tech27

Why would a paid-up BSA Owners Club member, who owns an A65 and a
B44 want to build and own a Triumph powered Rickman Mettisse? Well,
because in the sixties he raced a TR6SC Triumph in the desert,
converted it to a Rickman framed version, and later in the seventies
bought a Micro Metisse (Hodaka powered) for his "daughter" which he
restored. Never mind that she couldn't fit it for about two years.
After several years of attending Vintage Motocross races and lusting
after any Rickman that would appear, I finally decided to own a
Rickman. Restoring one might do but the chances that an old Rickman
might have been heavily raced and consequently might have a bent frame
seemed high. Or the oil-in-the-frame "tank" might have been
contaminated by a blown engine with pieces lurking inside just waiting
to get out to damage a newly rebuilt motor just installed. My son
convinced me that the prudent thing to do is to build my own from a
frame kit and a freshly rebuilt motor using forks and wheels from the
used market. This is easy as the frame is still manufactured today in
England by a Rickman Brothers approved source. I suspect that the
Rickmans provided that company, MRD, with the jigs and all technical
data required.

The first concern developed as I decided which should come first, the
chicken or the egg? The major components were the motor and the
frame. An apparent shortage of "ball bearing" Triumph 500 Unit Twin
engines seemed that this item was key. I had chosen the 500 verses the
650 because the 500 is inherently lighter. My 650 Rickman weighted in
at 325 lbs. The 500 version was reported to weigh 260 lbs. I found
this weight to be suspect but the completed bike, if I had chosen to
do away with the Lucas alternator and used an after-market electronic
magneto installed in the points cover, would have indeed made this
weight. My bike weighs about 270 lbs full of gas and oil using the
Lucas alternator. Earlier Triumph Unit 500 Twins used the cursed
plain bearing on the timing side while the later motors used a ball
bearing instead. I found a 1970 ball bearing motor that looked rough
but from previous experience I knew that with the right chemicals and
some judicious glass bead blasting it would come out looking OK.

The motor rebuild became the first project. I did all that I was able
to do myself but I had to have the valves replaced and valve seats
reground by my friend Keith Moore at Moore's Cycle in Anaheim. Keith
also had the cylinder rebored for new pistons. Several "problems"
surface during the tear down and inspection. Apparently the previous
owner analyzed an engine noise that occurred at the rate of engine
rotation to be a primary problem. He had replaced the primary chain,
the clutch plates, and the chain tensioner rubbing block. The real
problem was that the roller bearing on the primary end of the crank
had developed a split on the outer race's circumference and a tang was
protruding and dragging on the cheek of the crank. With the engine
apart it was no problem to replace and no damage had been done to
other components. The new primary components replaced by the previous
owner were well appreciated. The transmission gear selector plate
showed signs that the track had been over ridden with resultant damage
to the plate. This turned out to be a problem as Keith Moore couldn't
find one through his sources. Several inquiries on the Internet got me
a new one (NOS) from a Vintage dealer in Iowa, Baxters. Most all
other components showed normal wear and didn't require replacement
except the rockers and their shafts which were replaced with new
parts. The motor went back together without a hitch except that long
storage without plugs had rusted the bore to the point that even a
rebore did not completely remove all traces of rust erosion. Both the
boring company and Keith Moore said to run it as the damage to the
bore was minimal and acceptable.

I then went to Matt Hilgenberg's Speed and Sport in Long Beach and
ordered the frame kit. The frame kit includes the frame, the swinging
arm, the seat, and all the fiberglass components including the gas
tank, the seat base, side panels, front fender, tail piece and the
airbox. Included also are key nuts and bolts and a set of chain
adjusters (the adjustment is done with cam plates at the swinging
arm). Matt also had used hubs from the Montesa version of the Rickman
and a set of used Betor forks. The hubs required bead blasting to
clean up as did the backing plates. Matt had also provided a set of
good brake shoes to go around. The rear wheel backing plate had to be
modified to fit on the left side of the swinging arm as the plate was
setup for a right hand chain motor. The hubs required the bearings to
be changed and new bearing spacers made up on my trusty Smithy
Lathe/Mill. The rear axle size of the new frame was larger than the
hubs and backing plate would accommodated so the bearing spacer and
plate had to be modified accordingly.

The used Betor forks were disassembled and inspected. Matt Hilgenberg
suggested adding a spacer under the dampening rods to increase the
travel to the 7 inch Vintage Motocross limit. The fork legs were
cleaned and polished externally but only enough to take off the old
patina. That means deep scars were just polished over leaving a bit of
character to them. New seals and oil completed the fork leg rebuilds.
The triple crowns were bead blasted on the underside and polished on
the top surfaces. The top one was modified on my Smithy (mill) to
allow clearances around the frame headstock for the handlebar mounting
bolts. Handlebar mounts were required so I machined some up using two
pieces of one-inch aluminum bar stock for each mount. The two pieces
were drilled to match the mounting holes in the top crown, bolted
together and bored for the bars at 7/8 inches. The top part or the
handlebar mount was milled so that it would act as a clamp on one
side. The edges were broken with the mill to give a billet look, which
of course they really were. The lower crown had its underside machined
such that additional fender clearance was provided. The fender
supplied with the Mark III Rickman needs extra clearance when the
forks bottom out on those big hit jumps. All fork nuts and bolts
were replaced with stainless hardware and the stem was replaced from
one off a Bultaco that Matt provided.

When the frame kit arrived in less than six weeks from order I was
amazed. The build process hadn't started until I ordered it and it
was built, shipped, and got through customs in six weeks! The quality
was every bit as good as I remembered it from my first Rickman in
1967. The first task was to install the tapered roller bearings for
the forks. Matt Hilgenberg also provided these. The forks were fitted
along with the hubs in order to determine the amount of offset to the
rim for lacing. The rear was problematical in that the rim could not
be centered in the frame as there would then not be enough clearance
for the chain run. The rear wheel had to be offset 3/16 inches from
center for chain clearance as per Matt Hilgenberg's suggestion. Of
course I calculated the offsets, laced the rims onto the hubs and
fitted tires only to find out that everything hit everything else! On
the rear I had used the wrong reference point on the hub when lacing
it resulting in a 7/16 inch error. I was able to fix the error and
more accurately position the rear wheel, but I had to demount/mount
the tire. Oh well, so much for science. The front wheel was off just
1/8 inch, but the tire I had selected had knobs that protruded so much
that even after perfectly centering the wheel the side knobs rubbed on
the inside of the narrow fender. Oh well, razor blades do wonders for
excessively protruding knobs! I had never realized how much tires had
changed their profiles in the last 30 years.

I next added the engine to the frame and was pleased to find that the
chain sprockets lined up correctly. The fiberglass components were
installed, making certain that all were well supported and not in any
sort of a bind that could eventually cause cracking. Many spacers
were made as well as a spigot to adapt the carb to the airbox via a
rubber hose. The aluminum shavings were building up from all the
manufacturing going on. The spigot alone started out as a 3 inch
diameter by 2 inch long solid piece of aluminum with about 80% being
machined off.

The electrical system required some decisions. I could do away with
the Lucas alternator, both stator and rotor, and go for an electronic
magneto or use the Lucas alternator, a Boyer Rectifier/Regulator, two
stock 6 volt coils (wired in series as per Boyer instructions), and a
Boyer electronic ignition. The Boyer Power Module, as the
Rectifier/Regulator is called, supposedly allows battery-less
operation without using the huge Lucas battery eliminator capacitor. I
chose the alternator over the electronic magneto mostly because the
magneto device is as scarce as hen's teeth. I was on a waiting list to
get a new one for my A65 for over two years and I never got one! The
area just behind the steering head on the frame turned out to be just
large enough for the Rectifier/Regulator, the electronic ignition
module and the two coils. Only the coils peek down below the tank. All
else is hidden from view and the Rectifier/Regulator, which requires
cooling, is in the air stream.

The rear shocks were a bolt-on affair. I used Progressive Suspension
rear shocks that I got from our Vintage Motocross racing friend,
Charlie Richardson, at CR Racing in Fallbrook, CA. The exhaust system
was manufactured in Long Beach by one of Matt Hilgenberg's suppliers,
fitted to the bike by a local Hesperia exhaust system guy and plated
by a local Hesperia polisher/plater. The carb was a new Amal
Concentric that I got from Keith Moore while the air filters are K&N,
ordered directly from them in Riverside. Keith Moore also provided
all the Triumph motor parts, brearing shells, bearings, gaskets,
seals, o-rings, fiber and copper washers required for renewing the
engine. Hoses, wire, nuts and bolts, and miscellaneous hardware I got
from my local industrial hardware store here in Hesperia. Cables were
custom made by Terrycable here in Hesperia and control levers are
Works levers bought at Chaparral. Keith Moore provided the entire
electrical system except for the Lucas alternator which came with the
motor. Matt Hilgenberg supplied the English manufactured, correct
Vintage look handlebars.

There were a bunch of details that required fitting, or making of
spacers, or other unique pieces. To list a few: the rear brake rod
and fittings, electrical system mounting brackets, wheel spacers, head
steadies, brake stay, and on and on. I could not have built this bike
without my Smithy Lathe/Mill, my Harbor Freight Bead Blasting
cabinet, and their solvent tank, my drill press, taps, dies, hand
drill, hand tools in Metric, Whitworth and American, and all the other
tools that I have acquired over the past 40 years. I currently have
the best setup shop I have ever had and I do appreciate that fact.

For me this was about a project, not just owning a Rickman. The
exercise of building the bike is what it was about for me. At the
initiation of the project I was offered a recently finished Rickman at
a really good price (meaning less than what it cost for me to build
mine), but that would not have done the job of providing a bike
project, just a bike. If you want a Rickman to have one I suggest you
buy a used one. If you want a project that results in a really
beautiful 1960 style brand new motocross racer, do like I did and
build a "new" Rickman.