Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A little rest and reasearchation!

     I have been a little lax of late on my post.   The sudden death of a friend, heavy rain the day of the memorial service that caused a large tree to fall across my driveway, and a trip to the beach have resulted in little time to work on the bike.  There has been some progress but waiting on parts to arrive and trying to resource parts can be time consuming and not very exciting to blog about.   Even less exciting is looking at the mounting cost.  The total expenditure so far is in the $1600 range.  Really not that bad if you look at the bikes I looked at this weekend. 
     There was one 1973 Triumph Bonneville for sale with an asking price of $4750.  Cosmetically it was what I would call average.  There were some really nice bikes that it was obvious that somebody had put a lot of work and money into.  The majority of the bikes I looked at had little more done to them than a seat cowl and a set of clubman bars.  It made me feel pretty good about the work I have done on my bike.  One of the vendors I was talking to said most people just can't do what you are doing. I don't know if he was stroking me a little but it made me feel good anyway.  
 
 
 
Triumph 
 
 
BSA


 
Norton

 
Eye Candy!

 
BSA

 
Benelli Tornado 650

 
Rickman Metisse

 
Really nice ride.  Trailer Queen though.
 
 
It inspired me though and I picked up an exhaust there as well.  The bike is in ride able condition now and the latest test ride is below.  I am getting there!
 
 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

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.
 
 
        
    

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

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!