billet surround for it.
next I ordered up the chain. I found an ebay store front that had this for less than half of list. I am going with a 520 oring version with 520 sprockets rather than the 530 that most have converted to. I need the narrower chain and what a weight savings!
Then I ordered up my sprockets from Vortex. These are 520 width and I am going to run an Aluminum 46 tooth rear and I bought a 15T and a 16T front which are nickle plated steel. With my taller rear rim this gives me a 3% over or a 10% over stock gearing. I plan to start with the 10% over.
Then came the shipment of my Avon Roadriders.......
which brought me to the last adventure. Custom spokes for hubs and rims that never intended to come together in unity. I went to the gods of spokes...Buchanans Spoke and Rim. I am running GS750 front hub in a 19" high shouldered Takasago aluminum rim from a 1970's Yamaha XS650. These are just like the Akront racing rims of the 60's and 70's. They had all the specs on the hub and rims to make those spokes. Then came the Savage rear hub in an 18" high shouldered Takasago aluminum rim from a 1970's Yamaha XS650 and that one they had to dig on. They had seen a savage front hub before but had no specs on the rear hub. So, I sent them my rear hub from the savage and the rim off the Yamy and they made up the spokes to fit.
What I bought was Swaged 8-9 gage stainless steel spokes custom to my application. Took about a week and my spokes were on the way back to me.
I have the rear laced up and trued and the front is almost done also. Right now I am about to start machining the rear sprocket carrier from the rear hub as I need to move the sprocket inward about 1/4". I am also going to machine an 1/8" off the front spacer that rides on engine side of the counter shaft sprocket so that that sprocket moves over also. Then I will have to set the engine 1/8" off center to line it all up.
Once that is all nailed down spring should be here in Minnesota so I can get back out to the garage where my frame jig is and cut out the swing arm pivot mounts and make new ones to move the swing arm pivot down about 1-1/4".
So until the next update that is where I am at.....
Pages: 1
