The B-2

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Cherry Hill, NJ
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It all began while perusing Kickstand's 4th issue. Kenny Prather's El Bastardo struck a nerve. Something about it. I started asking questions. Emailed kenny, but he didn't divulge too much. Talked with Eric "4th Horsemen" Paulsen and he knew a bit more about it. He offered to build me a frame like it. Then I stumbled upon the Basman 732 on the Chopperdome website. That too got me going.

After numerous talks with Eric, we decided to put together a bike that had some qualities of each bike.

I like the top tube of the Bastadro:

B21.jpg


I like the front end of the Basman:

B2.jpg


Since the 2 bikes begin with "B", I figure mine would be the "B2".

Since Eric was building the frame from scratch, I figure I'd go all out and go with 100mm rims to really make his life miserable:

B25.jpg


and big 24X4.25 tires front and back

B26.jpg


which of course would never fit a conventional front fork, unless you go to Amsterdam for this;

(which took months to get here thanks to that dang volcano in Iceland)

B24.jpg


and i see a SA 3 sp rear hub with a knarly suicide shifter on the right side:

B27.jpg


So far, Eric has had the hoops re-laced with black spokes and is making adjustments to the fork. I want the tire slammed to the bottom of the lower crown, so he's gonna take some 4" or so out of the forks to make it work.

rear tire;

B22.jpg


fork before mods

B23.jpg
 
Re: The "B2"

Well, Eric got busy and shortened the fork up.

First he cut it in half and added plugs to strengthen the core:

B28.jpg


Then he welded up the 2 pieces back together:

B30.jpg


He also cut off the disk brake tab on the left fork, as I'm only going with a rear disk set up.

End result:

B31.jpg


B29.jpg
 
"...was the fork chrome, or just polished?..."

It was chrome, but Eric had to media blast the chrome off before he did the cuting welding rework.

I wanted it powder coated a dull silver color like the rims, but he felt the coating would be too thick to allow proper clearance for the triple trees. Plans are for him to spray the fork an industrial coating that'll match the rims.

Spin
 

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