mini-b and some minor maintainence

The chenco special had a bit of a oil leak in the head gasket. No time like the present to fix it .  about 45 minutes is all it took. Trouble head, maybe.  Easy to work on, definitely.

Saturday

Last views of my Chevy cream puff.

Mini-B finally finished putting his truck back together after nearly 2 years.

Harley Sprint Action

The Sprint that we built for season 4 of Café Racer TV that is yet to air.

  The Sprint SS, although beautiful, has never been quite right.  The biggest issue was just the fact that it was a complete pain in the ass to start. You would kick and kick and kick , charge the battery and kick and kick so Mini never really wanted to ride it.........  We suspected a carb issue however I noticed a huge current draw when it was on the charger that coincided with the points opening and closing, Hmmmm.  The points are good , the coil is new so I figured as weird as it is, the condenser must have a partial short.  Now when we checked for spark it was always good but fuck it, something wasn't right.    So, we pulled the carb, cleaned it out and swapped the capacitor for a old Honda one and 2 lazy kicks later she was running.  The current draw issue is better as well.   Its hard to say what fixed it but who fuckin cares,  its running.

Went to Wauseon

Mini and I rode to Wauseon over the weekend and these are the only 2 pictures I took.

We had a blast.  The swap meet was good although I didn't buy shit.   I have some stories of the parts that got away.

Rained out yesterday so we did this shit.

 

 

Well, I arrived to the shop yesterday and put some gas in the Turbo Honda and buzzed it around the hood for about 15 minutes after putting a thunder-jet in the carb.  It was pretty hot out so probably not the best to break in a motor but whatever.    As I was pulling into the shop I noticed my tree blowing all over the place, a storm was brewing and I hadn't noticed with my face planted on gauges while I was riding around the hood.  Mini-b showed up shortly after that and the rain started dumping on us so we stayed in the shop and made a stainless fork brace for the sporty and put a "better" drive chain on the GSXR.

The big news is that I received my 1327 piston / block set for my old Z1-900 Kaw.  I have been bidding on eBay for years trying to win this one and here it is.  All I need now is some 32 tooth cam sprockets, a longer timing chain, Teflon buttons rather than cir-clips, a basic gasket kit and huge base gasket / shim.   At least now I can get the cases off of the shelf and start to bore them out to fit the hugeness that I'm about to stick to it.  Needless to say, I'm pretty stoked.

Mini-b gets new rubber

A pair of ole school Avon's.  The Champion Deluxe that were on there still have a lot of tread but ever since we put them on the front tire was not round limiting his speed down to about 60.  He is a trooper for tolerating it this long.   He also relined his brakes fixed some stripped holes and oil leak as well as a new solenoid for his starter. Topped that off with some stainless hardware and some rocker box studs.  I would like to talk him into a fork brace of sorts but he is itchin to get back on his bike.  we will see what the weather is like later.

Mini-b scrubbin off the rust......finally

It seems that pictures of this narrow bastard have been getting around the Internet.  We are just excited to see him finally wash salt off it I guess.

Mini-b's Skid Lid

Mini stopped by over the weekend and finished up the inlay on his helmet. Sunday, we tossed it in the booth for some clear.   It turned out pretty fucking spectacular.  Nice job bro!

Mini-b is

Doing some amazing shit to his helmet.

Although I typically only talk about tits, ass, tattoos and bikes here, I give craftsmen of all crafts great respect.

Mini-b is a fine wood smith and finish carpenter that prefers making shit the way it used to be made. In this instance he is taking the plunge and using real wood veneers and inlaying a pretty complex pattern on his only helmet.    To think I complain about painting this stuff... He is hand cutting each and every component and gluing it in place seamlessly.      Your shit is going to be fucken killer vato.

Mini-b's Sporty chop ( the Chenko special )

Is in the Horse bc this month with a very curvy Mellisa Jo.  Click on the Chenko Special sidebar for some of the build history.  Go buy a mag to see the 8 pages of her and great detail shots of the bike.

Thanks Mini !

Mini-b made this carbide tipped scribe for the shop over the weekend.  He's always bitchin that I use my dividers for a scribe, so he fixed the problem.  Thanks my brother !

Chenko Special , Mini-b's Ironhead

I was going through old pictures and found these shots while we were building Mini-b's sporty.

Kinda cool to look back at.

Heavy Metal

Mini-b took a visit to Greenfield Village over the weekend and snapped some pictures of awesome.

Old machinery is one of those things that they really don't make like they used to. Sometimes you can find old solutions to new problems that just make sense when you use and look at it. Old machinery is art as far as I'm concerned.

After saying this , My 1940's mill that I converted to CNC is on the fritz, I need to tear it down and replace a thrust bearing in the knee because my servo is no longer strong enough to move it consistently. It is allot of work to tear into the knee but the part should be inexpensive and I should get another 70 years out of it as long as I can get some sort of remote lubrication gizmo on it. In the mean time I don't have to time free to dig into it and I need to use the damn thing, not to mention my summer is burning and I want to get out and ride my bike. Very frustrating.

Before and After

The Sprint came out so nice that its easy to forget that it was a dirt bike in its previous life.

I have to admit, I wouldn't mind scrambling through the woods on one with all of the torque and throttle you need. Makes me want a original 350SS .

something to post

mini-b in the spot light putting the very last piece on the Sprint Cafe Racer TV project bike. Look for the show in late fall on Velocity HD channel.
its been frigging hot out so I'm taking a short break from the shop , maybe go to Greg and Gabby's to help with the Guzzi tonight . It's always a good time with them.

Cafe Racer Harley Sprint = Done!!!

Saturday, we made this tail lamp from a old exhaust reducer draw.

Sunday we took'er for a spin around the hood. Everything is backwards on this thing, the kickstand is on the right ,The kicker is on the left, the shifter is on the right and has a up side down shift pattern, brake on the left. I don't have a issue with the shifter and brake being swapped , its the up side down shift pattern that is messing with us. Mini-b was super stoked with the results of the build and it was great to see him grinning ear to ear on the test ride. It is pretty quick for a 350 4 stroker. We haven't had it on any land speed runs but I ran it up to about 60 on the side streets with no problem, so with Mini-b on her, it will be a monster and my guess is a change of final gear ratio will be needed to get the full bike and rider potential out if it.

Greg, the speedo works great, thanks.

Harley Sprint Cafe Racer , So Close

so, other than putting the chain on , some gas in the tank and some bolts in the seat, it's ready for a test ride. Charging system confirmed working . She sounds quite responsive to the throttle so I'm hoping for some wheelie popping power, That would be pretty cool for the show. Might reveal it at the Ton-up event on the 30th , we will see. we still have to make the tail lamp and license plate bracket probably a few things that I'm not thinking of at the moment .

Diesel, I wore my ZON shirt on a day of taping the build , although sadly I have worn it out and will have to retire it soon. Have anymore round guy sizes left in black ?

Simplified Wiring Schematic For The 350/250 SS Harley Sprint

Sketched out this fun looking diagram yesterday while I was shooting wires to everything. 

Just a half ass picture of the super simple stupid exhaust system we built from some junk exhaust.

Sneaky VonPeekerson

Its looking pretty sexy.   Working on the wiring and boring details like switches and cables and ignition and other not so fun to do things that are a real sleeper to get through.   Greg donated a original speedometer the other day that will be perfect in there ,  Thanks Homie!!

Professional lighting is awesome !!!!

I snapped this picture with my phone while I was walking by as the crew was setting up a shot .   It was really cool how the lighting transformed the big picture. They experimented with a few lighting effects and some film trickery .    I learned allot and I think I might finally take some decent pictures once in a while if I apply myself to it.