Bue Flame

Construction Diary

Read on for Ants account of the building of the Bue Flame

Entry's in Blue are added by me (Jules)

Jules decided not to use the bike for his Tech project (its original purpose), and found a different engine to use for the project, so both the chainsaw engine and the bike were now Team Grecet items.

I used emery cloth to "rough up" the paintwork and remove some of the rust from its many rust patches, and we removed the wheels and chain guard. We then hung the bike up and sprayed it all silver. We then sprayed some blue onto the front of the bike and blended it into the silver as it went back. The wheel rims are now silver, and the dust caps are now blue anodised painted steel plastic.

The next day we removed the centrifugal clutch from the engine. With the help of apprentice muzz and a big hammer.

The day after that, we took the nut from the clutch and decided to use a BMX trick nut as a roller that will drive the rear wheel. My Dad is currently welding the clutch nut to the trick nut at his works.

I journeyed to Jules's in the hope that we could get the Bue Flame engine mount designed, welded and attached in one day. It didn't happen. We've attached one bit of mount, and know what to do for the second bit. The third has not been thought out yet.

The roller that my dad welded fits the engine nicely and sticks out a long way, so mounting the engine will be simple. The chain has been removed and one pedal spuin 180 degrees so both pedals hang down at once - an elite footrest.

A few days later, we had the engine fully mounted. We attempted to get it going, and failed repeatedly. After noticing that the spark plug wasn't producing a spark, the top half of the chainsaw handle was removed, as was the rubber mount and the fascia at (what was now) the front of the engine concealing the stop switch.

We removed the stop switch completely. This did not allow a spark to be produced. Then Jules took the magneto out and had a look at it. After much tinkering, he managed to get it to work, and attached it to the engine again. Sparks!

We then replaced the front most mount with one attached from the top of the engine to the topmost mount. This gave us much more room for movement, and allowed us to get at the front of the carburetor more easily. We also attached a throttle, made from a lawnmower clutch lever and cable.

Time to test the thing! Without a helmet or a way of stopping the Bue Flame, Jules took his seat. I began to push the vehicle along slowly. The dull throbbing sound that the engine made when it wasn't working was replaced with a harsher cracking sound every now and again... I continued to push until the engine caught, and the bike accelerated away from me in idle.... There now follows Jules own account of the events that followed.

Log entry for Bue flame by Jules
"I climbed onto the Bue Flame expecting nothing other than a few "putt"s and then silence from the Echo engine. Ant slowly pushed me down the road and it happened... SHE WAS RUNNING! I was shocked to say the least. It slowly began to pick up speed and the throttle didnt seem to do anything.. I just managed to turn around at the bottom of my road. After that I was flying! It shot along at what seemed very fast but was probably not more that 10-15mph. The words "OMG its going" and "we have done it" were rushing through my head. Then I realised I would have to stop at the other end of my road, and I also remembered we hadn't bothered to add a cut-off switch!
"I pulled the brake for all I was worth, but nothing happened. The end of the road was looming closer and lots of traffic awaited, threatening me with the prospect of a near certain death. In case you hadn't guessed, I was rather scared at this point! For fear of my life I decided there was only one thing I could do.. this was to jump off the back of the Bue Flame and hope for the best. So i did, but for fear of damaging the bike I held onto the handle bars to stop it from crashing and burning.
"As the bike shot forward, I hit the inside of my right leg on the engine, this took a large chunk of flesh out of it and shot a spark of 15000 volts through my leg as well. While the engine was still running and I had a hold of the handle bars, the bike was running circles around me, so in a vain attempt to stop it, Ant leaped in and pulled the choke out, pouring so much fuel into the combustion chamber that it was flooded, and with a little braking power I managed to stall it. After tending to my injuries we noticed that the front brake got so hot that it melted itself to the wheel, and had to be prised away with a screwdriver!"

We wheeled the bike back into his garage and attached the stop switch from the abandoned GT4-S "Spoon" hover board project. More testing was required, and we attempted to start the Bue Flame 5 or 6 more times, each one of which failed.

A few days later I was messing with the engine and decided to clean the carb out again, when opening I noticed the diaphragm was not hooked into its little clip, I hooked it up straight away put it back together and it started first time and ran like a dream, to test her I drove it all the way to Rhiannon's and it got there without missing a beat. PERFECT.

After that I also added a wire to the compression dump, as the saw had such high compression it would not turn over without turning the compression dump on however it was in such a position that you couldn't turn it off once you were running. with the wire attached it was easy at the bikes power was doubled and the fuel consumption halved. What a machine.

05/10/02 Log entry by Jules
Today in an attempt for a smoother running engine, the Bue Flame is run constantly to try and flush the dirt and grime through the engine. I conducted extensive runs up and down my road and Crofts . After it has shown ample performance and seems to be running fine with no hiccups (that can't be tuned out later), we decide to embark on a trip back to mine...only a 5 minute cycle so it shouldn't be too hard....

However, as Croft screams down Bullpond Lane at around 15mph he goes wide to avoid a parked van and disaster strikes....he is driving too fast to make the turn back into the correct path and the left side pedal strikes the ground with such force that the bike and a shocked Croft were hurled through the air! The bike flips over, Croft shoots forward scraping his arms and head on the ground, and the bike flies over his limp body, upside down, missing it by just inches, and strikes the ground engine-first, denting and then scraping the pull start guard (which is no longer in use anyway). Croft gets himself together and drags the Bue Flame off the road... but it still works! (apart from a slightly moved rear axle, which can be adjusted back to its original place, and one bolt from the exhaust flying off in some direction).

Repairs are to be undertaken soon, and a re spray for the engine and rear framework.

22/12/02 by Ant
No re sprayed engine parts yet, I'm afraid. The Bue Flame works great though. We covered it in some gold tinsel a couple of days ago. Looks quite pretty.

Not sure when but some time in may or june 03 - Jules

Whilst messing with the newly built Dickinson Muzz is round and we decide to go to Ants to get some vids of it in action, I climb onto the Dickinson special and speed off towards Ants with Muzz following closely on the Bue flame, after several sweet film shoots we go home... with Muzz narrowly avioding a tree I zoom up behind him on the special and "bang" something flys off the Bueflame and narrowly misses my head. and Muzz comes to a stop with the engine screaming ... i run the the lump of metal and almost cry, the crankshaft had broken off and the Bueflame was USELESS. An end of an era for Grecet.

- Ant

- Jules