Kimjon

I have that same led stop/indicating light strip and was wondering if it's okay for wofs in nz? I haven't fitted it yet because I have doubts...but keen to hear if it's okay?

I've seen some hard out riders in nz, a dude the other day was doing stand up burnouts down Greenwood street in Hamilton, on his Harley... middle of the day, wildly crossing both lanes and passing cars while smoking the tyres for hundreds of meters up the road! Moments like that I wish I had an SD card in my eyes so I could download it and share it with other people. This dude (YouTube below) gives zero fucks too and shows that often it's more about the rider than the bike. Though I'm sure he could do it even faster on an R1. He's probably dead by now, but fuck he showed commitment!

Fucking around with my exhausts. They are the lowest part of my bike, so I trimmed as much off as possible without ruining the ceramic coated heat shields. The bit sticking out the lower pipe (marked by vivid line in photo above) is now gone. I then measured how much the bike could lean before touching and its approaching 30° from vertical. Doesn't sound much, but then I Google searched a few images and noticed something. This superbike is hard out cornering with a knee down, but the bike itself is probably 45° max from vertical, maybe not even that much? So 30° doesn't seem too bad for a cruiser. But when I do my final assembly I'll look at it again and may get a bit more aggressive with the angle grinder if need be.

Thanks @cletus that's what I thought, but didn't want to be true. I'll machine up a spacer between the carb and manifold and put a hose barb in it to provide the vaccum required. This is an opportunity to make a plastic spacer to help with a slight fuel evaporation issue I have. So maybe kill two birds with one stone.

I put this outrigger on. I think for certification I need to guard the belt drive? Then, I rolled it outside and it stood for the first time in its life on it's own. As a father of 3, I can say that this emotional experience far eclipsed watching my own kids takes their first steps. So close, yet so far away for starting it up.

Is it okay to run the exit end to the air filter above the carburetor? Or do I need to find a port below the carburetor? My air filter has a convenient hole in the bottom lid already that I'd like to use.

Same boat as you. I have knowledge, but no understanding. There's a couple systems. Race car = catch the oil, passively vent the gas through the breather. Or road car; from what I know, at high rpm engines dont make inlet vaccum anymore, so in turn at high rpm the pcv valve stops working, as theres no sucky sucky...so the breather on the catch can, then takes care of this by providing an escape route for the gases to go. At low to mid rpm range like 90% of road cars will drive in, the inlet vaccum will suck these gases through and burn them in the motor, this passage is through the pcv valve. Pcv valves are just one way valves, so flow is restricted in one direction only, it can't go backwards like an open pipe. But yeah, knowing how shit work versus actually having done it are two different things. I've never had to do it...so you're reading the ramblings of a moron.

My vaccum line on the carb is already in use, so I'm struggling to see an obvious place to plumb the pcv valve. If I ran the exit line out the downdraft hole, through the catch can, the to the air filter above the carb with a pcv inline between catch can and air filter...would this do? I'll try sketch it and add a photo to this soon.

The brass plate is an original feature left behind from the cars illustrious past. It was a government owned vehicle, used as a dignitarys car. They were manufactured in Canada, exported to New Zealand as parts, and assembled in either Thames or Wellington. Well that's what I've been told by an enthusiast. The factory righthand drive was a huge appeal to me. Left hook is okay, but righthand drive is just so much better.

This is what was floating around the valley of my motor: The 3x little chunks were lose inside the valley under the inlet manifold. The larger "seal" was just flopping around on top, in the hole pictured in the above post. No wonder it was leaking oil eh! This part will replace all that shittyness. Its held down by a through bolt (this isn't the bolt I'll actually use, so stand down internet warriors). There's already a threaded hole for it in the block, left from the origonal down draft tube that's supposed to be there...very convenient, so that's what it will bolt down on and then the o-ring creates the seal.

Just brought this. Did a bit of Google searching and it looks like it's going to do the job. I'll install my machined fitting into this hole, by the distributor. There was a "down draft tube" here on the original motor, basically the predecessor to a PCV system. It was a simple tube that runs back and exits out by the transmission to atmosphere (aka dumps oil on the road, drive, shed floor). As you drive air rushing past creates a venturi effect and sucks out blow by gases and any oil mist. My motor had the down draft tube cut and bent around for clearance purposes on the firewall. The seal has fallen to bits and it wasn't connected to anything, so blow by was exiting here and causing an annoying oil drip. The catch can will collect and separate the oil, and vent the gasses.

Machining. More machining.. WTF??? You crazy cunt, it's in sideways!!! Oh, not so crazy after all. Pretty... Mmmmm PCV valve goodness. Just going my part for the environment (like I'd really lose sleep over fake news like man made climate change). I'm just sick of it leaking oil on my shed floor. Just gotta hook up a catch can or route it into my intake vaccum to get rid of my crankcase vapour and problem solved.

Clutch sorted Note the holes drilled in it, this is to lighten the arms and in turn raise the stall/engagement rpm. This makes a world of difference in acceleration and driveability. And before and after of spark plug boot.

Squish is a shade loose at 0.82mm Tested with solder. I only turned the motor over for one stroke, so possibly a bit of spring back in this measurement? If I pulled it over a couple times I may get closer to the 0.7mm I was hoping for? But it's so close that I can't be fucked changing it right now. At 0.82mm it's still going to be awesome, and it wont brake shit like pull start cords etc like my last one does (with insane compression). I can also use pump gas without detonating. So maybe a mildly conservative (conservative is a relative term, like saying a 2JZ "is only running 32psi boost or something like that") squish band setting isn't a bad thing? I'm pretty confident that if I tested it again and pulled the motor over a few times it would further squish the solder closer to the 0.7mm, so I actually think that's more likely the number than my half-arsed test. The main thing I've confirmed is that the piston has clearance to actually rotate and not strike the head, plus the squish is a lot tighter than factory 1.5mm, so I'm happy.

Got home and found an aliexpress package...best day ever! My woodruff keys arrived, so no fucking around...lets get some shit finished! Okay, not so awesome. Problems... The flywheel I'm using is supposed to convert it to easy pull start by shifting the leverage outward, thus increasing torque on the pull start. This certainly works...but there's not enough clearance to simply bolt on the pull start. This is how much clearance I need, so I'll space it with washers "for now, cough cough". And make a proper aluminum spacer plate for it later. #shitthatwillneverhappen #washersforlifemofos Makes me wonder how normal customers get on with this type of purchase. Not everyone buying cheap parts of ebay or Amazon etc have access to a lathe or milling machine to then make said cheap parts actually fit. Then a bit of clutch bell restoration. I've put it all back together and it's now ready to start.

Nowhere near enough to even remotely trouble it. They're 1340cc capacity and an unimpressive 70hp stock. The low hp figure is because they only rev about the same as a small block chevy, so say around 5700rpm if it was screaming Vs sportbike 18000rpm. My motor has been freshly rebuild with an Andrew's camshaft and all new parts etc...it will put out a little more than that, but it's no hayabusa for sure.

My parents asked if I could build them a shade house. Sure...no problem. Think my parents are planning on growing dope to fund their retirement? (***this may or may not be true***) Makes good use of a wasted space (sloping ground above septic system). May not tick council boxes for step backs from boundary, but I'm sure they have bigger issues to worry about than chasing someone whose nearly 80 years old. They're going to wrap it in shade cloth in their own time, so think my job is done.

This is a job I've been putting off for a longtime. The pulleys didn't align correctly. Theres a 4.8mm difference between front and rear. Hmmm...yadda, yadda, yadda...something about using shims and a stator washer...yadda, yadda, yadda...blah, blah, blah. Instructions weren't a lot of use. What fucking shims? What fucking washers other than those already normally used on the motor??? Certainly would be helpful if they supplied these parts if you need them to make their kit work, one would think? But alas nothing like that came with it. However, as I've mentioned before; no problems just solutions... And test fitting after much time spent machining this up... Fuck yeah, like a glove!

Okay, some days I actually struggle to take myself seriously. All of the above justification was complete bullshit...of course it not been centred annoyed me. I was totally lying to myself, in the same way a teenage girl heading away to university says to her boyfriend that she wants an open relationship and be able to date other guys - but everything is going to work out fine between us. Or your wife tells you that her Google search history of huge black Congolese cock is because she has an interest in anthropology. Anyways I digress. OCD is strong in me, and it just didn't sit well...literally! So fuck it, I faced up to myself and made it again, but different. Marking out. Finished bracket, sandblasted to match motor cases. Sitting in the center of frame. View from afar. Looks more in balance now, with it centre of frame tubes. Much happier now, I can actually look at myself in the mirror and finally take myself seriously again...thew!

My OCD kicked in and I was about to make another bracket. But then looking at how the motor sits in the frame from above, it's not like that's centred. It also looks like a lot of free space on the bikes RHS however there are brake and clutch lines yet to go in there...so maybe that space might come in handy. So talked myself into leaving it for now.

Regulators, bit of a headache. I have a 23amp stator and a 32 amp rotor. I brought a 32 amp regulator...but the pins are wrong size. So I brought another one in 23amp...which fits. My understanding (elec-trickery isn't strong point), is that the rotor is just a magnet and isn't going to affect the stator adversely and cause it to make more power. Plus if the demand is low, the system wont be making anywhere near 23amps anyways? So assuming thus to be true, I'm pushing onwards... 32amp, wrong pin size. Making bracket for 23amp regulator. I put a hook in the bracket for wiring to clear. And all done. I'll give it some saturation time for it to grow on me. I hate that it's not centred...however neither is the crankcase of this motor. In fact the entire motor is way off centre...so maybe it really doesn't matter? I can offset the bracket to force it to the centre if it really does fuck me off, but for now I'm not sure how much of an issue it is. Put it this way, I'm not in love with it...but I don't hate it either.

Jiffy-stand or kickstand; depends on what school you went too? Call it whatever you want...it doesn't change the fact they are an essential item on a bike. Now, the shitty thing is that Harley never made it to work on my one off custom bike I've made, that they don't know exists. Further more the shellfish engineers at Harley never designed their bikes with open primary drives like I've added to mine. So using factory Harley parts on a non factory bike "just ain't gonna work!" No surprises there. A look on Google didn't reveal any great solutions. Sure TC bros make a weld on stand, as do others...but if you take time to read a review or two, (unlike the headline only reading generation we seem to be breading) the people who actually have one of these dont rate them highly, saying not to park facing downhill the stand will fold back on itself very quickly and you're going to be picking your bike up off the sidewalk. The factory jiffy stand mechanically locks on a pivoting cam lock mechanism when the weight of the bike is on it, which is genius! Sure you don't want to really park any bike facing downhill...but with a factory original you can get away with less than ideal situations. So, the problem: The stand hits the primary belt drive. Easy - cut it off so it doesn't? Nope...that solves one problem and reveals another. The stand then dissapeared under the belt. The belt is direct drive to the motor...so its alway turning if the motor is running...aka "meat grinder" I had a sportster harley kickstand that took a hit for the team. Bit of metal hot glue action. If it all works out I'll get it chromed. Next issue, the stands locating lug wasn't working as it should. The stand could go past centre and fold back on itself. I needed to make a different design to factory to solve my first issue of the stand disappearing under the belt and the stand not really stopping where it should. This did the trick. Black one is factory part, new one installed is my new and improved version. The position shown above is folded back in the riding position. You can see I've added another lug/stop that limits the amount it can fold back, this keeps the tip of the foot hanging out enough so you can (funnily enough) kick it out, safely without putting your body parts too close to the "meat grinder"! You can see the tab just sticking out enough to get your foot safely on it with jandels??? Weirdly it's not in the way, as the riding position with the seat located way back forces you to put you feet behind and outward from the kickstand when balancing the bike in a sitting position. This wasn't intended...but I'll take dumb luck like this anyday. I'll leave it like that for now, and if need be I'll tweak it for extra ground clearance if its required...though I doubt it, as its hardly the type of bike you'll be dropping a knee on the ground during corners eh. The stand has about 30mm of upwards movement, so if it did ever touch...you'd hear it and still have a factor of safety of 30mm which is like 200mm of lean at handlebar height. So yeah, a fucking very long story about a simple kickstand...but its these shitty little problems that often take the most thought and effort to solve.

Needs dark stain and add angle iron to the corners to tidy up those edges...then call it done. Like this...but imagine both corners floor to ceiling. I don't have any on hand, so need to wait until shops open maybe in a weeks time? The dark stain will make it all tie in, should really pop with the contrast and imperfections etc...

Trying to make a timber feature wall. I brought 100 fence pailings (100×25×1000mm in size) at $0.85 each, some black thermo paper at $32 and that's about it really. I cut the gib at the cornice so I wouldn't have to redo them. This created a 20mm gap (10mm cornice, 10mm gib). This allows me to buzz the top boards down to 20mm so it doesn't look silly where it meets at the top. I thought about this problem obsessively until coming up with this as a solution. Fucking stoked with how this part turned out, as it would have looked ridiculous if it didn't do this step. I put black paper on the wall so if the boards shrink, the gaps will be black behind. also added more studs, so I could be a bit random with board placement. I didn't want it to look like bricks...all neatly stacked. I was more after a random rustic look. I ran each board over my 10" planner/buzzer to tidy up the surfaces. I did each board a different number of strokes varying the thickness of each board, once again to make it more random looking. I'll finish the corners in angle iron. The timber will be stained a dark colour. Then next is to make a new bed frame to try move my life out of the 1990's...