cold turkey

this is the last post i am posting on this blog. the bike is almost completely done and i was shown today how much of my life this project has taken. i don't know if anyone is reading these but what started out as a documentation of building a project turns out to become a fuckin' shrine over an inanimate object. so 41 posts later i'm done. the bike ain't but i am.

hmm... where did i leave that 1/2" socket?

my front ends got a stiffy... wait lemme rephrase that... my front end got stiffer... shit thats no good either.


I modified my front forks today based off a suggestion a fellow enthusiast gave me. what was originally going to be a preload spacer to take some of the mush out of the front suspension, became a lesson in clearing out the tool box.
I haven't had to use a standard socket or wrench in a very long time. every xmas when i asked for tools from my folks i always got the same thing. a xxx piece socket and wrench set. so i had doubles of EVERYTHING.
the inital idea was to take a 1/2" section of steel and install it between the cap and the top spring of the front forks to compress the springs and give a little more rigidity. an hour of fucking with that got me no where. all the piping i had was the same size as the i.d. of the cap. I also tried replacing the spring with a complete section of pipe. same problem and the pipe was even longer so i couldn't get the cap back on. i dug through the tool box and found 2 sockets that i had at least 5 of the same size and depth and 2 socket extensions that were the same legnth. capped them together and slide them down. caps went right back on and the front end feels good minus the air that i haven't pumped back in *freakin' hose!

Here we go again!

I tore the bike down pretty far today to redo everything basically. the whole paint scheme is getting reworked, the front end is going to be rebuilt even stiffer than previously. I'm not going to post any pictures til its done because right now it looks good but when its finished it will look phenomial. this will be the 4th reimagining of how the bike will finally look. the look is evolving with my skill level and the tools i acquire. i spent 4 hours today with my new flap wheel attachment on my grinder cleaning up all the factory welds. Hopefully I'll get some body work done early this week and finish final paint and assembly. then i'll pull the front forks to modify them to stiffen. there has been a few posts on the cc forums about adding a preload spacer to take some of the squwat out of them front suspension. i got an axle spacer from my golf cart project the should do the trick once its cut in half to fit both forks. then i'm going to follow it up with heavier fork oil. factory spec is atf which is like 7 wt.  i'm giong to bump to 10 wt or maybe 20 if 10 isn't enough. want to clean and polish the motor but i don't know if i can get into every nook and crannie. maybe some toothpaste or baking soda and water with a stiff tooth brush will at least clean up all the anodizing that is flaking and looks like shit.

D.I.Y. fender struts

because I hate borrowing a welder to finish weld my rear fender on, I decided to make some attachment struts for it. cool thing is that i got to play with the shop plasma cutter. I still need to work on symetry but they look pretty good and for now seem to work for what i want to accomplish. they are riveted on with aluminum rivets for now while i got all the spacing worked out. i'll drill the rivets out, paint the fender and struts then use stainless steel to reapply.

ummm... okay whatever

Went home sick from work an hour early today. crashed on the couch for a few hours then work up feeling good enough to spend 10 minutes in the garage finishing this little project. for function and clean look it gets an A.  however, there is now a large gap underneath that looks like it needs something. I still have to make new battery cables because the old ones are too short now, i may make my "mean little sucker" intake extend even further down and collect lower. I am rather happy with how clean all these wires are hidden. I may have to put the wires on a diet and lose some of the wires that I'm not using. but at least i found the camera and can take a pictures of it.

Rollin' backwards

So today i spent the better part of 4 hours going backwards. this morning in had a roller, now i have a basket case. i pulled off the air pods and electrical bag (paint can) as well as the battery. because i have "can't leave well enough alone eitis " i started making my own intake as well as modifying some scrap metal into a new electrical bag for all the ugly wiring. cut up an old belt to make a hold down for the battery. this should look much cleaner and take care of my erradic air fuel problems that are currently only regulated with the choke. maybe one day i'll be done with this bike and can take it for a ride. (fat fuckin' chance of that happening)

no pictures to post because i am too depressed about my degress

family is family

recently i've been frequenting a new motor cycle web forum than my usual. nothing against the chopper charles gang but its nice to change the scenery every once in a while. the new site i'm trolling is Thechopperunderground.com. if you've never been on it and this is your kinda thing i suggest you give it a look. lots of cool bikes, very supportive people who aren't harley snobs, purist snobs etc. i posted pictures of my bike and got several compliments and i'm a whore for compliments. so, in honor of my new friends i adorned my electrics bag with the TCU motto.

also, new video i took last weekend of the bike running with normal jetting. didn't want to run unless the choke was shut today so i'm pretty sure a rejet is going to be needed.