Vindikta

With a little help, I got the shovel head engine and trans pulled from the donor bike. I would have liked to keep the original frame, but it was too badly damaged from the accident that it was in with the previous owner.

Fortunately, I happen to have the original frame that the engine belonged to, and I decided to hard tail it and make some slight modifications. I cut the rear swing arm section off and also chopped the neck. I want to keep the original cast gusset and HD numbers. I am planning on stretching the neck as well as adding the hard tail. I salvaged some 1 1/8 tubing from the wrecked frame for the stretch and the plan is to use 1 ¼” for the rear section. The plan is to have it together by the end of August, hopefully.

 Second photo

Another busy week and my weekend is already here! Getting the bike ready for a run up to San Francisco soon, I’ll be posting pics of what I see on my travels, as well as photos from past bike shows I’ve attended. If you haven’t already, head to the Long Beach to see me at the SoCal Motorcycle Swap Meet at Veteran’s Stadium. It’s every month, rain or shine. And wow, it has been shine with this California summer heat!

Here are a few pics of the latest project I’m trying to work on in my spare time. I acquired a 1979 HD shovelhead from a friend of mine. It was in an accident about 5 years ago and has been sitting in storage. The frame had so much bondo, old purple metal flake paint and was covered with rattle can black. I got most of it off and you can see the frame after in came back from sand blasting. I’m going to hard tail the frame and keep the bare bones theme to the bike. The current pic shows the engine in the cracked and bent frame from the accident.

I’m working on a line of 1.25 inch bars that I am planning on having out by the end of October, just in time for California Bike Week and the annual Love Ride. One version will also be available for Springer front ends. They’re being made from steel tubing with internal gusseting in the bottom corners, and of course they’re 100% TIG welded. I also have all of the bars now available in stainless steel, which come polished and ready to install. Pictures and ordering options will be listed soon.

I decided to start a project that I am hoping will allow me to gain some more skills, be creative, and have some fun without worrying about deadlines, money or what anyone thinks.

I had acquired an 82 Suzuki shaft driven motorcycle a few years ago and it had been sitting in my garage awaiting some inspiration on my part. The bike had been sitting for a few years under a tarp, in a back yard, so it was going to need  some work to get it running again.

Exposure to time and the elements had left their mark, but once it was stripped down to basically a rolling chassis, and the engine still intact, it didn’t look so bad. So I called my buddy Chris to come by on Saturday, to lend his 2 cents, and see what we could do with it.  The goal was to get the engine out, and at least come up with a basic plan for the frame.

After removing the rear wheel and shaft drive and a few hours of debating back and forth, I took a portable band saw and chopped the frame where the backbone met the rails for the seat and rear fender. Using some scrap tubing, welding wire, and even some electrical conduit, Chris and I spent the next few hours holding them up to the frame, making bends, sitting on the skeleton and trying to figure out how to make the design flow and just simply, look good and be a functional ride. I decided to keep the rear swing arm with the shaft drive, and a curved set of rails that will house the seat pan will swoop down from the backbone and up. In theory, it will look like the rider is suspended over the rear wheel, yet tucked down into the bike.

The 27-year-old engine put up a good fight and was the victor on that day. Extremely rusted bolts on the engine mounts, attempting to remove some heat shrink wrap around the carbs, stripped screws, and the like, and the engine remains in the frame, but not for long.

I was having some work done in my shop the other day and when it was done, the guys that were doing the work asked if they could hang out for a bit and look at some of the equipment and handlebars that were being bent up. I gave them a cold soda and we talked about bikes and welding and I let them use some scrap steel and make some passes in the english wheel. They only hung out for about 20 minutes before they had to get to their next assignment but when they left they were appreciative for the sodas and for letting them try the wheel and hanging out to take a quick break in their day. I thought back to the “master builder” that tried to sell me $250 pieces of crap and if he would have let me hang out in his shop just to look around and talk about bikes and welding, even if I didn’t ride, or would he have charged me for that? I enjoyed sharing what I do with these guys, regardless if they would ever have purchased anything from me. It was nice to see someone get excited about welding and seeing how a tube bender works. They had some good questions about learning to metal shape and weld and hopefully I pointed them in the right direction. It would be great if they took some welding classes, bought a book or video on metal shaping, or even just got a piece of scrap metal and started banging on it and try and shape it to the vision in their head.

I hope that quick break in their day at a random location gave them the inspiration to try something different.