1/09/2006
Well, the tank and fenders are in Knoxville Tennessee being
painted by Donny at maxxmusclecyclepainting.com I decided
I wasn't going fast enough on this project and am approaching a year since
beginning this "Hondian" transformation. So I
am biting the bullet and letting Donny do his thing. It would have taken me too
long and I think a of of my slowness was
reluctance to get into the paint since I had no place to do it and have a gas
water heater in the garage!!
With the tins gone, I tore apart the forks which needed new
seals and took the front tire off the rim, removed the seals and
bearings, and sent the rim and fork lowers to Houston to be chromed.
I am now getting the rear rim ready to send off since I will
have plenty of time before the paint is done. I also
wanted to get some other trinkets done and send them in to be chromed with the
rim. That leads us to this page.
The brake brace that keeps the drum from spinning around with
the rim is just a black, hollow, thin walled tube with
flattened ends, I took it off and traced it onto a piece of 3/16ths stainless
steel flat. Then I took the plasma cutter
and cut it out using the lines I traced onto it as a guide. I deviated to make
this....
Yup, I cut it into flames and drilled the holes for the stock
mounting places. I never knew how difficult drilling stainless
could be. I went through two bits before I just popped the holes with the plasma
cutter again. Here's a silhouette.
Those we shot from the top of the bike looking through the
swingarm. Here is a shot from the other side. It was hard to
take this shot because it was up against the desk....
The chrome needs to be cleaned..hell the whole bike is layered
with dirt. Think once it is together with wheels
I will take it out to the driveway and power wash it!! I will see if I can
find a more attractive nut to top this bracket.
Maybe a spike or just an acorn nut.
I decided to recut the bracket on the other side of the swing arm.
I still need to weld the washer to it. This is just to relieve
some of the stress on the aluminum final drive since the
shock is now mounted in the center of the swing arm. I will be sending these off
to chrome with the rear wheel this
weekend. I pick up the tins on March 11th as I am traveling through Knoxville. I
figured I would pick them up
since they are so heavy and I would avoid any shipping damage that way.
I had to pic up a rear tire for the "Cheese" the
other day and saw these handlebar switches. Picked one up to try
and see if it would be a good solution for my harnesses, for those that want the
option to turn it off. They are pricey at
$12.75 each and I am trying to find the maker to see if I can buy some in bulk.
I may make a retrofit for the harnesses already
sold if I can find the switches and if there is any interest.
I mounted the switch just to the right of the clutch mount on
the handlebar. The switch extends over the clamp face and I can use
my left thumb to flick the switch up and
down and disable the running lights. I will be running a ground through the
switch to a relay to enable and disable the relay
which is also only enabled when the low beam is on.
That's all for now.... Just passing the time waiting for my
parts to come home....I do need to do the fork seals on the
Cheese so that's something else to keep me busy...I will post pictures up from
Donny as I get them....
Gonzo
02' Shadow Spirit