Needed to do something new for OBC this year. Last two years I rode motorized bikes, but absolutely wanted to do more pedaling this year.
Considering how insane and creative most of the bikes are I wanted to do something out of the norm. I usually tend towards bikes and motorcycles that fall into the 1900-1920s board track styling, but wanted to step further outside of that. After a little brain storming (and a couple of other ideas that I will need to make other bikes out of) I settled on using a Mossberg 500 as the mid bar on a build. Why a Mossberg? Well, because I didn't want to cut up and weld a perfectly good Remington 870 Considering I am in Las Vegas, it isn't as much of an issue to have a shotgun mounted as it is (open carry law), but as I do ride in other states (and often California), I had to work within the letter of the law and make it "not a gun". Firing pin was shortened and firing pin hole was welded shut. Still racks and ejects shells and I loaded up 1000 12g clear high brass shells and put a logo and info in it as a "card". So the mid tube ended up storing 5 plus 1 of the cards to hand out to anyone that asked. The overall color compared to some of the amazing builds at the show allowed me to be a little more stealth on rides. Rolling up in a pack while on the rides and racking things turned more than a couple of heads (some in a little bit of a panic). Not normally a "good" sound to hear while out and about.
I have wanted to do a poly v/serpentine belt as a drive for quite some time. I had initial designed and built two different tensioners for the belt, but felt it looked a little cleaner without. Luckily everything fit and the belt tensioned good enough to only slip if I stood up to pedal, then it initially slipped about an 1/8 turn before hooking up. For all the flat riding we did through the 4 days worth of rides, it was ultra smooth and didn't slip at all.
Overall I am really happy with how it turned out and will definitely be doing more builds with serpentines (making parts for a timing belt drive right now). Anyone interested in the details of doing a serpentine drive, let me know and I will be more than happy to send info.
Considering how insane and creative most of the bikes are I wanted to do something out of the norm. I usually tend towards bikes and motorcycles that fall into the 1900-1920s board track styling, but wanted to step further outside of that. After a little brain storming (and a couple of other ideas that I will need to make other bikes out of) I settled on using a Mossberg 500 as the mid bar on a build. Why a Mossberg? Well, because I didn't want to cut up and weld a perfectly good Remington 870 Considering I am in Las Vegas, it isn't as much of an issue to have a shotgun mounted as it is (open carry law), but as I do ride in other states (and often California), I had to work within the letter of the law and make it "not a gun". Firing pin was shortened and firing pin hole was welded shut. Still racks and ejects shells and I loaded up 1000 12g clear high brass shells and put a logo and info in it as a "card". So the mid tube ended up storing 5 plus 1 of the cards to hand out to anyone that asked. The overall color compared to some of the amazing builds at the show allowed me to be a little more stealth on rides. Rolling up in a pack while on the rides and racking things turned more than a couple of heads (some in a little bit of a panic). Not normally a "good" sound to hear while out and about.
I have wanted to do a poly v/serpentine belt as a drive for quite some time. I had initial designed and built two different tensioners for the belt, but felt it looked a little cleaner without. Luckily everything fit and the belt tensioned good enough to only slip if I stood up to pedal, then it initially slipped about an 1/8 turn before hooking up. For all the flat riding we did through the 4 days worth of rides, it was ultra smooth and didn't slip at all.
Overall I am really happy with how it turned out and will definitely be doing more builds with serpentines (making parts for a timing belt drive right now). Anyone interested in the details of doing a serpentine drive, let me know and I will be more than happy to send info.