Aermacchi This and That - part 2 // Paul Brodie's Shop 

That's funny! I just love what I do. I feel very fortunate to be in my present situation. We do put a lot of energy into these videos, so thank you for watching and commenting :)

That's true. Light bikes just do everything better. I'm a believer.

Thanks Mike. Cool that you had similar experiences.

Thank you Thierry. Apparently, I just needed a little prompting :)

Yes I am. Thank you.

Go for it!

Thank you Joe.

Just like a sharpening stone. Work the corners. The center won't get cupped. Yoyodyne used to hate me for small orders.

Thank you for watching!

more hp only makes the bike go faster, less weight makes it speed up slow down and corner faster :-)

Good comments! I have fun reducing weight. My first Aermacchi race bike (that became the "Rent-a-Racer..) weighed a little over 240 lbs. My second race bike (that got stolen..) weighed 221 lbs after all my weight saving efforts. I still remember my delight when I first weighed it :)

@Alfred Wedmore Thanks for story. I've only ridden one Velo, 350 MAC with Dowty (Doughty?) 'oiliomatic; forks. Never got to drive early Lotus but sitting in one the pedals were well offset in opposite direction to what I was then driving so felt incredibly weird

@Alfred Wedmore Good info, thank you!

this is true, but holes can still be drilled, as long as the remaining cross section is enough to withstand the applied torque. this swiss cheese approach essentially only leaves the outer edges doing all the work, and maybe a thin strip along the middle. so it could have had two very long holes for the same strength and a lot less weight. steel would have been a far better material for a tension element.

@@daos3300 putting the holes in a zig-zag pattern just means the force has no direct path, and creates stress risers where there didn't have to be any. It's a tension stay. Would have been better to calculate the load and create a dogbone profile with plenty of margin for safety. Much more extraneous weight could be removed with fewer places for cracks to start.

@@daos3300 I vote steel dogbone/NO holes....

@@charlesangell_bulmtlthat would definitely work.

Yes, always better to err on the conservative side when lightening torque arms. Sounds like you recovered and lived to tell a story!

Hi Drew did you once make alloy barrels for Norton commandos ?.

@@colinbatchford8007 Colin we did still got some left we moved to no liners and ceramic bores on the final ones we did

Thank you Glen. No, you have not missed undercutting and magnafluxing. I have not done that to an Aermacchi transmission yet. I'm very careful with shimming, and can't remember missed shifts or any other problems.. Touch Wood!

@@paulbrodie I figured your cogs were cogging in a cogtacular way, just hoping to watch you show us how to undercut a transmission (cant say tranny anymore apparently) and the magnafluxing would be flux on the cake! Funny, your safety wire discussion brought me back (way back) to learning how to do it at 17 years old on McDonnell Douglas A4Ms. Those were the days.

@@glenpiro313 Yes, those were the days. I'm glad I grew up in the 60's and 70's; those really were what I like to call "The Golden Age of Motorcycling". So much innovation and experimentation.

Hertog, thanks for liking our videos! How close is Rustington to you? That's where I was born :)

Paul, if you had asked me a year ago, I would have needed an atlas. However, I bought a bicycle frame off Ebay last Summer and drove down to Rustington from Bracknell to collect it. About 45 miles, 90 round trip. The seller was an ex UK pool champion and the frame, a 1980 Carlton Pro-am, had been his grandfather's indoor trainer for some time before his death. Like his grandson, the grandfather was a high achiever; earlier in life, he held a number of tricycle and tandem tricycle records. The Pro-am has had money thrown at it in the form of a professional bare metal respray and parts from a second donor Pro-am. It now looks at least as good as factory original and currently lives in my living room. All my bikes have a name ... I kept the seller informed all the way through the restoration and he was delighted, in the final instalment, to learn that I had named the bike Reg, after his grandfather. So there you are, that's my Rustington story.

@@Hertog_von_Berkshire That was great to read your story, thank you. Yes, I often name motorcycles, and sometimes I name bicycles too. Most of my time in the UK we lived in Southampton; next to the Undertaker, across from the Bus Depot.

Paul, I lived in Bassett, Southampton, for a short while, late 1980s and early 1990s. By that time, the bus depot site had been cleared and was developed as a shopping mall which opened while I was there. The whole area is so different now, I doubt you would recognise it. Many locals were upset about the redevelopment.

@@Hertog_von_Berkshire Yes, we left in 1964 so I'm sure a lot has changed. Emigrating to Canada was still a novel idea at that time, and the local paper did a story on it.

That you Alan. That would be a bit of a trick: starting a 1/16" hole on an angled surface, and then starting another hole and having them match up! But, anything is possible!

Now that's a good idea. Thanks.

Yes, there are a few ways to approach lightening a torque stay. An "I" beam is one such way. Maybe on the next bike I will do that...

True. I don't mind doing the actual safety-wiring, but if all those 1/16" holes would magically appear that would truly be magic :)

It might be 1/2 an hour for you, but for me there is much more time involved. Thanks for watching!

Just be careful and err on the conservative side.

Sounds like you did not get hurt, which is the main thing...

The torque arm has holes... You idea would look great, but would be very time-consuming.

The only race track is Mission Raceway, and there are too many concrete walls and the decibel level is 88dBa, and it's almost impossible to make a race Aermacchi that quiet. I stopped racing there, and travelled to Seattle and the Ridge, near Olympia, Washington. I am retired from road racing, but someone else might ride it.

Joe, that ink drawing was done in 1992 by Gary Ayton, a very talented friend who also used to work for me when we were creating Brodie bicycle frames. The drawing is of a Gatorblade fork, which we also made. They are now very collectible :) Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching!

That's a good story. I have a habit of liking to save weight too :)

We have a new system now. We hope you like it. Thanks for watching.

@@paulbrodie Sorry if I came across as rude. 🙈 But with all the great work you do it’s so frustrating not being able to hold the parts in your own hand, comparing it with the original one. So the second best thing is closeups. 🙂 Keep the videos coming. Love this race bike build. 👌

@@andli461 No worries, we appreciate your comments. We're always trying to do things a little better!

I do like my Makita die grinder. I recommend them for fillet brazing; they fit the process well. For cylinder heads I use my porting tool, it has variable speed and runs much slower than the Makita, which is better for aluminum removal.

Yes, there are a couple Aermacchi racing exhaust systems that are well proven from years of use and development. Thanks for watching! 😚

Thank you. I just left the tappets stock, 10mm. Using N6 cam never an issue. Rocker arm middle section has .700" OD. Yes I could shot peen the rockers but they are not a weak point. Never had a single issue with them.

I guess I'm fussy. I like how my side cutters snip, and my needle nose will make a tighter radius when I'm bending the end. Actually, I know I'm fussy.

Thank you Todd. The spiral rolls come from Sabre Industrial Supply. All the info and part numbers are in the Fillet Brazing 101 video.

Foot control. Are you referring to something on the Aermacchi?

@@paulbrodie yes you moved it when you showing us the seat Im guess it was rear brake

@@jcerullo5015 Rear brake is on the left side, shifter mechanism is on the right side.

Here’s the link for the foot control video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3fWBQW9ZcBQ.html

@@mitchellnurseproductions Than you very much I like Paul vid and the fact that he reply show hw cares, but thank i was looking for this

That was Lotus's slogan "We add lightness"

It's like painting a hole in something on Loony Tunes.

I think it's an expression, rather than a real world thing.

I have not heard that before..

@@paulbrodie Well, that big chrome gas tank looked like a fifties bread toaster.

@@milesdufourny4813 Now I get it.

Yes, .032"

That could be a possibility.

My phone number has five 8's in it... Yes, I could have drilled the torque arm 8mm, but I'm erring on the side of caution after my incident 50 years ago!

You are wrong.

Oh dude, that is so CRASS....

@@charlesangell_bulmtl Yes it is good to keep a certain level in the comments, and not stoop too low.

@@paulbrodie I will try to behave from now on! ;)

Yes, small drill bits usually run quite fast, but I chose a "medium" speed. I'm feeding the drill down very, very slowly. I'm trying to make the bit last, but am not always successful.

Yes, it will allow the engine to rev a little faster. Smoothing and polishing will take away any stress risers too.

Is blue printing and port polishing going to be happening?

@@78JGK The cylinder head got ported (not by me..) many years ago. Checking clearances - valve to valve, valve to piston, piston squish band, etc., is very time consuming and I'm not sure that would make a great video.

We agree!

@@paulbrodie He's got a trial bike, and his son has an electric one. Maybe offer to make a kick-ass custom part for it? :)

One of my rockers has been fixed with stellite. They did a nice job, and it should be fine. I think that's what you are referring to...

@@paulbrodie The contact point wear surface for sure but what I was thinking about are heat treated components that achieve a relatively thin layer of hardened material over the entire surface but either remained ductile inside or are returned to malleable by some other treatment. I've seen this done before the final internal machining, honing really, to size for a pin and the specs are clear that the part cannot be oversized without exceeding the case hardened layer. These were helicopter linkages and about the size of your rockers with similar arms causing a twisting force. I used some scrapped ones for a curing oven lock and when I tried to machine them they refused to cooperate until I ground off about 10 thou to find the remainder incredibly easy to work with. The case hardening was its Superpart cape. I've come across the same strength adding method a couple of other times but all I can remember is Jimmy Diresta might have been involved... and an 8 inch grinder. A surface plate flatness tester?? Someone else will know more. If you have an original rocker and some Rockwell hardness files or a durometer...or a tap tap tap... it might be worthwhile to test the surface. If by chance your part had some case hardness it would be very interesting seeing it put back where it belongs. You certainly do have some interesting stuff.

@@WireWeHere Yes, you are talking about case hardening. I've had V-blocks case hardened. They were mild steel, and you tell the shop how thick you want the hardening; often .030". I think you can case harden other steels too, but my knowledge is limited..

On a microscopic level, maybe. I used to describe myself as a "Serious Hobby Racer", so there was never a World Championship at stake or anything like that...

Are we talking about drilling the hole for safety wire?

@@paulbrodie Yes sir, the sharp angle and small drill bit together makes it a difficult hole to drill without it wandering.

@@samueltaylor4989 That's why it's very hard to drill from one side, flip it over, and then drill from the other side. If you're lucky the 2 holes will meet up. If you're not lucky...

When I was building the Excelsiors, I did get certain parts hardened, but the only thing I can remember getting case-hardened is my V-blocks.