RRBBO13 J.C. Special / Sharkruiser

[MONARKofSoCal]

hat Thick Brick looks very close to the top of the fork with the 24" rat trap. You might be better off using the 26" fork.


TRM Convertible Tanks!
The Renaissance Man

I have a weekend rat rod bike ride coming up saturday
maybe I should make it a bare bones cruiser and take it for a test ride to check

 

[Funkme]

Really liking the stance of this build. lean and mean.

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I have a weekend rat rod bike ride coming up saturday
maybe I should make it a bare bones cruiser and take it for a test ride to check

Be very careful! If that tire bottoms out into the fork it will send you over the bars!

 

[Duchess]

If you want to use the 24" fork without worry of bottoming out, it might be possible to build bigger rocker arms or a piggy back bracket between the truss rod ends and the existing rocker arms so that the axle would be moved farther from the inside of the fork crown. Since you would be making that from scratch, it could be made to meet the bare minimum needed for a safe clearance. Or so I think.

 

[kingfish254]

Yeah, be careful witth the smaller rat trap. @Critter1 bottomed out his "Lackluster" back in BO7 and went over the bars and messed up a beautifull paint job a little.

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

Well no one ever said rat rodding was safe

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

I decided to go ahead and start making j.c special into a rider to test out the clearance on the springer
this is what it looks like on the 24" rattrap

The clearance was an .25 of an inch less than the the rocker bump stop so i figured I would check the 26" rattrap

but i didn't like how it sat with the bike mocked up
way too high in the front

so this may be my compromize

basically the only modification I did was swap out the front truss bar for the longer one from the 26"

saturday I will test ride the bike to see how well this modification performs

 

[kingfish254]

Good thinking there on the rocker fork swap.

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

I took J.C special for a test run and found some stuff out

the frame is tweeked close to the headtube
and the extended 24" didnt seem to actuate properly

I dont know if it is due to the frame being out of alignment
or if modifying the rattrap in any form renders it useless as a springer
or another unknown problem like maybe having the seat set far back
altered the weight balance enough to not allow the springer to actuate

So I will put on a standard 24" rattrap and see how it performs

Here is how i took out J.c Special this weekend

Seat not the correct seat i will be using
and is set further back then what i have planed

Sprocket style will be different

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

I decided before i hack up a rear fender i would check to see if i could use the front fender from the same set

first i had to trim the sides for the area where the skirts attach

once that was done i had a choice to make
remove the cross bracing on the frame and reweld it
or alter the fender
I want to stay away from any frame modifications so here are the 2 spots I had to open on the fender for clearence

but after all the modifying here is the end result
looks like the front is the perfect size to use

After I was satisfied I drilled the holes in the fender to bolt everything together

while i was at it I added 4 holes to the skits for another murray / j c higgins accesory
care to guess what it will be used for

 

[kingfish254]

Love how the fender skirts turned out.
Stumped on the accessory.

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

Still working on J.C. Special
but since it is july it is time for me to work on Sharkruiser
Hopefully I will have done in time for shark week on discovery

the frame Specialized Shark cruiser

The pedals odyssey shark bite

the Handlebars occ schwinn stingray (to give that shark nose apperance

the steam is a tilt style that i found at local co op (fits the stingray bars perfectly)

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

As for the progress on J.C Special

Here is the murray/higgins accessory

I went through many different possible locations
but this was the best spot so that all 4 of the mounts could be attached
gives it a rear engine Indycar look

this mockup is with the standard size 24" rattrap springer
not the extended version i had on earlier

luckily I also found a better gooseneck
need to clean up a bit of the headtube to get it to sit lower

the fender required a bit more cutting to clear the chain on upper and lower section

Other side but no side pipes in this shot

I was trying to have a modified murray sprocket installed at this point
but I noticed I cant go larger than 44t
Realistically I should go even smaller than that to fit inside the chainguard

 

[Duchess]

Could be powered by an Offenhauser 4-cylinder with the "drive" facing forward as if the transmission was at the BB.

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

Could be powered by an Offenhauser 4-cylinder with the "drive" facing forward as if the transmission was at the BB

I was thinking more like a v8 powered
but i like the idea of the bb as the transmission
or maybe a turbo

 

[GuitarlCarl]

I may have missed it but did anyone suggest flipping your rockers? 24" fork with the rockers flipped forward and left and right swapped, sits nice with a 26" wheel. Barely any chopper feel at all and it throws your front wheel out there for the long lean look. I believe in recent builds @The Renaissance Man and I have both flipped our rockers...

Carl

 

[The Renaissance Man]

I'm really liking the overall stance, looks brawny!
Nice job trimming the fenders to get the fit right.

 

[Verrt]

@The Renaissance Man and I have both flipped our rockers...

I believe that's true, but I thought it had happened quite some time ago, not recently...

 

[kingfish254]

Great work on the fender and skirts. The manifold exhaust looks perfect on there.

 

[MONARKofSoCal]

I may have missed it but did anyone suggest flipping your rockers? 24" fork with the rockers flipped forward and left and right swapped, sits nice with a 26" wheel. Barely any chopper feel at all and it throws your front wheel out there for the long lean look

Carl

GuitarlCarl,

No one has suggested flipping the rockers because I believe I mentioned early in the build I was going for an operational springer

I have flipped rockers on a couple of builds and noticed that it has almost no spring action
since this is inspired by indy car racing I wanted to go for something operational even if it ment sacrificing long and lean