Say No To Swoopy

With my encouragement, Barry made the call to ditch the fat, butt ugly seat we had on the bike and go with a Biltwell unit that looks about 100,000 times better. I'm down to the last handful of steps before I can put some gas and oil in this monkey mobile and fire it up.

And on a related note: Baggers suck and they always will, and say NO to swoopy shit.

Every Day I'm Hustlin'

All kinds of things going on lately, so I've lacked a bike post. Waiting on just a couple of parts for the project bike, but it will fire up within the next week, so there will be video of that. Headed for the Southeastern Beard & Moustache Championship tomorrow to see friends and watch my awesome girlfriend win the female fake beard category. Oh, and see a bunch of guys that are waaay too obsessed with their beards, hahaha. Until then, here's this:

Form Follows Function

And this set up has them both in spades. The legendary Fabricator Kevin's springer brake kit, the Gold Standard for any chopper builder with a brain in his head. This bike is a rock rolling down a hill and it's just picking up speed.

Organized Chaos

The middle stages of building a bike, the mess that only the builder knows and people who only see the finished product rarely get a glimpse of. Fabbed up a nice ignition switch mount today and started on the wiring. Only 3 weeks to go.

Disregard

I picked up another load of parts yesterday and the project bike will take a couple more big steps forward this weekend. Plus, the Fab Kevin springer brake and tag/tailight set ups are on their way, so things are looking good to have the bike mechanically complete and running by the end of the month.

This chick is psyched too, she's just cool like that.

Short Skirts Always Look Good

I did the final trim and shape on the Walsh bike's rear fender today. It came out nice and I'm very happy with it. It fits the overall look of the bike and shows off the 18" rim/200 tire properly. Check it out.

I'm on to the primary drive & clutch set up next and it will be wired and fired by the end of this month.

Fire & Steel Puzzle

Got down to business yesterday fitting the Fab Kevin fender strut kit on the Walsh bike. It had been awhile since I'd done some good steel bending with my little Home Depot MAPP gas/Oxy torch, but with the right amount of planning and measuring it came out perfectly. It doesn't hurt being the greatest bike builder alive today either. Check it out:

Making the first bend, an old 39mm fork tube makes a nice leverage multiplier for this type of work.

Second bend done, strut trimmed to length and fitted.

Bar Fight Soundtrack

The best song I know to play right before an epic bar brawl.

Sleeved Out

Love it.

Hide & Seek

I'm just beginning to install some components of the electrical system. When Kevin stopped by last week I mentioned how I'm always looking for a balance between ease of access and aesthetics when placing necessary electrical components on a bike. It's one thing for these guys that run everything inside the frame on a super high dollar custom bike, because guess what? Those bikes get rolled from one trailer to the next, and maybe accumulate 100 miles on them in 3-4 years. They don't get ridden. Anything I build is done so with the idea that it can be ridden every day. With that in mind, I always work to hide things as much as I can, but still make them reasonably accessible for maintenence/repair. Here are a couple of examples:

The main circuit breaker that I mounted on the bottom of the battery tray. Well hidden, but still close to the battery since the wire from it to the battery is the only unprotected wire on the whole bike.

Reinstalled in the bike. When the bike is on the ground, you'll never see it, but if you need to get to it it's still pretty easy. Also, mounted upside down so no water can settle down into it.

Barry chose the Cen-Tech wiring kit for this bike. It's a good solid set-up and comes with a rubber isolated circuit breaker mount for the ignition and lights breakers. I drilled and tapped two holes in the frame to mount it under the gas tank. Again, completely hidden with the tank on, but if you need to get to it you pull a couple bolts and the fuel line and lift the tank right off. I did my Evo chopper the same way years ago and it's proven to be a good set-up. I'm a believer in making your wiring as clean as possible and with a little planning you can do it and still make it maintenence friendly, for real bikes that see the road for more than just Hooter's bike night.

Welcome Back

It's been awhile since The Horse had a cover that really caught my attention, but this coming issue's did just that. Well done boys.