"Eastern Bikes and Western Boys".
So, there I was. A slight change of scene. Two days earlier I had boarded a bus filled with grandmas with blue-dyed hair on a package tour to Prague, Czech republic. There I rented a small car and now I stood looking at the Carpathian mountain range slightly obscured by a drizzle of rain. All of this just because of a rumor heard 1500 km away. Somebody had mentioned a man well connected to the Tatra car and truck factory. So well connected, in fact, that in the "good ole" East Block days he had managed somehow to make a small series of replicas of the 1928 Indian ACE. Oh yes, the rare "transition" single-down tube type. The 401. From the bottom up. New cranks, new cases, new frames, new forks, new everything!! The rumor spoke of forty complete machines. 

I badly needed a frame for my ALMA 4 project. I had tried everything in Denmark but the Indian people that I'd spoken to, weren't to enthusiastic about my project - to say the least! Remember, this was pre-Danish Indian Club days, and I wasn't a 65 years old oilskin mummy. And my money was short. So I went on this wild goose chase. Actually it wasn't that wild, a good contact in Prague knew this man and had given me the address so after a bit of faxing, the man was expecting me! 

I found him and the rumor didn't lie. And thats all I can say, as for some reason he wants to remain anonymous and that I must respect. I didn't get a frame, but I managed to buy a complete front end and some other bits and pieces at a reasonable price. I later had to have it straightened and the build quality close-up looks a bit dodgy, but "affordable" was the keyword of the day. 

A Bit in Technicolor.
I have always done my drawings by hand, computers being an evil new-age thing. But about a year ago I took the big jump and went on a computer course. After messing around a bit, I thought I rather put it to good use and scanned all my half-scale bike drawings. These were used as a trace to construct a 3D drawing. It was amazing! Not that it brought the project closer to completion, but it sure boosted my morale. Suddenly I could see my dreambike from any angle and in other colours than rust. My old prawn skipper in Australia probably would have said all furcoat and no knickers, but actually, to check out colour combinations with the computer is pretty smart. It could save you to redo that expensive paint job, if "screaming purple" and "dead horse red" looked better in your imagination than in real life. According to my own ramblings a brief and colourful thesis... the ALMA 4 should have a black frame and all sheet-metal painted with a light colour. Fenders might have a black stripe on top to accentuate the profile and I do like black wheel-rims. So boringly Traditional that I didn't really need a computer to tell me... Anyway, while I was at it, I drew a 30's bar, a gas station and the Elmhurst board track. Makes a nice backdrop, don't you think ?

Moen's shop Indian Parts Europe contacted the 101 specialist Hecker in Germany with a special order for the missing frame-lugs. He even picked them up for me at the massive swap-meet in Mannheim, Germany. So by the winter of 2001, I had finally run out of excuses for not starting to jig something up. Moral support came flying in from Fiji, in the presence of VI columnist Tim Pickering, famous for his long-running VI Chopper Column - which just goes to show that madness knows no borders.

What a Mockup!
So, I started lining up the engine and drivetrain. Frame building is basically just like juggling (not that I know much about that, either). You have eight to ten frame lugs and corresponding tubes hanging in the air and just for a split second you can see the whole picture. Then everything rambles to the ground while you frantically tries to remember what went where and, more important, what looked good?! 

To make things easier, I put all the original tubes in a rusty pile for later, and started with a bunch of fresh ones. These were going to be my mockup tubes. The idea was to make a complete mockup frame and check all the measurements, lineups and design. Then see what would be reusable of the original tubes and lugs and then finally ship the whole thing to a pro.

The more I juggled with all my bits and pieces, the more I found it hard to line up anything. Not having access to a tube bender didn't help either. I solved the problem by cutting a lot of slots on one side of the tube and then gently bending it into the desired curve. It looks a bit jagged but is sufficiently accurate for a general design/measure check. Slowly I watched my mockup frame materialize from thin air.

Statesman...
With me still being out of work, the State of Denmark took affair. Fear of me wasting my life and their money - (sounds like my girlfriend), made them "force" another computer course on me. Plat de Jour this time was Auto-Cad. Excellent! - I thought, just in time for my rear axle plates. And in no time I had a drawing done and an underhand agreement to use the CNC-milling machines of the place. Et Voila! - a beautiful set of plates

And finally one day I had it all ready. Engine assembled, mockup frame complete, lineup tools finished, a trillion measurements and drawings and no money. Of course. 

Well. My classic racing friend Bo was going to visit Elo to see his frame, and I thought it a good opportunity to show my pile of dreams to a real professional. Elo had (over the phone) agreed to build something(..)  and I was going to make him stick to his word. Elo runs the local gas station and garage in the small town of Ans in central Jutland. Inside the garage you find his real talent. His one-man company AMC-frames can build you anything from a drag race frame to a bone stock Scout 101.

We got there late Friday night and was treated to a late supper and a lot of red wine. Early the next day we went to garage and started to line things up and build! I should have been slowed down by the consumption of the night before, but the excitement and the boost of Elo just ignited the process.

Things looked real good but then we hit all the problems of the too-tall engine. Everything ground to a halt. The sunny day suddenly turned dark and all my hangovers kicked in with the indignant force of the righteous ignored.

A couple of weeks later I took my Nimbus through the first of the summer snow storms in Denmark. Elo had called me, saying he wanted the final OK before brazing it up. I got there, stiff as a witch tit, but it was all worth it. The frame was beautiful!

By the end of march 2002, I picked it up. What a great feeling to put it on the bench in my workshop. Out came a bit of cardboard to improvise a mockup gastank. I might have a go at hammering out my own tank in aluminium. I've never tried it before but the Ace tank has got pretty straight lines and hell, this is my show and I don't want to miss out on anything.

Copenhagen Dreambox (the workshop)

And as one of my friends said a long time ago:" My first girlfriend was a Triumph", it just tells us that there certain things in life we won't do without.

Exhaust.
So, engine is done, frame is sanded and primed and I have turned my eye to the exhaust. One thing that I was absolutely sure about when sketching up this hallmark of the great in-line Fours, was the straight tube with a reverse cone. It was just a matter of deciding on the dimensions of the start tube and end tube and then the rest would be a song. As usual, easier said than done, and in the end it was the four down tubes that really caused problems. In an attempt to get the exhaust system as close to the engine as possible, I had to cut about 50 mm (2") off the original header tubes. That made it hard to find anything to bolt the new exhaust system onto. Another thing was getting a reasonable diameter versus tightness of the bend radius. I have seen a few car engined motorbike projects, and most of them have had way too small diameter of the downpipes. We are talking Duesenberg here, not Honda four! After a lot of trial and error in the computer and workshop, I finally had the whole thing figured out. Some of the diameters chosen for of the tubes made it a bit harder as they were only available with a very rough surface. At work I could grind and polish a tube per lunch break, but bloody hell, it was hard going! After that it was just a matter of building a jig, line it up and tack weld it. I had a pro finish it off.

Just after I wrote this, I found a Tillotson updraft. Made in the late 20's in Ohio, USA, apparently as a replacement carb for the Ford A, it just looks so right! The above plea still goes, though.

Head Bearings.
Oh yeah, great subject! The ones I had were East-block replica shite of the worst quality. My good friend HP from the workshop (guy on the left, drinking, in big photo) gave me a standard BSA set, they just needed a bit of light machining. I put the repro Indian top bearing cup in the lathe and turned it out for a press fit. It worked no problem and the good thing is that when they are worn out, replacements are really cheap.

Tanks.
Aluminium, steel or a glass-fiber dummy. Your guess is as good as mine. One thing that's absolutely certain, nothing from the shelf fits.

Wheels.
My spokes finally arrived from England. Two and a half years after I ordered them. Combine the words: "Extra heavy gauge, stainless, non-metric(!), unusual length" and they forget your order in the remotest of attics. I did a quick lace-up of the rear wheel and the spokes were to long. I'll just take out 3 mm of tread in the bottom of the nipples and the problem should be solved. I couldn't do the front wheel - they haven't made the spokes for that yet..

Seat.
Really nice to do something different. Good piece of hide soaked in water and stretched. A bit of stitching - et voila - a seat. Bit harder to do the nose bracket. Found some thick stainless bends at the scrap yard. Cut and welded six of them to resemble something. Hand filed to size and polished.

Gentlemen, We Have Ignition!
Late January 2003 we fired her up. Pretty hard going finding out where the hell 4 degrees before TDC was, as the original timing marks were on the original flywheel (on the floor). With a bit of calculation and a piece of cigarette paper for the points, it all worked out fine in the end. The Amal carb and manifold works. Even in this test state with no fine tuning whatsoever, you can start her by hand.

See Ya.
So, the Alma 4 project is about to end, or start, depending on the point of view. There might be a final article on paint and assembly otherwise this is it. For those interested in a road report on this "The Cheepest of Fours" or in Moen's words "Po'boy Four" just mail me when summer has gone.

Thank you for your attention. That is, if there's anybody out there.

Mads

I did manage to get to the International Indian Rally in Denmark (by truck). That was the second time the bike was started. No electrics except ignition and a BSA scrambler gas tank from the garage got me going. Great weather, great people and fantastic to ride my bike around for the first time.

The Tillotson carb didn't work properly, so when I got home I changed to the original downdraft carb just to test the whole rig properly. I must say the pulling power and acceleration of this thing is frightening. Fortunately it's steady as a rock so it's just a matter of hanging on!