New Chopper build started today...
- Thread starter IronSpadeCycles
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I like it Travis, i just took delivery of the same shifter (the stock on) and it does look lil plain IMHO...I thought of
drilling 'lightening holes' small too large to 'de-stockify it' a lil and attaching a piston in place of the knob from a small pocket bike motor (i happen to have laying here hehehe) Unfortunately i don't have a stock pile of two strok motors at my disposal Trav LoL
You going to paint it or will it be left a-natural and polished.. ?
KiM
drilling 'lightening holes' small too large to 'de-stockify it' a lil and attaching a piston in place of the knob from a small pocket bike motor (i happen to have laying here hehehe) Unfortunately i don't have a stock pile of two strok motors at my disposal Trav LoL
You going to paint it or will it be left a-natural and polished.. ?
KiM
I just realized how unphotogenic my hands are. :mrgreen:
Years of bar fights, metal fab and general stupidity have left a few deep ones. In the picture of my left hand you can see where the 4-1/2" grinder bit me with a cut-off wheel that shattered and cut the tendon on my trigger finger. I still can't make a fist completely anymore. O well.
deorman; I used to roadrace RD's with a club in Denver and I've got a box full of offerings to the speed gods. Spent pistons, con rods, crank bearings, clutch baskets, carb parts, and other basic junk that's only good as art or ash trays and since I quit smoking well...
Later Travis
Years of bar fights, metal fab and general stupidity have left a few deep ones. In the picture of my left hand you can see where the 4-1/2" grinder bit me with a cut-off wheel that shattered and cut the tendon on my trigger finger. I still can't make a fist completely anymore. O well.
deorman; I used to roadrace RD's with a club in Denver and I've got a box full of offerings to the speed gods. Spent pistons, con rods, crank bearings, clutch baskets, carb parts, and other basic junk that's only good as art or ash trays and since I quit smoking well...
Later Travis
You going to paint it or will it be left a-natural and polished.. ? KiM[/quote said:
I thought about that but I don't want to spend too much time on this one part. I've got about 3 hrs into it now and I could put another 8 hrs into it very easily and since its for a client on somewhat of a limited budget I'm not trying to make a $500 shift lever for a $50K motorcycle. I passed it by him first and he likes it way more than the stocker. So I'm thinking of adding a little more detail (some drilled holes) and painting it gloss black with my logo pin striped on both sides.
Later T
Later T
Looks much better!
drilling some holes will look great
drilling some holes will look great
Well I took some time last night to draw out a series of holes, and after carefully measuring and center punching where all the holes would be I went to the drill press and started drilling. It was late last night and I got about half of the holes drilled before I realized that my cheap Chinese made drill press (Grizzly brand) has started to give up the ghost in the bearing accuracy and allowed the drill bits to wander as they started their drilling operation. To the untrained eye, its not that big a deal, but to me a die-hard perfectionist it looks like Krap with a capital K. I'm hoping after its painted it will look better but if it doesn't I'll make another one on my Bridgeport mill as soon as I get it installed and running in my shop.
Later Travis
Later Travis
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Yer bein’ too hard on yer self, Travis. That’s, at worst, a lower-case “k”! Just kiddin’. :lol:
It looks fine now . . . once painted, it’ll be lookin’ great! Keep up the good work!
It looks fine now . . . once painted, it’ll be lookin’ great! Keep up the good work!
It looks awesome Travis, I hope PeeWee likes it!
I didnt think of doing lil holes on the outside like that Travis good on ya mate ... :: sets up stock shifter in drill press to copy Travs work 
:: hehee... I like the look of it travis pitty about the couple of holes out of line there mate, i doubt if you didnt sasy anything nobody would have seen it
though, i think with the paint on it will be a non-issue though mate.
KiM
:: hehee... I like the look of it travis pitty about the couple of holes out of line there mate, i doubt if you didnt sasy anything nobody would have seen itthough, i think with the paint on it will be a non-issue though mate.
KiM
HI, my name is PeeWee, and I commissioned this bike. I'm an OG member of the Chopaderos, originally with the mother chapter, but recently a member of the Nomads chapter. I wanted to build this bike to commemorate my move to San Francisco, and have a bike that's perfect for riding around here. I have put together over a dozen bikes of my own, but this bike goes way beyond my skills, equipment, and free time. I knew Tex would be the perfect one to build this bike because, he not only can put together a custom frame, but incorporate all of the performance and kustom parts I wanted beyond that. Being a part of the birth of this bike has been an amazing experience. I never expected the journey it would be! At first we were thinking of a bike for around $800, that would not be too out of control. Now we are at around 4x that amount with the rear wheel alone almost more than the original budget. Its a dynamic relationship having an artist make something for you, that you are paying for, while still respecting his artistic vision, skills, and opinions. I'm sure Tex will agree that it is not and easy journey, but it is very rewarding. I hope he can use this build as a stepping stone to do greater things, and I will always give him all of the credit for this build. As I'm sure everybody won't agree with every aspect of this bike, I am so happy with it, and in my mind it will be one of the best bicycles ever built. It is everything I have dreamed of and has almost everything I ever wanted. I'm sure every one of you has laid awake at night thinking about what we would do if we could build our "dream bike". Well, for me this is that bike. Believe me, every little thing on this bike has be pondered, argued over, changed a few times, and finally settled on the best of the best, down to the last nut. Nothing on the bike is normal or "stock". I hope all of you keep inputing your very valuable opinions as this build comes to a close. The only bad part about this build is that now I have at least 2 more projects lined up for Tex to do, with budgets equal to this, including building up my new limited edition Basman frame (from my buddy/ brother Da Flixster) and a totally custom motorized bike. Oh Well. I leave you with the video clip that inspired this build.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4HZcKJ55Zc
P.S. How do you imbed a video on this site?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4HZcKJ55Zc
P.S. How do you imbed a video on this site?
Awesome video! :mrgreen:
Re: New Chopper build started today... New pictures!
Alright well I've been busy as a beaver building a... well you know, I've been building a bike! LOL So I got quite a bit done over the last few days and thought I'd give you all an update.
I have a new deadline of Nov. 20th as the client has decided to have me fly out to San Francisco to hand deliver the bike and also represent at the San Francisco Bike Expo. My neighbor owns a print company and is going to make me a 3'X3' banner and some decals so at least I might look presentable. Well I think if I start to paint this coming Tuesday I should have a few days to allow the paint to cure before packing it up to fly on the 20th.
I'm looking forward to it, I haven't been to SF in about 15 years. So where do I begin? Well I sat down last week and took a long hard look at the bike and the pile of parts I had and thought what do I have left to do? So I started to make a punch list of all the things that either needed to be finished of items that needed to be welded before I could begin painting.
I knew the tank was going to take some time so I jumped right into that and after many hours of fitting, tacking, cutting, tacking, fitting, cutting, tacking and welding I got it ready for a coat of filler. I hand made a hinge like you'd find on a gas door on your car and hid it inside the tank. So now when Pee Wee wants a sip of tasty beverage he can just pop the gas cap off, pull out the tube and drink up. The "door" allows him to pull out the Camelbag liner to clean it between fill ups. I'm also making the tank removable for rides where he's not so thirsty.
I made struts to help support the rear fender and while trying to figure out where I wanted to mount the tail light, the answer was right in front of me. The struts needed a brace anyway so I just made the plate a little larger and mounted the taillight as well. I had fabbed up a seat mount but I still needed to weld it to the frame. I needed to have the fender in place so I could make sure I was at the right height so as not to have the two interfere with one another. I got that sorted.
Then there was the matter of that pesky shifter. I was having issues with it! First I hated the placement, than I hated the second shift lever I made, so they both got changed for the better! In the process of moving the mount point from the down tube to the rear chain stay I solved the shift cable routing problem as well.
Here is what the shifter looks like in the three speed positions.
I got the kickstand mounted and the return spring sorted.
I originally wanted to make a "Oil bag" that I could hide a battery inside for the lighting system. Well that ended up growing into a leather tool bag that could hold a lock and tools as well. I've decided to kill that idea and make a Stainless steel box that will mount under the seat flush with the top and bottom of the upper chain stay tubes. The rear stay tubes are 1.25" diameter and most NiCd packs are only 1 inch thick so that gives me room to pad it and there's so much room in there Pee Wee could have 2 or 3 batteries wires in parallel to extend the run times to more than 8 hrs between charges.
Look closely at the 203MM rear disc's from Dirty Dog Mtb, the spokes are mudflap girls with spades cut out of the disc. The details are so cool...
I started to finish the fork tonight and realized I still haven't bought a .875" drill bit that I need to drill 4 holes in the fork legs so I'm off to Tractor Supply in the morning for a $27 drill bit and I'm going to use all stainless steel fasteners since Pee Wee lives in the Marina District of SF and he's close to the saltwater and salty air. I don't want him complaining that a month from now his bolts are all rusty. I should have the springer fork done tomorrow and I'll post more pictures then.
I did get the Ballistic ball joints installed and they look so beefy but they move really nicely.
On that note I will see all you fools tomorrow. Later T
Alright well I've been busy as a beaver building a... well you know, I've been building a bike! LOL So I got quite a bit done over the last few days and thought I'd give you all an update.
I have a new deadline of Nov. 20th as the client has decided to have me fly out to San Francisco to hand deliver the bike and also represent at the San Francisco Bike Expo. My neighbor owns a print company and is going to make me a 3'X3' banner and some decals so at least I might look presentable. Well I think if I start to paint this coming Tuesday I should have a few days to allow the paint to cure before packing it up to fly on the 20th.
I'm looking forward to it, I haven't been to SF in about 15 years. So where do I begin? Well I sat down last week and took a long hard look at the bike and the pile of parts I had and thought what do I have left to do? So I started to make a punch list of all the things that either needed to be finished of items that needed to be welded before I could begin painting.
I knew the tank was going to take some time so I jumped right into that and after many hours of fitting, tacking, cutting, tacking, fitting, cutting, tacking and welding I got it ready for a coat of filler. I hand made a hinge like you'd find on a gas door on your car and hid it inside the tank. So now when Pee Wee wants a sip of tasty beverage he can just pop the gas cap off, pull out the tube and drink up. The "door" allows him to pull out the Camelbag liner to clean it between fill ups. I'm also making the tank removable for rides where he's not so thirsty.
I made struts to help support the rear fender and while trying to figure out where I wanted to mount the tail light, the answer was right in front of me. The struts needed a brace anyway so I just made the plate a little larger and mounted the taillight as well. I had fabbed up a seat mount but I still needed to weld it to the frame. I needed to have the fender in place so I could make sure I was at the right height so as not to have the two interfere with one another. I got that sorted.
Then there was the matter of that pesky shifter. I was having issues with it! First I hated the placement, than I hated the second shift lever I made, so they both got changed for the better! In the process of moving the mount point from the down tube to the rear chain stay I solved the shift cable routing problem as well.
Here is what the shifter looks like in the three speed positions.
I got the kickstand mounted and the return spring sorted.
I originally wanted to make a "Oil bag" that I could hide a battery inside for the lighting system. Well that ended up growing into a leather tool bag that could hold a lock and tools as well. I've decided to kill that idea and make a Stainless steel box that will mount under the seat flush with the top and bottom of the upper chain stay tubes. The rear stay tubes are 1.25" diameter and most NiCd packs are only 1 inch thick so that gives me room to pad it and there's so much room in there Pee Wee could have 2 or 3 batteries wires in parallel to extend the run times to more than 8 hrs between charges.
Look closely at the 203MM rear disc's from Dirty Dog Mtb, the spokes are mudflap girls with spades cut out of the disc. The details are so cool...
I started to finish the fork tonight and realized I still haven't bought a .875" drill bit that I need to drill 4 holes in the fork legs so I'm off to Tractor Supply in the morning for a $27 drill bit and I'm going to use all stainless steel fasteners since Pee Wee lives in the Marina District of SF and he's close to the saltwater and salty air. I don't want him complaining that a month from now his bolts are all rusty. I should have the springer fork done tomorrow and I'll post more pictures then.
I did get the Ballistic ball joints installed and they look so beefy but they move really nicely.
On that note I will see all you fools tomorrow. Later T
Would like too tellz you it looks awesome Travis but none of the pictures load for me, well...the first one did, once, but nothing else has loaded, checking back through pages i see you have pulled all the images ???
KiM
KiM
That is one sick bike Travis!!! :shock:
Hey Kim, as of 07:15 (local time) 11/7/09 all the pics are viewable for me... :?
Hey Kim, as of 07:15 (local time) 11/7/09 all the pics are viewable for me... :?
