Bike's Done

Oh, and I live in Minneapolis now.

Paint by my boy Timmy.

And here's my beaut, sitting on my beaut.

Chain Tensioner

You can make anything with scrap metal, a little patience and a pinch of savvy.

XS650chopper

Forgot to post this awhile back. My bike was the monthly feature over at xs650chopper.com.

http://www.xs650chopper.com/2011/11/morgans-first-bike-budget-build/

Back In Black

...boring ass black.

Custom Frisco Mount

Super easy to make and custom fit for my tank and frame. Took nothing more than an angle grinder, 120v MIG, and a little scrap metal (like most of my parts).

Rebuild

In the midst of rebuilding my bike. Here's the big mods I've done recently:

Shaved and polished upper and lower triple trees and bars (which I made)




Lowered front forks 2.75"




Welded on a plate so I could mount my seat further back and tighter to the fender. Also made and mounted new bungs for
seat mounting out 7/8" solid round stock.








Mini sissy bar/struts. Bent it with nothing more than a vice and all the lead in my ass. It will sit about an inch or so above the fender.




Remounted original peg mounts and welded on a piece of 3/4" EMT tubing as a pivot for the rear brake.




Built a new box to house the battery and all wiring and components. Made it roomy enough to not run out of room and be able to stash tools in if I had to. This will mount below the seat ala Harley oil tank. Made it put of 14g sheet metal. It ain't perfect but it's heavy duty.







New license plate/tail light mount. Just a piece of 14g sheet metal hand hammered for the curve, with a couple tabs bent and welded toount directly to the frame.




Paint is next.

Big Trouble

I set up a blog for my band Big Trouble. Check it out here:

http://bigfuckingtrouble.blogspot.com

Bike Finished (for now)

Okay, the bike is done and running. Finally. Here's some pics of it all done (and a video), but I'll start it off with how it looked when I got it, plus right after I shaved off some weight, but still pre-chop.

Still plenty to do...

But I was able to ride it around the block.

Such Is Progress

Frame, battery and electric boxes, license plate bracket and seat pivot are painted and re-assembly has begun. As daunting as wiring is to people it's what I'm least intimidated by...I suppose being an electrician helps.

My secret to avoid getting overwhelmed (both in and out of bike building) is making lists. Now nearing the final push, I've upped the ante by putting it in order.





I'm almost as excited about getting this done so I can ride as I am getting it done so my garage isn't a disaster. It's like that episode of the Simpsons where Marge makes everyone clean and they walk into the kitchen exhausted and by the time the door swings back around it's already filthy again.








My wall of inspiration.

Final Mock Up

Today I finally finished (well...probably 99% of) the fab work for my bike. This is a big time budget build, and I'm stingy. I mocked it all up and took some pics before I start tearing it down for finish welding and paint before I start reassembling.

Here's a couple of the things on here:

-Pipes are homemade from the TC Bros XS650 kit (some ugly welds, but they'll be wrapped anyway)
-Bars are homemade out of GRC electrical conduit
-Found the headlight at a garage sale
-Got the grips and throttle on sale for $15
-Electronics/fake oil tank is made from a piece of 4" electrical conduit
-Battery box was made out of scrap metal
-Tail light and license plate bracket is made from scrap, which I shaped with a hammer around an empty welding tank - the tail light was $7 from autozone
-Mids are made out of a couple passenger pegs given to me, and I cut down the original peg brackets to re-mount
-Tank is a new peanut/sporty replica from eBay for $70
-Hardtail by TC Bros

Best tattoo?

I nabbed this from the Grimm Brothers MC blog. Possibly the best tattoo ever tattooed.

Exhaust Pipes

I just finished mocking up my pipes I built from the TC Bros kit. I think I like what I've done here. It's a little frankenstein-y, but they'll be wrapped anyway.

Second Mock Up

Frame welded, engine mounted, tank fitted, dummy bars, seat and fender just sitting.

Lachie Dancing

We bought a flipcam basically with the sole purpose of catching moments like this.

Handlebars

In an effort to keep practicing my welding skills I decided to do something with the pair of buckhorn style handlebars that originally came on my xs650.

Here's how they began life:




Here's now they look now:

First Mock Up

I just got my welder fixed via my buddy Timmy, and am finally at the point where I can begin the hardtailing process on my bike. I'm a novice welder at best, so my plan was to get it in place (it's a TC Bros hardtail), tack it, and then have someone with a TIG finish the welds since I'm not as confident in my welding yet.

Well, I got everything in place, did several tacks and did my first mock up this afternoon.





I was so high on the excitement of making progress with the bike (it's been sitting completely unassembled since late December) that I said fuck it, and started finishing the welding with my MIG. I think it went pretty well though. I got about 70% of all the welding done and began grinding late this afternoon.

The combination of the TCB hardtail and a peanut tank isn't the most original combination as far as Yamaha choppers go, but I'll be damned if it isn't beautiful simply because it's mine.

Canadiens