Diesel motorbike's are very economical, that's why bikers want diesel motorbikes now, not in the future.

	When the rolling chassis starts to come together, this is where you will see it. I have decided to do this in a reverse order so the oldest entries at the bottom and the newest at the top. I'll start putting the dates on as well

19/NOV/07 - I have swapped the bars over as the riding position was all wrong, this is the problem with using a small frame, so it now has a stonking pair of after market Harley fatboy bars. Nice and wide and a great look and riding position.

I have been trying to get the indicators to work but the flasher relays are not having any of it, I have bought two so far, lets hope it's third time lucky.

Pic to follow

7/NOV/07 - Started on the electrics today and decided to ditch the fuse box as there's no where to put it. It will look totally out of place under the seat and open to the weather. So instead I'm using Harley circuit breakers which are small enough to fit on top of the frame under the tank. And when they blow they auto reset, so no taking the tank off to find the fuse box. The after market indicators turned out to be a bit crappy, as I tightened up the nuts and the shaft came out of the indicator. So I screwed the shafts further in to the indicators and used two nuts, one either side of the mudguard / fender. This means that there's more shaft in side the indicator and less under the mudguard.

27/OCT/07 - I've been looking at the forward foot pegs and where they are going to go. Sounds nuts, but the frame has a single down tube and the engine is wider than the Harley that the pegs are off. This means that the pegs are likely to wobble. The engine is in the way of any rear brake rod so it may have to be cable operated like a Norton Commando.

Pic to follow

23/OCT/07 - Engine now back in, rubber mounts gone, one thing I have noticed is the rust that has appeared on the subframe that I put together. This was another mistake, don't use cheep paint, so it now has a coat of Hammerite.

The expanding bolts turned out to be a pain in the arse, they kept moving up the tubes when I tried to refit the engine subframe, so I ditched them and welded three nuts together on a bolt, and then ground the edges down and tapped them in to the frames tubes and welded them up.

10/10/07 - I took a look at the bike and had a rethink, the engine / frame is too low, nowhere for the exhaust to go or the side stand. And I have been thinking on what Sam Brumby said about rubber mounting the engine, not good when the gearbox is rigid, as the primary will take a hammering, and those belts don't come cheap. So I have decided to get rid of the rubber mounts and raise the engine by 3+ inches, just about 1 inch lower than the standard frame height. I have also decided to use an Indian (Enfield) gearbox as they use oil seals at the output shaft, still leak a bit but it's got to be better than nothing and as I have 4 box's I would be daft to use the old brit box if it gobs oil all over the place. So a few mistakes there ie: time and money wasted.

7) I chose the easiest way to align the back wheel sprocket with the gearbox sprocket, by using a plumb line. First make sure that the back wheel is completely in line with the frame.

I tied the string to the back of the wheel sprocket and the other end to the engine. This stuck out a bit so I used a second bit of string to pull it to the right until the string just touched all of the rear sprocket, the string was now in line.

I measured and drilled all the holes in the mounting plates, fitted them together and it was half the width of the gearbox sprocket out (about 4mm). No problem as the sprocket can be adjusted in by skimming the back of the sprocket where there is plenty of metal, or adding a spacer to move it out.

6) The engine is now in and rubber mounted.

I still have to play around with the engine mounts at the front, once that's done I can throw the rest of the bike together.

I have offered up the Norton chain cases and they are to short, I will now have to make my own belt guard.

5) Notice the slotted holes so I can adjust the engine to align it with the gearbox when that's ready for mounting. The front mounts have to be re made as they are too close to the engine.

4) Finally the front end has been sorted out, the problem with the steering bearings being the wrong size has been sorted with spacers.

Notice the bottom of the frame is missing, this is due to lowering the engine, I really didn't want to do this but the primary chain cases would have been going up hill. It will be lowered about 3 to 4 inch, using expanding bolts in the tubes and steel plates for the front of the frame.

3) Neither Enfield, BSA or Ariel boxes / clutches reach the primary drive chain when the final drives line up! So I have decided to use a Royal Enfield gearbox due to it having a longer main shaft. This should line up perfectly.

Enfield India make a 40mm longer main shaft for the 4 speed box should this be a problem (see gearboxes).

2) I was very lucky that I had a wheel spindle from an old 1970's 250 Kawasaki just knocking about in my garage, as it was a lot shorter than the LTD spindle that came with the wheel, and lucky that they were the same diameter, made for the job.

The wheel fits snugly, and bang on, I did expect to put spacers one side or the other, but it was just in the right place.

1) At long last the chassis is coming together and I now have the back wheel in. I have fitted the very odd plunger suspension units (designed by Heath Robinson), unfortunately I didn't have all the parts, so I have had to buy the missing bits from Dragonfly motorcycles www.draganfly.co.uk . Give up all hope of getting them on eBay etc you've got no chance. The pattern parts that I have bought are not very well made at all, but at least they are available. In fact I will be using bolts rather than the replacement fixings as the bolt shank is smooth as a babies butt, unlike the pattern replacements. The tops were not available so I have had to do some interesting improvisation using a couple of very big washers and a cut down lower shroud. The suspension parts have cost me over �120 and I am still using some well worn parts. I'm building this bike to save me money but so far it's robbing me blind. Worth it when it's finished? I bloody hope so.