Over easter I got to spend some time with my bikes. It's a somewhat unfortunate story where we currently live on different sides of Sweden, bikes on the west coast and me on the east coast.
Anyway, like five-six years ago I purchased this -47 M21 in baskets and boxes and it's been a slow process. Due to location and lack of time I have for the time being focused on getting it up and running, not focusing on paintjob or appearance.
And now a triggerwarning!
This is not an restoration where all the pieces are "correct", it currently looks pretty much like the original thing but there is still things that may get the pulse going for those who think that all bikes should look exactly like they did when they left the factory. In the future the bike will change even moore and it probably will be getting a smaller tank, different fenders, and perhaps even a sissybar and an upswept exhaust.
I know this is not for everybody, but it is what I like.
Anyway, here is a short video of the bike running just after the first upstart. It took some kicks but not to many. Most of it probably due to me not knowing the bike yet, and the Wassel Concentric not being tuned yet.
Runs well, idles perfectly, no strange noises and oil flowing through to the tank. Still nothing quite like the feeling of starting up a build for the first time!!!
Oh, and this is what has been done:
Engine completely rebuilt. The barrel was cracked and a new one was located and bored +.20.
Frame straightened in some places.
Fork links rebuilt by Dave Plumb.
Lots of things blasted and painted (such as frame)
Rims and hubs blasted and powder coated, rebuilt with stainless spokes.
New seats built.
Rust inside both tanks removed through electrolytic process (with great success!)
And thousand and one different little things fixed, adjusted and sometimes made by me in the garage, we have the basic machinery; lahte, milling machine and so on.
The bike has a past as an military police-bike on Sri Lanka and came to Sweden i 1988 (I found out by a chance encounter with a guy). Broke down due to a faulty oil feed to the big end, was taken apart and sat like that for many years until I got it back together. It was in a poor state due to a hard life in service and loads of roadside repairs. So many threads was gone it was almost silly. And some of them unfortunately drilled out to metric sizes, like the sump plate bolts for instance.
Anyway feel free to ask if you have any questions!
And good to hear you think so Ian! Would have been kind of a drag if you with all your expertise heard that the engine sounded not so good... :upside_down_face:
