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!