Holy Shit fire Leroy you fucked up.

Ok so I got some shit done over the weekend becuase the fam was out of town.   But as always I didnt get as much done as I wanted too and didnt get to do muh of anything on the gas tanks.   So I realized tonight that the tubing I used for my handlebars is 1-1/8" outside diamter rather than 1" OD which is a standard size for grips and throttles.  So what the hell, make new bars?  No I may have to cut the ends of and weld on one inch pieces or something.  Overall not a big deal.  I also cut and welded the exhaust pipe to change the direction becuase it was in the way of the kicker pedal.  I also set up the exhaust pushrod by moving it out away from the cylinder.  Im not sure if this is really gonna work.  Here is some boring info on a the motor I am using.  When the cam turns the cam lobe pushes up on a lifter that lools like a mini valve so its metal on metal.  There are no bearings or anything to keep it in alignment as the cam turns.  So the lifter which travels up and down in a guided path can also spin.  If it spins this could move the pushrod put and away from the its orginal alignment.  Make sense?   IT doesnt matter I'll find out when it is running.  It will work or it will break I guess.  Here are some pics. 

More progress but no pics

So what have I been up to lately.  Not much really, everyone thats built a bike will tell you there are things you do that are not fun but necessary.  Like what?  Setting up the rear brake linkage not fun but inportant.  Someone once told me going fast is cool, stopping is cooler.  My first bike had a two caliper brake on a huge tire.  It didnt stop well, yes it stopped but you could not lock up the back tire.  I was getting the rear brake set up on this bike (no front brake) and realized its gonna be a bitch because of the hub I used.  Shit doesnt want to line up well and that blows.  For exciting news  I made my handlebars which I have never done before.  I could not find anything I liked  and was going to use handle bars from a Harley Hummer but thought I would cheap out and make some.  I went to pick up some peices I needed for my brake linkage and the guy gave me some left over one inch OD tubing that was about 5 feet long.  Which for most guys would work for two sets of bars but me just one, barely.  I also made risers from that tubing.  I cut a small piece off and then cut it in half with a 1.5" hole cutting bit or whatever they are called.  then I cut them up the middle and squeeaed them together.  I forgot to mention that the front end on a 26 Single B springer uses 7/8" risers that are on the handlebars that come with it all one piece like.  SO thats why I made the diameter smaller and I didnt have any 7/8" pipe.  Sometimes you have to make shit work.  Then I cut lines in the bars where I wanted to bend them and started bending them.  I still dont have a welder since I threw my last one in the trash, so they need to be welded and viola done.  I really like them alot, now its not difficult to do or anything, its just that I had never made bars before.  Ok here is a question for anyone out there which is about 3 people.  What size headbolts does a 36-39 knucklehead use?  7/16-16 which I guess is a preWW2 size and they dont make them anynmore.  However I looked on line and soemone suggested using 7/16-14, close enough.  Right?  I dont know but it worked.  I feel like its one of those things you try and then maybe later find out why it was a bad idea.  Oh well for now it worked.  Actually I did more that I thought I also fitted the rear sprocket.  I could not find a 520 sprocket that fit my hub so I bouught one that I had to drill new mouting holes for.  Drilled 4 holes and they all lined up on the first shot.  Again not a big deal but I typically screw things up the first time and then spend more time trying to fix it.  Small success but it makes me happy.  I will get some pics of the handlebars and sprocket up soon.  Next the tanks will be welded and bondo'ed and sanded.  I have never done body work and I am looing forward to learing something new. 

Keep on Keepin on or something like that

So I had time to work on my bike. I notched the frame to fit the knuckle rockers. I felt bad cutting into an 85 year old frame but I got over it quickly. I actually felt worse cutting into the right side gas tank to fit the rocker box of the knucklehead top end. Which by the way is from 1938 or 1939. Here is the explanation of the motor. The bottem end is from a 1930 C model, which is 500cc single cylinder model that Harley built from 1929-1934 and exported overseas. Americans liked more powerful V-twins back in the day and it didnt sell well here. Not much has changed when you think about it we still prefer bigger cars instead of fuel efficient little cars. Oh well. The knuckle top end is left over parts from another project and I didnt want to sell it. but I needed something to put it on. Then I thought it would be cool to use a single cylinder bottom end with the knuckle top end. I had not seen someone do it so I thought I would try. Remember I am not a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination and I dont know enough to know what I dont know. Make sense? Good. So here I am still trying to figure out the last two pieces of the puzzle. Pushrods and carburation. But those are minor details so I am told. Here are some pics of where it is right now. There is a lot missing but you get the basic idea of the stance and motor.

Pics of the 1926 Harley Single B as I got it.

Here is the bike the day after I picked it up in Florida. I found it on Ebay and drove down and picked it up after work one day. I sold a lot of the parts I didnt want or need which paid for the bike and made me some dinero. So basically everything was free.

It is completley stock and looks like shit.  I sold the fenders, wheels, handlebars and some other misc parts.  I'll post pics of how it looks right now all stripped down. 

 

Introduction to The Busted Knuckle build

There's a saying," a journey of a thousand steps begins with the first step or a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step."  I don't know some bullshit like that but anyway this is a blog to help me stay on track with my current bike build by showing pics and talking about it.  Also talking about the mental process or lack there of, that someone goes through when they decide to build anything.  My thoughts about life and where it takes you, is it the journey or the destination type shit. 

I thought I would start off by telling a little about myself and my back ground.  I'm 35, married with two kids and have very little mechanical knowledge about anything but I loved Lego's as a kid.  When I was in second grade my dad bought me a Honda XR-80 dirt bike and I would ride that thing everyday no matter what the weather was like, I LOVED it and I love motorcycles with a passion.  Not all bikes just cool ones that kick ass.  My grandfather rode an Indian, my dad and uncles rode Harley's some, no one was a die hard one percent er, just casual riders.  My second bike was a crotch rocket that I had when I was 20 for about 3 months and then it got sold, I lost my license, went away to college enough said.  I always wanted a Harley but always had issues with the stock bike look and looking like everyone else.  I assumed at some point I would get a Harley and try to change it but that never seemed like fun.  Like everyone else I saw Motorcycle Madness with Jesse James and my eyes were ripped open to the world of custom bikes.  I was hooked I wanted to build a bike now, not buy one, but build from the ground up.  Oh yeah I had no tools or clue and no idea how to build a bike I just had ambition ( i don't know if that word is spelled correctly, this will happen a lot) and I didn't know what I didn't know.  So I did what any person wanting to learn something new would do, I watched TV and learned how to build a bike from Orange County Choppers.  No shit I did.  But before that I had to convince the wife of my new plan and "hobby."  This was going to be a very task difficult because she had lost someone she cared very deeply for in a motorcycle accident a few years earlier and was completely against motorcycles.  So the joke was that I could build one with no engine and she would push my around the back yard.  Ok great it was a start she was caving in to my idea and I could work with that.  So I started shopping for frames and parts and what not, then started putting them together in my garage and it looked like a bike.  Then sometime later I think she shit herself, after 18 months, 4 hurricanes and lots of swearing and bloody knuckles,  there it was a complete bike and it ran...eventually. 



 During that build I learned a lot about myself and my work ethic and dedication to a project and anything I love.   Anything you absolutely love you can do, when there is passion behind anything it gets done. If you have a question, you will find an answer, you will seek the knowledge you need when you are determined.   No matter how long it takes, if you love it you will do it, if you like it you make excuses and it will suffer.  Fact is fact look at anything you have tried and succeeded at.  Did you love it or just like it.  Shit I've liked a lot of things in my life but everything I love I have and hold on to, people, objects and other shit, you get the point.  So I rode that bike to my sisters about 8 miles away and parked it in her garage.  That was the scariest and most amazing ride of my life, I was afraid I might die but I loved knowing that I built that bike and moved me not only phyiscally but emoitionally too, as wierd as that may sound it did.  Side note here, I like to surf well try to surf, Im not good but I do it.  The moment you catch a wave is like no other, everything comes  together and at that moment it time there is bliss.   Nothing goes through your head, your mind is clear. you're in the moment.  Your spirit, your being is connected to that moment and your pulse is pumping life through your veins.  There is an over welming sensation of calmness that over comes your being and nothing else matters.  That feeling of being in the moment is what I lack, I am always thinking about the past, people, mistakes, loss or the future, worries about everyday life.  But when you are in the moment what ever that is, you are truly alive.  That 8 mile ride did that for me and it lasted longer than riding a wave.  Hooked for life I am. 
 Shortly after we moved and I sold it, never rode it again after that day.  I miss that bike and would like to have it back maybe I'll find it and get it back, maybe.  I also said I put 12 miles on that bike, well there were test drives that didn't go so well and parts fell off... that's for later and more about the selling of my bike later... for another day.  At that point I thought the bike fever was over and I was done but nope, I started another, this one was for a different reason, it was for coping and clearing my head.