Holy shitaroo, what a year! Westarted out with the notion for a Streamlined 45 like Burt Monroe. Thestreamliner rules prohibited the dream, but we kept moving with Departure BikeWorks, until the economy sucked the life out of Lee’s business, and state taxesalmost shut him down. The Bonne Belle slowed like two flat tires in the mud.
Suddenly, like a lightening strikein the night, the Peashooter, with its stroked overhead valve engine, wasalmost rebuilt, and Sierra Madre Motorcycles offered to help modify and repairmy old Peashooter frame, through Mackie. Berry Wardlaw from AccurateEngineering had the perfect front end, a miniature Ceriani glide from the ’60s.I had to give the Peashooter Bonneville effort my best shot, but we only had acouple of months.
We now have three days beforedeparture, and I’m still waiting on the primary drive through Classic Cycles,in Orange, California. It was recently shipped from England. This weekend, wemade the Envy Cycle Peashooter fairing brackets and mounted the windshield.Terry Lee hand-fabbed the entire unit with my scattered dimensions. I thoughtthe Peashooter would be a breeze, but it’s been packed with interestingchallenges.
“Just read theSunday News; the Peashooter is looking sexy as hell,” said Terry Lee.”You missed you’re calling. Crazy week for you, I’m sure. Best of luck;it’ll all come together. Too much effort has gone into this endeavor for it totake a shit this late in the game.”
It’s inspirationalthoughts like Terry’s that keep me moving and positive. I have a thing aboutcommunication. The more you communicate, the more you learn, find, and broadenyour approach. Every positive thought helps.
Thefront end was metric, so nothing fit. We saved it with Paughco 45 parts and alot of machining. Someone helped me with the ’42 pre-unit BSA transmission, butI’ve lost contact. Mike Pullin’ and his partner made the oil bag out of a fireextinguisher. Then I had to find a primer pump for the total loss system.
I was nervous about the amount ofoil in the lower end, so we set up a clear tube, like a gas tank fuel levelgauge, so we can monitor how much oil is in the lower end. I ran a valve at theend of the hose so I could jump some oil, if need be.
We are due to pick up the seat andchest pad at Saddleman tomorrow at 2:00. For some reason, this year kicked myass. I let everything run too late, then pre-determined that all was well, whenit wasn’t.
Berry Wardlaw held onto the AssaltWeapan for two years, then sent it back, race ready, but it wasn’t tuned, andnow the top end is off, while we wait for J&E rings and gaskets. We madejust 10 passes on the dyno and discovered problems with the rings and lowcompression in the rear cylinder, which was causing the famous Pan to spewoil.
But we’re prepared to give it hell,if the parts arrive, and the Pegasus crew is standing by for tuning. Berry isone of the most passionate guys in this industry, but like so many folks in theUnited States, the economy kicked his ass.
So, here’s where I stand at thissecond. We need the Peashooter primary system, final powder-coating from Worco,a machined and modified engine pulley, the Saddleman seats, a Biker’s Choicechain, a blessing from the gods of alignment, oil in the BSA transmission, andthe bastard to start. Billy Lane will be proud. I traded him a 1913 Pope enginefor the 1926 overhead valve Peashooter engine.
We are now ordering banners for thesalt and magnetic 5-Ball racingsigns for our vehicles. I bought some spare sparkplugs for the Peashooter andthe Assalt Weapan. Fuckin’ auto parts didn’t have all the plugs we needed. Thesalesman spewed sweet saleman’s banter as he searched parts bins to no avail.If the inventory was as slick and his lighthearted remarks, we would have beenin terrific shape.
We will begin the packing processalong with the continued Peashooter build and Assalt Weapan repairs tonight.Sin Wu should be packing, but she’s making a sexy Burning Man outfit for aknockout Hispanic broad with the biggest torpedo tits I’ve ever seen. Sinrefuses to introduce her to me. Wonder why?
Jim Murillo did a helluva job withthe paint, matching the two-stage powder from Worco. The guy is a true master.He sealed the tank with Casewell epoxy, bondo-filled any imperfections, workedwith me on the paintable decals from Wellington signs, and pinstriped thepanels, which were his notion. Plus, he came across in record time.
A generally fantastic thing aboutLos Angeles is access to anything, but when you have three days left, even LAis dicey. I received this e-mail this morning, but parts are stillmissing.
This just in:
Your primary set up is here!! I’ll work on hunting down the kicker metal piece and bolt/spring…Should be the same as Triumph. Yes, clutch and throttle cables will stillneed to be made at my shop. I’m pretty sure I’ve got the pushrodsituation figured out.
—Andy
Classic Cycles
Orange, CA
Jeremiah peeled south to pick up thegoods, but we’re still missing the elements to make a clutch cable, the nut tohold the clutch in place, and a clutch pushrod. Damn, we’re close, butalignment will be the key.
You should have been here the dayRay Wheeler, the president of Wheeler Racing, and I installed the transmissionsprocket.
“You need to raise or lower thetransmission,” Ray said, and started to take apart all my mounting parts.
I gulped hard. That was by far thetoughest obstacle to making this bike work. Several days of thought, machining,and tinkering went into making a flexible, yet solid system for mounting a1950s BSA 4-speed trans into this Peashooter frame.
Just then, Andy called from ClassicCycle. When I mentioned our dilemma he said confidently, “We run intothose issues constantly, where chains smack the frame. We hit the localskateboard shop and run idler wheels. It’s easy.”
I immediately remembered the systemwe set up for the Assalt Weapan with a bar of Teflon from the Bikernet treasurechest. I hit the drawer and found the key, another chunk of Teflon. Oursolution was in hand, and I could put the trans back in place. As it turned out,with some minor adjusting, the trans sprocket lined up with the ISR sprotorsprocket from LA Choprods. Amazing!
We used everything under thesizzling sun to determine whether the trans was straight or not. We didn’t haveany of the components in hand as we cut and welded a piece of rectangulartubing to two chunks of angle iron. We didn’t have the trans sprocket, themoney for the ISR sprotor, the primary drive, or the offset engine pulley.
Okay, most of the elements are in,and I’m waiting for a call from Bennett’s Performance. No parts arrived fromAccurate today, still waiting. This jams the Assalt Weapan, the World’s FastestPanhead repairs, right up against the efforts to finish the Peashooter. The key issue over the next couple ofdays will be the offset pulley for the Peashooter engine and a handful of BSAtranny parts. We need to mate the Paughco 45 pulley to the belt pulley with aspacer that aligns it with the clutch. That’s all and we’re ready to go. Hangon!
