This project is one I thought I’d be done with by now but it has ended up being my winter project...again.
I almost had it finished this summer, in fact I had it finished enough to put in the World Championship of Custom Bike Building show in Sturgis, SD in August. But I wasn't very happy with it. Here it is as it appeared last summer.
I came back from the show with a laundry list of things I needed to change. Some I knew about before I left. The airshocks were too small and wouldn't hold the thing up. The exhaust put out too much heat way too close to the rider. The bodywork......well....it covered too much and just looked too massive. The bike just didn't have enough "attitude" for a V8 bike.
So, a couple of weeks after the show the bike looked like this.
While I was reworking things for the new,larger airshocks I decided I needed to change the weight distribution as well. I wanted to pull the rear wheels in closer to the center of the mass and the swingarm did look a little hillclimber-ish. I built a jig on my bench and came up with a new swingarm design.
The new piece in place......
New shock and mounts. I also switched over from the dual chains I had used to a larger single chain.
Overall shot with the new subframe in place. The riding position needed to be lowered.
I also felt the radiators were too high and stuck out too much. I lowered them and sucked them in a little too sleek the thing up a little.
I almost had it finished this summer, in fact I had it finished enough to put in the World Championship of Custom Bike Building show in Sturgis, SD in August. But I wasn't very happy with it. Here it is as it appeared last summer.
I came back from the show with a laundry list of things I needed to change. Some I knew about before I left. The airshocks were too small and wouldn't hold the thing up. The exhaust put out too much heat way too close to the rider. The bodywork......well....it covered too much and just looked too massive. The bike just didn't have enough "attitude" for a V8 bike.
So, a couple of weeks after the show the bike looked like this.
While I was reworking things for the new,larger airshocks I decided I needed to change the weight distribution as well. I wanted to pull the rear wheels in closer to the center of the mass and the swingarm did look a little hillclimber-ish. I built a jig on my bench and came up with a new swingarm design.
The new piece in place......
New shock and mounts. I also switched over from the dual chains I had used to a larger single chain.
Overall shot with the new subframe in place. The riding position needed to be lowered.
I also felt the radiators were too high and stuck out too much. I lowered them and sucked them in a little too sleek the thing up a little.
