1974 TX650 build.

I have chronic RA so the clutch lever on the bike is too heavy to use comfortably, so I put the law of the lever to work.
The clutch lever's distance from pivot point to nipple centre is 30mm, whereas the clutch actuator lever's distance from screw, or pivot point, to nipple centre is 35mm, so the law of the lever is already at work, but not enough for me.

I had an old clutch actuator lever that came in a box of parts with the bike. I removed the original lever, cleaned up the damaged screw and turned down the head of the screw to 13mm.

After fashioning a rough lever I attached it to the screw, turned up a dust cover and welded everything together. As I wanted better leverage I drilled the pivot point for the nipple holder 10mm further out from the screw, 45mm. Attached everything and pulled the lever, much, much better. The actuator lever, due to the increased distance between screw and nipple holder pivot actually moves the pushrod less than the original, but still separates the plates enough for the clutch to do it's job.

I sent off for a hydraulic clutch slave cylinder and some hoses, they arrived today and I was pleasantly surprised. The slave cylinder mounts where the original cable was and pulls on the lever attached to the course thread screw. It was cheap and is pretty darn good quality, just not sure it will work that well as the bore is only around 12_14mm. Tomorrows job.

Some hydraulic hoses also arrived, these were advertised as 'braided' but certainly there is no external braiding. They are quite small in diameter and appear to be made of some sort of plastic with braiding of some sort under the clearish outer surface. The smaller of the two came with three banjos: straight, 28 degrees and 90 degrees. Again, they appear to be quite good quality.

The slave cylinder and hoses were only bought to play with, but if everything works ok, I may look at the hoses for brake lines. I'll be on the lathe again shortly to make a slave cylinder that pushes on the clutch actuating rod, not a fan of the course threaded screw actuator.

The coil on the TX went kaput, so I sent off for another CB 750 coil. It arrived yesterday so I went to install it only to find it didn't fit' the bracket I made a while back, the mounting holes on the new coil are 10mm closer together. Not much choice so I made another mounting bracket. Being as it's under the tank I anodised it instead of polishing it as I'd done with the original. Prior to anodising I rotary sanded it, then hit it with a scotchbrite wheel, then dumped it in the anodising bath. Unfortunately, anodising tends to greatly amplify any imperfections in the finish, whilst it looked great before anodising it came out showing the sanding scratches. Acceptable and not seen under the tank, but I wasn't happy with the finish, so rather than do it all again, I put it in the blasting cabinet and gave it a light blasting with glass beads. What a great finish this gave, still anodised so it won't oxidise, but boy, what a great finish. I still have to route the cables and harness neatly, that's why it looks a little untidy. I might also do the same with the top engine mounts.

I've designed and put together a couple of much simplified harness' one for lights, the other for ignition, minus stuff I don't require, neutral light and so on. But still the spaghetti bucket lived up to it's name. I dislike untidy with a vengeance so made a bracket that sits inside the spaghetti bucket to try and keep things neat and make it easier to find and connect the wires.
Two grommets sit in the middle for routing earth wires through to earth connections and a couple of linked, Delrin, insulated terminal bridges sit either side of them for power connections. Mostly connected up, but still have to connect the headlight cables and speedo light cables, not sure about adding idiot lights, more procrastination needed there me thinks! The cables emanating from the switchgear are very, very light gauge, not sure if they'll handle the current, even though all lights are LEDs, so I may have to either solder in heavier gauge cables or change the switchgear.

A few weeks ago I sent off for some tapered mufflers, these were said to suit from 38 - 45mm pipes using the supplied sleeves. Well they came, but aside from being chrome when I ordered black, they were rubbish: The spigot that goes over the exhaust pipe is tapered, so no matter how tight the clamp is done up, they have an alarming amount of movement, so I wrapped them up and on sold them.

Today I went to an exhaust shop and bought 1.5 m of 57 mm pipe and the same amount of 41mm pipe and asked the guy to taper the ends of the 41mm pipe out to 57mm. This was just an experiment mind, just wanted to see what they'd look like. Once I'd welded the tapered cones on to the 57mm pipe, I slid the 57mm end of the mufflers over the exhaust, stood back and had a squiz. Very pleasantly surprised, they give the bike the look I'm after. So next week, or whenever, I'll get some 45mm pipe and get the guy to expand the ends out to 57 mm and weld them on to the other end of the muffler.

The plan is to make up a couple of long baffles and slide them all the way inside the mufflers, start the bike and gradually slide the baffles out until I achieve what I think is an acceptable noise level. I'll also throw a bit of fibreglass insulation in the bodies to dampen the high level noise.

They look a bit Pommyish, but that's alright, I like Pommy bikes.

Once I've finished the mufflers, that's pretty much the build finished. So I'll strip it down, repaint everything again, give the tank a coat of isocynate free clear coat and stick the bike back together. All that remains to be done then is get some tyres fitted and upholster the seat. That'll be the end of my bike building days though, unfortunately, this build has pretty much stuffed my body, my elbows are stuffed, can't doing anything without lots of pain now. So once finished I'll probably book elbow replacement surgery and retire from life. Although, every now and again I'll probably wander out to the workshop, sit on the bike, blow through my lips to make some bike noises, dribble down my chin and remember the good old days of my youth. Still a bit left to do though.

Yep, I've tried all the DMARDS and biologics for RA and then for PsA after the rheumatologist changed his diagnosis: MTX, Hydroxy, Cimzia and a host of others I can't remember, none worked or gave me any relief, similar story with pain killers. I was only diagnosed 5/6 years ago, the rheumatologist said it was the most aggressive case he'd ever seen. I weaned myself of painkillers and trained my body to live with and accept the pain. Fingers, toes, hips have had replacement or fusing surgeries, none very successful, ulna nerve transposition surgery just moved the pain and numbness from fingers to elbow. Elbows have been shot for years, doc wanted to replace them three years ago, but I refuse to have that surgery. Knees, balls of feet', neck, wrist and shoulder are also affected, as well as the tendons in my forearms and upper arms.

Finished one of the mufflers today, plus a baffle. Unfortunately, none of the tube sizes will slide inside the next size up, .25mm too big. I did, consider getting the exhaust guy to expand the tubes, but, I don't share their idea of a 'good fit'. So, using a drum sander I shaved .25mm off the inside of the tail pipe and the same amount of the receiver end. Now, because round tube is not round, more egg shaped, I can match the oval shapes together, push one tube in, twist and get a really tight fit.

Baffles were fun to make, 168 holes in total. I drilled 14 along the length of the pipe, then drilled another 11 lines of holes around the circumference, by the time I'd drilled the last line the holes didn't match up, so, I mounted another piece of tube on the lathe and used the bit to scribe lines along the length, 9.9mm apart, then used the dial indicator to mark around the tube at 10mm intervals, then drilled using the mill. Success. I know you can't see the holes in the baffles and it won't make any difference, but,
At least I'll know they are neat and the rows and lines match.

All I have to do to tune the decibels is start the bike and pull the baffle out until I'm happy with the noise level then cut the excess off. In area, I need 58 x 5mm holes to match the area of the exhaust pipe outlet, I can probably go a few less actually because the exhaust outlet is only arlound 34/36mm as is the baffle outlet.

Welding the cones front and back was also fun: Tacked the cone in four places as straight as I could get it, then mounted the muffler in the chuck, spun it and using a dial gauge, marked where I needed to weld in order to pull it straight. Four times from memory I did this, with 25mm long beads. The tail pipe on the other one I did yesterday, manually, is a little off, but I'll remedy that after I've added the receiver cone.

A good day today, muffler gives the bike the look I wanted. Once both are done, I'll double skin a portion on the inside, weld some mounting points on, then paint them black. Not sure what type bracket to use, but it will attached to a polished aluminium stay bolted to the pillion passenger peg mounts. I'm thinking of a wide polished aluminium clamp around the body of the muffler, that will negate the need for double skinning. I can feel a 'try and see' coming up

Completed the last job today, fitted the baffles to the mufflers. All that's left to do now is rip the bike apart and repaint, then reassemble. Don't know when though, I like looking at it now it's finished.

I'll be repainting with the same black, but this time applying an iso free two pack clear over the base colour coat on some selected parts: tank, seat, guards and maybe a few other bits.

When resprayed and assembled I'll fit tyres and get the the seat covered, don't trust the upholsterers with the seatpan, that's why the two pack iso free clear on the seatpan before getting it covered. I was going to cover it myself, but the Singer has given up the ghost.

When resprayed and reassembled I park it in the garage and cover it up and go out every now and again, uncover, sit on it, blow through my lips to make some appropriate motor bike noises and dribble down my chin.

Don't know what I'll do after this, maybe an R65, if there's anything left of my elbows.