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The Musket rides to Franklin park.

6/28/2010

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Meditation...

Took the ol' girl to picturesque Franklin Park near downtown Columbus last week to shoot some photos for a possible magazine article. The main reason you're seeing my unshaven mug is that I'm sporting a rather nifty T-shirt. Observe the highly detailed illustration of an Enfield Bullet, complete with silver embroidery on the bike's crash guard, evoking chromed steel tubes. Just wonderful.
And where did I aquire it? A gift from my first ever boss in India, who now runs one of the biggest design firms there. Thanks Amit!
Will be putting plenty of miles on it.

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Time for a pulse check.

6/28/2010

4 Comments

Time for another update.
I get a few mails almost everyday from interested folk, asking about pricing and when will it be available.
I know, I know, I wish the darned lump was done already too!
So what's taking so long?
Simple. The desire to get everything as ideal as possible because now, it will be in the hands of someone else, who will pay hard earned money for it and I know all about hard earned.
I want to make sure that whoever chooses to get one will be very pleased. Pleased with its simplicity, ease of maintenance, aesthetics and reliability.
Secondly, the effort is to make it as affordable as possible too.
As I sit and stare very hard at my computer screen, every single change I make has to be considered from all these different perspectives and sometimes they conflict.
For example, it would be desirable to simplify the oil plumbing. The 1st engine has a FRAM (popular US brand) motorcycle filter which is mounted externally, needing oil lines to and from it. I was very keen that this detail be improved. Firstly, I wanted to use the new UCE engine's oil filter as it is much better than the older 'fabric' type and furthermore, it is an Enfield filter, available wherever Bullets are found.
Of the various options I came up with, all involve adding steps and extra fixtures in the machining process thereby increasing maching cost and one option also requires the addition of a core in the timing cover casting.
After a LOT of minute nudging of this and that just a tiny bit, I'm glad that I now have a solution through which the filter can be incorporated into a cavity in the timing cover, without adding a core to the casting molds.
This also implied much glaring at the remaining oil lines (from the sump to the pumps), their routing, attachment method and issues with easy removal.
So, it progresses, steadily, all leading to a better design.
The moment a hole has to be drilled at an angle not aligned with one of the x/y/z axes, it implies that a whole new fixture, 'teardown and setup' step has to be added to the machining process.
Yup, its a juggling game, each ball has to be in the air, not bump into the next one, not cost too much and not break if it hits the ground and look pretty. Ofcourse, we pray that the balls never hit the ground.

I've also started taking Friday's off from work to have additional time to devote to this.
I hope it will be worth it.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone, it is truly appreciated.

4 Comments

The Musket rides to Franklin park.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Meditation...

Time for a pulse check.

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The Musket rides to Franklin park.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Meditation...

Time for a pulse check.

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