Indy British Motor Days

I stopped in at the Indiana British Car Union Indy British Motor Days held at Lions Park in Zionsville, Indiana. It is an excellent venue for a car show, with plenty of parking and wide open grass fields for the show.


My favorite car of the show was this Lotus Eleven Westfield replica.












You gotta love an old Bentley.






A beautiful '79 Bonneville Special, the show is open to British bikes, but this was the only one I saw there.

XS650 engine stand

I needed a bench stand for the engine, so knocked one out this evening. This is a lower frame section from a '75 Suzuki GT250 that I'd put away several years ago since it looked like it would make a nice engine stand, and it worked out.


I buzzed a few bits off, and welded a mount on each side.


It ain't pretty, but it works.


I left the passenger peg mounts on since they let it tip forward for access to the bottom.

staying busy

I prepped and painted most of the rest of the chassis parts for the XS650 this week.

fast and easy old motorcycle tire dismounting at home

I needed to dismount the tires on my XS650 project. The rims and hubs will be polished, and I'll re-lace with stainless spokes, but first to get the tires off. I don't want to cause any damage to the aluminum shouldered rims, so choose to cut the tires off. I do most all of my own tire mounting and dismounting, and for stiff old tires this is much faster than wrestling around with tire irons. You don't even break a sweat doing it this way.


First let the air out, and if it has a tube, remove the valve stem nut.


A reciprocating saw with a general purpose blade works best here. It cuts quickly through the bias ply tire.


The idea is to cut it as close to the rim as you can, but making sure not to hit it. Then cut the tube and rubber rim strip with a utility knife and push them inside the tire, out of the way.


On motorcycle tires I like to use a large C clamp to break the bead loose. I did it near the cut, but it doesn't matter where it is done.


Then lay it down and walk the rest of the bead off, just by stepping on it. Then flip the clamp so you can do the bead on the other side.


Now to cut the steel bead cord. I like to use an angle grinder with a regular grinding disc for this, but a cut-off wheel would work also. First get the bead of the side that you are cutting as much as possible in the center part of the rim to give you more slack, and use a tire iron to lift up the part that will be cut. Use a rim protector under the tire iron. I'm using one cut from the top of a plastic coffee can here. This is the only time a tire iron is used with this method and since you aren't trying to get the bead over the rim lip, almost no force is used.


Then cut away, keeping the tire iron between the grinder and rim. When you see sparks you are into the steel bead cord, shown here. Once you cut through the cord you'll see and feel it release. Then just a small amount of rubber to cut. For that a utility knife will work.


Then just pull the bead off by hand, starting at the cut. Next, pull the tube and rim strip out.


Usually the other side will just pull off by hand, like this one did. If not, cut the bead.


The wheel is ready to disassemble and polish, without even the slightest scratch.

staying busy

Now to paint the frame. I got two cans of primer and two of color.


First the self-etching primer goes on.


I had a quart can of gloss black Rust-Oleum, so brushed it in a few places. Some tight areas are difficult to get into spraying without getting too much coverage in nearby spots, which can cause runs. With the brush you can work the paint into seams and under brackets to make sure there is good coverage. It just makes the spraying easier and faster.


I then sprayed the brackets and tabs, and hard to reach areas like the inside of the neck gussets. Some of these, like the side cover tabs, need sprayed from many different angles. The frame tubing itself is the easiest and fastest to paint, and the most visible, so that gets done last. Multiple light coats get the best results.


Done! The Rust-Oleum is slow to cure, but since it will be quite a while before the bike gets reassembled it isn't a concern. I will rub it out with a wax after it sits for 30 days or so. This was the biggest chassis part that needed painted, so nice to have it completed.





I had looked into having the frame powder coated, but chose not to. Prices in this area ranged from $150-$200 for just a frame. Blasting and painting myself cost about $40 total for materials, and I have enough paint left over to do many of the other small parts also. Some coaters wanted $80 to do just a swingarm, so quite a savings doing it this way. If the bike was going to be daily transportation I do think the durability of powder coating would be worth the cost. I also knew exactly what I was getting by doing it myself.

staying busy

This week I finish welded a few tabs, and then put the tank and seat on for a last chance look over.


This evening I sandblasted the frame, and will paint it in the morning.