1968 Harley Sprint 250!

[Cabrito]

Did you open the case on your engine already?

 

[1962siia]

No I haven’t pulled it from the bike. I decided to get a different engine because it was also missing shifts sometimes so I assume the trans is worn. I’ll keep it as a spare and go through it later. For now I’ll get a good used engine and pull all the polished bling stuff from this one to make the new one look good. New clutch, points, and top end and hopefully I’ll be good to go. Probably going to take another month though to get this all together.

 

[1962siia]

Ok so it took a little longer than a month to get this bike back on the road. I purchased a used engine from Leslie at MotoItalia in Petaluma. Found an unobtanium over sized piston at a place in the Netherlands that wont ship to the USA. Luckily my niece lives in Austria so had it shipped to her address and she sent it to me! Took the "new" engine apart and sent the top end to EDCO in Petaluma and they machined it to the new piston, installed a new exhaust valve and made the top end look pretty! Yesterday Anytwowilldo came over and the top end got installed! I need to pull the old lump out of the frame, yank all the necessary parts off it and install them on the new lump. I'll try to get pics tomorrow, but this project is on the front burner and I hope to get it all together in the next week or so! WOOT!

 

[GreenHornet]

OOH that thing looks cool

 

[1962siia]

Tried to go dirt biking today but it was cold and rainy so I bailed. Good news is that I got some more work done on the Sprint!

Pulled the old motor out, pulled the polished side covers off, pulled the armature off and all other stuff on the left side and installed the new engine in the frame. Put the carb on after making sure it was clean, which is was.

Have a small list of things to figure out still but it’s getting close!!

Can someone please post a sticky on how not to suck at posting pics? :laughing

 

[auntiebling]

Can someone please post a sticky on how not to suck at posting pics? :laughing

it's pretty situational

my assumption is you're posting from your phone. the problem is almost always that the file is too large. if you're on an apple koolaid dispenser device i can't help you. i use an ap called, appropriately "reduce photo size" that is free at the expense of your soul. as i'm a ginger, i don't care about my soul.

so
-manage attachments
-choose file
-reduce photo size ap
-select photo (you can also take pics while in the RPS ap)
-reduce icon
-1280x960 (could actually be larger if an option were available. this size works welll here and on craigslist)
-save
-upload
-close this window
-submit reply

done

instead of the ap to reduce photo size, taking a screen shot of your picture while viewing it on your phone will also shrink the file size but it may leave you with huge weird borders, or things in the background you'd rather not share.

another thing many might not realize is that you're able to make a stand alone photo album on barf. if you click on your user name in the upper left RIGHT corner of the screen, it'll pop up your user profile, on the left of that screen is "albums"

if you create and post pictures there, you can then hot link them to your post and arrange them as you see fit instead of the blob of pictures that occurs uploading them directly to a single post. this way you can annotate pictures, and if your 3rd party hosting service goes tits up or fucks you and changes their service model to extort money from you (i'm looking at you webshots, fucking fucks) your sweet build thread doesn't end up with a lot of dead picture links.

 

[firstbuell]

it's pretty situational

my assumption is you're posting from your phone. the problem is almost always that the file is too large. if you're on an apple koolaid dispenser device i can't help you. i use an ap called, appropriately "reduce photo size" that is free at the expense of your soul. as i'm a ginger, i don't care about my soul.

so
-manage attachments
-choose file
-reduce photo size ap
-select photo (you can also take pics while in the RPS ap)
-reduce icon
-1280x960 (could actually be larger if an option were available. this size works welll here and on craigslist)
-save
-upload
-close this window
-submit reply

done

instead of the ap to reduce photo size, taking a screen shot of your picture while viewing it on your phone will also shrink the file size but it may leave you with huge weird borders, or things in the background you'd rather not share.

another thing many might not realize is that you're able to make a stand alone photo album on barf. if you click on your user name in the upper left corner of the screen, it'll pop up your user profile, on the left of that screen is "albums"

if you create and post pictures there, you can then hot link them to your post and arrange them as you see fit instead of the blob of pictures that occurs uploading them directly to a single post. this way you can annotate pictures, and if your 3rd party hosting service goes tits up or fucks you and changes their service model to extort money from you (i'm looking at you webshots, fucking fucks) your sweet build thread doesn't end up with a lot of dead picture links.

SUPER detailed & thus very useful - thx!!

 

[auntiebling]

i hope so

noticed and fixed a typo in my post, though now quoted in Curt's post. ... user name in the upper RIGHT corner of your screen

 

[1962siia]

Yeah thanks for the tutorial! :thumbup . I just added an album for this bike. I'll try to get all my photos in there and post some up.

SO........ The bike is up and running!! Had to go through the carb again, adjust the timing and points gap and it now fires right up and I took it for a short run through the 'hood. The bottom end on this engine is much tighter than the old one was, no missed shifts, clutch seems fine too. I'm being super gentle with it and want to get an hour meter for it so I'll have something to gauge when I think it's had enough time to call it broken in. It doesn't have any gauges on it at all right now.

I need to reinstall the front fender and find an appropriate looking sideview mirror and I'll probably order some more jets for the dell'orto carb because it has a little hickup coming off idle, and I think the high speed jet is too lean and I really dont want to cook another piston!!

Next up is to ride it and do some throttle chops to determine how its running and get it dialed in. It's so fun to ride! Woot!

Pic to test using photo album.

 

[1962siia]

OK so the Moto Melee is right around the corner. I've sent in my check but haven't heard anything yet. Spent the day dialing in the bike. Retarded the timing a bit, played with the jetting some more and took it on its first freeway stint. Only went one exit up and back (reg is out!) and it felt really good. I'm going to lower the needle one clip but I think its good enough to give it a go! Next up is to find a suitable rear view mirror, some small jugs for extra fuel and a place to put them, and front fender and loctite everything! OH and pay my dang registration! WOOT!

For the record the main jet on this thing was a 98 and the stock was a 118. Jeabous! I had a 108 and drilled it out!

 

[1962siia]

Ok so today will be the official pre melee shakedown ride. Hoping to ride at least 100 miles. Not sure of my route but it will include petaluma and a stop at MotoItalia for some spares. I'll post up how it goes.

 

[1962siia]

FACK!!!!
Bike was awesome until it died in Pt Reyes. Turns out its not charging and thats how long the battery lasted. Armature is grounded. I found a NOS one on Ebay and it will be here on Tues. I am not sure about the field coils but will try to get them figured out tomorrow. It ran great otherwise and was a blast to ride. Met several folks in Pt Reyes who wanted to talk about the bike while I was there for three hours trying to get it started. Special thank to Dino on the Ducati scrambler who hung out the whole time and to Anytwowilldo came to give me a ride home.

The saga continues. :thumbdown


Also I stopped at MotoItalia on my way through. I needed a bar end mirror plus some other spares, and Leslie had one. We had to fiddle with it a bit to get it to work with my bars but Leslie is a very helpful guy and went the extra distance to help me get it together for my ride today. Thanks to him. Pretty rare example of a solid motoshop owner these days. He and his shop are awesome and I recommend him for all your italia moto needs! :thumbup

 

[Cabrito]

Oh damn... of all the things to happen... That sucks.

Is there anything you can anticipate from here on once you get this fixed? Brakes or brake lines?

 

[1962siia]

Oh damn... of all the things to happen... That sucks.

Is there anything you can anticipate from here on once you get this fixed? Brakes or brake lines?

I think its ready otherwise. It ran well, and I got it timed even better last night while futzing with the charging system. I've got spares for things like cables and there isnt much to this little bike. I suppose I can just put it back together and continue shaking it down around town to make sure there isn't something else lurking.

 

[SFMCjohn]

good for you for shaking it down and id’ing the charging issues ... would be a big bummer to be stranded three hours during the Melee ... :thumbup

don’t think I’ve ever really solved my Tiger’s many charging issues, though I’ve developed many multi-day vintage-ride charging back-up plans: :laughing

multiple batteries, multi-meter, trickle chargers and extension cords ... :rolleyes

... charging the Tiger's battery with
the Indian's generator ...
Kalle's brilliant idea! :ride

... my solution would have
been to lay in the dirt and cry .... :laughing

... nice to have a small sealed charged battery
along for the second part of the day.

confident you’re the type of rider that’ll
get the Sprint properly sorted ... :gsxrgrlarty

did the Melee cash your entry check yet? :ride

 

[firstbuell]

good for you for shaking it down and id’ing the charging issues ... would be a big bummer to be stranded three hours during the Melee ... :thumbup

don’t think I’ve ever really solved my Tiger’s many charging issues, though I’ve developed many multi-day vintage-ride charging back-up plans: :laughing

multiple batteries, multi-meter, trickle chargers and extension cords ... :rolleyes

... nice to have a small sealed charged battery
along for the second part of the day.

confident you’re the type of rider that’ll
get the Sprint properly sorted ... :gsxrgrlarty

did the Melee cash your entry check yet? :ride

Kalle knows, period:thumbup

‘charge’ ahead, regardless !!

 

[1962siia]

good for you for shaking it down and id’ing the charging issues ... would be a big bummer to be stranded three hours during the Melee ... :thumbup

don’t think I’ve ever really solved my Tiger’s many charging issues, though I’ve developed many multi-day vintage-ride charging back-up plans: :laughing



multiple batteries, multi-meter, trickle chargers and extension cords ... :rolleyes



... nice to have a small sealed charged battery
along for the second part of the day.

confident you’re the type of rider that’ll
get the Sprint properly sorted ... :gsxrgrlarty

did the Melee cash your entry check yet? :ride

Great ideas! I was planning to bring my tender and an extension cord, but I'll put a new spare battery in one of the chase trucks too! Ebay just sent notification that the new armature shipped so that part is solved. I should have been suspicious because this bike has a new regulator on it. I'll be on the phone with MotoItalia in a few mins to hopefully solve the rest.

Not sure if they cashed my check but I'm in because I got my acceptance letter. #61 Woot! :ride

 

[SFMCjohn]

Kalle knows, period:thumbup

‘charge’ ahead, regardless !!

that’s the best part of these multi-day vintage rallies ...
I get to hang out with my betters like Kalle, Daniel and Tom
and maybe learn a thing or two about being a real motorcycle guy ... :laughing:thumbup

 

[1962siia]

that’s the best part of these multi-day vintage rallies ...
I get to hang out with my betters like Kalle, Daniel and Tom
and maybe learn a thing or two about being a real motorcycle guy ... :laughing:thumbup

:rofl Yeah someday you might be a real motorcycle guy. :rofl

That shot of Kalle's bike charging your's is brilliant! :thumbup

 

[SFMCjohn]

Not sure if they cashed my check but I'm in because I got my acceptance letter. #61 Woot! :ride

you’re in! :thumbup

nothing like one’s first Melee ... you’ll remember it forever!
super excited for you and the Sprint ... arty