1961 Caper Cycle Falcon Resto

[Custom Job]

Hey all,

I posted in the wanted section for an engine for this but I thought I’d start a slow rolling thread on it. Found this today:

I wanna say this is ‘85? ‘86? Just because of the Dire Straits Brothers in Arms shirt but it could have been a little later I suppose. That’s me on my bike in the hood. At this point, it had a manual rope pull 3hp Briggs on it. I think back to cruising down that hill and locking up the brake and sliding into the driveway…. If only I’d know how impossible it would become to find those tires!
Anyway, back then I didn’t even know what make it was. If you zoom in on where the decal would be, it had long since been painted over…. Till a few months back:

I pulled the old DYMO labels off and the aluminum flashing tape behind it and voila:

I’d been screwing about with getting it running and decided to take the engine (now a super low hour Briggs 6B-S) off and keep it as, I dunno, one more in the Briggs collection, I guess? and get the caper cycle back to its original glory.

As it sits, it’s a solid straight frame. Everything is functional if not tight… tho I’m sure a going over with the blasting media will expose something.
Right now, all I’ve managed to collect over the years are correct grips and brake control. I’ll probably reuse the tires, they’re a bit slicked but they’re not dry or cracked. Biggest PITA will the be engine (West Bend 700) and the seat…. But again, we’ll see what the media blaster tells us.

Anyway, looking forward to tearing in!

 

[Moderator]

Still got the Caper fenders. Great bike !

 

[Custom Job]

Still got the Caper fenders. Great bike !

Yeah, I’m pretty happy with what it still has. The tank with the Palmini cap is pretty nice too. Has a shallow dent in the side and a whole lot of scale in the bottom but I should be able to fix that up.

 

[Broke Joke]

Wow! Perfect bike as is! Rare little dude!!

 

[Custom Job]

Starting the tears down with some stuff that’s not integral to its function. Namely, it’s original gas tank.
It was always sort of a mystery to me, having never seen it with its original mill, why this tank was on it. I grew to love the balance of it, if only visually. Plus my father had told me about Palmini being some Kart/bike hop up company so I kinda felt a little more bad ass only having the gas cap.
Anyhow, it’s time to get it in shape to supply juice to the bikes next mill and that’s gonna take some soaking, shaking and rinsing… and some gentle dent removal.
Sort of nice that the pickup sock is still there. Too bad about the corrosion down there but it’s nothing a good cleaning and rust bullet won’t seal up.

 

[Custom Job]

I’d never seen this picture before. Taken from a blog post about Ben Hunt here: https://wallawalladrazanphotos.blogspot.com/2018/10/ben-hunt-son-manufacturing-had-long.html?m=1
Supposedly taken in 1960, I didn’t know that they had white seat tops. I also dig the crutch shoes where the foot pegs would be… kinda sporty!

 

[Custom Job]

Getting further into the tank: I’d found some pitting in the bottom around the screen which, due to the thinness of the material, I assumed were holes:

which they turned out to be. However, putting a little heat on the valve lug, the whole thing just popped out. Later, I noticed some flex in the tank seam, like the entire bottom half:

so these were two half’s simply sweated together? I mean, that’s sort of awesome as mig or tiging them together would be a nightmare but. Having “lightly secured” flammable liquid that close to my ass and an exhaust riser seems, well, chilling.
Anyway, guess popping the dents out just got a ton easier!

 

[Triley41395]

Getting further into the tank: I’d found some pitting in the bottom around the screen which, due to the thinness of the material, I assumed were holes:
View attachment 295204
which they turned out to be. However, putting a little heat on the valve lug, the whole thing just popped out. Later, I noticed some flex in the tank seam, like the entire bottom half:
View attachment 295203
so these were two half’s simply sweated together? I mean, that’s sort of awesome as mig or tiging them together would be a nightmare but. Having “lightly secured” flammable liquid that close to my ass and an exhaust riser seems, well, chilling.
Anyway, guess popping the dents out just got a ton easier!

I believe most of the older metal tanks were brazed or solderd together. I've been told some tanks will come apart in the oven during powder coating. Nice old bike you have there, it will be a nice rider when you're finished.

 

[Custom Job]

I believe most of the older metal tanks were brazed or solderd together. I've been told some tanks will come apart in the oven during powder coating. Nice old bike you have there, it will be a nice rider when you're finished.

Paint it is then!

 

[Custom Job]

My history in metal work is pretty spotty… generally to decent ends, I never taught myself welding or sheet good working, roughing it into shape and relying on my eye during full sanding was good enough.
This was as good of an excuse as any to try my hand at hammers and dollys.

It’s not actually snotted back together yet, I still have some patch work to do in the bottom, but the dents are satisfactorily removed minus a few sharp gouges that’ll need red led before the final finish.

after the grinder grabbed half of it and flung it across the room at my bike stand (this is after I first beat all the dents out and before the second time I beat all the dents out) I was looking for some options online… 150 bucks for an aluminum tank. That’s fine but .. I’d rather put that in the engine fund.

 

[Moderator]

..... I was looking for some options online… 150 bucks for an aluminum tank. That’s fine but .. I’d rather put that in the engine fund.

Nothing will be as cool as that old tank with the Palmini cap. Keep working on it !

 

[Minimichael]

Wow that's an inspiring old b&w pic. It kinda looks like a modern day build!

So, brazing or sweating solder? Having no experience with either, I'm interested to see how you bring it back together. Nice work on the tank!

 

[Custom Job]

Wow that's an inspiring old b&w pic. It kinda looks like a modern day build!

So, brazing or sweating solder? Having no experience with either, I'm interested to see how you bring it back together. Nice work on the tank!

Thanks! I got the pinholes sealed up today. Gonna let it sit the night then I’ll work on soldering everything back together. I guess we’ll see how all that goes!

 

[minibikin']

What a great bike full of history. Member @Oldsalt had some pretty cool Caper's if I remember right. I believe he is still lurking about and will hopefully chime in on your build!

 

[Custom Job]

What a great bike full of history. Member @Oldsalt had some pretty cool Caper's if I remember right. I believe he is still lurking about and will hopefully chime in on your build!

Oldsalt was the first restoration threads I went though on a Caper Cycle. Super helpful not only on the bikes themselves but on Ben Hunt and Son as a company.

 

[golden pinto]

I have a caper falcon ,have seen only a few of them ! trying to send pics agh!

 

[Custom Job]

I have a caper falcon ,have seen only a few of them ! trying to send pics agh!

Can’t wait to see em!

 

[Custom Job]

Did a little more hammer work today, then soldered and coated the pinholes.

Soldering was a little tricky to get everything set round.


sits really well though… I’ll coat the inside one more time after I solder the fitting on, then ill get the outside sured up and paint it.

 

[Minimichael]

Man that looks great. Ready for another 60 years!

 

[golden pinto]

I have a caper falcon ,have seen only a few of them ! trying to send pics agh!