Complete and utter off topic randomness 2

Every once and a while I like to break up the monotony of things by posting something that has absolutely nothing to do with anything at all.  So... this month's installment of complete and utter off topic randomness is brought to you by the wonderful Bob's Big Boy.

Bob looks like he's doing pretty well for himself these days!

Things that make you go... VROOM!!!

I know you've all been dying of suspense trying to figure out exactly what "it" is that was being shipped from Scooter's.  Well folks, the wait is finally over! Drum roll please...

It's a big giant box from S&S Cycle!

Man lemme tell you, S&S truly lives up to their slogan "Because every industry has a leader!"  This is one of the nicest boxes I've ever seen. It's got some great indicators on the top telling you what direction to place the box, it even gives you a heads up that it's not a big fan of water.  S&S really out did themselves here.  But wait... what's inside the giant box?  Why, it's a brand spankin', shiny new 93" S&S Shovelhead motor that's what!

Holy smokes is this thing awesome!  If you're not getting excited about this project yet, you may wanna have somebody check your pulse.  Considering that this is just the un-boxing of the motor, I'll try to stick to that subject.  And of course, I'll go into more detail as the project moves on.  But for now let's have a look at what's inside.

S&S includes everything you need to make this a completely "assembled engine".  Everything from oil lines, fittings and four quarts of Mobile 1 synthetic oil to the Super Stock ignition, spark plugs, top motor mount and even a battery.  It's all included with the motor.  Of course it ships with the Super "E" carb and infamous S&S teardrop aircleaner.  It's about as turn key as you're gonna get.  I certainly can't speak for other engine manufacturers out there, but lemme tell you, one look at what's inside this giant box and it's obvious... S&S truly is the industry leader!

Thanks!

Updates have been coming in a bit slow lately since I've basically just been waiting on the last few parts to get here.  So I wanted to take this opportunity, while there's a break in the action, to thank everyone who has been following along from the start and to everyone who has taken the time and effort to show support to this ambitious project.  Thank you very much!

What is it?

I just got word from John at Scooter's Performance that another (major) part just came in and is being shipped from sunny Florida to sunny(er) Arizona.  What could it be?  First person to guess wins a cookie...

Takin' a brake

Early on, during the design portion of the build process, the desicion was made to run a newer style Sportster front end for several different reasons.  The newer Sportster front end would allow for the use of sealed bearings, matched right up with the "lane splitter" look we were going for, and would allow for the use of Biltwell's Keystone handlebars which marry up perfectly to the narrow trees from Chassis Design!  After scoring a smokin' deal on Craigslist on a 2003 Sportster front end, it wasn't long before I discovered that finding a brake caliper to work with the front end wasn't gonna be so easy.  I contacted several different brake manufacturers and almost all of them said the same thing... that I couldn't run a caliper on a late model Sportster lower leg with a custom spoke front wheel.  The problem was that the back side of the caliper would rub against the spokes at the hub as the wheel rotated... not good!  The closest I could get was one company who said they made a "thinner" caliper that would work with my application, however the bracket that it came with was for a pre-'99 setup not a '03... which obviously didn't help me much.

I remembered meeting Kevin from Fabricator Kevin's and talking with him about some custom brackets I might need for the build, so I figured I'd contact him and see if he had a solution for me.  Much to my amazement he already manufactured a part that fit my exact application.  Basically the setup is a Tokico floating front brake caliper with a custom bracket that "moves" the caliper out and away from the hub area of the wheel.  According to Kevin, I shouldn't experience any clearance issues whatsoever.  And lemme tell you, this guy knows his stuff!

Unfortunately I haven't had time mock things up so once again, I'm afraid you'll just have to stay tuned...

Once you go black...

If you hadn't already guessed, most of the parts showing up are either already black or will soon become black.  There seems to be a trend starting here...  When making the decision to do a majority of the bike in black, picking up parts like anodized hand controls and powder coated wheels is relatively easy.  One-piece brake rotors on the other hand present a bit of a problem.  Why one-piece rotors you ask?  Why not just go with a similar two-piece setup you say?  You'll just have to check back to see what the dealio with that is.  So anyway, here they are... a sneak peak at Wilwood's new black one-piece rotors that I'll be using on the build.  Certainly no one I know of has used these so it should be interesting to see how they turn out.

Finding rotors that matched the design of the build... challenging.  Finding rotors in a black one-piece design that matched the design of the build... next to impossible.  Having John at Scooter's Performance help me track down rotors in a black one-piece design that matched the design of the build... priceless!

Pile o' parts

John from Scooter's Performance sent out a small pile of parts over the weekend.  While the pile may be small, it's what I plan on doing with it that matters.  Ok that sounded weird...

Anyway, the pile includes things like the final drive chain, front axle, neck bearings and handful of other parts to round out the front end.  Nothing earth shattering... just some of the essentials needed to keep this thing moving!

Hang on!

The front end's really comin' along nicely.  Another knock at the front door and another part... gotta love that!  Turns out this time it's the bars I ordered from Biltwell.  Thanks to Mike D. I was able to get my hands on (no pun intended) these awesome Keystone bars.  Apparently these things sell like hot cakes and I was lucky enough to scoop up a set before they sold out again... thanks Mike D!

And of course you can't have cool bars without a cool way to hook 'em up.  These Knuckle risers were actually one of the first parts I picked up from Todd's Cycle for the build way back when the lovely Sabrina and I were in Cali for the Long Beach Swap Meet.  Todd's a very down to earth kinda guy and actually invited us to check out his shop while we were in town... pretty cool if you ask me!

Well, that's about it for this week... but stay tuned cause I'm hoping the brake parts should be arriving sometime next week.  I'll keep you posted!

Tree huggin'

After a much needed vacation it’s always nice to come home to a big box sitting in front of your house with more parts needed to complete your build.  So, let’s see what we have today… ahhh, front end components!  One call to Anthony over at Chassis Design Co. and we’ve got ourselves a shiny new set of their 39mm narrow triple trees to go with our super duper cheap 2003 Sportster lower legs courtesy of the wonderment that is Craigslist… God bless America!  These things are works of art in their simplistic beauty.  They allow for the use of internal fork stops and are pre-drilled to allow a headlight to be mounted on the bottom tree.  This is something that the original Sportster trees don’t have since the headlight is designed to be mounted from above.  Now, if only I had a headlight…

Complete and utter off topic randomness

Today's complete and utter off topic random photo is brought to you by the City of Ventura, California.  By the looks of this sign, no one seems to care for this law all that much... go figure!

We’re on a roll now!

A couple parts arrived yesterday that I’d been anticipating for quite some time now.  And by “a couple” I mean two… the front wheel and the rear wheel.  These bad boys were custom made by the fine folks over at Black Bike Wheels specifically for this build.  Now don’t let anyone tell you that good ol’ fashion hand made American parts are a dying breed, cause the fellas at Black Bike are single handedly putting that rumor to bed.  Okay, that may be a bit overstated but the fact of the matter is that these wheels are built with an amazing amount of craftsmanship.  So much so that Black Bike actually stands behind every aspect of their work with a lifetime guarantee on everything from the powder coat to the truing of the spokes.  Long story short, these beauties were worth every shiny little penny I saved up for ‘em!  Thanks to Brian and the crew at Black Bike Wheels for hookin’ me up with these beautiful black jewels.

The specs:

Front - 21" x 2.15" 40-spoke wheel (gloss black p/c steel rim, spokes & single flange aluminum hub, Timken 3/4" sealed bearings)

Rear - 16" x 3.5" 40-spoke wheel (gloss black p/c steel rim, spokes & dual flange aluminum hub, TImken 3/4" sealed bearings)

In the beginning...

Every story has to start somewhere, and this one happens to start around Christmas ’07.  It was themad dash rush to purchase a frame on the cheap during the only frame sale West Coast Choppers ever had and probably ever will.  I’d been doing my research and made the decision to fork over the cash to pick up one of these beauties as an early Christmas present to myself.  Fast-forward a few months and there it was, sitting at my doorstep, packing tape shinning in the Arizona sun.  Unfortunately, one look at the welds and I quickly surmised that they had been pumping these things out of the shop so quickly that quality control was something left to be desired.  Hoping that customer service would prevail, I contacted the shop to get their take on things.  Several days of phone calls and multiple emails later and it was agreed upon that they would repair the frame with no out of pocket cost to me.  The very next day I sent my frame back and all was right with the world.  That is until some greedy little UPS guy got his grubby little hands on it… UPS would label the frame as “Lost/Stolen”.  All was NOT right with the world.

After weeks of hassle and undue stress (all brought on by the wonderful world of Brown), and after a few more phone calls and emails to the shop, the decision was made to handcraft an entire new frame from scratch.  Fast-forward again, 6 months later… and after much anticipation and nail biting (thanks UPS) my new frame arrived once again, packing tape shining in the Arizona sun.
 
Morale of the story: say what you will about West Coast Choppers… good, bad or indifferent, but they really went out of their way and made every effort to make things right for me.  Customer service doesn’t get much better than that.
 

All was once again right with the world!

The science behind moto-ology

moto-ology [mō'·tō-ŏl'·ə·jē]:

The moto-ology blog was started in an effort to chronicle the process of building a bike from the ground up.  The aim is to not only show the occasional in depth "how-to" tech article, but also to show the entire process from start to finish.  Every step, every product, every piece of the puzzle will be showcased in an effort to provide actual helpful instruction in a sea of otherwise confusing information.

The Inspiration

Before any good project can begin there needs to be an idea, and before any good idea can flourish there must be inspiration.  Many of you that know me know that the design idea of the bike has undergone many changes even before the first part was purchased.  Since the beginning of all of this I've been fortunate to come across several sources of inspiration.  Most of which have shaped the very idea of what the bike will ultimately evolve into.

The Idea

The idea is simple...

Build a kick ass, stripped down, no frills, balls out, old school motorcycle (bar hopper, bobber, chopper, lane splitter... whatever you wanna call it) from the ground up and chronicle the entire process from ordering parts to mock up to fit and finish to turning the key for the first time.  All this will of course be supplemented with the occasional comic relief... hopefully.

I appreciate you stopping by to check things out.  I'll do my best to keep things updated often.