TRADITIONAL Hops and Gnarly

[OddJob]

Jim, I forget, where is the long horn ornament from?

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Jim, I forget, where is the long horn ornament from?

It first appeared in the build-off a few years ago on my X-53.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

After two months I have yet to have the whole bike together until this morning.

So with less than 48 hours on the clock, here is the completed Hops and Gnarly!

 

[OddJob]

Wow! Dad gum! Excellent work sensi!

Those 'special Hoppy edition' thickBricks are great on there too!

 

[Pondo]

That’s one hot bike, I love it!

I still don't have a durable solution for chrome patina, but this quick application looks good. A light rust was all that I wanted.

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This was fresh new chrome when I started.

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I sprayed a light coat of rattle can clear and after it dried I went over it with wood stain. The big drawback is that it will easily scrape off exposing the chrome. I think a durable finish like this is possible by sanding first, but I haven't cleared that with the owner. This can easily be removed with a rag and acetone.

I like the way this turned out. It looks good and leaves the option of going back to the nice chrome at some point if desired. Really nice build. Kudos!

 

[Captain Awesome]

After two months I have yet to have the whole bike together until this morning.

So with less than 48 hours on the clock, here is the completed Hops and Gnarly!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

Wow! Dad gum! Excellent work sensi!

Those 'special Hoppy edition' thickBricks are great on there too!

Thanks! The tires and wheels were my surprise that I've been holding back!

This was not a complete bike when I got it to restore, so I put a few of my own parts with it to make it as 'custom' as I could get by with. After the build-off it will come back apart and will eventually be put together as stock.

When I was looking for a wheelset for it, I thought how cool would it be to put that 50mm black Felt wheelset and ThickBricks on it. I was thrilled when I tried them a few weeks ago and confirmed that they would fit without any clearance issues!

I did however have one major hurdle. The modern axle on the front hub was far too big to fit through the hole on the front fork. Because it has a hole and not a slot, filing flats like I would normally do for a slotted fork was not an option. And of course, drilling out the fork bushings was an absolute no!

So I found an axle that was the correct size for the fork that had a similar cone for the loose ball bearings and swapped it out. It's not an exact match, but it works.

It was a complete pain in the bum to assemble inside the fork! There was not enough room for a proper jam nut, so I had to adjust it after it was all assembled, and then the outer nut tightened against the bushing which locked everything in place. It was a tricky process!

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I copied the tire graphics from the embossed pedals.

 

[Bike from the Dead]

Fantastic work as always! Old Hoppy there looks like a seasoned survivor! Well done!

Is there a tutorial for painting letters and graphics on tires? Because I'd love to try my hand at that on a few of my projects some time.