[AgentX]

Chumma was aided by another friend, a rider I met briefly at a local dive where I had taken my four year old for dinner.

Scoped the Honda cafe racers outside and realized the riders were members of another website I participate in, dotheton.com.  Got this guy in touch with my fabricator and in exchange, he agreed to help me with this project.  Called in the favor and he was Johnny on the Spot to help out Chumma.  Truly a generous act.

Cheers and beers to these two superheroes!

[Chuck D]

Chumma does very nice work!
 

Was gonna give him a ring but I think I'll let him sleep.

[Chuck D]

AgentX... your bike is going to be killer! Enjoy!

Chuck.

[AgentX]

Thanks, Chuck.

But mostly thanks to Tom and Chumma...  having the engine hand-delivered and installed in the frame was critical for me.  A real above and beyond.

Wish we could have sync'd it up so I was there to assist, but mostly I'm just psyched it'll be packed and on its way soon!

[AgentX]

It has arrived...!  Laid the seat and tank into place before getting on with the unpacking of the house...bars are still upside down from shipping.

Now I have more work ahead of me than I had really anticipated.  There is a LOT of stuff to do.

[High On Octane]

Cool!  I like that new seat/tail  section.   

[ERC]

There's way to much stuff hanging from your walls. Like the bike though.    ERC

[boggy]

So it looks like you have a brace going from the inside of the shock's mount up to the seat, is that right?  Pretty cool idea.  Been trying to think of way to get a flat seat on the frame.

Really dig the Thunderbird fork setup.

[AgentX]

So it looks like you have a brace going from the inside of the shock's mount up to the seat, is that right?  Pretty cool idea.  Been trying to think of way to get a flat seat on the frame.

Really dig the Thunderbird fork setup.

There's a nub welded onto the top of each shock mount, and the aluminum seat tray has legs which fit over the nubs.  The nub is drilled and tapped for a small machine screw and there's a corresponding hole in the seat tray leg.

In front, the flat aluminum pan is bolted through to a small threaded boss on either side of the main tube.


If you used a clevis-type end on the seat tray leg, to fit on either side of the shock mount with the mounting bolt going through, it might be a simpler way to mount it up on the rear.  I left my fabricator alone with the frame for a few days and he did this arrangement for me... 

I like the Thunderbird forks too, but a set of custom or Hitchcock crowns may be in the works for someday.  It's kind of heavy and ungainly.  Would be nice to go to a standard dual triple-clamp arrangement instead of the bolt-through-the-top setup.

I do have these head bearing cups on the way, too:

[mattsz]

Hurry up and get my new bike off that truck - I wanna ride it!!!

[AgentX]

Cool!  I like that new seat/tail  section.   

Thanks...like the rest of the bike it's a bit rough and ready but it suits.  Equipped with three captive Dzus fasteners to take it off/on and access the under-tray for the electrics etc.  Got twin tail lights and a license bracket (conveniently acting as a mudcatcher) built in, too.

It came to me raw aluminum...I had it polished in India since that's super-cheap there, but then its handling by the guys who fabbed the first seat mount brought it back to quite beaten and scratched up. 

Debating the final iteration; might even paint it to (mis-)match the rest of the bike, which is at least 5 different shades of olive drab now.  Even the case halves are mismatched to one another and the transmission (which itself is mismatched between case and cover).  But the metal also catches some of the new shinier bits like the alloy rims etc.  For now, it's just someplace to hopefully put my ass eventually when it moves.  I'll worry about the finish later.  The upholstery might be the first issue to tackle.  The guy who I used charged a ton and made a gorgeous seatcover, but the underlying padding is half taken up with a piece of skillfully bent wood as a seat pan.  Might be a little to firm even for my bicyclist's derriere.

I was pretty miffed, seeing as I'd paid him to do a snap-on cover with an inch and a half of foam underneath.  It was a big mix-up as to how I ended up using him...he shares his shop with a different guy who does cafe seats regularly.

[High On Octane]

I just had a thought X.  I remember you mentioning before that the all the OD Green is mismatched, but I have an idea for getting it all to blend and not notice and still be within your theme.  What if you painted your bike with a ODG digital camo theme? 

[AgentX]

I just had a thought X.  I remember you mentioning before that the all the OD Green is mismatched, but I have an idea for getting it all to blend and not notice and still be within your theme.  What if you painted your bike with a ODG digital camo theme? 

Not really my cup of tea...would be a good way to get it all to blend, but that's work/time/money/effort I don't have anyhow.  It's f'n ugly. (ed:  the bike as it stands, that is...) I don't mind.  I once deliberately keyed my own tank to prove a point to an aghast Indian painter who was desperate to give me a "cool" paint scheme.

[High On Octane]

Not really my cup of tea...would be a good way to get it all to blend, but that's work/time/money/effort I don't have anyhow.  It's f'n ugly.  I don't mind.  I once deliberately keyed my own tank to prove a point to an aghast Indian painter who was desperate to give me a "cool" paint scheme.

I understand, not really my thing either.  Like I said, just a thought.  But that is awesome about keying your own tank.  Honestly, I'm still riding around with a Super Meteor sized crater in my Super Meteor (Trailblazer) gas tank.     It has since lost a chunk of body filler and paint since I took this pic.  I'll fix it one of these days. 

[AgentX]

Hardly a monumental day.  Got the tank stud buffer into the frame.     Mocked up the kicker and it clears the new footpegs when folded, so whoopee for that; shifter linkage rod will work, too.  Filed out the mounting tabs on the tank so that the rear tank stud would actually pass through them.

And got stuck trying to replace the footrest support hex rod with a shorter one.  (With the new peg position, it serves no purpose, so I just want to clean up the look instead of a long goofy bar with spacers sticking out into nowhere...)

I tried to drift the old one out using the new one to avoid any shifting of the engine mount plates, but that didn't work, and now I can't get the new rod through.  Tomorrow I'm going to put both sides of the frame up on jacks, supporting the empty footpeg mount bosses, and hope that supporting the frame from there lets me get the rod through by flexing the 1mm or so I need to line things up.

Other than that, I mocked up the under-seat electrics tray and took a photo and labeled it so I don't forget!  (attached)