Manky Monkey Motors

Critchy-Poos, was good to meet you today Sir!
Ska Man & I will be knocking up another Manky Reliant trike frame for Mr Critch in the next couple of weeks. Watch this space. Don't worry mate, I won't tell anyone you drove all the way down from Liverpool & forgot to bring the front end with you! Says he's gonna post it -wonder how many stamps that'll need?! Hope the MMMotors shirts & Choppertown dvd were O.K? :)

thank gawd for DHL thats all im saying...... ;D   its still cheaper sending it than going back with the fuel and miles ::)

a pleasure to finally meet you mr manky (and nige, STEViE et al) looking forward to seeing developments on these very pages

Right, we'd better make a start then!

dont rush cash dont clear for nearly two weeks
and i cant pick it up til early feb....

 :D Sooner it's done, the sooner I can get back to the other 106 projects!

Starting to run out of room in Ska Man's garage!

If we leave them frames  for much longer  they may get fond of each other.


It would save us a lot of work.

 ;D
Probably end up with lots of little unicycles.

yeeha progress ;D

Bless the wee spaner

Coo! Simon's frame! That seems a long time ago now! ;D

We built the rolling chassis for Si then he took over to put it together. Another one not finished!

Your gearbox mounts & engine mounts are done Critchy. Ska Man's gonna tidy up the axle clamps this weekend. Still waiting for the front end you sent to arrive.

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bugger it was sent on tuesday!!48 hour delivery my ass...anyway they reackon monday as i didnt pay the exta £10 for a saturday delivery......

tight and proud of it me ;D

S'O.K, turned up on Friday. 
The package was damaged & re-sealed. We're missing one pinch bolt from the yokes but everything else is intact. I'm assumiing there weren't any large wads of cash in there too? Reg, our friendly local garden shed machinist has sorted out some nice chunky bearing cups & trued up the headstock tube, so now we've got all the bits we need.

Engine mounts and axle clamps.....well, I know a nice job when I see it, and...............that's a nice bit of work!

 ;D
It's no good trying to cheer me up now -I know you're only here for my brother's drag car! :'(
We're not going for show quality, just, (hopefully), decently engineered & useable. They do scrub up quite nicely with a bit of powdercoat on 'em though.

more progress!! ye har ;D

Would we let you down. ;D

photies, photies photies


pleeze ;D

Not much to photeegraph really, but I'll take some more fuzzy, out of focus snaps this evening.

can you do other types ;D

It's not the photographs, it's the frame that's fuzzy really.
My tiny digi camera is great outdoors but useless for indoor shots. I find I get brighter pictures if I turn the flash off, but have to hold the camera dead still cos of the slower shutter speed. Was no problem with the big ol' Nikon I used to own but this thing's too small to be able to hold still -hence the fuzziness.
MankyWorld is a soft & fuzzy place anyway.

Been feeling lousy all day today -just couldn't get motivated to do anything- so didn't get to the garage till late this evening & only really did a bit of sanding & smoothing. So here's a couple more fuzzy piccies from last night.

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I'll make up for today's lack of progress tomorrow, promise!

Well, today went better than yesterday but we still only put in a couple of hours. Decided to add an extra cross member at the base of the down tubes. It'll be hidden by the radiator that will hang in front of the frame. The whole bottom cradle was then matched up to the axle clamps & welded in place. We've deliberately set the frame up 1cm higher at the front to allow for the forks to settle a little under the weight of a full engine, (this one's a dummy -just an empty set of casings), plus the rider, tank of fuel etc.

The top tube is cut, bent, scalloped around the headstock & tacked in place. The back end will be trimmed to length later. Tomorrow we'll sort out the seat rails.

Camera fuzziness, I have the same problem. Easily cured with a cheapo tripod! Hey, nice frame, quick work too!

My world is just naturally slightly fuzzy round the edges.
Frame is going rather slowly actually. Had planned to have it done in a week, but a combination of other commitments & just general knackeredness -is that a word? means Nige & I are putting in about 3 hours each evening. Suprising how long it can take to gradually scallop in a frame tube to get a nice tight fit, then create a symetrical one for the other side of the frame. We're working in a constant haze of angle grinder dust too. Can't be good for us. Confidently expect to have it ready for collection by the weekend.
Tonight we've sorted out the seat rails & made a start on the uprights either side of the gearbox. I had the bare metal seat pan from a solo pad so Critch will get that upholstered. We're guessing at the seat position cos we don't know his wife's measurements! (for 'tis for her). Finished seat height will be about 20". Footrests, pedals, tank mounts etc will be down to Critch once he gets the frame.

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looking good mr manky.... you still going to make a rack behind the seat that i could do some form of detachable pillion,or carry luggage. and the number plate mount like your mates one??

Number plate mount? That's a new addition to the spec. That'll be another 200 quid please Sir. Will see what we can do. Not sure how much of that size tube we've got left. Might have to be the same as I plan for mine, a "bumper bar" just looped around the back of the diff, rather than full width. We'll see.
This evening Nige & I cut & tacked in the uprights either side of the gearbox & the main luggage rack tubes. Tomorrow we'll cut those off to length & add the loop over the axle, which we've already bent to shape. Yes, you'll have a luggage/pillion thingy about 8" x 12".

Luggage/pillion thingy is actually 10" x 13". That O.K?
Nige & I are putting in about 3 hours a night on this, around 40 hours for the whole frame, a lot of which is head scratching time. Measure twice, think about it, change your mind, measure again, double check, cut once. Change your mind, do it all again. Nah, this one's going together alright really. Touch wood, no mistakes so far!
The whole rack assembly is tacked together now & strong enough to sit on. Ties the two legs of the hardtail together nicely. Everything as triangulated as we can get it. I'm planning on running my own trike purely as a single seater, same as my good lady, Rainbow's, but the rack's big enough to clip a comfy sized pillion pad onto if you wanted to.

Seriously Mr Critch, we can do the bumper/number plate mount, but need to have a chat about the price. Don't worry! Nothing astronomical, but it'll be another full evening of buggering about to do it, plus it'll use up the tubing I'd put aside to finish my own frame!

A few triangular strengthening gussets, mounts for the seat pan & radiator, unbolt it all, trim off the end of the top tube above the gearbox, fully weld everything & smooth it out a little & we're done. Oh, & the number plate whatsit as well. On track to be finished by the end of the week.

no worries mate ill happily bung you a few quid extra, sorry about the slow response been on a training course and didnt have access to a computer.....

Right-o. We'll get on with it then -except I'm having a night off tonight.
Been feeling lousy for a couple of days. Just late nights, early mornings, evenings spent in a freezing cold garage & days trudging the streets in sub zero temperatures have caught up with me. Think I've got Monkey flu. Gonna retire to bed but will be helping Flap try to start his trike tomorrow & welding some more of your frame. Nige & I measured up for the radiator mounts last night & started on the seat mount so still plodding on.
Are you available to collect the finished article next saturday the 11th? (my Birthday!). The following Saturday Steve, Flap & I will be disembowling a Jag to provide the engine for my rod project. ;D

weekend of the 18th is all i can manage now... sorry ...im in hospital on the 27th for an exploratory op on my leg and wont be up to driving after that for a week

Can you do Sunday the 19TH?

i was thinking of coming down on the 18th staying over in the van and going back sunday im bringing a mate and fancied seeing if yourself STEViE doro & gypsy and any of the mankies fancied a pint out

or tea and cake in your case ;D

Now you're talking!
Flap & I'll be 40 miles away on the Saturday taking the engine out of a Jag, but you're welcome to help! No room for you in my tiny little flatlet I'm afraid, (your van's probably roomier), but maybe Doro & Gypsy could find you some floor space for the night? -think they offered the same to Borgy recently. Party at their place then!

Sure you want a bumper bar? Not a nice neat little plate-mount welded direct to the axle tube like Flap's? So much easier to do, (no extra cost). Oh well. I tried! :-\

i want me bumper bar ;D wouldnt mind your mate making some of those slab yokes at some point either,no rush though ;D

critch professional cheeky sod

Alright, alright, you'll get a bloomin' bumper then. (git).
The yokes will cost you considerably more than we paid I think. Doug of the Guzzlers car club, (who I'm still waiting for some car write-ups from if he's reading this!), did ours as a favour really. 60 quid a set, which just about covered the cost of the materials. He told me a while ago that someone else had contacted him for a set after reading this site & was quite upset he quoted them more. He's the manager of an engineering company & can only do so many favours!
His name's Doug Newell at Waldham Precision Engineering on 01256-359898 if you want to try him. Tell him Manky Monkey sent you!

nice one manky wasnt too bothered about price rather have quality

thats why i asked you to build the frame ;)

i shall lavish attention on her loverly bumper ;D

'ow much more mate??

Creep! ;D
I'll check with Nige & get back to you. Won't be very much. Just means I've got to go & buy another 10 foot length of the 1 1/2" bore tube for my own frame now! I've got one more set of the white LEDs we used on Simon's frame for the number plate lights. They were something like 15 quid a pair I think. Need to know if you want to use those so I can make up the recessed mounts for them.

 ;D ;D ;D

yes please mate ill have them led's off you and if you could rcess em that'd be reet smart

Right-o. We've slowed down a little now, knowing you won't be down till the 18th, but will be done in time. No heating in Nige's garage & we've had a couple of evenings when we've started work, struggling to concentrate in minus temperatures & just decided "Sod it, it's too cold for this". Seat frame & radiator mounts are under way though.

Well, build one of my bottle-heaters then. Free pans are on this site!

Free pans?
Yeah, been looking at it. Don't know if you'd actually be allowed to have an open fire in a garage in the middle of a housing estate, especially with welding bottles in there as well. By the time we got ourselves organised enough to make one it'd be Summer anyway! Clever idea though.

any more photies manky???

Oops! Sorry. Forgot I was supposed to be keeping you updated! I'll take a couple when I'm in the garage this evening. I'm told there's a bike show in Newbury this Sunday while you're down here, but haven't found any more info yet. Anyone else know anything about it?

theres a rally (well a big party) on the 2nd-3rd june in newbury called the bogsmashers ball

you should come ;)

Not heard of that one! Is that a 3Bs' do?

Not much to report on your frame at the moment Mr Critchley. It's all in hand but bound to end up as a last minute rush job! The best projects are always like that aren't they?! All the strengthening gussets are cut but still need welding in, (tomorrow's first job), & Nige is filing his fingers to the bone cleaning & smoothing everything while I mess about with the bumper bar. You really are getting a bargain mate. There's an awful lot of work gone into this. Nige is on holiday this week & has spent most of it locked away in the garage filing welds on your frame.
The Reliant radiator is mounted off-set to the right to allow for the inlet & outlet pipes to clear the frame. That lines it up quite nicely with the cylinder head of the engine, which is also off-set to the right. It looks huge in these piccies but is actually quite unobtrusive.

The solo seat frame is done. Just the bumper bar to finish off then smooth out the rest of the welds. The angle grinder will probably still be warm when you come to collect. ;D

nope a chopper builder one...... sign up mate youl get a free ticket cos you can actually build.....worth signing up just for the free downloads and the contactsyou get....after all youve met mr ireland...... hes one of many......its worth signing up just to get his posts....... ;D

I already belong to the forum, just never get time to go read it!

looks fantastic manky.... its going to be a good un ;)

im very appreciative of all the hard work you and nige have done

and i an well aware im getting a bargain..........i definatly owe you one ;)

You owe us several hundred actually!  ;)
Nige, (Ska Man), spent several hours in A & E yesterday with metal dust in his eyes & has managed to do it again tonight. We were saying earlier, if you'd said you'd be back in a week or so to collect the frame we'd have pulled out all the stops & got it done, but that lull of a couple of weeks has sapped our enthusiasm. Got bogged down in it a bit so now we're faced with the traditional last minute rush to get it finished. If Nige keeps you talking outside the garage when you arrive, listen for the sound of the angle grinder -it'll be me frantically trying to finish the damn thing!  ;D
You'll have the only commissioned MMMotors frame cos we DEFINITELY ain't doing any more! Too many things on the go at the same time means it stops being a fun hobby & starts feeling like a second job.
All the triangular strengthening gussets are in & the bumper bar just needs the number plate mount welding on & the recessed light mounts doing. Meanwhile Nigel's busy filing everything in sight.

i am honoured sir i shall endevour to complete it to the standard you and nige have set

sorry bout the hospital visit nige ;D

I got back from playing with my Jag tonight to find Nige had been busy polishing the frame till it gleams. He''s a little treasure! We've run out of gas for the welder so couldn't quite finish things -would've filled a few low spots with weld & sanded 'em back flush, but hey, we've gotta leave YOU something to do! We're curious to know what colour you've got planned for it now.
See you tomorrow Mr Critchley.

P.S, yes we KNOW the wheels are on the wrong sides, (directional tyres).  ;D

Well, final chapter of this build. I'll write it up a little more & re-use the piccies in the Motors section soon. Critch & his mate Stevie travelled down from Liverpool in a hire van yesterday -thanks Doro & Kris for baby-sitting them for the night by the way. Met them at the garage this morning to hand over the frame. Critchy brought me not one, but TWO Birthday cakes, both of which I've already sampled! Thank you Sir.  :D
I really hope he's a happy customer. I think he was. Our one & only customer. I can understand why Chris had a breakdown & ended up closing Desperate Dans trike shop cos we were getting stressed out just building one! I'd have flung the bumper bar across the garage the other night but there ain't enough room in there to fling anything! Gonna rest on our laurels now & just build & ride our own stuff. Maybe.
Total build time was probably about 50 hours, spread over 3 weeks or so of evenings & weekends. We used something like 40 feet of 1" bore grade 3 heavyweight ERW tubing, (4mm wall thickness), & about 6 feet of 1 1/2" bore for the top tube & bumper bar, (which we didn't have time or welding gas to finish). The axle clamps were made from offcuts of 2" bore. The triangular strengthening gussets are 3mm steel plate & the only specially machined parts were the headstock bearing cups.
Total cost to Critch, 500 quid plus 50 for the bumper/number plate thingy & it's LED number plate lights. We also swapped his spare Sportster tank for my disc brake conversion. He got the caliper mounting plates & discs & just needs to get his hubs machined to fit the discs.
We had to guess at Mrs Critchley's seating position but both Doro & Critch's mate, Stevie, (both of whom are a litle vertically challenged ;D), tried it for size & pronounced it "sound". It wouldn't be a huge job to take the seat mounts off & shift them back a little anyway. 
As I said, I really hope he's a happy customer. Nige & I have certainly worked our little socks off on this one & I reckon it's well worth 500 quid of anyone's money. Gonna have a few day's break now -fed up of living in grubby garage clothes & smelling of angle grinder dust, then it's back to my own frame, which I'm going to cut up & re-do in the same style as this one.
Oh yeah, Critch says it's going to be purple by the way.

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Mr Critchley takes delivery of Mrs Critchley's new frame. Keep us informed mate. We want to see this one up & running soon! Enjoy!

cheers manky i am indeed a very happy bunny.. ;) ;D the bumper is now all srted bar a bit of filing and the prop is cut down i shall keep you informed.....

That's great. For some reason this one ended up getting us quite stressed & that damn bumper was the last straw for me. Came very close to taking the grinder to it! Glad it's safely despatched. Very glad you're pleased with it. What did MRS Critch think?

the grand unveiling is tomorrow and we are going to sort out the footrests bars and go to the coaters so she can deciede on a colour....

Bloody 'ell! You'll be on the road by the end of the week! I'd better get crackin' on my own then.
Meant to take some measurements from yours but forgot. Can you tell me the height of the front down tubes, (from bottom of bottom rail to the point where they meet the headstock). Also the height of the seat rails where they meet the back of the top tube, (again from bottom of bottom rail). Thanks. ;D

the frame looks brill

and critch wheres your hair  ;D ;D ;D

The outside piccies were taken in the rain so that bare metal frame is probably bright red with rust by now!

will do manky ;)


yoda its in the bin mate ;D

Decided I preferred the shape of Critch's frame to my own so have given my very expensive, (300 quid), handmade ally tank to Ska man, blagged a second hand Sportster tank from Critch & set about my frame again with the hacksaw. The swoopy tail on the ally tank meant the seat rails had to be very low -which meant there wasn't enough room for the gear change to come out from under the seat so I had to have it coming up through the nose of the seat pan as it did on my green trike. By using the smaller Sportster tank I can raise the seat tubes & have a stubby gear stick coming out under my leg on the left of the trike. The top tube's gone. I'll cut the rest away tomorrow & start again.

Summer 2008, then?  ;D

Oh ye of little faith!

Blimey Manky, aint you got any letters to deliver tomorrow? or are you and Wizzkit usually here at this time?

Evenin' Speedy. Yup, my alarm goes off in 3 hour's time. Wizzy leads a very odd semi nocturnal existance, shuffling around in the small hours, surrounded by cats & muttering to herself. I'd describe her as a lady of the night but she wasn't at all amused last time I did, so I won't. Anyway, what're YOU doing about at this unGodly hour?

I do not bloody shuffle!

 ;D
No Hon, you glide divinely.

That's better.

I even stamp my little feet divinely.

When you answered my last post I'd already crashed. It must have been the whiskey.  Talking of crash,  turned the computer on this morn and the damn thing wouldnt start.  Took the cover off and  :o it was full of dust.  Good job Becky wasn't here she'd have had a fit.  Hoovered it out and hey presto it works ;D

Ain't technology a wonderful thing!

Pain in the a££ sometimes

A bit like now. I put one of those piccie things in my profile, its sposed to do something but it hasnt worked. Damn. ???

just got the rebuild kit for the motor.....

third had got a crack in it me mate trevs helping a bit......


cost me sub £80 ;) :o  all gaskets new pistons rings bearings shells seals rebore is costing me a case of stella ;D from a mate in an engineers

couldnt do that on a kawasaki


thats going to be it for a while too many bikes tofinish for the summer and ive got to sell one

going to send a few shots off soon to 100%and bsh see if they want em....


gauranteed no harleys

manky you and yoda will of course get the premieres....

Thanks Critchy. Haven't got time to come up & pinch your frame for the Shepton Mallet show now. Struggling to get my own done in time!