Duke Blackwood

A word of caution, a mate of mine told me a mate of his mate was working on an inner sprung hub with no idea what he was doing and when he opened it up it exploded him. He's dead.

So if you open it up don't do it over nice carpet.

Also this thing rules and so does your shed.

Pics speak for themselves, I could have done it tidier, but I'm happy it didn't explode!

She's gone chaps, I got a good deal for it, but it will be sorely missed. I don't know what I'll replace it with, budget is about $4k. I'm thinking either a Suzuki Intruder or Aprillia RS250...

It was a fine day in Tumbleweed yesterday, spent some time in the shed working on my GB's booty...

Stripped off the factory crap and then threw together some simple brackets to mount my new lamps and plate (& installed bar end mirrors)

All the brackets are adjustable to accomodate two different size seats and visibility for warrants (The tail light reccesses to just a glow from beneath the seat) the space on the bracket beneath the plate is for the all so important rear reflector.

That light was only $9 from eBay. The second hole in the bracket is so it can reach out when I put the larger passenger seat on.

It looks better, but still a bit rough, any ideas how I can clean it up or improve it? The other seat is 'deeper' so the sides come lower and conceal those rear frame rails better. Once the tail is done i'll do my front indicators and then i'll book in a day with Brother Blackwood and his fancy new welder and we'll make it noisy...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=583038313

The bike in question has forks, wheels, shocks, tank & guards all from a different model bike, as well as a custom made swing arm... Just to thicken the plot. Somewhat scratch built... ?

Advertised in for sale section

Oh and for those of you observant enough to notice the dent in the mini door in the second pic, that's where my GB bounced off it after the mrs decided she'd reshuffle the shed... My Japanese plastic barnstormed her English steel haha

Maybe $9k? It's immaculate, under 20,000ks. It'll come with wof and 6 months reg, like buying a new bike!

I don't wanna sell it, but I've been laid off and the mrs mini needs replacing it's for sale too...

And anglia4 it's here to ride whenever you'd like!

I ditched the screen and pack rack for the club X kick start rally, there was some cool shit there, norton commandos, BSAs, rocket 3s, bonnes and a 1935 triumph single

It looks way better, gonna asshole the risers too.

This bike may be for sale if anyone's interested...

It's on Trademe ATM, but I call dibs haha

Yeah I cruised in and asked this morning but the actual bike cert guy is shared amongst a bunch of businesses I think (like all the vtnz and AA branches) and he spreads himself pretty thin, wasn't available for advice.... I was directed to the awesome user friendly ltnz website

Howdy chaps, I'm thinking of getting another two wheeled project humming and I'm wondering, how do you go about putting a highly modified dirt bike on the road legit? It's never been registered, was never intended for the road, so where do you start? Do you have to get a low volume cert for the mods or can you call it a scratch built and just rock up for the entry cert?

The bike I'm looking at is a yamaha tt500 with slicks and sport bike forks. I just wanna throw some lights on it and do wheelies...

This bike is fuckin' awesome! I never thought it would turn out this cool! Have you got any idea how much those springs will affect your ability to get warrants? This bike looks like it would suit modern sticky sports tyres and a bright race inspired colour scheme, single cylinder performance YE-YAH

This is gonna be sooo cool! Do you have a plan for the front guard? Will you paint the wheels? This would be one of the faster projects on oldschool too wouldn't it...?

Your bike is definetly faster, but the GB is more nimble than your old Waka even with it's Battle tread. I know it's the internet but you can't just lie haha.

We need to get more people in New Plymouth riding Cafe Racers, it's not fair that we have all this fun to ourselves!

Captain Kirk, I'm very interested in a man rebulding CDI's in Whenuapie, if you have any contact details for this dude i'd love to get hold of him.

The GB has been released from the Blackwood stable and is now terrorising the small town of Tumbleweed (Home of Duke Blackwood) and the CM is still banned from Dad's shed because it stinks of rotten fuel and is an explosion risk, so I have to work on it outside haha.

Also, white header wrap is kinda gay, and now born loser is gay! Somebody better say something straight soon or we're all in trouble.
What is it to 'pine'? How would one know of he was experiencing a pine?

Boys, you are ALL right haha I'm gonna keep frame dimensions and those delightful air filter covers. All I plan to do is get some new mufflers (very open, I dunno what style, maybe dunstalls?) a second seat with a bubble tail, lower bars, diff mirrors, remove clutter MAYBE paint.

It needs changing a little, the guy I got it off lived in a rest home, legitimately. He was getting rid of it because it upset his hip! The silly old coot must have been 69+ and when I offered him a test ride on the Shadow he goes "I don't need to test ride bikes, I'm in the Ulysses club and my bro in law is sergeant at arms for the headhunters so if there are any issues I'll just get my buddies to sort it out"

At the time I laughed it off like "huh, this silly old cunt thinks he's all 'sons of anarchy" but in hindsight I should have told him to go choke on a cock, threatening me with gang violence?! Me! Duke Blackwood!

Anyway if I've still got it in 50,000ks... It'll get cut up then haha

Dude, I freakin love this bike. That tank, paint and seat combo is fantastic! I rode my GB for the first time with no front guard today, those front guards actually do something eh. We'll definetly be swerving to avoid dog shit. Keep up the good work.

Possible

Gentleman, this is how much motorcycle two dozen Heinekin's can buy...

The CM 'Twinstar' has a single carb and is the ancestor of the Honda Rebel line. It was available in a 450 big block model as well. It sold alongside the Honda CD which was a much cooler looking more vintage styled bike.

It's not running at this stage, it has weak spark, not enough to fire. I think it is a CDI issue but a new one is $200!

I'll put more effort into it once I've finished the GB400 but I am planning to do some cosmetic work.

I'm going to have a crack at modifying the tank tomorrow 'cos it's fuck ugly. My plan is to cut off the sides and reverse them, but only along the back half of the tank making knee indents. I'm not sure if this will look cool or not but the tank is full of shit, a decade of rotten fuel and some Fertan that I put in there.

Potential...

Anyway, i'm after styling ideas. I think i'll do a seat like Chris's Honda CB350 and just cut the mufflers off and call it a day. Maybe flat bars and a vintage paint job too. Parallel twins rule!

Took the GB for a blat today with Anglia4… I might not sell it! It’s so much fun to ride; perilously slow, fantastic handling and shit brakes! It was awesome fun, we were genuinely Café Racing and my license was safe because I top out at 110kmh haha (post a pic bro)

I have delayed making this post for as long as possible because I have been MAD at my little GB.

I had the bike running and road legal before the Bikes, Blues & Hot cars show which would showcase the results of the half-assed biker build off Anglia4 and I were participating in. It took so much work and money just to get my bike road legal that it was still slmost completely standard.

Anglia4's bike was looking awesome but even on the morning of the show it was in a thousand pieces after being painted. I was riding the GB to Anglia4's place early on the morning of the show to help him assemble his bike. This was only about the third time i'd ever ridden the GB and I was loving it. The bike was developing funny quirks the further I rode and I realised something was not right. The horn stopped working and the headlight, then the guage backlights and the gaues themselves. By the time I arrived, functioing the indicators or brake lights caused a drop in revs which would nearly stall the bike. The GB had a charging issue which later turned out to be a fucked alternator. I could not repair it in time for the show ad had to take my Shadow 750 American Classic instead.

I am lucky to have a 2nd bike to fall back on and I was glad that Anglia4's CB pulled it together for a fun day's ride, but the GB broke my heart.

I let it sit for a month or so while I sulked and worked on other projects but then I got stuck in. I bought a spare engine and robbed it's alternator. The bike's now running, but I still haven't ridden it as I had the entire rear end stripped off for customisation. I made mini indicator brackets, a side mount number plate bracket, an aftermarket tail light, ditched the guard and grab rail and I'm now ready to re-assemble...

But plans have changed, I advertised My Shadow American Classic for sale and a guy offered to trade a Kawasaki W650 with a bit of cash his way. I accepted. The W650 will satisfy my need for a slow vintage styled bike and wont be the money hole that the GB has turned into. So, with only the fun jobs left to do and $1,000 of aftermarket parts which I now have nothing to do with... I think I'm going to sell my GB. I'll take a huge loss on it after all the money I spent vinning ($700) and rebuilding the brakes ($800), fabricating custom made swingarm bushings ($250) and getting two top of the line spanking new tyres ($500). I'll sell it with the spare engine but I think I'll keep all my aftermarket parts for other bikes and sell custom parts separately (Like my refurbished seat pan).

If anybody is interested in the bike feel free to enquire, I've only started thinking about this today so i'm not set on a price yet, maybe $2,500? I'll make parts available too once I've decided what i'm going to keep.

I'm sorry we might not get to see this bike finished on OS, I'm dissapointed too but it wouldn't be sensible to keep it. You can look forward to two new projects coming out of the Blackwood Stable soon... Pics to come.

Hey Goat that tail is looking awesome! But if you decide to go for the one piece leather look there's a place in Napier called Kimber Charmans Motor Trimmers and they'll make anything on your original seatpan. They're really affordable and you can just send the dude a photo of how you'd like it to look and he'll make it happen. They can put decals on it and stuff too, here's the double seat I've just had done for my GB.

But it is always better to build it than to buy it, cool bike man.

Is that front tire on backwards?

Nope, I checked too. It looks wrong eh, like I say, next time i'll just use a rear.

Everyone at the workshop was like "No, no you can't put that on, oh, you're wrecking your bike!" but you should see it in person, it looks mean!

And it's only good for 120kmh at the mo, how well does it need to handle? haha.

Hey I might have to get you to take this in for it's recheck for me...