1951 Bianchi Stelvio - Finishing the handle bar mounts.

Once I had sorted myself out and made the second handlebar clamp, this time with the bar mount hole in the right place, I cleaned them up and then removed enough material from the inner faces so they would clamp tightly around the bars and the spigot on the upper yoke, they did but unfortunately I could not get them to fit right as the weld where the spigot joins the yoke was stopping them from going in far enough. They wouldn't quite sit square like that so some extra machining in the form of a relief was machined in to both. It only took a couple of mil each side for them to fit perfectly.

Once I knew it was all good  I took them back off, cleaned them, gave them a couple of coats of etch primer and then 4 hefty coats of acrylic black. I left them to dry a couple of hours so the paint was properly hard and then fitted them to the bike and stood back to admire my handiwork. 

I think they look pretty decent, slightly more chunky than the originals because I used ally and had to beef it up slightly over the much harder steel. If I ever find the originals these ones will be taken off but I reckon they look pretty decent, certainly not out of place and an awful lot better than what was on there.

I am very happy with that, the steering damper adjuster will fit fine, finding one could be challenging. It's Newark auto jumble tomorrow, I have a massive shopping list, it will be interesting to see what I can find. I need stuff for the Stelvio and my hot rod, but now it is definitely beer o'clock.