V1675

[Bill Campbell]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mDT4vGvX1uxke1HYA
Finally have got the frame painted. I am having fun with the forks but Al B is helping me out with some too tired parts. I have assembled the wheels and the tank has been painted. Bottom end of the motor is together and will get barrel bored soon. Finally getting somewhere. Hope you can see the picks. Can somebody please direct me to a place that would sell a Twin Air filter for the bike and I am also after a chain guard for it. I'm not the best searcher but I have not seen one on parmabike or Provenance.Bill

[Bill Campbell]

Progressing slowly. I keep sending a final parts order to AB only to find I have misplaced some parts or need new ones anyway. Probably another order to go Al next month. My question for this month is does anybody have a photo of how they have rigged a rear brake light switch to the rear brake system. There isn't a lot of frame near the brake lever so mounting appears to be a problem. I'm still looking for a chainguide. If anybody has one for sale i would consider buying it. If not, can someone supply me with a template so I can get one made here. Enjoy your spring as we will our autumn.  Bill

[Paul Danik]

Hi Bill,


   This photo may help with your brake light switch . My enduro lights, switches and such are at the shop so I don't know if I have the one shown or not. I am thinking the switch shown came in the Steel Tanker enduro kit...if you need one of those I will surely take a look.
http://www.pentonusa.org/steeltank/regviews/steeltank41b.jpg


   I may be able to help with the chain guard. If you still need one let me know.

[email protected]

Paul

[Bill Campbell]

Hi guys. Just like to say that as of the 27th of October there is a running Steel Tanker in Australia. After 7 years I have managed to bring V1675 back to life.He,she or it did a couple of runs up and down our quiet little street on that Sunday afternoon with very few problems. The ST shifted well. Got one neutral but I blame the very short shift lever. Have to get a longer one. Rear brake pedal is too high. Needs an adjuster under the foot peg. Front brake needs fine tuning. I will get to that shortly. Carby overflows too much but didn't load the engine up. Sticky float? Needs more investigation. The experience was filmed but I haven't managed to get it to a media. Thanks go to all the people in Oz and the US for getting me parts etc that I needed. I think this is my most expensive restoration to date but I don't keep tabs on the money I have spent on any project so there are no problems with that. Now to get vintage registration so I can ride the bike to nearby vintage displays.
Cheers Bill

[firstturn]

Congratulations as i know  you have been working on it for several years.


Ron Carbaugh

[Bill Campbell]

I have finally been able to take my ST out on the road for its first real test ride. Yes I did take AL B's advice and get the bike road registered. That's "regoed" here. That in itself was a journey with the best part being that the Penton brand is now on the New South Wales vehicle data base. Who would have thought that there were no Pentons ever registered in NSW.
Now the test ride. Put some more petrol in the tank but the bike had not been started for some months. I thought I'd give it a go as is rather than checking the carby for gelled petrol. Now at this point I should mention that I have previously noted that there is copious quantities of fuel running out of the tickler. I had previously checked the float needle and it did seem to shut off the fuel flow. I was living in hope that a bit of a ride might see this problem vibrate itself away. Not so it appear. The bike started and seemed to need an increase in idle but I managed not to stall it. Taking off the bike seemed to be under geared in first and second. Off I went heading for about a 8 km ride. After getting about a quarter of the way - about 5-8 minutes the ST locked up. I pulled the clutch in and got to the side of the road. Looking down I noticed that fuel was still pissing out from the tickler. It was almost a fountain. So much for my wishful thinking. The first thing I did was slowly kick the bike over which it would do. Trying to get fuel into the motor again I tried to start the bike but it would not fire up. i pulled the plug which was dry, a light brownish colour and not overly hot. In fact the motor was remarkably cool. Another attempt at starting got the bike going eventually. It did have a lot of fuel in the bottom end. I rode it home successfully with fuel with a very slow trickle of fuel coming out of the tickler. When I stopped the fountain returned.
Its now back to the drawing board for the carby. I will try to get a new float needle and check the float level. I have done this but perhaps I need to close the needle off before the float is parallel to  the carby floor.
I am running 13:60 for my gearing which is way too low. Al B has 57, 52, 50 & 48 rear sprockets on his site. Which one should I purchase bearing in mind I will mainly use this bike for vintage m/c club day rides on the road.
Finally the bike was absolute fun to ride. It feels so small and cramped at first but after I got used to it I felt right at home. It's great to get on a short wheel based bike again. Hope I can iron the bugs out soon and get that Penton reliability back.
Cheers Bill