Quarantine – How I deal with the Lonesome Blues

Well, we are entering a new World right now, times are hard and quite scary to be honest, most of us have been Quarantined and have to stay at home, in Isolation from the world, but keeping safe, Healthy and away from that nasty Virus.

But, I am getting many orders for parts this month as so many people are at home and have decided to pull up their sleeves and got into their Garage, Shed or Cave etc and start or finish off their project they had started a while ago and ran out of time to complete.  And now we only seem to have time on your hands, you may as well tick some of those jobs to do off the list and make this time in isolation a rewarding one.

I just received an order for a drilled rear brake hub assembly, I have made quite a few for Customers over the years and to be honest, I find it quite therapeutic doing the drilling on the hub and thought I would share some of my experiences with you lot and maybe you will want to have a go your self??????????

I’m about to go out to get a few parts as I had orders today, wont see anyone but I have to go to storage and grab some stuff so will be back in a tick.

Right, I am now ready to get myself situated to get some drilling done on a hub that a Customer has ordered from me and you too can do this if you have some time, a drill and some patience, as it really pays off in the and and gives a unique Custom look on your machine. So, have a look here, I have three hubs to create for Customers and I will show you what I do ok?

Strip your old hub down, just have to remove the 2 springs that hold brake shoes and the split pins that hold the swivel, remove brake actuator and arm and you will be left with a bare plate, once you have completed that task, which only really needs a pair of long nosed pliers, you will then need to secure the hub onto something sturdy, so the plate doesn’t move when you start to drill your lightning holes. I always use a piece of old plywood and secure the plate on top it by using a washer and a wood screw, easy as that.

I use an array of drill bits and to be honest, I just go for it, no set pattern, what ever I think looks good I just drill and change bits as and when I see fit, that way, not one hub is ever drilled the same.

I always have a shop vac at hand, as you are going to get a lot of swarf from the Aluminum and it gets everywhere to be honest, so every now and again, I vacuum the mess it leaves, else you will be feet deep in alloy shavings.

So here you go, this is the pattern that I like the look of and I can still add or make a few holes bigger to give a different pattern.

Looks a lot different when its polished eh? Also, I add New brake shoes and actuator arms etc to make this really look like a Custom piece and so easy to fit too.

So as I have plenty of home time, I thought I would show you how I make these great pieces out of old tired brake hubs for the CB500-CB550 and CB750 Honda’s.

I am sure that you may want to have a go and see how you fare? Its such a great feeling when you bolt it all back together and its therapeutic for me thats for certain.

See, the Patterns are always different, that way, each one is unique to any other out there, its a neat old school look and cools the brake too as it aerates as you ride.

A trifecta of hubs I am doing and this does take some time to complete , but I really like doing these and they come out looking very cool indeed, as you can see below.

So, once all together you can fit right away to your wheel, or, if you are building a Custom rim, just plop in into the hub, it sure dresses that part up so well.

I have built so many that I have lost count over these last 20 years but always fun to create and I still get orders for the custom hubs all the time and glad that you lot like what I do.

Thank you for reading my little Blog today, I have fun writing these and its always cool hearing from you all to see and hear what you lot are creating in your sheds or garages etc.

Drop me a line if I can help you at all, even if its just for advice, my Number is 714-598-8392, you can also TEXT me on that as well for a faster response.

Stay safe everyone and we shall all get through this and be back on the tarmac having fun with our creations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Wheel Bearing retainer wrench for K and F series SOHC.

Well, many times i have beat my head against the wall, trying to get the old Aluminum bearing retainers from out of the hubs etc, Usually you will destroy the things so bad, they wont come out at all.

So, what I did was make a tool to fit both the K series CB750 rear wheel hub, as well as the CB750F hub and this works awesome.

No more banging an old screwdriver, or trying to tap the thing undone, only to bugger all the threads up as well and bring your own blood pressure up.

 

So- here is a great wrench for you so you can remove the retainer and save a wee bit of sweat and swearing.

These are made out of heavy Gauge steel with steel pins to make sure this sits in the holes correctly and does the job it was intended for, I have looked for a tool such as this but never seem to find one, so though the best to be make my own and offer these for sale, so at least you can have a better chance of taking your own machine apart, rather than paying a shop to do it.

 

I know you can use it as I have used this now 4 times this week as I had to remove bearings from hubs so I can polish and paint the hubs and then re-spoke, so it has already paid for itself many times over.

 

 

So, have a look, I now sell these on my website and you can use it right out of the box, one end is for the smaller retainer that Super Sports have and the other end is for all the K series SOHC machines.

Here is a quick video I did, forgive the quality but I was on my own and trying to work left handed.

 

These will be priced at $29.99 and ready to ship to you today !!!!!

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE ITEM