DOUBLE L'S "Flame-Thrower" FLAT-TRACKER

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

View showing the rear flared chopped ...has some original patina left on it...will sand thru a bit tomorrow and add some more color and aged look...maybe some alligatoring....toning down nicely.. not looking so new...and shiny
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[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

Maybe a trip to one of my favorite spots for some photo ops in a day or so... Here is an unusual 39 Huffman-Dayton...only frame known of its design... "The Death Cycle" was the nick-name??? Cross-bar was dropped and this weird one was added ??

 

[DoubleL]

 

[Jake Sensi]

I like this bike!! I'd ride it.

 

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

Wow...talking about some serious...work....been at it non-stop for twelve hours and then some... my greatest critic (my wife), didn't like the round number plate I installed under the headlight....she said.."I don't like that look...I thought you were going to put a spring you had in front...." ,,, she called me out so I had to go at it and attempt to build my first working springer front-end. After removing the plate and mounting hardware I pulled out some parts and started manually drafting up some mock ideas....photo above shows the rockers I made from the rear section of a Schwinn Chopper frame. Seemed to be heavy steel so after a few hours on the grinder they came out pretty nice. It is weird how all the things started falling into place and up to each major change...things changed again for the better....some things....bolts and nuts I thought I needed were not needed and some I thought I would need I didn't. ?? Before I photo the pretty much finished bike I will be adding some details... Oh, yea,, I decided after mocking up some kool bent copper tubing pipe....that maybe I could actually make a working propane flaming bike that would be kool for the James Dean & Gas City Festivals coming up in September....the old cars have the flame-throwers that are really popular so I said,,,,hey, my bike is going to throw some flames.......what is kooler than real flames.....I would like to have shown all the steps in getting it to work...any questions will be answered the best I can. Hope you enjoy the build. I am really having a blast doing it and have stretched my abilities a bit. Good to say that I have done EVERYTHING myself and have had to repeat many things over and over to get them close to right. Paint is coming up next....and maybe some painted flames on the tank. I have considered putting the propane in the tank area but it would be a little tight and I like the propane being where the motor would have been on a real old-skool flat-tracker race bike.

 

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

Beginning the thinking stage that lasted quite a while. Have the bottom rockers made...using a Schwinn forged fork and a spring from a car shock that was previously used on an extended front end on a 70's made rat bike that I picked up for the odd springs...working out pretty darn good. copper mounts were removed. Wife didn't like the round number plate on front.. Good call on her part. It inspired me to build the springer front end.

 

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

Sorry for the double photos. Here is what I finished at 1130 pm today. I painted the numbers on the cut out plates and mounted them. Also good detail of the exhaust mount and part of the propane feed..A lot of things added and more details coming up. Almost ready to get some really crazy shots of this thing flaming on.....

 

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

Used one of the springs in this photo for the springer on the flat-tracker. I thought that one spring would still be way too stiff for any really good springer effect...man was I wrong.... one spring is PERFECT. I weigh 190 lbs and it gave just the right amount of action I was looking for. Lucky break for me.

 

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

Finished up only minutes ago on the side number plates....

 

[DoubleL]

 

[DoubleL]

This is the finished front end....wow am I happy it actually works so well. Really surprised myself. The brazing came out pretty good on the upper supports I welded to the triple-tree. Really had to get the metal orange-red hot for the bronze to flow well. It rides very very good. Tracks perfectly and has a really good feel on the road with the heavy front end. Changed the stance a bit for the good.