Here we are again. Life is nuts. About the time a good plan takes place, an ugly obstacle rears it mercurial head. That’s people. Danny, the lucky individual who we are building this bike for, flaked on us twice. Okay, so he’s an educated youngster with an ol’ lady, pushing for wifedom, a single baby, a nursing certificate, and two lowly jobs. Plus, he has a drug problem, not enough time, health issues, a shitty living condition, and a lousy economy envelope, in other words a dour scenario.
Danny ain’t no dummy. He’s sharp, educated, and hardworking, but painkillers got the best of him, then our lovely system took over and got him addicted to methadone. When he fought that, he lost his low-paying security job. His biggest problem is the economy, the lack of jobs, and the fact that he’s a young man with a baby. It’s too much for a guy his age. He needs to be having a blast, riding a motorcycle, chasing broads, and living cheaply, instead of being straddled with a family at his age.
So that leaves the guy scrambling to get off methadone, find a new job, struggling, and his XS burnin’ daylight on a Bikernet lift. I can’t stand projects that stop; besides, we need open lifts ready for Bonneville projects, so the Bikernet staff went to work to make this puppy a roller.
The notion behind this endeavor was to help a local kid build his first bike, and help Mr. Lucky spread the word about his XS Yamaha, bobber line of products. While we were dicking around Buckshot bought and refurbished an XS right under our noses.
We were burnin’ daylight and we needed to work on the Salt Shaker. Ray C. Wheeler, the speed freak Bonneville racer moved into the headquarters and was waiting for his Bonneville racer to be rebuilt. He needed something to ride. We rolled out the Salt Shaker with the 120-inch Panhead engine and set to dialing it in. We replaced the battery, but we needed a lift for other repair notions.
Ray and I attacked the rear fender on the XS and saved the spacing. Then he removed the front fender for trimming and I went to work on fender rails. The notion behind this build is to find shit lying around the shop to use. I dug up some brass hex rod, and dragged out all the old side mount license plate brackets.
I don’t believe it, but two states pissed away work, time, and taxpayer money to pass bills against vertical license plates. This country has replaced freedom with a compliance-ridden regulatory nanny state. You mean our highly educated police force can’t read license plates turned vertical? What the hell do they do at accident scenes when a car rolls or a bike is down? Do they make the owner set his vehicle upright?
Okay, so I complied with the new California regulation and found a horizontal mount and taillight, and went to work making it fit. We also discovered an unused hand-tooled seat from Texas and set to making it fit the frame, with a couple of Paughco footboard replacement tabs. If you want your shit to look vintage, check the Paughco catalog.
Ray also helped me tackle the mounting of the gas tank. We installed some deep-threaded-mounting bungs in the frame, welded them into place, and then drilled ½-inch holes in the tank tabs for rubber bungs.
In the next segment, we will install the engine, make a set of pipes, and deal with some kind of electrical box to hold the coil, ignition, circuit breakers, and junction box. Then we can talk about making it run. Hopefully, by then Danny will be back on his feet, off the shit, and ready to run with the big dogs on Los Angeles freeways in the middle of the night, like we did at his age.
Bucks Spent
Bike: $700
Frame: $999
Neck cups: $49
Battery Box: $100
We bought some stainless wing nut fasteners: $25
Buster gave us a rear tire
I donated the taillight and license plate bracket
I donated the rusty rear fender
I donated the seat, seat springs
Paughco footboard mounts: $15
Sources:
Mr. Lucky
Custom Chrome
Spitfire
Paughco
