How To: 1913 Veloce footpegs

The Veloce didn’t have any footpegs when I uncrated it, but it was simple enough to make up a set.  Looking at all the various parts, what stands out are the sheer number of items required.  A few of them necessitated some different setups on the mill than what I’ve shown in other projects, so I snapped some photos as I went along…

 

Spindles:  These started as some 1” 12L14 steel.  The lead in their composition makes the steel very easy to machine.  Here is a short video of the first one on the lathe.  Nice long smooth chips coming off of that brazed carbide tool.

 

The spindles register into slots in the Footpeg Mounts.  To make the flats on the spindles, I used the spin indexer.  It grabs parts in a 5C collet, then the part can be turned to any angle required and locked in place.  These indexers are handy for cutting a hexagon onto the end of a part, or for sharpening end mills with a surface grinder.  They are cheap too, about $40 on sale through Rutland/Airgas, Enco, MSC, Travers, etc.  Here’s a quick tip: get on their mailing list, the monthly sales are way better prices than the giant yearly catalogs!

 

 

Footpeg Mounts:

These were cut from mild steel flat bar, all operations done on the mill.  The fun part was creating the rounded ends with the rotary table.  I showed that in a previous How To article…  In this photo the spindles haven’t yet had their threads cut, nor the flats on the other ends.

 

Here are the parts ready to be assembled.  The round sleeve fits over the spindle and allows the footrest to rotate into position.  The footrests are made from two sheetmetal parts cut on a laser cutter, then formed into shape.  The formed edges give a bit of a lead in for the riders boots to fit down onto the rubbers.  A pair of studs with 3/16 whitworth threads hold the reproduction rubbers, and a tube keeps it all from collapsing when the shouldered nut is tightened.  All these parts were newly made in the shop, except the rubbers, which are available from Jeff Hunter Engineering, some other vendors and also sometimes on eBay.

  

Two extra sets of footpeg frames were made and are available for sale or swaps for veteran motorbike parts.  Email via the Comments link if you are interested.

 

Here is a preliminary fitment on the 98 year old shaft and the brake pedal.   Next steps are deburring and paint, then maybe some silencer fabrication, control lever machining or motor main bearings fitting… stay tuned.