Kimjon

Fuck yeah, I've been a luckMC fanboy for a long time now. Just love their style. I saw one of their earlier bikes about 8 years ago now and saved it as inspiration. They've built a heap more cooler bikes since then, like the one above.

Haha, I'm not feeling the love for sight tubes eh. Moving right along, I cut the coil tab off, now that its relocated to another place. And gone: Much better! It really opens up that space. I've always thought my tank was just a touch too long, but by opening up this space by removing the coil bracket it changes the proportions and makes the tank appear a touch smaller. I love this look, with huge gap between tank and neck of frame. The Japanese are making some of the baddest bikes on the planet these days. I love their edgy style and ability to push the styling limits.

Just doing a bit of Google research on tank sight tubes that don't suck. Yeah, yeah..."blue and green should never be seen" (together). But both these bikes pull off a sight tube that looks okay. Still not ruling it out...

Yeah, I'm on the fence. I like the retro idea...but I'm not married to the idea yet. Will park it and see how I feel in a few weeks time. Moving on with other things that are within my control and don't cost money to do because I'm brokeass right now: Bending the kickstand, so it both leans the bike over more and tucks up higher when not deployed, for extra ground clearance. Its sitting tight now. Only about 3mm gap. Before it was about 15mm from hitting the drive belt cage. The tip has lifted up about 50mm from the ground. Calling it a win!

Toying with the idea of a sight tube, so I can see where my fuel level is at without having to run empty, or stop and look into the tank. I don't think I'd purposely ride past a gas station without stopping anyhow... 1340cc big cammed motor Vs tiny gas tank = stopping often. However having a visual of my fuel level can only be a good thing? Something like this (just mocked up with inappropriate parts for a daydreaming session). I'll give it some absorption time, and come back to it later if I still like the idea?

Thanks @Lord Gruntfuttock for the good advice. I kind of knew that I was pushing the limits with those short leads. I cut them down in stages trying to make them as short as possible...but was probably asking for trouble down the track going that short. And tadah! So I made some new ones out of my old impala HT leads. Thanks Mike, for leaving them with me after generously giving me a new set of leads a while ago... kind of cool these leads are now living a new recycled life on a harley...

Yes, I think they are an inch too short. Oh well...guess I'm going to get lots of practice making leads eh...

Short answer is yes, totally legal (will need cert obviously). And thanks, admittedly its dragging on a bit - progress wise. But it's a weird project in the fact I really don't need this bike, so I'm taking my time and enjoying the journey. I've always wanted to build one since seeing one in an easy rider magazine about 30 years ago... to be fair I was more into the naked girls within the covers of those magazines (pre internet days), however a rigid chopper caught me eye and I was in love! The single most important thing is the straight line from the bikes neck right back to the rear axle, this to me was what caught my eye all those years ago and makes these bikes what they are. The secondary things I like are the proportions. By playing with the amount of stretch in the frame, the amount of lift in the frame, the length of the forks, the gaps between seat, tank and neck, the size of the tank, the amount of rear fender you choose to keep...all those things drastically change the look. This is my all time favorite bike. The builder (Superco Custom, Trevelen Rabanal) pushes the proportions to the edge, but in my opinion has built a masterpiece. I've taken a lot of inspiration from this bike...but still trying to achieve my own vision too.

More inspiration shots: Things are falling into place. The progress is slow...but at least shits gettin done.

Bit more fab work done today. Getting down to the stuff you don't want to admit a motorcycle needs to run. All the ugly stuff that detracts from your previously clean lines. Oh well, its gotta have it...so may as well face up to it and get it done: Welding more brackets to other brackets, that were welded to yet another bracket? I drilled a few holes in it. One for function...the other for looks. Test fit. Then I made my own HT leads up. I'm pushing it...but I wanted them as short as possible. Just scraping in, definitely wouldn't want them any shorter. Booyah!!! It works.

If you're handy to the waikato you're welcome to use my mini lathe if you don't have access to one already.

Yes, 1:1 ratio motor to jackshaft, then clutch to axle/wheel. Sorry, I was assuming that you were doing that.

Yes, as long as gearing to jackshaft is 1:1 ratio. If that's the case it's no different. If gear ratio differs, then your engagement rpm will reflect the difference. It may still work fine, but something that you need to consider. I normally cut about 10mm of spring out on my lower powered drift trikes to raise the spring tension and in turn raise engagement rpm up for the clutch. This is similar to raising rpm on a car and then dumping the clutch = faster take off and wheel spin goodness.

Is your temp gauge reliable? My LT1 motor into a VN commodore conversion had massive overheating issues, I did everything you could think of and couldn't solve the problem... Then out of desperation I purchased a cheap temp gauge from repco and hooked it up. Yeah...turns out I was trying to solve a problem that didn't exist. It was the original temp gauge that was the problem.

Improvements made to bracket. Looked "a little heavy" for my liking...so off to Jenny Craig's she goes! Nice hole, with a cheeky peek up her skirt. Rounded all the corners with a generous radius. Ready for paint now. Much happier with its appearance. If something is ugly, it's best to not draw attention towards it, so by doing these extra steps hopefully it'll become less visible and go unnoticed.

A small package with lots of mandarin writing on it that I can't read arrived today. I get pretty dam excited by these, it's like Christmas everytime...as I've usually long forgotten what it could be inside, so its always a fun surprise opening them up. Ah yes, I remember...a choke cable. No, not the one my wife ordered from the 50 shades catalog (we're still waiting on that one), a choke cable for the harley. Looks easy enough to install, I'll just unbolt the old fucked one and put it back together with the new replacement as it's a direct factory part eh? Ummmm no...no I won't...cunts!!!! Someone in china decided that they'd mix imperial and metric. To be fair Harley's already are, been a mix of American and Japanese parts as is. But then the Chinese get involved in the aftermarket parts world and fuck with it again. Yup, wont fit. My engine steady/choke mount is 5/16UNC in size. The part supplied is M10x1.0!!!! WTF???? Who makes a M10x1.0 bolt for a non specific application??? No one in their right fucking mind is the answer. This isn't the be all in tap and die sets, but its fairly comprehensive. Nope, no M10x1.0 in here, nor in my other 2 tap sets either. So fuck it...drilling it out and getting rid of the thread altogether. I looked at it and thought "hmmm, why does it even matter", it's got a collar on one side and I can use the nut supplied on the other side...then drilled the fucker out to 10mm. And it works perfectly. So problem averted.

My exhaust had a terrible bracket on it that sucked! My OCD couldn't handle the fact that the two pipes weren't parallel. Over a 400mm section where they run along side each other, the gap was out by 10mm from front to back. I saw this as an opportunity to fix two problems. 1) make it look right to the eye 2) raise the lower pipe by 15mm and the upper pipe by 5mm. This will really help with ground clearance, maybe not completely solve it...but certainly won't hurt. So: Marking out, lifting the holes by 10mm. And looking at the pipes for nice sweeping parallel lines. Success!!! So, lower pipe is now 15mm higher than before, with nice clearance around all the bits you don't want a hot exhaust touching. Happy as fuck! I'm probably going to cut the lower pipe mid span and shorten it by about 40mm to bring it inline with the upper pipe and my frame angle where it heads up to meet the axle. But that can wait for another day.

Fuck yes! The pcv valve solved so many problems. 1) oil leak from rear of engine, where old road draft tube was = gone! 2) Stinky engine smell that permeates the cabin = gone! 3) heat sink to carburetor issues causing fuel evaporation = gone! Well my 20km return trip with 4 stop/starts didn't have any issues, so maybe prematurely judging this one...but I'm calling it a win. I ended up blocking the road draft tube hole and using a more traditional setup out the valve cover. Main reason was due to oil separation. Someone removed the can inside the valley that separated oil from gases prior to exiting the road draft tube. They did this to fit the edelbrock manifold. If I used this port without the separator I'd suck shit tons of oil out this port and into my carburetor. So I went to the rocker cover, as it has a splash guard in place already for this purpose. Makes you wonder why modern cars don't use a pcv valve system...oh, hang on...

Made this today, I'm testing out a potential offset option. Only way to see if my idea is heading in the right direction is to mock up a wheel with this to check clearance. And offered up to the rear hub Boom! Like a glove!!! Theres still 10 plus turns of thread engagement on the wheel studs, so pretty happy with that.

Okay, after literally hours of interweb reading I'm slowly becoming more enlightened. The penny dropped when I discovered that there are 2 ways/types of pcv valve, both ways essentially achieve the same thing. 1) a tapered shaft, which restricts flow at high vaccum and allows more air to pass at low vaccum. 2) an upper and lower seat, does same as above. So at high rpm, low vaccum the valve flows heaps. At low rpm, high vaccum the flow is severely restricted. Which brings me to size? I hear it really does matter...well that's what my wife says. But how big??? If it was fuel injected the extra air fluctuations are accounted for by the maf, but for carburetor engines this isn't possible. So I'm guessing the sizing is pretty important? You wouldn't want a mini cooper pcv on a dodge hellcat for example... So more interweb geeking out to come...

Picked up a couple carburetor spacers at kumeu. I've decided to use this one (below). No real reason...but I just like the secondhand one better, it feels solid, with nicer finish and just looks better made to me. I brought a nipple to go into it. Marked out. Drilling it so I breakout the centre of the 2 first holes. My manifold is edelbrock dual plane, so I've drilled and ported so both sides/planes will get the shittyness of the blow-by fumes equally. I used liquid epoxy (cold weld) to seal the 3/8" ID hose to 1/4 BSPT fitting to avoid vaccum leaks. That liquid epoxy is magic stuff, its fuel resistant and I've sealed fittings into petrol tanks and 20 years later not a single leak.

Need an inline pcv and an air filter 1/2" lower to avoid potential issues with rubbing. But this is the plan for my vaccum source for the pcv.

Soooo... Turned the tig up to "eleventy" and gave it some jandal!!! I ran it over all the mig welds and melted them into the parent metal hard core. Then used a heap of filler to create a 45° web in the highest stress points. I'll smooth the corner fillet weld a touch more with some sandpaper or flap disc (wont need much) and call it done, then send it out for chrome. Actually really happy with it now.

I suspect it brakes in the sharp bend. I was toying with the idea of backing it up with a fillet weld, so this is convenient timing talking about possible cracking issues...so I will do that now as cheap insurance.

How did they fail? Did they crack along a stress line? How did you remedy it? Keen to hear about your situation and how you solved it. I was going to lathe up some round plugs and bend some round bar kind of like this: But by the time I found somewhere for the choke to go, it seemed a waste of time. I may still go down this route, but I'm obsessing over small stuff that really doesn't matter.