Running with the Bul

Welcome if you've ventured over from BAT

2020-02-29T07:49:00.001-08:00

Thanks for looking at the blog. It goes all the way back to the beginning, when I brought this home.

Have a look. Let me know if you have any questions.

It's not Goodbye

2019-06-01T14:51:00.000-07:00

I actually tried to sell it. 3 listings on E-bay. A few scam artists and no-one wanted to give me what I felt the bike was worth.

So, I still have it, and I ride it around the neighborhood. I've learned a lot about the little Bultaco after riding it around a bunch:

The mirror I had stuffed in the bar end of the throttle was causing the throttle to bind just enough. Once removed, all the revving issues I was having riding around went away, and the throttle is just a joy
Plug gap is very important. I have fouled 2 plugs so far, and I think it's because the gap is off so much. When I replaced the plug this time, I checked the spec, and set the gap at 0.5 mm. The previous gap was off by at least twice that much. Correct gap has to help my fouling issues.
I need to fix the horn still. I've just been lazy

Who knows - maybe I'll ride it to work this week.....

Goodbye

2019-01-20T14:44:00.003-08:00

Bittersweet.

It's time to say good by to Benny the Bultaco. It's for sale.

The backwards foot pedals are too much for me to manage. I've almost crashed just driving around the neighborhood - so there is no way I'm getting on the bigger roads.

Someone asked me if I was unhappy about it. All the work and effort, and then it goes. I don't see it that way.

So many things I learned doing this. How to take a motorcycle wheel apart and then lace it back together.

So many parts of Houston explored - powder coating guys, chrome platers, and one excellent motorcycle mechanic.

I'll sell it for less than I have into it, but I'm still glad I did it. I hope whoever buys it loves it.

Fin

2018-09-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

Wow, 7 years goes by so fast.

In October 2011, I started with this:

And there was a lot of work in between. Powder coating. Swing arm bushings. Forks by Frank. Buchanan Wire Wheels. Wheel truing. Atlas chrome plating. A few attempts at paint. An aluminum seat by a guy that is no longer in business. A rebuilt gauge by my guys at North Hollywood Speedometer. A 3rd overbore piston (thank goodness). And so much more. To finally get here:

The rain has stopped, and the sun is out. I think I'll go for a ride today.

Inching closer - it looks like it may breathe fire in 2018

2018-08-05T08:55:00.001-07:00

Got a call from Andre (the mechanic) on Thursday. He got all the parts back from paint - Tank that was chipped, seat that was scratched, fender with drippy drippy clear coat.

Apparently, the body shop that I took it to initially completely ignored the paint request I made, as the blue that was spec'd by Bultaco was way darker than everything else. So - the paint guy matched it and sprayed it the same metallic blue I had before. I like how it came out.

Also - the bike is almost back together. Harness is mostly built. Kill switch is installed. New chain. Bike gets compression when you move the kick starter, and shifts though gears. There is a leak on the transmission case, but Andre will sort that.

A few more weeks, and it may run!!

Very exciting.

April Update

2018-04-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Talked to Andre today. He's gone through the engine, and he thinks it is sorted. He flushed the transmission and he thinks it is working correctly again.

The tin is off the bike and back at paint again. He has a box of wire, and is going to start working on the wiring harness.

Maybe another month....

Spring Break Update

2018-03-14T08:41:00.002-07:00

I called Andre last Friday for an update. He hasn't started yet, but claims he will start soon. I still have hope that he is done by my birthday.

We'll see.

Surrender

2018-01-13T17:08:00.001-08:00

OK - I've finally decided that if this bike is to live again, that someone else needs to finish. I've given up.

Today - I took the bike to Airline Motorcycle Center. Andre (the owner) thinks he can get it to breathe fire again. I'm hopeful.

Loaded it on a trailer that I borrowed from a friend.

Holy cow. Houston traffic sucks without a trailer. With one, and with the crappy roads - terrifying. I had to stop about 2/3 of the way there to get the bike re-settled. It still moved later, so I'll have to have a better way to strap it down when I bring it home.

But - Andre has it now.

He thinks he can get it done in a couple of months. I am hopeful.

Time Flies

2017-02-27T19:23:00.001-08:00

When you are getting crushed by life. Wow - 2 years since an update. Yeah - I suck. At the same time, since the last update:

I had my Porsche painted and a ton of work done to it, so now it is just a driver.
I bought a Ferrari 308, and I love it.
I renovated the garage to be able to hold 4 cars and 2 motorcycles.
I spent 15 months replacing all the vac lines on the Ferrari, as well as having all 4 carbs rebuilt, and the seats and steering wheel recovered. It's pretty now though.

So, it's not like I spent the whole time doing nothing.

I'm back to work on the Bultaco now though. I hope to have it running by the end of this year. Electronic ignition is in the mail. New exhaust is in the mail. Stuff to fix the seat is in the mail. Tools to do the timing are in the mail. It will run.

Updates - I don't need no stinkin' updates

2014-01-12T11:47:00.001-08:00

Especially when no work is getting done.

Yeah, the poor Bultaco sat and sat. When I finally got the parts back, it was with mixed emotions. On one hand, everything is better. The dent is out of the gas tank. All of the rust is gone from the undersides of the fenders. The bodyshop did pinstriping just how I wanted it.

The bad is - they didn't prep all the parts right. So, there are bits under the paint that you can tell weren't sanded right. Plus - on some of the parts, the clearcoat was applied really thick. Drippy thick. But, what do you do?

So, I started installing parts. Got the fenders on and tightened. Got the tool box on. Need to do some work where the lock goes on the box. They didn't paint the license plate holder like I wanted them to, so I ended up painting it black. The biggest deal, they messed with the seat when I had them paint it. So, the vinyl on the seat is all messed up. Dropped it at an upholstery shop Saturday, so hopefully they can fix it.

So, as it sits right now:

I need to finish the electrical wiring. I'm still worried that there is something wrong with the shifting fork. And I'm going to take it to a 2 cycle exhaust expert to help me with getting the exhaust mounted.

The goal for 2014 is to have a working motorcycle. But, it'll never get there if I don't work on it. So, I better remain motivated.

Still waiting

2013-03-12T14:22:00.001-07:00

It's been close to a month. Last friday, I went by the body shopt to see what's up.

The good news - they have painted my stuff - and the colors are good.

The bad news - there were some problems masking the parts - and it lifted off some of the paint when they pulled it.

So - it's still not done.

Waiting......

Good News / Bad News

2013-02-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

I've been talking to the body shop this week, and all week long they've been telling me that my parts will be done by Friday.

Since I was going to be out and about today (my day off), I called them to see if I could swing by and pick up my stuff.

They said "We'll call you back in 15 minutes".

3 hours later - "Um, the guy that quoted you the cost was way wrong. We needed to strip everything down to bare metal, and there was some obvious body damage that we will need to take care of.".

I told them I would come over and take a look.

We looked at the dent on the gas tank, and a dent that I never knew about on the rear fender. Plus - a dent on the taillight/license plate holder.

Yikes. Good thing we took it down to bare metal.

Wait, there's more:

"We don't want to use regular car primer on this one. We want to use a self etching aircraft primer. It's better for the restoration".

OK.

"Oh, and did you want the underside of the fenders done? They are pretty rusty.".

Yes. This is a full restoration.

"Wow - that's like double work".

OK - so what?

"Well, it's going to be more than the $700 we quoted you".

OK - how much.

"Why don't we say $1100?".

Deal.

So, it'll be another week, but at least it will be something I'm happy with.

I took them some pictures of the original paint scheme. Hopefully that keeps them from screwing up the repaint.

Probably not.

At least it's close by.

5 second update

2013-02-12T19:30:00.001-08:00

Called the body shop today. All parts are sanded/cleaned up. Painting is happening right now. Should get parts by Friday.

And yes - I will post pics.

Activity Alert

2013-02-02T15:29:00.001-08:00

I realize I've been bad at working on the Bul. Small progress to announce though. A few weeks ago, I got out to the garage and messed with the shfiter. Got the small cover off of the shift fork, and jiggled it around until I could get the bike back in neutral. Still not sure what the problem is, but I may have to let that sit until later.

This weekend, I started by taking all of the "tin" out of the garage.

And down to the body shop. Their paint guy is out until Monday, but they'll give me a call with an estimate. I'm going to stay with the stock paint scheme, blue and silver - and I'm going to have the seat back painted the same scheme as the tank. I think that will look great. I was able to find the original PPG paint colors - Crystal Silver Metallic (DAR 34926) and Cadet Blue Metallic (DBU 5414), and I gave those numbers to the paint shop.

With all of the tin gone, I decided to work on the harness. But first - I had to sit down with my diagram and Google Translate in order to see what goes where

The easy thing to do would have been to just run the harness externally to the frame. But that wouldn't look nearly as nice. So - it took a bit, but I was able to thread most of the harness back through the frame.

The only bit I couldn't get quite right was the part that goes down the frame to the brake light switch. But I was able to get it pretty close to the frame with black tie wraps, so maybe it's not going to be too noticeable.

I also attached the coil and a relay for my new turn signals. It came from a kit to retrofit a 6 volt Model-T, so it should work for my wimpy 6 volt bike electrical system.

I also attached the throttle cable. At first, I didn't understand why it didn't seem to be working right, but then I realized that the part that attaches to the needle in the carb had gotten some light corrosion on it, and was stuck inside the barrel. Out it came, cleaned up and a light coat of oil. Routed the cable through the triple tree and alongside the harness on the crossbar of the frame down to the carb. It looks good and seems to work OK.

After all of that - it was time for some of this.

Ahhhhh. And stand back and admire my handiwork.

I see it breathing fire in 2013.....

A non-zero answer

2012-11-25T16:43:00.001-08:00

I haven't worked on the bul since September! Sheesh. I wish I had a good excuse. I don't. I've been lazy. With the 3rd car back - it's really hard to get out to the garage and do work, since I have to move so much stuff around. But, I'm tired of looking at it in pieces, and I'm afraid that I'll start losing parts. So, I'll try to do little stuff again.

Today's little stuff was getting the cover back on the clutch plates and shifter. I had some Yamabond 4 left over from when I did the valve cover gasket on the BMW330i. Basically, it's a lot like form-a-gasket, but better. I used small amounts of it on both the case and the clutch cover, to both hold the paper gasket in place and fill in any areas in case of warpage.

While I had the case cover off, I gave it a light polish with metal polish and a buffing head in the drill, as well as colored in the "Bultaco" emblem with Krylon paint marker.

After about 30 minutes of work, here's what it looked like.

I've also been noticing a small drip underneath the bike every so often, so I checked that out as well. There was a crappy paper/rubber gasket on the transmission oil drain. Suckage. I dug into the parts box, and found a copper crush washer that was the same size. I put that on the oil drain bolt and tightened it up nice. That should stop that leak. I also re-installed clutch drain plug, and luckily the new aftermarket one I ordered came with an aluminum crush washer. I hope this stops all of the leakage around the bottom end that I used to have.

Finally, I dug the shifter out of the box of things that were chrome plated ages ago, and reattached it to the bike. Maybe next weekend I'll fill the transmission and clutch up and see if there are any leaks. Hopefully not.

The cylinder is back on the case

2012-09-14T18:51:00.000-07:00

I started today looking at a 1984 BMW K100 on craigslist. The owner got the bike from his brother, who is overseas. It doesn't run, because it hasn't been started in a year. The fairing is scraped up from the bike being dropped. It's a mess. It looks like a really neat cafe' project.

I showed my wife. She said, "You never wear the motorcycle coat I got you.".

I said "Well - my motorcycle is in pieces".

She said - "Why don't you handle that?".

Enough said.

So, I went out to the garage and started working on the bike. The shop manual I found says "Put the piston in a 100 degree F oil bath. Then, insert the wrist pin.".

Lit my grill outside (we're not gonna repeat that oven event), and put the piston in with 1/2 a bottle of mobil 1 that I had laying around. Let it sit for awhile, and then took it all in the garage. Tried to start the wrist pin and "zoop" - it went all the way in! Oh jeez.

It took me awhile, but I was able to beat it out. Good grief.

Tried it two more time, and it never slipped right in like the first time. The last time, I literally beat it in with a deadblow hammer while holding it. What a circus.

Got the end clips in easily, so it's together. Then I had to stab the cylinder. I was going to use a hose clamp as a ring compressor, but it was too much of a hassle. I ended up just compressing it with my thumbnail while sliding the cylinder on with one hand. But it's on, and it fits perfect.

Torqued the base of the cylinder down, and loosely put the head on. I'll torque it later.

Then - I put the motor on the frame (still cleaning up the mounting bolts. While I had that together, I also put the chain on.

It's really starting to look like a motorcycle!

The carb is just sitting on there loose as well, so nothing can get in the intake.

But - even though it's made progress, there's so much more to do.

Steve - I worked on it

2012-08-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to get out to the garage for awhile. Since I got the triple tree back. But, I did a few things.

I installed the headlight bucket, and just stuffed all the wiring in there. It is far from complete. I also got a small bag to hang on the front fork to hold some tools and stuff.

Today, I adjusted the front brake cable and installed it.

I had to test it though, so I rolled the bike down the driveway a few times and tested the front brakes. Pretty cool. I need to get to work and get the motor back together.

Back on Two Wheels

2012-06-17T17:05:00.001-07:00

For a nice Father's day post - back on two wheels.

My wife was gracious enough to help hold the bottoms of the front forks while I installed the front wheel. Happy Father's Day indeed!

For comparison, here's what it looked like about 6 months ago:

Of course, the seat is just sitting on the frame, and the tank still needs to go out for paint, but I'm moving in the right direction.

Inching along

2012-06-08T12:41:00.002-07:00

I haven't done much over the last few weeks, because I'm always waiting on parts to get done. Well, and I'm lazy. But - I recently collected up a few parts, so I figured I had better make some progress.

I have the rear brake pedal, again. Rechromed and pretty. This time, I got out a grinding tool and cleaned out the hole on the frame. Put some anti-sieze on it, and it slid right in. I also cleaned out the holes for the fork lock and the fork lock holder, so those work better as well.

With the rear brake pedal on, I went ahead and put the whole brake linkage on. So, now it looks like this:

Which is very close to being a roller. Just need the headlight bucket back and the top of the triple tree, and I can finish getting the front fork together. And it's a roller.

It's starting to look like a motorcycle

2012-05-19T18:44:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, I worked on the front fork. I added oil. I tried to finish them. I ended up messing up the top of the triple tree. Rats. I did, however, figure out how to bolt the bottom together, so that I could put the top on correctly.

Friday at lunch, I took the top of the triple tree over to D.A. at Spectrum Powder coating. He's going to strip it and re-coat it. I know D.A. will make it perfect. At the same time, I took him one of my headlight buckets. It will look pretty good coated as well.

D.A. gave me the name of another chrome shop to try. So - the tank fastening bolts and the brake pedal went over there with me, and dropped off. Get that back in a week, and I won't make the same mistake.

Today, I dropped the swing arm with my buds at Atlas Auto down the street. They pressed the bushings into the swing arm for me, and I brought it all home and bolted it onto the frame. So now, it's starting to look like a motorcycle.

I'll try and work on the wheels tomorrow. Might have a partial roller by the end of the weekend!!!

How exciting. Now I have to go hide my camera from my family.....

I can't find the camera

2012-04-28T19:49:00.003-07:00

I have no idea where it is. I really wanted to post pictures.

I have the front fork pretty much assembled. Just waiting for the frame to get finished so I can mount it. It came out great - the powder coated triple tree parts along with all of the polished aluminum. And the Forks by Frank are beautiful - too bad they will be all covered up.

Speaking of the frame - I dropped it and the swing arm at Spectrum Powder Coating today (spectrumpowdercoatings.com). I met the owner - DA - and he is a very cool guy. I requested gloss black on the frame, and that we keep powder out of some of the critical areas (bearing races, threads, areas where bushings are going to be pressed). DA was on top of it. I'll get it back about a week from now. It will be about $160 to do the frame and swing arm.

I collected multiple other parts this weekend. I went up to Atlas Chrome and got the headlight bezel and the fork spacers. The good news is that the bezel is fantastic, and the polished spacers are amazing. The bad news is that the bezel is for a 5-1/2" diameter headlight bucket. The one that came with my bike is 5-3/4". So - not a match. Doesn't seem like a big deal, until you break the 5-1/2" lens. Which I did, trying to remove it from the reflector that looked like crap.

Which means now I'm looking for a 5-1/2" reflector and bulb holder. If that doesn't work out, I'm going to take the pitted bezel to the bodyshop and see if I can get it painted or something. Sux. The words of my friend Alex haunt me every day - "Why don't you get a Honda? Something you can find parts for....".

I also collected the wheels from Reagan at Ace Motorworks (www.acemotorworks.com). They are true and fantastic. Got home, and the newly lined brakes would not fit in the hubs. Uh oh. A few minutes grinding about 0.06 inches off of the pads - and they are in! Pirelli tubes on the way from J&P Cycles, and I can finish putting wheels together. Who knows - in a couple of weeks, I may have a roller....

Finally, I bought a new camera. I'm going to hide this one, and only I will use it. Good grief.

Progress has slowed but I haven't stopped

2012-04-14T15:47:00.003-07:00

I haven't posted for awhile, mostly because nothing has happened. What has been holding me up is a small weld repair on the fork stop on the frame. I was able to get the frame to my friend Mando on Thursday, so hopefully that will get done soon.

When I get the frame back, then I can take it and get it powder coated. Of course, that means I'll have to get the bushings pulled out of the swing arm - since I should have both the frame and swing arm done at the same time.

On Friday, I also dropped the wheels at Ace Motorworks to get them trued. The owner, Reagan, seems like a pretty good guy.

The only other thing I was able to do was put the brake shoes on the hubs. Not too tricky, but there is a sequence it turns out. Springs go on the shoes, then the eccentric goes between the shoes, then it all goes on the hub.

Hopefully I'll start getting all of the parts back, and I can get this thing moving.

Half baked plans

2012-03-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

I got the re-bored cylinder head back. Unfortunately - we had a miscommunication. I thought I had asked for the cylinder to be cleaned, painted and bored. The shop that did the work heard "bored". So - the good news is that a freshly bored cylinder is at my house. The bad news is that it looked all mungy/ugly on the outside.

I started with Orange degreaser, and did the big spots with my nylon brush. But that wasn't getting between all of the fins. So, I put it in a small bucket with the rest of my degreaser and let it soak all day. It looked like I had most of the grease off, so I rinsed it off and blew the remaining water I could see off with my air compressor.

Let it dry for a little bit, and I sprayed it with VHT (very high temperature) exhaust header paint (black). Now - if you read the instructions for this paint, in order for it to be completely impervious to everything (and good to 2000 degrees F), you have to cure it. I didn't even read the directions for "if part is on vehicle" - since that is moot. But here they are for "if part is not on vehicle":

Place object in 250 degree F Oven for 30 minutes.
Let cool for 30 minutes.
Place object in 400 degree F Oven for 30 minutes.
Let cool for 30 minutes.
Place object in 600 degree F Oven for 30 minutes.
Let cool. Paint is now cured.

Wow - my oven doesn't even go to 600F. But, I'm not going to let that stop me.

Got out one of the old pizza pans that my wife bought years ago, and put the cylinder head in the 250 F oven.

That seemed to go OK. Next the 400 F oven. Hmmm - lots of smoke. Didn't get all the grease off, did we?

Next - cranked the oven as high as it would go (somewhere north of 500 F). Yikes - that's not a good smell. Vent fan on. Window open! Puffs of blue/white smoke coming out of the oven.

That was a long 30 minutes. My wife came in the kitchen once while this was going on and said "Ewwww - what's that smell?". I opened the oven and showed her - she didn't say anything and just left (the kitchen, not forever).

Once it was done - I took it immediately out to the garage to cool. Luckily - leaving the window open all night allowed the smell to dissipate.

So - there are some blotches of grease around the bottom flange, where I missed some spots with the degreaser. But - overall - it looks pretty good. Hopefully I'll find out someday how durable it is.

Exhausted

2012-03-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

A big box came today, from Mobley's Bultaco. I immediately knew what it was. The exhaust is here.

So - I opened it up, and here's what it had:

Wow. So - it's in 2 pieces - with two loose metal tabs. I figured that the tabs were to be welded onto the exhaust, so that you could mount it to the frame. The header has some springs and two washers on it. Apparently, it's an expansion joint. The two washers welded to it connect to more springs, which attach to the exhaust nut on the head.

This will probably be the last item installed on the bike, but it looks pretty neat. Way better than the stock exhaust.

Lacing

2012-03-10T16:00:00.000-08:00

Now that my hubs and spokes are in my garage, I decided to take on lacing a wheel today. I picked the front, since it looks less intimidating than the rear wheel.

It didn't start well.

I tried to follow the spoke pattern that I took a picture of. That went poor. Then, I tried to lace one side - inner and outer, before starting the other. That went very bad.

Well - I say that. I was able to figure out the pattern - every spoke is 4 holes apart. That is - on the inner spokes - start one, count 4 holes, and that's where the next inner spoke goes.

So I decided to start over. Took all of the outer spokes off, and left the inner ones on. Laced the right side inner spokes. So far, so good. Laced the left side (going the opposite direction as the right side ones. Better. Laced the outers on the right side (it's easy to thread them with the wheel partially laced). No problem. And finally - the remaining spokes matched up to the empty holes.

And I ended up with this:

Which may not seem like 3 or 4 hours of work, but it is.

I'll try to true it, but not today.

Still - pretty happy with my first wheel.