OK, I know….. It’s a shitty photo. Sorry folks. The good news is, it’s promted me to goout and buy a new camera – so keep an eye out for some high quality photography in the nextinstallment.
So here it is. Actually, as I write this, the project is a little further than the photowould indicate, but the time it takes me to get film developed has me at a disadvantage (Did I mention thatcamera will be a digital one?) Whatever the case, at this point, it’s almost completely mockedup.
We do have one good photo to show you however (and no, I didn’t take it.) It’s a photoof the front end. I feel it’s one of the centerpieces of the bike. It’s a GCB 54 mm inverted system.It’s massive. They aren’t the most inexpensive forks on the market, but a set offorks this wide will give you the most stable ride you’ve had. Not to mention, they look killer.
This set came from Chrome Specialties. The chromeleg version retails for about $3000, but if you shop around the web, you can sometimes findsomeone with an online shop who will sell them to you for 10-15% less.
These setups come in either a wide or mid-glide style fork, in either satin or chrome. They arestock FL length (30″) which when matched with the rigid frame and 40° rake, provides for anice level stance on the frame.
A couple of things I’ve learned along the way during the mockup.
1.) If you’re building a bike with rake over stock – get prepared to makeuse of internal fork stops. I’ve got somthing kinda jimmy-rigged for the mock up, but willbe putting some in soon.
2.) If you’re making use of a belt drive, be sure you’ve got a tool to remove the race fromthe main shaft. Jim’s makes one. If you go look in their section, you’ll see a “How To” onusing one. I ended up waiting for some period to time to get mine in the mail.
3.) If you think you can use the spacers and the bearings only to determine where yourfront wheel should be placed on the axel – think again. I was able to do this on my last bike,but not on this one. I found that the races in the hub were not quite where I thought theyshould be. They were off about 1/4″ the left as received from the manufacturer when looking at the bike from the front.Since I had a local shop already check the end play on the bearing races, and pack the hubs,I had to make up the difference with spacers….. Which meant I had to order some….. Whichmeant I had to wait another week for parts. Patients is a virtue when building a mail order custom.
4.) Paint. I’ve changed my mind on paint. I’d planned originally to paint the bike orangeand put some racing stripes down the middle. Here’s the problem. I’ll be sending my paintout via UPS to have a friend paint it who lives in California. So, without the chassis, howdo you line up the stripes along the length of the bike? The answer is, you don’t. So muchfor that idea. Instead, here’s a pencil sketch of the artwork that will be adorning the tanks.Jon Towle is working on the final product, and I’m going to see if I can’t sweet talkCrazy Horse into making it a reality in enamel.
Uncle Big Bad – By Jon Towle
When Jon get’s the artwork done and colored, we’ll have a look to see what color will be best behind it,then it’s time to send the sheetmetal out for paint.
Till next time – Digital
On to Part 4….
Back to Part 2….
Back to the Custom Chrome on Bikernet….
