Take me where the trail leads.

     I had a little bit of a revelation today.  I have been trying to figure out how I can measure the actual trail on the front end of my bike instead of estimating it.  I was back in the shop and saw two Lazar levels I use to align work on the screen printing press from time to time.  They have magnets on them, the bike is metal. I can project the lines I have been drawing on the computer on the floor.  On a yard stick even better!

 

Aligning the Lazar with the head tube angle.

 

Cool!

 

 

And we have?

 

5 inches?  Based on my earlier research and drawings not what I had expected.  Not even close.  Can you hear the wind dropping out of my sails?  Dead silence.  It's not gonna be a sport bike. 
   I have intentionally not mentioned this before but I am a BMW guy, a sport touring type of rider. My other bike is a R1100RT, the trail on my RT is 4.80 inches and it is a perfect blend for the Super Slab and the twisties. The RT is a great bike but it sort of insulates you from the feel of a more pure basic motorcycle. That is what attracted me to this project, the raw wind in your face hunched over feel of a simpler more basic bike. Something I can ride everyday back and forth to work and have a connection to because I made it what it is. I don't want the same bike everybody else has and I guess that is why I choose not to go with the kit. That and I am kind of a cheap SOB too. (I know that and BMW have no correlation whatsoever.) That choice has made this project become much more cathartic than I expected. Every change I make every decision shows a little bit of who I am, doing things because I like it and not because everybody else did it that way. Every discovery I make about the bike tells me who it is.   Finding a balance between what it was and what I want it to be.  Finding the soul of this bike and where it bonds with mine and who I am.  I mentioned finding a stopping point in the last post I think I have my answer.  Where do I bond with this bike.
   Looking at photos of this bike I have tried to figure out what it reminded me of and realized it was the Ducati Diavel. A Sport Cruiser!   Well in all honesty it has similar geometry, a similar stance so to speak. My bike will never be mistaken for a Diavel nor will it cause grown men to gasp when they see it, snicker maybe, gasp never.  The Diavel's MSRP is between $17,500 and $26,500. The Lycan is going to come in somewhere south of $2500.  What do you know, grown men are gasping, well some are, some are still snickering I feel sure.

 

 

I feel another test ride coming on!  With different expectations.