SPANNER TIME
SPANNER TIME
With initial preparation done to the Fantic wheel and forks time to see whether this idea will all come together? On a cold New Year's Eve, Shadetree braved the workshop temps once more and humped
the Enfield onto the stand.
Unridden and dusty, the machine is surveyed for leaks for which the brand is famous. Nothing too
obvious so let the deconstruction begin. First remove the number plate with the now almost obselete
Ahrma regulation sticker, brake cable, and front wheel. Off comes the mudguard ...... my, it feels good
to be weilding spanners again!
Out of curiosity its off with the tank and seat and a quick wipe down to make it look pretty in its near
naked state. Tomorrow it will be the forks, and then some serious weighing of what we had and what
"weight watchers" is proposing. First up refit a tire on the Fantic wheel and as they tell me these
brakes are shit hot (not that I envisage nose wheelieing the Enfield) and these wheels have TWO
security bolts in the front to presumably stop the "creep" caused by these powerful brakes.
The forks fit ! Always a surprize when you find that the Enfield Gun Company actually made their forks
35mm back in the 50's so a good start to the morning. Now its wheel and tire time and then the official
weigh in.
New forks fit
New tire and tube fitted and weighed, now loosely assemble, and I see my good friend Steve has reassembled the brake plate incorrectly (but he did do a nice job of cleaning). The wheel is in, it spins
nicely on the new bearings but has a "bit" of a wobble !!! .... but it doesn't hit the fork legs so all is well,
just need to find a distance piece to substitute for where the speedo drive used to live.... must have
something that will do ?
Brake plate black or back to alloy ?
The wheel weighs in
The fork brace fits too......... its NOT staying orange !
Spacer required
So looking good trying to reduce a Premier Heavyweight to a Premier Lightweight (some hope!!)
........ and now:
THE TALE OF THE TAPE !
Our two worthy challengers line up ..... a lot of duty staring
In the Red, White and Blue, our current Champion from Great Britain ROYAL (The Bullet) ENFIELD
In the Red, White and Green corner, the contender from Italy, FANTIC (The Real Deal) MARZOCCHI
ENFIELD FANTIC
Front Wheel 21 lbs 15 lbs
Forks 15 lbs 10 lbs
Length 31" 30.5"
(Reach)
Age 1950's early 1980's
Well thats carved another 11 lbs off the all up weight which started life somewhere in GB at around
309 lbs according to the owners manual. After the initial build with all the frame alterations, headstock angle, and a Yam back wheel, alloy tank, billet yokes etc I had changed the wheelbase from close on
56" down to 51" and raised the ground clearance from 5.5" to 12"..... "El Compacto"...... the weight had
gone from 309 down to 280 so now with this mod I'm under 270,....... bike's getting lighter as well!
This "lightweight" works motor + gearbox weighs 120lbs !!
Yipee! its going to work! ......well next up a full carb clean and tune up and perhaps change the engine
treacle known as HD SAE 50. Need to order the oil seals and fork wipers and a genuine Fantic front
brake cable.
Meanwhile while watching the New Year's Eve fireworks on TV a couple of sneaky applications of
Solvol, and here are the very pleasing results to the TY Monos.
Still need a wheel
TONY DOWN
Hi Tony you are a lucky so and so that the forks went straight in, but I suspect they are not the original Enfield yokes. What about travel? Will the mudguard clear the downtube on full compression with fork springs removed?? Last one I built had to be modified. Happy spanner time, Dick
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Don't think Enfield were that far ahead of the game and using metric dimensions in 1950! You will probably find that the original forks were one and three eighth inches - 1.375 inches - 35 mm translates to 1.378 inches - only 3 "thou" larger in diameter - Similarly inch and a half forks - 1.500 inches are 4 "thou" under at 1.496 inches, so that's why they will fit. This is probably why 35mm and 38mm sized fork stanchions were used by the Europeans. Best of luck with the changeovers. Regards. Howard
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Wheel on the way.
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