Thursday, September 29, 2011

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. 

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