My best "foreigner" at work ever.

[weeman_mtb]

I work in a toolroom servicing press tools and often find my attention drifting towards messing with bike bits. It can be anything from just cleaning parts in the degreaser, stripping and rebuilding hubs/mechs and even making the odd part or tool as I need them.

This week I made a really good XT rear mech from two bad ones which left over a very worn aluminium jockey wheel with a pressed in bearing. The bearing was good so I started planning how I could knock up a replacement jockey using the miller and lathe (no CNC here). Aluminium is very scarce here, plenty of toolsteel though, but I did manage to source a heatsink from a pc which was perfect.

So much hacking and fettling later here is the result. Its not perfect but to be honest I'm chuffed to bits with my first attempt.

Oh and if the boss sees this, I did it all in my breaks honest .

 

[Enid_Puceflange]

Good skills

G

 

[tintin40]

Great work

 

[Russell]

Nice work.

You want a job?

I can't find decent engineers for love nor money!

 

[weeman_mtb]

Thanks guys, I really hope it works ok. I'll put it on a mech and bike that I know shifts/works fine for a test run. Worst case scenario, I've got a new keyring .

 

[cyfa2809]

Nice work.

You want a job?

I can't find decent engineers for love nor money!

If only you were in southwest!

 

[rosstheboss]

Awesome!!! Could that be the world's most worn jockey wheel?!?!

 

[cyfa2809]

Awesome!!! Could that be the world's most worn jockey wheel?!?!

I was just thinking the exact same thing

 

[Andy R]

For me it was re-sleeving a TL125 engine to 180cc then stroking it to 230cc, modifying an XL125 cylinder head and carb to use on the TL engine, fitting an external oil cooler (as otherwise it ran really hot - there's not much finning on the TL engine). Extra flywheel weighting on the generator side (brass, of course, so as to be non-magnetic).
All of this in the obligatory Hi-Boy frame with XL125 leading axle forks converted from coil to air and with new top and bottom yokes (machined from scratch) to achieve the trail/offset that I wanted.

It ended up almost as trick as most works machinery, I hate to think how many hours went into it .

Not a real foreigner though as - a) I wasn't doing it for, and getting paid by, someone else and b) the company that I worked for were (by allowing me to do the work) one of my sponsors.

I'll have to try and root out a few photographs but this is going back to about 1978 so that in itself might take some doing.

 

[MCsanandreas]

TL125? cool. that was my first motorbike,shame i was absolute rubbish as a trials rider.