Ron

Thanks Clive. Yes that is the plan. Ron

I thought I'd have a go at re-fabricating my pre-war brake plate. I spent lots of hours over 5 days to produce a reasonable copy of the WB30 plate. Starting with one of these. Ron

Peter Long and his mate Trevor, rude to customers!!!??? How dare you Tim😁 Ron

Tim I guess you know that Cornucopia has 18T and 19T in stock? Ron

The mesh is quite sloppy actually. Triumph also used 20" wheels on some bikes and they just fitted an 18T or 19T pinion and ran it on the same 58T driving gear. I wouldn't have thought that would work....but it does. Ron

Ha Ha! My wheel has exactly the same brake plate as Lex's. I've already started drilling the rivets out.

Mudguard shortened and bracket riveted on. Awaiting arrival of a front wheel to see how it aligns. Ron

I've been calculating the position of the front guard and made up the support bracket at the forks. I've worked out that ultimately this should be riveted to the mudguard. But what a faf pressing the side divots into the mudguard, especially with just one pair of hands. (I wish I lived near Bruges sometimes😏) The radius distance from the wheel spindle is equal all around where I've set it for the pictures, however I've calculated that about 5"- 6" needs to be removed from the back of the mudguard. Ron

Yes thanks Jan. It all makes interesting reading and adds to the history. Cheers Ron

If I need to modify a brake plate like Lex's. I would remove all the rivets from that pear shaped part. Turn the pear shape into a circle and re rivet the circle in a correct position to re orientate the brake arm etc.......Or just send it to Jan😁 Ron

Ah yes I'm sure it will fit and can be modified Jan. But Lex asked if it was a WB30 brake plate. I have suposedly got a complete wheel coming this week. But please don't get rid of it till I know what I have Lex. Well done with the imagery magic Jan. I remember it well from the DC project. 😃 Ron

No Lex. With the speedo drive through the brake plate, it's probably some other 1939 model. Leon will know. This is the early WB30 5" hub, then the later 7" hub. Both are unique to the WB30. Ron

I've primed my forks and done a dummy run fit. Hopefully this will enable me to see about lining the mudguard up. Ron

I've been thinking about this Tim. If you cut out a cardboard copy of the large gear and lay it on the inside of the brake plate, dead center. You should be able to measure the distance between it and the speedo drive spindle. (By screwing the drive in only a few threads) Some careful calculating will give you the diam of the small gear. Unless someone has one that doesn't involve dismantling a bike. Ron

I've primed and flatted back my tank, and put it out the way for the time being. I also managed to find a correct (Non Indian) two plunger tap in USA. Apparently the nice British made taps are not available any more. I've also started to clean up my forks which I'm sure are NOS. My mudguards are also NOS. I've got to fabricate the brake cable adjuster lug which is missing off the fork blades. Ron

I've been concentrating on my Catalina tank. I cut out some front mounts (ears), positioned the tank in its correct location and tacked them on. Darren at Armours finished the welding for me with a neat TIG weld. I then cut two rear corner pieces and shaped them to match the curve of the tank, drilled and welded in a couple of bolts for the rear mounting studs. Welded the pieces in with extra vertical support. The next awkward part was welding in some sides to the rear of the tunnel, which for the Catalina is the wrong shape. All tidied up with a smear of body filler and ready for priming. Ron

Thanks John, nice set of pictures and great to have an original stand. Mine of course is a compromise, but stronger! I also beefed up the frame at the pivot points too. Keep up the good work. Ron

Hello Clive. Good to see you on here. I'm not good with FB I'm afraid. I find it a bit confusing and frustrating. All the best Ron

The BSA Catalina used the same shape tank as a WB30, but has other features that are not required. So I took a chance and ordered one from India and asked for those features to be left off. I am extremely pleased with it, Very well made and even has the correct side hinged 2 1/2" cap orifice. However I have fallen out with the seller who didn't send two other items that I paid for and is totally ignoring me. Why do they seem to feel the need to cheat in some respect? The mountings to come next. Ron

Like Lex I've been going since the 80's and every year for the last 20 odd years (Had to miss the covid years). Always the same camp site. I'm growing old with the third owner now.👍 Ron

Hi John. Just click the "reply to this topic" box and type away... and add any pictures. Cheers Ron

I've put the frame together and fitted the rear stand which seems to work OK. It was a struggle fitting the stand spring, even with my special spring stretcher. It's all had plenty of primer and will eventually get top coats as it is. Ron

I've got some NOS WM20 riders footrests coming from Greece which will have to be cut down and re welded😖 (It has been done before) The black one at the top is an original WB30 footrest. And I bought some original pillion footrests off ebay. Ron

Hello chaps. I've reconfigured an M20 rear stand to fit and hopefully work. I had to narrow it by cutting a piece out of the bottom rail and weld it back with a spigot inside it. I tacked in the two diagonal struts and taken it to a professional welder for neat TIG welding.

I'm not sure you can atribute black smoke as a wrong jet, There is only one main jet which is hard for them to get wrong. (it's a 150 and easy to check). It's possible that you may have other issues. Have you run the bike on the road to clear any backlog of oil and get things properly up to temperature? Has the piston to skirt clearance been messured accurately? Has the bore been rebored or honed or deglazed? Valve stems to guides clearance within tollerance? Lots of soot in the silencer? Ron