Monday, November 26, 2012

Jack Frost's icy clutch.

Oh yes, summer and indian summer are unquestionably over. It's getting cold in the mancave, the electric heater is on, full whack. It probably won't be long before we have to relocate to Witold's digs for our playdates. Anyway, speaking of clutches, we got the Dommie's all done and back on the bike, finally.

Here are the new shock absorbing rubbers being pressed in, not easy to do but really not as much of a headache as most people would have you believe. Put your back into it son!


Cover plate back on:


And backplate bolted on. In between that and the clutch center there is a large roller cage with individual rollers, a perfect fit and a beautiful arrangement. I forgot to take a photo of it though.


Now, these are the inserts that go into the actual clutch baskets, something that was replaced by a single half-bonded plate on later models. The inserts we found were a hard plastic and very smooth. The new ones are a much grippier fibre, you can see the difference here:


In they go, one by one:


Then it's on to the plates, alternating driving and driven:


Pressure plate, springs, with their cups and locknuts:


So elegantly self-contained, such a clever engineering solution. If you really stop to consider how it all works together you can't but be impressed. Whoever came up with this, hats off to you. Ok, back into the chaincase you go:


We're getting a new primary chain. At first I had thought we could re-use the one that was on, but a couple of stubborn links are giving me pause and I don't see the point putting it back on knowing it's not as good as it could be. The whole thing will need careful adjustment and may need to come off and be put back on once or twice, but I'm ok with this. I want this to be perfect, it has to work flawlessly. Witold has the stator and is soldering on some new wires for us. I'll enlist his expertise for some other "patches" on the wiring loom, I've spotted a couple of things that could definitely be improved.

Oh, have a look at the new rear mudguard, still in progress but pretty much done in terms of final fit:




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