Chopper X

[Gravelgrinder59]

Swissguy, took you advice kinda, I just ordered another sissy bar pad off the bay. It it is vintage, plain and I think a little less bulky, it’s red now but I’ll be black when I’m finished with it, no hardware but should be able to use brackets off this one. Got parts I’m waiting on so not a lot I can do other then work on guard now.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

I haven't gotten a single word out of any of my bikes yet

@Gravelgrinder59, looks fantastic, all of it

I went to your build you’ve got a bunch of positive input? Know what you mean same names responding, so think no one thinks much of it, just build on bro you know your no slouch!

 

[hamqqea]

Some bikes are more vocal than others. They'll speak eventually. Everything on my rides have significance to me. They have be just as good on the inside as the outside. My thing is knowing when to stop.

As kids, some of us would put outrageous items on our bikes. Lines were exaggerated. One kid had his bars so far forward it was almost unrideable... that kid was me Didn't know any pedantic kids bound by rules.

I've become too conservative as an adult to fully enjoy the bikes I road during my youth, which is a reason why I like see others working on theirs... reminds me of things from a distant past.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Some bikes are more vocal than others. They'll speak eventually. Everything on my rides have significance to me. They have be just as good on the inside as the outside. My thing is knowing when to stop.

As kids, some of us would put outrageous items on our bikes. Lines were exaggerated. One kid had his bars so far forward it was almost unrideable... that kid was me Didn't know any pedantic kids bound by rules.

I've become too conservative as an adult to fully enjoy the bikes I road during my youth, which is a reason why I like see others working on theirs... reminds me of things from a distant past.

Got a few parts unexpectedly today. Was tearing down several builds I had mocked up to get more room in bike shed and out garage. Thought was just gonna be cleanup day but had to throw this stuff on build.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Thought I ordered two mirrors but only got one, Need to look into that and want to order another if I screwed up. The iron cross chainring is a bit too much I believe and kind of gets obstructed by chainguard anyway. If I don’t put chainguard on I might be able to get away with it, it looks better but it’s a bit of iron cross overkill I believe. Knowing I was getting these pedals (which I love) and not wanting anything taking away from them and busying this part of bike up, I’d already ordered another chainring.I’ll let pics do talking from here…

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

That last pic shows I have a bit of drainage problem but we had a major storm here . Could hear trees falling all around( lots of woods) and we almost lost power many times.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Forgot I had this paint,

may go this direction.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

I definitely love the overall vibe you're aiming for on your bike! I love the tank and triple tree forks you got on it, and that flamed banana seat is hot! I don't think you're going too overkill on the iron crosses, though maybe getting a set of mirrors in a different shape might help. I think the pedals and chainring go together just fine. I don't know how to feel about the chain guard, but I think painting the vents like you suggested is worth a try. Have you tried seeing how the shorter sissy bar would look with all the parts you currently have on it? I'm wondering if that might clean up the look, at least compared to the tall sissy bar and pad. Those exhaust pipes are interesting, but I feel like they are a little too much.

That all said, this is your bike to build and ride. Go with your gut and build your bike the way you're happiest with. I'm glad to hear you're open to critique/feedback, as that's how we all improve our skills, but don't be afraid to do your own thing if that's what you feel is best. Keep that momentum going, and you'll soon have a bike you can be proud of!

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Thanks for feedback Bike from the Dead. I will consider everything you said. I’ve considered everything you said except going back to low sissy bar, I’ll maybe play with that idea. Long way to go and I do change my mind many times during a build.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Been busy building a building a klunker, did take time today to paint tank black shimmer metallic, has a lot of silver flake. I think it looks good but I’ll wait till it’s dry and I put back on bike the final verdict.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Also did some prep work on chainguard

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Did some work on the chopper today. Did some more trimming and shaping so the chainguard, so it would snug up to the mounting bracket on the frame. Drilled the rear mounting hole. I also Stripped the inside of guard down for paint and did some filling of imperfections with spot putty. I took the iron cross chainring off and installed a solid diamond plate chainring of same size. Without the guard on I don’t like look as much. With the guard on and painted black I’m pretty confident it will have the look I want.

 

[MattiThundrrr]

The gills on the guard are killer

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Since I put triple tree fork on I haven’t had a headlight, so thought it was time to figure out what headlight and how to attach to bike.I have a light that came off a camping/ emergency light I bought at swap this summer. Pic is what I bought( minus light).

I started looking around for something I could use as a bracket..

the brackets on headlight are similar to light I have, I’ll see if I can use those for new bracket assembly….

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

I got rid off the bracket that attached to bolt on stem and used a heavy bracket that had been a reflector bracket, it goes under steerer nut and was shaped like L, I bent the bracket that attaches to light in alittle so it now would slide over end of this bracket, bent brackets on light in alittle and bolted it up. 1st attempt with the bracket straight, headlight sat too high.It was flush against triple tree crown so couldnt bend down. So solution was to put spacer under bracket to raise it alittle so I could bend it down ( temp spacer is a threaded cup crown , don’t know proper term). After bending it looked better but headlight was too far away from fork. So I bend the L on end back toward frame looking more like u now, almost touching frame. Took bracket off, installed headlight, reassembled

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Headlight a little higher then I’d prefer from side view but from front looks good. Chrome on bracket a little crusty but leaving it, have an idea to cover hole in middle of bracket and need to paint old bracket parts. For now this will be a fake headlight.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

Got first coat of black metallic on chainguard and need to repaint tank, put nick in it from triple tree ( hate that!), so moving tank mount back on top tube alittle to prevent this from happening again.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

After spending a lot of time mounting the headlight the other day, I still wasn’t satisfied with how it looked . From the side view the headlight just was sitting too high in the triple tree and it looked alittle small. I messed around with the bracket and spent a few hrs reconfiguring it. I got the headlight positioned where I wanted but I could live with the way the bracket looked. So I grabbed another light ( 1950’s? Allstate auto driving light). I is larger, has nice housing and lense and looks more like a actual motorcycle headlight. I flipped it upside down and mounted it with a modified reflector bracket mounted under steerer nut. I’m still working on cleaning and painting bracket..

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

I also got got the chainguard painted and fixed nick in tank and repainted. I never really paid too much attention to a mold dimple ion the top of the tank and now it’s bugging me. This tank is plastic is similar to a lawn chair and wasn’t sure bondo, spot putty would stick that well, but I have 2 off these tanks, so think I may get other one out and work on other one to smooth that dimple out.

 

[Gravelgrinder59]

For awhile I’ve been toying with idea of making some leather beaded streamers to hang from the grips. In the seventies I saw this frequently on choppers. I was rummaging through my stuff and found this severely deformed leather motorcycle handlebar bag ( it was inside a set of small motorcycle leather saddle bags I bought a swap this summer ). Opened it up there was some leather lacing, a laced leather brake lever cover and one black wood bead! I guess time to pursue idea.

I went to Hobby lobby and bought 1 of only 2 bags of large hole wood beads they had.

got out a couple of punches, hammer, some scissors and electrical tape. Cut 6 lengths of leather lacing same lenth, 3 for each side , knotted all of laces at end accordingly and started sliding beads on. I had done this like 30 years ago on a lowrider build so kinda new what I was doing.