Hi Guys.

I was chatting to a good friend of mine this last weekend.

He is an engineer and machinist of some rupute,and also looks after some of the country's historic armoury, IE Field guns,Rifles,and Cannons etc.

I asked him if he could machine me a set of "fiddle fork" sliders. I thought it should be easy for him as he dealt with gun barrels on some of the jobs he did

I showed him the Marzocchi sliders that i needed machining down to fit inside the "Short Norton Road Holder" ones that I was proudly polishing in my hand.

He shook his head, and said it would not be easy, and could turn into a long and expensive Job. He then went on to explain how he would go about it.

First he would need to line bore the Roadholders to clean and break the surface hardness of the bore, to get a good bond when the two parts were mated together. This would entail finding a boring head the correct size and machining a solid shaft to fit this to get the depth of cut. A jig would have to be made to hold the fork legs in position for this task.

The Marzocchi legs would probably need normalizing to reduce risidual stresses in the structure of the legs and help with the machining process.

Then he would need to make a solid expanding mandrel to fit snugly inside the Marzocchi leg to hold and support it during machining on the lathe, Why? Because the grains in cast aluminium are very coarse and do not machine well, the leg would probably break or end up the shape of a banana.

Sticking them together was anouther major task, and I will not bore you with the details,but it did mean mixing aircraft quality epoxy resin together and a time and measurment scale that was much to precise for me to grasp.The final task would be to machine up two extention sleeves to lengthen the Roadholder sliders to the same length as the Marzocchi's.

So the moral of the tale is Don't Try This At Home, but get someone who as performed this task successfully several times before to do it for you . and Hang the cost, because it could be a lot cheaper than you messing the job up yourself.

Regards Charlie.

Edited August 16, 200719 yr by charlie prescott

Hi Guys.

I was chatting to a good friend of mine this last weekend.

He is an engineer and machinist of some rupute,and also looks after some of the country's historic armoury, IE Field guns,Rifles,and Cannons etc.

I asked him if he could machine me a set of "fiddle fork" sliders. I thought it should be easy for him as he dealt with gun barrels on some of the jobs he did

I showed him the Marzocchi sliders that i needed machining down to fit inside the "Short Norton Road Holder" ones that I was proudly polishing in my hand.

He shook his head, and said it would not be easy, and could turn into a long and expensive Job. He then went on to explain how he would go about it.

First he would need to line bore the Roadholders to clean and break the surface hardness of the bore, to get a good bond when the two parts were mated together. This would entail finding a boring head the correct size and machining a solid shaft to fit this to get the depth of cut. A jig would have to be made to hold the fork legs in position for this task.

The Marzocchi legs would probably need normalizing to reduce risidual stresses in the structure of the legs and help with the machining process.

Then he would need to make a solid expanding mandrel to fit snugly inside the Marzocchi leg to hold and support it during machining on the lathe, Why? Because the grains in cast aluminium are very coarse and do not machine well, the leg would probably break or end up the shape of a banana.

Sticking them together was anouther major task, and I will not bore you with the details,but it did mean mixing aircraft quality epoxy resin together and a time and measurment scale that was much to precise for me to grasp.The final task would be to machine up two extention sleeves to lengthen the Roadholder sliders to the same length as the Marzocchi's.

So the moral of the tale is Don't Try This At Home, but get someone who as performed this task successfully several times before to do it for you . and Hang the cost, because it could be a lot cheaper than you messing the job up yourself.

Regards Charlie.

OR IF YOU CUT UP AN OLD COKE CAN TO PUT INBETWEEN SLIDERS AND YOKE HOLES IT WOULD BE A LOT CHEAPER

OR IF YOU CUT UP AN OLD COKE CAN TO PUT INBETWEEN SLIDERS AND YOKE HOLES IT WOULD BE A LOT CHEAPER

Crikey, was that what the post really meant?

I have managed to stick tiger cub outer engine cases onto my Honda TLR 250 with silicone, does it now qualify as pre 65 ?

I will of course fit fork gaiters for that true period appearance.

I have managed to stick tiger cub outer engine cases onto my Honda TLR 250 with silicone, does it now qualify as pre 65 ?

I will of course fit fork gaiters for that true period appearance.

Yes only if the silicone was made before 1965.

The stuff that is doing the sticking is a brand new compound not yet released for commercial sale, but if i cover up the edges that you can see with some old hermatite, I reckon that should keep every one happy!!

The stuff that is doing the sticking is a brand new compound not yet released for commercial sale, but if i cover up the edges that you can see with some old hermatite, I reckon that should keep every one happy!!