Dig this song

Steerig Shaft Nut (2)

3 A.M.

Steerig Shaft Nut

Decided to make a nut for the steering shaft today quickly before i left for a family function. I have to finish it up and add some knurling but I figured I would post some pics of the process. I cant take pics while I'm making cuts or cutting threads because the piece is short and I really didn't feel like crashing the lathe.

What is it?

New tail light in t-3 days!!

Sight Glass for Oil Tank

The oil tank needs a sight due to remote mounting of the filler . I ordered this sight and it comes with BPP threads. I wasn't going to buy a $100 tap and the sight didn't come with a bung so I ended up making it on the lathe.

One Time Deal

If you ride one of these Yamaha Shadows...(I think that's what it is called) I am going to make a one time offer. Bring me your bike for a head back exhaust at 50% off. That's right, to save you embarrassment from riding around on a muffler with wheels. Seriously, this thing looks like an oriental rug rolled up and stuffed onto the end of a couple pipes. So, For $500 do yourself a favor and save your image.

Dealership

Had to go the the dealer to pick up some parts for the XS fork. This was the best they had to offer.

Butterfly valve

Top end, low end: quite literally.

Butterfly valve control cable

HD tachometer

Cooking with Beer

V-Band

Some more shots of fitting the carb with a v-band. I machined a bit of the inside of the clamp out then began the 45 minute welding process. In order to weld the carb body without it warping I ran about a 1/2" bead of weld, then cooled the unit with compressed air, then move to the other side and to the same.
In the end everything worked out great.

Good Morning!

Air Box, V-Band, Lectron, Aluminum Octopus

Got to work on the XS's carburetor, air box and the intake manifold today until we ran out of 90's, unfortunately the supplier doesn't offer 180's in the size we needed so we got seven 90's and this is how far they got us. It'll be finished Wednesday when more material comes in. This bike is shaping up to be one tough looking little machine.

WTF?!?

HD has supposedly released it's newest addition to it's "young generation" fleet. As if the "Crossbones," horrendous excuse for a chopper "Rocker" and the  "Forty-Eight" weren't bad enough, they have decided to try again creating the "Blackline." Wtf is going on here? Why are factories trying to create "choppers" and flexing what they think is "cool" onto us? Let me first say this. A factory will NEVER ever be able to create a production chopper. Everything a chopper stands for, individuality, stripped down, carburated, illegal, fuck you- freedom machines cannot be accomplished by a manufacturer conforming to today's DMV standards. If we were to completely forget about having to produce a DMV acceptable bike and just focus on the Production aspect, that alone would make the feat impossible; PRODUCTION-CHOPPER, enough said. What about the words production, custom and chopper (or as they prefer "bobber" {cringe}) makes any sense? Some fresh college design grad who doesn't know shit about what made the 40's-50's "bobbers" cool is going to design a bike that's got a lowered seat, a rigid looking suspension, some chrome pipes, low bars and a shorter rear fender; then call that a "bobber" influenced motorcycle? I don't think so!  For the $15,500 starting price, go to one of the handful of builders I know, including myself and get a real fucking bike! 

4-Speed

These past couple days I have been working on the trans and kicker cover. The intent was to change out the bent kicker shaft and weld in the threaded piece I made to fit the oil cap. Easy breezy...ya, right. I got the kicker cover off and instantly noticed the rust and thick milky mix of oil and h2o frothing from the case. Disassembling the kicker cover lead to the next treasure; a hairline crack around one of the covers ears. At this point I should have just tossed the cover and got a freshy but decided to continue and weld the new filler neck on anyway. I cleaned the fuck out of the cover, and it welded like shit! So, instead of getting a new piece I spent all night welding and rotary-filing, welding and rotary-filing away. Needless to say I was finally able to get all the shit out of the weld area and fix the cracked ear, then machined it flat, polished it and finally scotch-brited it. In the middle of all that while I was waiting around for the cover to cool I took a look at the new kicker gears and shaft to be installed. The finish work on one of the gears bushings was rough to say the least so I ran it down a ream  couple of times and problem solved. Be weary, just because you are using brand new parts doesn't mean you can throw them right in without inspection. If that gear were to bind on the main shaft there would be issues.

 

Hot Carb.

Meat Plow

Cut Fork Tubes

These tubes were shortened at some point in their lives, but I need to take another 2" out of them.

Finished up the front end tonight, really happy with the way it came out.