His name? Al Seeley. His mission? To boldly go where no man has gone before... well, actually this month he’s making spacers, brackets and mountings for his Project Harris Magnum 2
Alan Seeley attempts to make a fast period-style bike from a bunch of old bits
If the devil lies in the detail, then Lucifer himself lurks in the final finessing required for a successful special build. Many is the project let down by cut corners and laziness in the rush to get a bike built. There will be no such bodgery on Project Magnum. Given the lengths that Harris Performance went to in rescuing the frame, there is no way I am going to compromise its quality.
It takes time to get things right – and it isn’t just your own that has to be factored into a special build. There can be time wasted waiting for outside suppliers too – Iapproached a local engineering company to mill me a hanger for the rear brake caliper. However, after a month they still hadn’t started the job, so I retrieved the parts from them. These are frustrations that are invariably all part of the job.
Special building is a lot easier when you can be self-reliant. A lathe – or at least access to one – is essential. If I had a mill, I could have done the caliper hanger myself too.
As it is, a friend has agreed to take on the milling work. So he’ll need templates and measurements. On the following pages this month, I show you how to go about creating templates – and how to make spacers on the lathe.
How to… Make wheel spacers
1 We’re using an Aprilia RSV front wheel in Triumph 955 Speed Triple forks. These parts came with the project along with some spacers that aren’t quite wide enough to fill the space in the legs, and the wheel is far from central. Using a steel rule, dividers and Vernier calipers, I took as many measurements as I could between various reference points to establish how much shorter the spacer on the left side had to be – and how much longer a new one for the right side would have to be.
2 I have established that the spacer needs to be cut down by 3mm. Having applied a layer of ink to the old spacer, I put it in the lathe and use a Vernier to scribe a line to that depth. (It’s quicker and easier to modify something I already have rather than starting from scratch on both sides.) Once cut down, it’s refitted to the wheel and I can measure the gap to calculate the dimensions of a new one.
3 Talk about ‘machined from solid’. I have a large box of aluminium, and steel bar and tube offcuts that I can raid for tasks such as this. First off, the bar is squared in the chuck pri
