Ohmigawd, What Have I Done???

Oh no! There's only HALF a motorcycle in the shed!!!

But let's back it up a step or two, o.k.?  With the original hardtail rear section on, a couple of 4 x 4's were shoved under the front half after the pipes and mufflers were removed. This gave the rear wheel about two inches clearance off the ground, and a little bit of wiggle room to remove the rear wheel.

I took the opportunity to compare the new 0" drop, 0" stretched section to the one still in place by positioning the two side by side with close to identical mounting points. (This is how I figured that the original hardtail was 2" drop, 0" stretch. ) For those of you wanting to learn, it ain't too hard. Let's start with stretch- it's just that. A zero inch stretch will give you the same wheelbase as stock, providing you haven't massacred a good frame and raked the neck or extended the front end. A 4" stretch-well, you get the picture, that'll make it four inches longer, and is usually done to give a chopper look, as well as supply more space to mount a battery box and oil tank.
   As for drop, it's a bit trickier to understand. No matter what, if you are still running a 4.00 x 18" tire, your axle center is going to sit at about 13" off the ground. However, if you run a 2" drop frame, the frame section is made in a jig that changes the frames shape and angles, leaving the axle center still at the 13" mark, but lowering the frame 2". Point being, when shopping for a hardtail, the amount of drop is lowering the frame AT THE REAR AXLE PLATE MOUNTING vs. THE REAR FRAME CONSTRUCTION. This will change the look of the frame, with different angles than a 0" drop would have. It will also leave your engine sitting higher in the front than at the back--to maintain level with a 2" drop rear hardtail, you would also need to shorten the stock fork tubes by about 2"........

Here we see the 0"drop, 0" stretch in the foreground, background with fender is 2" drop, 0" stretch.

With the wheel and fender removed, I had a clear look from the rear at the oil tank, and will be moving it outward an inch or so, that will give me more room for mounting coils next to the oil tank. Just under the oil lines extending over to the chain will permit a plate to be welded to make a nice base for the battery box.

At this point, the original rear section was removed, leaving me with half a motorcycle. This simply would not do, so the new 0" drop 0"stretch section was bolted into place. A nice piece, it almost aligned itself with the front frame mounting holes with no problem! The rear wheel was put back on, and lo and behold, even on the 2 pieces of 4x4, it now sat on the ground, whereas the old frame section had the wheel 2" off the ground on these same 4x4 pieces. I just gained about 2 inches of ground clearance, and now the engine will sit level like it should!!!

Now comes the fun part, taking care of the details. Tabs will need to be made for things like oil tank relocation, exhaust pipe and muffler location points, fitting the Lycett solo seat, and a rear rack/saddlebag mount. Oh, I did play just a hair....I found this fairly trashed sidecover:

and with a little bit of hacksaw power, started the conversion into this rigid frame side cover instead.....

Of course, a little more shaping is in order....

That's it for tonight! Next time it's onto tabs and oil tank and the rear rack, which will not only hold saddlebags but also be some of the rear fender support.

One little bit at a time....

Today found me out in the shed for a little bit- got a couple of things sorted out. It was a test fit day- got the nacelle where it should be, although at this moment I left the gaiters in place, rather than the steel covers normally there. I also tried out the 4 gallon tank, and found I want to drop the front of it down a half an inch to provide better clearance with the nacelle when the handlebars are turned to their full swing. I did a little mock up with the Lycett that just came in, it is going to need some decent mounting done. Over the next couple of days it will be a game of what fits where- a full mock up to make sure it all fits together and the right pieces and parts are where I want them. Then all back down to the frame- and paint!

I've decided that I want a little more ground clearance for sure, so the rigid rear end is going to be swapped for one that has a 0" drop, rather than the current 2" drop it has. This will also level the bike out nicely, although I find the slightly raked look nice, I like the value of the ground clearance more.

The Build......

Oh my... A bit of time has drifted by, and it's time to add a bit more. Things have changed due to Southern California events........(by the way, for those of you who read this stuff, the goal has been figured out. Sometime in the next couple of years, I'm just gonna say "Fuck It!" and be done with the regular citizen crap. This bike is a part of that- the goal to build a nice rigid 1950's lookalike that can pull a trailer as I wander about the countryside trying to make a buck to keep things happening. Those of you lucky enough to catch this post- well, you are at the beginning. You'll get to see the bike built, the trailer built, the fact that I will sell the home and hit the road, finding work to support me and the bike along the way. At some point I'm gonna just die and that'll end the blog, but it will be a heall-uv-a lot of fun in between............,.

Fast forward to the end of a very long month, and things have changed yet again. I know it's hard to beat a nice short-framed rigid with a nacelle, but it happened.....

Scanning through the L.A. Craigslist, another 'chopper' with no price in the title appeared, so I popped it on the screen to take a look. I was a bit blown away to see that it was the same basic dreambike I wanted to build, no nacelle, but a couple of other goodies. Two weeks later I rolled it outta the truck into the driveway of it's new home.............

At first sight, it had almost exactly the lines I wanted! The Sporty rear fender may be a bit much, but we'll see how it works with the saddlebags- I do like that much side-fender keeping mud and crap off of things!





As I studied it a bit more, a few extra little goodies became quite evident: the Joe Hunt magneto will definitely sell as I really prefer the clean lines of the stock points cover and being able to fix the points in the middle of nowhere; and that BSA oil tank sure looks like it holds a bit more oil that the regular Triumph rigid oil tanks one finds! The fact that it also has a 750 top end is kinda neat, too!



The Vokes air cleaner is a nice touch as well, but a little remounting may need to be done, as it is taking away a little space where I need to mount the coils when I go back to points.



Another nice treat was the belt drive:



But the best thing of all was getting handed not only a valid title, but also a registration that uses what I believe to be the original black and yellow California plate! The Ed Kretz and Son chromed surround doesn't hurt either! Last time I had a chance to get a Triumph with it's proper black and yellow was almost thirty years ago, so I am QUITE stoked!




I still have yet to start it up, did compression test, made sure it sparks (and STOPS sparking when I push that little button on the handlebars) I mostly need to get fuel tank and lines set up for that.

This bike was previously owned by Keith Moore of Anaheim, and was supposedly being set up to be the mail bike-there were going to be two big baskets stuck on that Sporty fender so he could take shipments to the mail. I am talking with the current folks at the shop- hopefully they can throw more details at me. The motor has got a 750 top end, so I'm hoping if they might be able to tell me to what extent a rebuild may have been done on the lower, seems that too many goodies have been added to just throw them onto an old, unrebuilt engine.... I do have the three main parts of the nacelle, a local shop will be able to make the lower covers that I'll need; I also have a beautiful 1950 tank already painted and ready to go. The rear end is not stretched, just dropped a couple of inches, so I may have to revert to the 0 drop 0 stretch hardtail I had made up earlier this year- it also seems a bit more beefy. Yep, things will all get figured out, as it's going to need a down to the frame repaint at the very least. I'll keep ya posted! Joe

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Back After A Long Hiatus

Back to blogging! (Gawd, what a friggin' joke- hey folks, I'm just scribbling what comes into my head and hoping somebody reads it!) But any ways, I'm back and here's some new crap....... of note is the fact that I'm changing this build thread over to here from there.....

Today started out like any other day, at least for the first 10 minutes. I rolled out of bed, started up the pot of coffee, removed dear little Fluffy's usual feed-me-or-get-clawed embrace, and rolled me up my morning cigarette. With coffee in hand, I headed out to enjoy the morning fogshine with a nice hot cup and my smoke.



I was a bit startled to hear voices calling out my name, "Hey, Dead!" as most in the neighborhood wait until fogshine has changed into sunshine to leave their abodes to start quacking at me. Quick thinking on my part led to my saying, "Yes?????"

"Shuddup and listen!" said the three part harmonizing voices.

"O.k." says I.

"Shuddup!!!!" they said again. 

So this time I did just that. I shut up, I waited just a bit, took a good sip of coffee and a drag off my cigarette, and the voices came forth again.

"Dead, it is time for you to build a CHOPPER!"

"Umm, sure." I replied, having a sense I had heard these voices before. With that having been said, a blinding flash of sun/foglight pierced the early morning sky, leaving me alone once again.



As I stood there looking over at the chopper project against the wall, it occurred to me that not only was I burning the tips of my fingers with a now very short non filter cigarette, but I also had realised who the three voices were. Why with their telling me to shut up, having all three voices harmonizing at the same time, and the blazing theatrics in the sky, it could only mean that the heavenly trio was talking to me again. Yes, dear readers, for the second time in my life I had come face to faces with the spirit world of Jerry Garcia, Frank Zappa, and Timothy Leary! 

So I thought about what they said, and looked over at the chopper. Then I went to the shed, looked at all the bikes and parts, and thought about what they said. I went back to the chopper, took a sip of coffee, and thought once again about what they said. Then I went back to the shed, and lit a smoke. In another brief flash of light, this time from my lighter, I remembered back to the last time I had an encounter with this trio so many moons ago.

"Dead....." they called out to me.

"What?" I replied.

"Shuddup and listen" they said.

"O.k." I replied.

Once again, "Will you shut up and listen?" the three echoed forth.

So I shut up and listened.

"Dead," they said, "You need to quit your job, sell your possesions, go to town and buy a school bus then head to the desert east of Los Angeles and start the Commune For International Peace and Harmony."

"Uhh, yeah, sure thing", I replied. And Poof! Off into a cloud they went.

Not being one to argue with spirits, especially those three all appearing at the same time, I did so. The commune grew and flourished, and we were all quite happy to be one with each other and nature. That is, until the day the strangers came. And boy, did they come! Red lights a flashing, mean, nasty voices hollering, "FREEZE, HIPPY!", multiple helicopter rotors rotoring, and ferociously barking dope sniffing dogs all joining in the melee! 

"Where's that ten acres of dope ya'll are growing out here, hippy?" snarled the biggest, meanest, most dogfaced one of the lot.

"You mean to tell me that with 50 million helicopters buzzin' all over a big brown desert, you can't find 10 acres of anything lush and green, and we might barely have a teeny tiny joint left to smoke between the 30 of us?" I replied.

"Ya'll are in a big heap of trouble, boy," dog face replied. "Book'em, and search every single inch of this filthy place!!"

So off we were escorted to a much nicer bus than the one that had gotten us here, and each of us placed in lovely white jackets with arm sleeves that tied behind our backs, we were given a V.I.P trip to a beautiful gated community, where I assumed we were going to be treated to a bountiful sushi lunch, as the rooms each of us were led into had no tables or chairs and only comfortably padded walls for us to dine in. As the door closed on up behind me, I couldn't help but to wonder if this is kinda what Jerry, Frank, and Timothy had had in mind all along..... 

..............................................................

It was as the second cigarette of the day started burning my other fingertips and snapped me back into the moment, that I realised that the flash from my lighter was the true sign I needed to follow. Yep, having followed the trio's advice before led to quite a bit less than promising results, so it was decided then and there that this wasn't gonna be another chopper build--not after the commune incident. This time, I'm gonna just go from the start and build my dream bike, seeing as how all this crap just may indeed be nothing but a dream.(Execpt of course for the photos that can back up the whole story, but that's just a minor detail...I mean, come on, if you go back to the first photo and look to the right of the sun and up just a tad while you kinda squint, well, there just might be an image of one of the spirited threesome. Hell, I ain't gonna argue with it!)



So that's what I'm gonna go for, a nice and simple 1950 look with a unit engine to make it go. Now let's all hope that in a few months when the thing gets kicked over and fires up for the first time, Jerry, Frank, and Timothy don't come back to hassle me with any more visions like rubber ducks, semi's, and eleven longhaired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse micro bus......

From WW II To You.....

It never ceases to amaze me how anything as deadly as war often serves as a springboard for future advancements in our world........(Whether you choose to believe it or not, the ouiji c.d player decided to play this song the same time I was starting on this particular posting; as it fit so it stays.....)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ij07MNAQ8

Below from Aug. 24 1944:

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep.......

And before doing so, I just wanna say, Thanks, God, for not letting Ed Turner ever meet this man back in 1952.............

New browser, does it work again?

Ye gads! Just when I though I had made it to the 20th century, they tell me that they don't like my browser no more, and I'm getting blasted back to the 19th! (Sad thing is, everyone else had already made it to the 21st!) So this little episode is to see if the bloody thing works again, and I can get back to writing snippets about the middle half of the last century and such. Lets see if I can still insert a picture with this new browser...........type type type.....TAP!
   Well, not quite where I intended, but it works! (And, super secret 'I'm Not An I.T. Guy," you stick your picture on my computer after you fix it and it'll go nationwide or more....Heheheheheheh!) Seriously, thanks Eric, for the helping hand. Now I can get back to Motorcycle things soon enough! Cheers!