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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

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For me I like building my own personal ride.

Before the 'craftsmanship and art" come into play , the engineering has to be accomplished.

In the wide tire genre parts are available to accomplish tire width of unusable and ridiculous dimension.

This chopper was cheap and the owner besides passing away had reached his limit of how far he could take the project.

He had mounted the rear fender BEFORE centering the wheel. Heres how far out the sprocket alignment was:

IMG-7237.jpg

The sprocket closest being the trans drive , the rod aligned across the face of the rear wheel sprocket indicates a .5" gap.

A full 1.5" sprocket is available , he just had the wrong one.

Many mountings for the various equipment are missing as well , usually welded or fabbed prior to the frame being painted.

He had put oil in the oil tank though so an optimist for sure.

I'll build the whole bike with everything in place to pass an inspection and sell it.

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My wife has a motorcycle.  Except for aesthetic appreciation, I have no real interest in a two wheeled suicide machine.  Seen plenty of young people killed on them, fellow Marines, Speedsters on crotch rockets, and once, even a woman in a wedding dress along with her freshly departed groom.  I know that if I used one for transportation to work, my impatience would get me killed.  Maybe it would be nice for weekend joy rides.  But I don't do joy rides.

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I hear your words Gazz.  I think it unfortunate that many folks ride a motorcycle, more often than not, with little or no real training.  Its easy to get over your head very quick.  I was lucky to be raised in a good riding environment.  We used the term "squirrel" to disparage drivers that just didn't understand what they had, nor how to use it.  I stopped riding because of my impatience very literally. 

There was a time when I was going to be the next Eddy Lawson, Wayne Rainey an so on.  I was able go to Supper Bike School (and others), get picked up and race at Laguna Seca, Monterey, Sonoma and many, many others.   Getting on a factory Kawasaki Super Bike Team for a few years.  I was never that guy that could get in the top four as needed.  Highest I was able to go was 6th overall, out of 80 or so riders.  Worst was 14th or 15th as I recall.  I weighed 200 lbs right out of High School.  So many fellow riders had as much as 70-80 pounds on me.  Many, many were fantastic riders that were just made for the track.  My biggest ride was the Ninja 1000R right before the -10 series.  I did race the 250's and the 500's but never found the groove of my inline 4 stroke. 

I do miss the bike on certain days. 

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As a heavy equipment operator and semi driver, for 38 years, I have seen lots of stuff with motorcycles, some days when out in the truck or in my Corvette, I saw and see stuff that makes my head shake.... first off I am not a motorcycle driver, as I had the poop scared out of me at a young age when I rode on the back of an old school 750 Norton, and the guy went around and overpass corner so fast the foot pegs were scraping the ground, that cured me.............. so what this is, is just from a guy who has always had 4 wheels under his ass and lots of 10 and 18 under it...........I do think that there should be some training or a 'restriction' ( I Know , like we need more rules) for the crotch rockets and NEW drivers... the power to weight ratio is unheard of on these things, they are an amazing piece of tech, speed and torque, to my untrained eye, for a new 16 or 18 year old kid who wants a bike, I would say this shouldn't be a first choice.................. they accelerate like a bullet, and I do think some times it's way too much get up and go for a new driver... JMHO........... and there are days when some of the younger 'invincible' folks take extremely dangerous and silly chances, like the time I was hauling a large loader with the low bed and had 4 of them pass me on a narrow two lane curvy road, all 4 at the same time............ 2 on my left and 2 on my right...............hhmmm.... and rarely do I ever see one pulled over by a cop for speeding...ever............ Now, that is NOT ALL of them, just the ones that give bike riders a bad name, most of the guys and gals are very respectful, and yeah, always like to go a little faster than the posted speed, and that's ok, and most know the inherent dangers of no real protection once in a pickle.....  hats off to the majority.....

BUT what I do see is a LOT of car drivers are oblivious to a motor cycle and its occupant(s) ... I was lucky to have had a couple Hog riders at work, and lament on and on, about not being seen and some car drivers taunt them and put them in perilous positions at times..... as I had the opportunity to hear them talk and be part of the conversation, and interested in their rides, I became MUCH more bike aware so to speak..... I see motorcycles on the road before a lot of others.... I look for them, they are sometimes very hard to see, and the LAST thing I want to do is hurt someone due to my lack of observation.... so for me, it isn't the motorcycle that is the 'real' danger ( oh don't get me wrong they are dangerous in the untrained hands) it is MORE the car driver who doesn't see them or screws around on the highway with them....  I will say, however, and again this comes from a guy who is not a motorcycle driver, the ones who act like asses, and don't follow the rules of the road, weave in and out of traffic, pass in stupid places, and with on coming traffic , and drive ridiculous speeds, don't get a lot of sympathy from me.   I try my very best to see the guy on the bike, and give him every break I can, if it's clear and they want by, I move over so the can see around me, and if I'm in the BIG truck, I stick my hand out with an open palm to hold on until the on coming cars clear and the give them the thumbs up to go, as I can see further ahead in a semi than they can low on a bike, I always get a 'Ride with the wind, brother' wave and that works for me........ that is the coolest part of it all for me.....

So all this is just an observation from a guy who is NOT a biker, but a semi driver and a sports car guy.....  I am Bike Aware

 And NO, I did NOT miss one episode of Orange County Choppers, and have a couple REAL nice beer steins from the shop in my cabinet....

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10 minutes ago, krow113 said:

I watched OCC in the beginning when it was about bikes.

Then watched it go down hill as TV focused on the silly drama.

Many of the Biker genre of tv was ok , a lot of it was conjecture and misinformation as well.

Yeah, me too, it was the building and the design stuff I liked, the dram part was , well.................... shitty............ I was at a Corvette show in Spokane, a number of years ago, and the OCC guys were in town. The Mike's daughter ( the guy's house we are at) was a massage therapist, and was called to give the Old Man a going over, and she talked Mikey into coming out to the house where we were having a BBQ after the car show, and he chatted with everyone, he was the guy who put the show together with Discovery , he isn't as dopey as he makes out to be, he is actually the genius behind a lot of the company's successes......

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So as I was installing my coils and shocks I realized that winter rust of Calgary completely eat up some threads and seized some nuts. So I ended up changing the sway bar links and bushings and refinishing the sway bar itself. The front only, rear is debatable. Pictures below will explain why. LoL 

 

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On 8/20/2020 at 9:36 PM, krow113 said:

For me I like building my own personal ride.

Before the 'craftsmanship and art" come into play , the engineering has to be accomplished.

In the wide tire genre parts are available to accomplish tire width of unusable and ridiculous dimension.

This chopper was cheap and the owner besides passing away had reached his limit of how far he could take the project.

He had mounted the rear fender BEFORE centering the wheel. Heres how far out the sprocket alignment was:

IMG-7237.jpg

The sprocket closest being the trans drive , the rod aligned across the face of the rear wheel sprocket indicates a .5" gap.

A full 1.5" sprocket is available , he just had the wrong one.

Many mountings for the various equipment are missing as well , usually welded or fabbed prior to the frame being painted.

He had put oil in the oil tank though so an optimist for sure.

I'll build the whole bike with everything in place to pass an inspection and sell it.

Mock it up, take it apart. Walk away for a week, come back and mock it up again. It should fit the same. If it doesn’t, find the problem and fix it.  

Fenders are expensive. Drilling holes commits you, and it’ll cost a bunch  to go back, much more if the tin’s got color on it.  Kroeber, I feel this guy’s pain.  Been there, done that. Learned my lesson. 

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11 hours ago, krow113 said:

Got by that as you can see in an earlier post. Into mount fabrication now:

IMG-7310.jpg

Cardboard mount  templates to start , and polished stainless will be used for the finished guard

The thing I love the most on a custom builds is a nice clean weld. Looking good Man !

9 hours ago, GazzaS said:

That's some nice work, Martin!  I'm impressed that you even painted it red.  I've never done much suspension work.  Was proud of myself the day I replaced the rear shocks on my 1981 Caprice.

Thank you Gaz, I am just doodling around, trying to prepare the car for the winter. Normally I would have it blasted and powder coated , but under current circumstances , I have to play nice :)

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What kind of dash cams do you guys have?? I have one not very pricey, but I think I want to up grade, and NOT pay HUGE $$, but would like something reasonably priced, and is reliable, as there are about a million different kinds, I am curious as to what you guys have and can recommend.... just throwing it out there for some conversation and something I can work with....

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On 9/6/2020 at 2:20 PM, Jeff said:

What kind of dash cams do you guys have?? I have one not very pricey, but I think I want to up grade, and NOT pay HUGE $$, but would like something reasonably priced, and is reliable, as there are about a million different kinds, I am curious as to what you guys have and can recommend.... just throwing it out there for some conversation and something I can work with....

I need a gun camera for when I close with and pick off the moron fools I wish to flame with my eight Browning 303s and watch them burst into flame as pieces fly off in the slipstream. 

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1 hour ago, Clunkmeister said:

Spent a bit of time at the shop yesterday, installing some Da fixated compressor brackets.  I’ve been mocking these up in card, the cutting and welding Steel sheet. A few minor modifications later and we have these....

 

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Fantastic work Ernie, it looks stock.:unworthy:

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