building up the chassis

This weekend has been ear-marked in my diary for many weeks. Two days to myself with no interruptions (other than the occasional running of family here and there).  A good lump of time therefore to make significant progress.

This was the first time that I've had chance to look properly at the parts that I had powder-coated before Christmas - Unwrapping a newly powder-coated machine part is not a dissimilar experience to unpacking your new iPhone - it is a moment of excitement and wonder.  I unwrapped 3 parts; the main frame, the rear swinging arm and the front forks - and decided that I should put them all together.

Rebuilding the front forks is quite fiddly - theres a lot of springs going on in there and I had to resort to a sash cramp to hold things in place while I screwed the end-stops into the fork tubes.
Fitting the rear swing arm and rubber suspension bumpers to the frame was pretty simple and non-eventful.
Fitting the front forks to the frame however was more hassle than I expected.  First of all, the manual refers to all sorts of "compensation washers" in the assembly that I simply didnt have in the original parts that I had.  Was this because they were never fitted in the first place or because someone had incorrectly serviced the bike in the past?  I could only reassemble with the bits I had to hand but I tried to understand the logic of the assembly and be content with the way I was putting it all back together.
Holding loose ball-bearings together while assembling forks is always tricky but packing them into a good bed of grease helps - I also used a bungey-cord to hold the fork assembly in place while I fitted the top bearing nut.  And talking of that top nut - why was it SO tight to screw down?  I had it on and off many times to investigate why it felt so tight - it wasn't cross-threaded, and there was no thread damage or contamination - it was just bloody tight!


All in all a satisfying weekend with a real sense of progress