When we last left off, had my wheels off and ready to powdercoat and my tank needed to get the Frisco treatment. First stop: the land of 40oz, midgets and jackassery - Choppahead (oh, they build some pretty sweet bikes too). The CH dudes got some new digs, so I took the camera out for a few shots. Lots of cool builds going on, I’ll post more of those pics another time - but hit the read more link below for a few shots.
Between working on the Greasebag, my regular work schedule and family life I’m getting behind on reporting on the Sportster progress. A ton of progress has been made in the last week so this incomplete photo and brain dump will have to suffice to get things back on track. (Pic above is of the bike before this all began.)
(Hit read more for the full update)
March 25th, 2009 by grail21 in Projects, Home Built Motorcycles, '94 Sportster Project | Comments (10)
I went to go see Jay Roche aka Special ‘79 this weekend to get some handlebars made up for the Sporty. Expect a full write with tons of pics in a couple days, but suffice to say Jay is a wizard. Here’s a shot of the man in action.
I’m waiting for a bunch of parts to arrive, so the weekend wrench session was a bit uneventful. Top of of the list was fixing my seatpan cutting mishap. I cut the seat pan too short, but had a piece big enough to make everything work again.
JB Welded the 2 pieces together. With the amount of JB Weld I used, it might have been fine just like this. It was pretty solid, but I didn’t trust it. I was only using the JB as “glue” to make the fiberglass repair easier…
Read more…
Let’s get on with it shall we? This is where we last left off:
Click the read more for the full progress report
March 5th, 2009 by grail21 in Projects, Home Built Motorcycles, '94 Sportster Project | Comments (7)As I mentioned previously, one of the projects I was looking at getting into this year was a mid-to late 90s Sportster that I wanted to give the modern japanese / bratstyle treatment to. So a few weeks back I scored a ‘94 1200 for a reasonable number of greenbacks, and this past Sunday, I was finally able to tear into it….
I started with this - your typical bone stock Sportster 1200 with bolt on, catalog tomfoolery. Overall, not too bad - plenty of reusable / hack-worthy bits. Time to get to work.
Click read more to see the rest…
February 18th, 2009 by grail21 in KB News, Projects, Home Built Motorcycles, '94 Sportster Project | Comments (13)
I was flipping through my hard drive and stumbled on these pics of Dave (aka Tigman) that I totally forgot about. These were taken when Dave was welding on some brackets and other miscellaneous mounts to my Suzuki Savage chopper project. He was also was working on an oil tank for the Triumph chopper Chris built that he sold off earlier this year.
As always, I can’t say enough good things about Dave, especially when it comes to high quality welding work at a great price. Check out his website www.tanksbytigman.com and give him a call for any welding or metal work you may need.
I’ve been pretty bad about posting updates to the Suzuki Savage Chopper Project, but I have been working on it and slowly moving forward. I’ve still got a long laundry list of stuff to do, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The goal is to have it done in time A more complete update coming soon, once I get a nice weekend day where I can actually roll her out of the shed, but for now, here’s a quick run through of the 90 degree intake manifold I made up.
I ordered up a 1- 3/4″ OD j-bend mandrel tube from amazon.com of all places. $20, plus free shipping since I ordered some other stuff that brought my order over $25. This stuff is also available at most auto supply stores (autozone, pepboys, etc..) although it was special order at all the local ones, and a few bucks more, which is why I went with amazon. If you have a place near you that has a mandrel bender, you can get them to bend you up some pipe, but it needs to be a mandrel bend. Press bends will be more oval shaped at the top of the bend, which won’t work. Mandrel bends will retain the same shape throughout the bend. Anyway, moving on…
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Pics above:
1. Grabbed the pipe, threw it in the vise and took the sawzaw to it. One cut in the middle of the bend (yellow line) and then choppede up the straight part until I got the length I was looking for.
2. After the first cut
3. Finished piece inside the rubber mounting boot that attaches to the cylinder.
Now all I need to do is grab some radiator hose and clamps to attach the carb to the intake, and make a simple brace to support the carb so it’s not hanging free. Pretty easy and straightforward. I may change the bend to a 45 degree (instead of the 90) as the build progresses, but for now, this will work.
More thorough updates coming soon.
March 24th, 2008 by grail21 in How To, Projects | No Comments
The latest bit of progress on the Suzuki Savage Chopper…
After Dave finished up the welding I got the seat and tank mounted, axle adjusters in and the electronics tank & fender mocked in place. Had the exhaust mocked up for a bit too, but didn’t grab a shot of it. I tried to get some exhaust bends to make the intake manifold, but it was Sunday and only thing open was pep boys / autozone. What they had didn’t really fit what I was looking for, so I gotta hit up a real exhaust place, which should do the trick. Next up (after I get back from vacation) is fab’in up the brackets for the e-box & rear motor mount and getting that intake figured out.
Note on photo - the straps and ties I used to mock up the e-box and fender have been photoshopped out. The e-box cover is also photoshopped. Helps me visualize where things are going to go. I’m getting better at remembering to take photos as I do stuff so I can update this build log. Future posts should be a lot more detailed.
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I went down to see Dave (www.tanksbytigman.com) a few weekends ago to get some more welding done on the Suzuki Savage Chopper. Things are coming along nicely and as long as the coming weekends work in my favor, the bike should be done by spring. We got a bunch done in a short amount of time: seat posts and hinge, axle adjusters, gas tank mounts and moved the petcocks on the gas tank. Of course I filmed the whole thing, so be on the look out for the next video segment. I also took a few still pics that I’ll post from time to time, here’s one of Dave in action.
January 13th, 2008 by grail21 in Projects, Home Built Motorcycles | Comments (2)
Part 2 of the frame welding session down at Tanks by Tigman in Rockland MA on my Suzuki Savage Chopper project. Again many thanks to Dave for the excellent work and all his help. Check out his site at www.tanksbytigman.com and if you need any sort of welding work done, do not hesitate to get in touch with him, his work is top notch.
As an update on the project: The bike has been loosely assembled and the chain conversion has been done. Up next is some gas tank modification, rear fender cleaning and cutting and all the bracket welding.
November 19th, 2007 by grail21 in Spotlight, Projects, Video | Comments (9)
More pics and info to come, I’m just too tired right now – but too excited not to post something. I spent the day down with Dave aka Tanks By Tigman (www.tanksbytigman.com) and he fabricated and welded up the hardtail for my ‘87 Suzuki Savage Chopper Project. Here is a loose mock up. Not sure if I’m keeping that particular oil tank (to hide electronics) – I’m leaning towards replacing it.
We video taped the whole process and it will be going up on my site in a couple weeks. I’ll post a bunch more pictures soon, along with some more build info. I’m super psyched about this project, I couldn’t be happier with how the frame turned out – Dave did an absolutely AMAZING job. If you need some welding work done, make sure to get in touch with him – www.tanksbytigman.com
P.S. You can click on the pic above for a bigger view.
May 5th, 2007 by grail21 in Spotlight, Projects, Home Built Motorcycles | Comments (4)
It’s about time I post about my winter project. The pic above is of my 1987 Suzuki Savage right after Chris and I stripped it down to take to Tigman for the frame work. The basic plan is to have Tigman hardtail the frame, adding about six inches in the back, while raising the backbone a couple inches. The stripped down bar hopper look is what I’m going after. The mini apes you see on the bike are what I’m using for bars. The front end, front wheel and rear wheel are all going to remain stock. I’m going to do a chain conversion and that’s about all that is 100% as of right now.
Some ideas I got rolling around…. I got a couple tanks, but I’m not sure I’m going to use either of them, I’m thinking it will end up being a round-ish peanut/mustang tank of some sort. Probably a trailer fender on the back (cuz I got one already) although I’m thinking about possibly using a ribbed fender. Paint will come straight out of the spray can, although I’m going to try and get a little fancy with it, maybe a little metal sparkle, definitely two tone paint job. I might try to do a simplified French Kiss Kustoms rip off style paint scheme since I love what they do so much. Obviously what I’ll be able to accomplish in that arena (both because of my skill level and because I’m using spray cans) will be far removed from the sick paint they lay down, but a cheap bastard like me has to get his inspiration from some where. I’ll fab up a fake battery box to hold the electronics, solo spring seat, weld up an exhaust that will probably get covered in wrap and polish everything else up. Oh, a engine rebuild will also be in order. That’s the general idea at least, I’m sure things will change as they progress, and I’ll post about it as things move forward. This will absolutely be a low buck, low budget build, so I’ll be restrained by that a little bit, but not much. There is no reason that you can’t build a sick ass bike for short cash. That’s the deal man, stay tuned for more updates on this build.
November 21st, 2006 by grail21 in Spotlight, Projects | Comment (1)
