Midnight Oil '71 triumph

oilburner · #1 (**permalink**) 09-26-2006, 06:56 PM

Well, this is a bike thats been sitting around for the past, oh, lets figure about15-16 years, first my father aquired it from a friend, he got it running but never put it on the street, then when I moved away with the Air Force, he gave it to me when I started working at a hotrod shop, with the plans that I would build it...That was 1996. Here we are today ten years later, actualy doing something with it. It was pretty well basterdized when my father got it (I've got a pic somewhere) it had struts in place of the shocks out back, flat black beat up stock tank, mini apes, glass blue and silver metal flake rear bobtail, no lights, just picture the bike you find in the back of a garage buried in junk for a long time, dust, rust all that. My plan is to use the main frame hoop, the motor, and the wheels (probably just the hubs, and build the rest from scratch. It's a '71, yes with the oil in frame, and yes, I'm using the oil in frame section. The big, fat, clumsy looking oil reservoir frame. Everyone scraps them, everyone has told me to scrap it, I'm going to use it.
The bike isn't going to be the stereotypical chopper or bobber, I'm building something that will look like it was built in the 20'/30's that a hotrodder would have had his hands in. I'll be doing a 1 1/4" hard tail out back, and a scratch built leaf spring susp. front fork assembly. A scratch built tank, rear fender, seat set up, exhaust, you name it, as long as it's not in the motor or trans mission, it's getting made/modified in the shop. It may move along slow at times, as the build will count on slow periods in the shop (www.midnightoilworks.com) and limited nights and weekends, but it will definatley be something unique when it's all said and done. here are a couple pics of what we're starting with. The first pic is the motor/tranny and the original frame hoop I'll be building off of.

The next pic is a shot of sparks flying, un-needed stuff getting cut off before it gets fitted in the frame jig.

The next pic is right after I cut out the center stand, and used the bottom plate of the frame/oiltank to bolt it to the jig.

And the last one for tonight is a pic of it mounted in the jig, with the swing arm momentarily bolted back in place so I can mount the rear wheel in the jig at the same wheelbase measurement as stock and build the hardtail to it. You can also see how much it has been lowered by the downward angle of the swingarm. The bottom of the frame will be 4 inches off the ground.

More progress to fallow soon. Mark.

Concrete Guy · #2 (**permalink**) 09-26-2006, 07:40 PM

Hey, now that looks like a fun project. Always liked the trumps. Look forward to seeing the progress.

Scott

Markee · #3 (**permalink**) 09-26-2006, 07:52 PM

That thing is sick! Love it. I have never seen a bike with a top/seat tube that large.

oilburner · #4 (**permalink**) 09-27-2006, 04:29 AM

I've always liked the thing, the Confederate "Hellcats" run a frame like this, and I think they are an awsome bike. It's outside the box, not the same'ol. Thanks guys.

khromatics · #5 (**permalink**) 09-27-2006, 06:23 PM

hey, just wanted to say hi met you at tuccies when mike and i worked on the front end fiberglassing it. good move movin on your own, good luck. kevin@khromatics in case you dont remember im the one who came in the conv mustang that color shift from red to blue.and dave couldnt understand why i needed my roller to roll out the air bubbles from the mat.do you remember me?

oilburner · #6 (**permalink**) 09-27-2006, 06:47 PM

Of coarse I remember you. There's a lot "He" doesn't understand. Stop by sometime Kevin!

Goofy Grape · #7 (**permalink**) 09-27-2006, 09:49 PM

Mark, this should be almost as fun to watch as it will be for you to create. I'll be tuned in.

oilburner · #8 (**permalink**) 09-28-2006, 07:22 PM

Lunch time today found me finishing jigging up the rear axle, here is a pic. I set the axle height that the wheel and tire I'll be using will have, and made a fixture to hold it in place to build the hardtail to. The fixture is a short length of square tube with a round tube (That the axle happened to slide into perfectly) across the top. I cut the round to fit perfectly between the existing swing arm axle blocks, giving me just the right width to build to, since I'll be using the wheel that was on the bike originaly. Where did this cool chromed rear axle fixture come from? An old weight lifting bench some one through out! Did I mention it's chrome, lol. Tomarrow hopefully I'l remove the swingarm and start bending up a couple hardtail peices!

Primate · #9 (**permalink**) 10-05-2006, 06:42 PM

Hi, Cool to see someone converting a OIF triumph I took my motor out and put it in a hardtail frame with oil tank ...I keep pics of triumph hardtails and such to grind ideas from, thought you might get some benefit from these ... This bike is along the lines of what you are doing.

oilburner · #10 (**permalink**) 10-05-2006, 07:05 PM

Yes it is, very cool! Thanks for the pics! I'm going to try and get a couple tubes fit up out back at lunch tomarrow, to many visitors the past few days, can't get anything done...lol.

oilburner · #11 (**permalink**) 10-08-2006, 07:14 PM

Well, I can't believe it, but I actually got somewhere during thurs. and fri. lunches. I like the adjusters for the rear axle, (I think they look simple and will be cool copper plated maybe) so instead of making the standard axle plate you see on all frames, I cut the swing arm away and left the original axle plate/adjusters, and will build the hardtail to them. Thursdays lunch saw the swing arm removed and the first upper hard tail tube bent up and fitted.

Friday was one of those bad days, where no matter what I tried to do, everything fought me and nothing got done. So about 2:00, my good bud Chris says, your not getting anywhere but pissed, lets close the doors and go for a ride. We did, I came back at 4:00 to clean up some tools, and decided to try the lower tube. The ride must have cleared my head a little, because in about a half hour I had the lower tube almost fitting. I taped it in place and snapped a couple pics, and went home.

Don't know when I'll get to o the left side tubes, but when they are made and tached in I'll remove the rear jig and slide on the rear wheel and tire to make sure everything is good. But there is a rumor that I may have a job coming in for the jig table, so it may be a little while, we'll see.

oilburner · #12 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 05:41 PM

So here it is, Tues. evening, last night after dinner I went back to the shop and worked on the bike a little. Over the weekend I managed to get the rest of the hardtail bars almost done, so last night I started by finishing bending the last one up and fitting them. Here it is with the bars tached in place.

Once I was happy with their fit cut the tachs loose and removed them, so I could have room to move around and cut out the original swing arm mount and fill it in.

I cut it out and found a piece of 1/8" wall 3" tubing to use to fill in the hole, made the piece, welded it in, and finished the welds till they were gone.

So after that I stuck all the hardtail bars back on, welded them up pretty solid (left the hard places to weld up later when I can flip the frame around) and removed the rear axle fixture. I mounted the wheel and tire in it to check everything, it's all good. I need to make tab for the bracket that holds the brake from spinning, then I'm on to the front of the frame.

I might get to the brake tab tomarrow, we'll just see.

Concrete Guy · #13 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 05:59 PM

Hey did you see this months StreetChopper mag? Has a bike in there that has the same frame as yours. Thought you might like to know.

Scott

oilburner · #14 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 06:17 PM

The Nov. issue? I just flipped through it, where is the bike? thanks.

Concrete Guy · #15 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 06:24 PM

Sorry about that! It is one that is sitting upstairs in my bathroom. Give me a few and I will find out what mag it is.

Scott