Day Dreaming?

     One of the truly great things about doing a bike build is you can change direction at anytime.   It is also interesting how much time you spend sitting and staring at the bike.  Day dreaming about what if?  What if I shorten the forks and drop the front end?  What if I switch wheels?  What if I go with this design aesthetic?  Do I value rideability or appearance more?  How much money have I spent already?  If I don't like the way the bike feels when I am finished what will be easier to sell and move on, a red bike or a black bike?    Will I ever be finished?  Probably not!   Ok, when do I reach a stopping point and how will I know?   Ok, now I hear Whitney Houston in my head, "How will I know?"  You will too for the rest of the day.  Hah!  Sucked you right in to that one, didn't I?  

       It can make you a little dysfunctional and unproductive in other aspects of your life.  It is always in the back of your mind, "How about this?  What if?"  I am still waffling back and forth on the wheels and on chain drive verses belt drive.  Someone pointed out the other day that chain drive is much easier to fix in a pinch than belt drive.  The only real draw backs are maintenance and the greasy dirty mess.  I could use both sets of wheels with a chain drive.  I could have a set of cruiser wheels for commuting and riding around town and a set of sport wheels with tires that are quicker side to side for the mountains!  Now we are talking.  Maybe an 18 tooth front and a 52 rear, we will have to explore this a little further.  I think I can do this with the addition of a front sprocket, a chain and an additional 52 sprocket for the GS450 rear wheel.  HMMMM?

      Cast wheels on bike with tubeless Kenda K671's, these may have just bought themselves a second life.  I was planning to try and move them, maybe not.  Maybe I'm not married to the belt drive idea after all.

 

 

    See how this works, you can go just about anywhere with this.  Anyway here are my updates.  

 

I have installed the clubman bars and bar end mirrors. 

     

 

 

      The fabricator I was using is having a hard time getting to my seat sub frame.  I could wait but I get a little impatient some times.  Below is a motorized tubing bender I have for bending awning frames.  Tight radius's like I had in mind are not possible but small changes are.

 

Just looking at these photos I think I will put an additional bend in the rear part of these and maybe a slight upward turn as well.  I plan to mount this frame to the holes in the top of the frame tubes.  I have done very little cutting to the frame so far.  The tabs for the belt guard had to be removed but other than that we are stock.

 

 

 Rear turn signals.

 

 I had almost given up on using the original seat pan but this has given me a little hope that there may be a level of comfort as well in my future.  The cafe seats usually don't look very comfortable.  My normal rides are in the 150 to 200 mile range.  I will have to come up with a cradle similar to the original frame configuration to mount on top of the sub frame.

 

 More photos and design renderings below.

 

That does look pretty good. 

 

    
I have ordered some parts and waiting for them to arrive, some are on back order.  The list is below:

Air intake filter

Crank case breather filter

Muffler

Grips

Oil filter

Rear brake shoes

Fork seals

Brake light

Brake light actuator cable. OEM part.

 

 I have been putting some thought into selling some of the parts I have removed.  Some of them where in pretty good condition and positive cash flow is a good thing.  It has all been negative so far.   I put them in a spread sheet the other day and looked up retail value and it came out to be about $3600.  The used market will usually bear about 15 to 20 percent of that for good parts, that would be somewhere between 5 to 7 hundred dollars.  I need to get on the stick and get the parts washer up and running.   There just aren't enough hours in the day to think and plan.  My plans are getting bigger!