LOCKDOWN K8
Can’t afford an actual AJS Big Port? No problem. Chris Rimmer built a cheap and chirpy homage to the historic heroes of the Roaring Twenties…
I’ve always wanted a flat-tanker, but have never been able to afford one. I still can’t, but at least the lockdown has given me the time to do the next best thing: build one. Members of our local VMCC section own machines like an AJS H4 and Big Port K8 models: beautiful but out of reach of my wallet. And so my homage to these historical vehicles was born in the form of ‘Lockdown K8’ – aka Kate! This machine will share shed-space with my modified AJS Model 18 (see RC192).
I needed a donor bike for the new build. What could be better than your son’s former motorbike? In our family this was an AJS JS125E, an air-cooled single cylinder commuter.
These are made in China to a variety of standards – a bike that couldn’t be made any worse but is based on the Yamaha YB125, and probably made in the same factory. The donor bike was the first version, known as the Eco1 and built before 2010. The Eco2 which followed was made until 2015.
Our AJS was stripped of anything not needed, such as tank, headlight, mudguards, silencer and those twinkly lights that other road users don’t take any notice of. The air filter box was binned and any brackets in that region ground off. I wanted a bare bones appearance to make it all look simpler. The ERG unit was also removed and a blanking plate was fashioned to cover the offending hole.
The focus of the bike is the tank. I took careful measurements of a K8 tank then ignored them as it wouldn’t fit… but based the shape of my petrol tank on this outline in a sympathetic way. The buck for the tank was made from laminated MDF, then shaped and rounded by hand (I am a carpenter by trade). A card template was cut and the steel skirt was heated with map gas then hammered round the buck. Brother Albert helped with the welding and the edges were sealed with silver solder. After fitting the filler cap and mountings it was thought best to apply the belt and braces treatment in the form of grey Slosh to seal any possible pinholes. Silver solder is
expensive, you know.
Painting the frame was made easy with a product new to me: Simonize Tough Gloss Black Paint. Absolutely cracking stuff if you prime it well with etch primer. The wheels and new mudguards were done in the same stuff. My friend ‘The Black Prince’ (whose own vintage Ajays provided the inspiration for this project) fitted the lovely knobblies as I’m prone to nipping tubes. The shocks had the Rustoleum Pearlescent super boingy paint applied like on Claire’s Cub (seen in RC185). This finish is great on springs and, being black, helps them blend into the background. The standard exhaust comes as one continuous unit, so I cut off the silencer and painted the pipe with high-temperature paint, likewise the engine.
After much prepping of the tank it was time to paint her up. My all-time favourite rattle-can finish is Tekaloid 318. It is fantastic stuff. Goes on a treat and leaves a great finish. Warm up the cans in a bowl of hot water first and it’ll flow beautifully. About twelve coats were applied then dressed back to a fine matt finish. To form the gold bands I used vinyl tape, which works really well, then sealed it all with Tekaloid clear lacquer. The decals are home-made using four components and finished in Photoshop. It is brilliant what you can print onto these days, making decals a doddle. These were then applied and again sealed with lacquer.
I previously said how I was looking for a bare bones look so, like Le Bébé Bonnie in RC185, a basket was stuffed behind the saddle and the electrickery duly bunged inside. The wiring was relatively easy – after I took the loom apart and soldered spur wires on where they had previously just been wound round! I did say earlier that these
bikes were built to a ‘variety of standards.’
Top tip if you’re doing a similar build: send all switches, buttons, etc, to a central location (the basket in this case), and from there to the headlights, horn, twinkly lights. It makes it a lot easier to manage and trace if there are problems. A period-style headlight and tail light help enhance the old appearance and the bullet indicators keep the MOT folk happy.
A bike’s gotta sound like a bike, so a Brooklands silencer (silencer!) was purchased from Armours. On testing I realised that even I wouldn’t be able to talk the MOT man round with that. Apart from anything else he wouldn’t hear me! This was sorted by reverse-fitting a Decibel Killer with glassfibre wadding. This reduced the roar to a pleasant growl.
Riding Lockdown K8 is very pleasurable compared to the original bike. The new handlebars make you sit up straight and make cornering smooth and easy. The controls are in their original places and the LED lights provide much needed illumination. The seat is surprisingly comfortable and the springs, combined with the shocks, absorb the Lancashire potholes well. It is light and nippy and capable of a good 65mph. Enough to keep up with Albert’s Dommi… although maybe he was just being kind to me?
Without doubt she’s a head turner as folk try to work out what it is. Or what they think it is. An old boy wound down his car window to shout about how his dad used to have one just like it during the war. The mag wheels and front disc don’t seem to catch people out, so it leads to some interesting conversations. Not only does she look good but she growls like a cougar!
I love her and would encourage anyone to have a go at making their own modern tip of the hat to history. My next build? I’m going to make an homage to a 1913 Indian using a hardtail Sinnis Heist – with a fire extinguisher for the fuel tank.
MANY THANKS to Albert Risely, Geoff Nuttall and Steve Fairchild without whom the build would not have been possible