honda paint, daisy and a sixty five

Daisy ran away on Saturday and we got her back. She went two miles to one of our friends house. I feared that she was gone for good, but thankfully we found her.
This is a honda dream fender that my friend Mike is fixing up for an original paint 65 dream. He is fixing it up for a dealer in south dakota that has had the honda franchise since the early sixties.
this is the paint for the honda dream fender. How cool is this??? it is an original honda lacquer can. I can't wait to see how it paints out.
Check out all of these btsv cylinders and knuckleheads. I couldn't get them all in the picture! The paint is very sticky and takes a few days until you can handle it.
oh hey, this kind of looks like a fender mount.

all ready to go.

it is all ground and looks like an old casting. it turned out pretty nice.
here is the amp gauge housing. it is making some progress. We bought a gauge cluster out of a 27 dodge car off of ebay and are using the guts and making bezels, faces, and holders for them. The brass washer will take up the spot where the original face doesn't cover. we are going to make new graphics for them as well because they are kind of flaking. I am thinking about black faces with white markings to match the indian 741 speedometer.


This is Jason's primary set up. I had to do a lot of welding and machining on the starter boss. it was tore up from the chain and poorly repaired. we got it working good not, but we need an intermediate bearing for the set up.

born free handlebars and teaser pics.

Dan and I made some progress on the born free bars, check it out. What do you guys think of the aircleaner? First person to guess what it is, gets a free oil tank site gauge.
This a center casting from a pair of offset bars. I don't really like the brazing on it and am afraid to use it for a set of restoration bars, so I am going to use it for a top clampHere are the edges chopped off.
all cleaned up and ready to go.

here is a cool shot of the risers. they are made out of 1.25 solid stock, that I turned a 1 degree taper on over a 3 inch span, then they were drilled out and coped, then welded to the bars.
These are some repro 49 50 handle bars that we got from Tom Faber in Michigan. We loaned him a set to copy, and he set us up with this pair. that was a few years ago and we haven't used them on any bikes, so we decided to use them on this bike. The only problem was they were too narrow, so I cut 4.25 inches out of the center, made a sleeve for the inside and welded them back together.
Here is a shot of them tacked in place, I still have to finish welding them and metal finish them out, but that shouldn't be too hard, I really like the way this bike is turning out. I can't wait to make the dash, it is going to be really trick. The fender will be a bit longer, than in this picture.

new bikes, lane splitting and a cool four five

Check out the rear view of the 28 j that John P set me up with. He bought this bike for me to use for spare parts on the cannonball run. The motor, trans and clutch are rebuilt and it was set on japanese bike wheels and has some awesome t bars for splitting lanes, or maybe just for pushing the bike around.
I need to get one of these shirts from grant and harpoon and hop on the lane splitting 28 j. haha

Brittney's dad has been up for the last week helping on the barnpartment. It is coming along pretty well. we had some other friends show up too and managed to get a bunch done.
This is my dad's new 64. this bike is pretty shiny and nice. i cant wait to take it for a spin.
This bike is really low for a duo glide, which is perfect for me because I am a short guy.
If Duke is a dangerous dog, then our shop cat hot wheels must be really dangerous to make duke sleep in fear.
Here is a shot of Jerold, Dan, Delmar, troy and me putting up some walls. This is going to be the bathroom.

my dad picked up this 28 j in Minnesota that is going to be used for back up parts for the bike that I am running on the cannonball in September. the motor and transmission are rebuilt. I kind of like the mag wheels and t bars
ooohhh ahhh check out the bates headlight. Maybe I should just bring this bike to born free for my invite
Here is a shot of the motor. this is pretty nice stuff.
another shot of the dangerous dog, no wonder our mail man is "terrified" of this monster
I set up the primaries on Dave's 45 earlier this week. I should have the wiring done this weekend. This bike is soooo cool. I love 45s

born free 4 video

Here is a builder spotlight video on Wil Thomas, I have never met him, somebody told me he designs shoes, but I am not sure on that. He has some cool bikes and is going to be in the born free show in june

Pictures of Brittney and Carl riding red bikes

Last weekend Dan, Brittney and Carl took a spin on old bikes while I was at working. Dan just sent the pics to me, I think they turned out pretty cool. Brittney makes the 41 look big
Here is my dad riding John's 48. This bike is awesome. I took it out yesterday.
Here is an action shot of miss brittney. This shot is timeless.

maiden voyages, transmissions, startes, clutches, nubs

This is an amazing pic of Herb Glass with his new 36 knucklehead that he special ordered in 35 with a 33 paint job on the tank. My friend RL from South Carolina posted this pic on the AMCA facebook page. If you guys have facebook, you should go join that group. there are over 1500 amazing pics on there. It is a nice place with free exchange of thoughts and information with out any attitude or politics
Wayne's 46 is operational and mobile. We have been tweaking it and putting in break in miles on it today. I have not ridden it yet, I will take it out for a spin tomorrow. When we finish a bike, my dad takes them for test rides, comes back with a list of adjustments, we make adjustments, then do the cycle all over again. I like to wait to ride them until after my dad or somebody else runs out of suggestions, then I can ride them with a fresh perspective and ear. There usually are only half a dozen things to work on if that.
Here is a cool pic of the riveted plates for a 38 to 40 4 bolt clutch. I cleaned these nice original plates up for Jim's 38. They are primo. This is the clutch set up that you want to use if you are running a 4 bolt clutch in your bike. the earlier bikes had just steel, fiber, steel fiber etc. and they would gaul up and get sticky.
Here is the primary all buttoned up and ready for service. I am waiting on some rear fender clamps to get painted black before I mount the rear fender.
We are working on a batch of transmissions, there are two 55s, a 37, 38, and a 47.
I got the starter for Jason's 65 all cleaned up and ready to go. I am waiting on a boot for the solenoid, then I can button up the primaries and start on the exhaust!
Here is a picture of my dad teaching dan how to co ax in a hole for the main drive gear race. A couple of the transmissions that we are working on had been run with the races loose in the case, so we had to bore them out for oversize races. When the cases were cut originally, the counter bores for the seals were concentric with the hole that the race goes in, so you can usually pick the bore up off of one of those dimensions, if they are shot, then you have to get a long finger for the indicator and dial in off of the hole that the bearing sleeve presses into.
This is the 38 case for my dad's bobber. it is pretty mint. check out the early drain plug, lack of date code and mintness of the castings.
whoa.
Here is a cast iron nub that one of our friends in michigan made. we are rebuilding his 38 motor for him. He couldn't find the correct 38 oil pump, so he machined these nubs out of a big block of cast iron and modified a 39 40 pump to work on his motor.
Here is the finished product. He did a great job, once this is painted it will be almost impossible to tell that it isn't a 38 pump.
one more pic of the case for my dad's 38, the two studs that the brake light switch go on are the same length as the rest of the studs. this has always been a bit of a mystery to me. I have seen some early original cases with the studs farther out, and some with all of the same studs. Do any of you guys have any comment on this? thanks and have a great april fools day