Apologies to all you new builders out there, I haven't posted for a while as I forgot how important the Build Journals are when you are just starting out. As it's been so long, this may come across as a bit "all over the place"...soz!
To be honest there was a massive push to get things ready for Brooklands, I managed to get the kart built to be a rolling chassis, albeit a non-runner.
Building up the chassis went reasonably smoothly, mounting all the front suspension and axels was really easy. The rear setup took some brain power though to make sure everything was lined up and stayed that way. I’ve mounted the engine and engine plate on a sliding bed so I can adjust for chain tension using a bolt at the rear of the chassis. Not my idea, one I pinched from Chris S.
Following some advice on the forum I have a brake caliper from a Suzuki GSF 650, a Gemini brake disc and a Wilwood 0.70 Brake cylinder. The challenge here was that all the fittings are different sizes from metric to imperial and thread size, very confusing for a simple fella like me. I have used copper brake pipes (for now) to get it running but would like to change over to braided pipes in the future. The brakes are all set up and seem to work static. I do get a little movement in the caliper mount but nothing that can’t be strengthened later on. It could also be my really terrible welding!
The body slid into the chassis like it was made to fit…oh, wait a minute, it was! I still can’t believe it fits like a glove as it did keep me awake on a couple of nights.
The steering is just standard gokart stuff, I’ll upload some pics of this soon.
Wheels…these have been the most frustrating part of the build so far. I bought some Honda C90 originals that were in a proper state and to be honest, would probably have been better scrapped rather than renovated. But I thought “No, I’m going to bring those back to life”… foooool! So I bought 7 wheels, 5 of which were 17x 1.20 for £60, a deal not to be ignored by a Yorkshire man. I stripped them, wire wheeled and sanded the hubs and rims, painted them a lovely black with topcoat and then some new spokes. I spoked the rims but then spent about a week trying to true them, and this is where the problems started. It’s an art and I’m no artist…in fact, it's awful. The thing is, getting this done commercially is nearly impossible, nobody seems to do it anymore. After a lot of research, I found a place in Leeds that managed to do the front wheels for me but damaged them in the process. They tried to do the rears but lost them! 4 weeks later I eventually got them back untrued and the paint job I spent so long on was wrecked. I eventually found a really lovely fella down the road who restores bikes and he did a brilliant job.
All this work got the kart on 4 wheels and rolling at Brooklands but since then not a lot has happened other than me building a new steering wheel and starting the front grill (pics to follow).
At the moment my business is taking all my time and a sizable chunk of my budget to get it off the ground but it won't be long before I'm back at it