Well, after meeting up with my fabricator friend on Monday, I've decided I'll go ahead and throw my hat in the ring for the Muscle Bike Build Off again this year. Here's my contender: a slightly-bent Murray Eliminator muscle bike I bought off a buddy of mine down in OKC for $10.
I slapped this thing together last month for the Muscle Bike Drags at Buddy's Pedal Fest. I didn't win most of the races I participated in, but at least it didn't fall apart as I rode it around!
As cool as it was in its rusty, crusty, slapped-together state, I knew I wanted to build this bike up right some day. So, I guess this is as good a time as any to build this bike the way I want. I'm not going to go too crazy with the modifications as I did during the last MBBO. I got a few trick mods planned, but I'm only going to reveal one of them right now: a 26" Monark springer fork!
I just mocked up this fork a month ago, and I've already run into an issue with it: the lock nuts that hold the dropouts in place hit the spokes on the front wheel.
I've tried assembling the fork differently to combat the issue, but I think the best solution would be to make some new dropouts that kick the front wheel forward an inch or two.
I'm really looking forward to putting one of my "bucket list" bikes together, especially with my new friend who knows a thing or two about fabricating cool things on wheels. Odds are he'll be doing most of the welding/fabricating this project needs, but I'm going to use this as an opportunity to practice welding/fabricating myself. Dude was kind enough to teach me a little welding after helping me with a previous project, and I'd be more than happy to learn some more! Hopefully, I'll have a custom piece or two on this bike I can proudly say I made or modified myself!