Monday, March 2, 2009

Chopper in the works


Ok everyone as you will soon read in one of my next blogs “The Compound going green” , my wife and I have decided not to build a new compound (house) but stay in the one we have now. (More on that later) The reason I am bringing this up is now I plan on finishing up my chopper I’ve been working on over the last few years (on and off). I spent most of Sunday getting what I call my motorcycle room back into shape. When we built the four car garage, we added a 16’x 16’ room


on the side where I keep my automotive and metal working tools. I have a large air compressor that sits in the main garage but I have the air lines piped into the motorcycle room to a 50’ retractable air line (very sweet set up…easy to run my air tools) and yea that is old gym lockers next to it, they work great for storing tools.

I bought a motorcycle lift from Harbor Freight for 200 dollars and now have my chopper on it ready to be worked on. It’s a great lift, but it’s a little short for the chopper (the chopper is nine feet long) but holds my other bike just fine and my chopper too, as long as I use straps.
Most of the parts I have ordered off eBay…gas tank,

fenders, breaks, sprockets, seat, handle bars, tires and wheels. The oil tank and frame I ordered from J & P Cycles. I order the nine inch over Girder front forks from Custom Chrome (Pricey 1,200 dollars)

My plan is to do as much of the work as I can myself (and no I have never built one before) so this means a lot of questions. I want to build a kind of old-school chopper. It’s a ridged frame so I’m mounting a Springer solo seat,



I also have a remote oil filter (eBay) that I plan on mounting on the rear of the bike near the tire.

I have a small Mig Welder that I want to use to at least tack all of my metal work together with then I will most likely take it over to my buddy's business to have the final welds completed (a man has got to know his limitations…ha-ha). As for the painting, I plan on doing that myself. Right out of high school I work at a car dealership painting cars…so I think I got that part covered.

I'm in the process of looking for some "how to" videos, to help me along the way…web sites would also work. Any suggestions would be great help.

3 comments:

Chessie (Chesshirecat) said...

Thanks for a peek at your project.
Please...keep taking pics and posting your updates! This is an artistic venture...and I'm ready to help with the praise!
Chessie

Mr. Motorcycle said...

Looking good man!, Would love to watch it as it progresses. Keep us posted!

dlord said...

Yo - Big Al,

I like your bike project. I can see how you decided on this. All that eastcoast westcoast occ stuff will sure pull a guy in. Cool bike. Rigid frame is going to be tough. Like that front fender. Let's chat some more about it. I'm sure you can decide on the next steps you want to pull with it.

signed,
72 volts DC

States I’ve traveled to over the years

big als music