Fender and such...

The fender/tail light/indicators/exhaust wrap arrived on Tuesday, so spent a bit of time on ANZAC Day (Yesterday) installing the fender and tail light - I also taped on the indicator to see what it would look like on the fender strut (ignore the wire sticking out of the fender, that was just sitting there for the photo!!). I also found a way to position the seat lower - still needs a better bracket at the front, but almost there now!

Unfortunately the seat bracket does foul on the fender mount, so I cut a crescent shape out of it, ground it all down and had it looking good, only to find the issue was still there (d'oh!), so cut a little more, but ran out of time, so not quite fixed up yet. More cuttin' and grindin' needed :)

 I have to work this weekend, so probably won't get the chance to work on it - but it's coming along nicely. Much further ahead than where I thought I'd be at this stage! Lucky for the wet weather I guess, otherwise I'd be out working in the yard :)

-Hayds

Mount that seat...

Well, much like yesterday, My Father-in-law and I got stuck into it and managed to fabricate a bracket that bolts on and holds the bolts for the seat springs. Lots of measurements, discussions, cutting, welding and grinding later, we had a functional and strong bracket:

We used bolts with square bases under the smooth round heads, so after drilling and filing the holes to be square, the bolts sat and pulled through nicely with the nuts shown on top of the plate.

As you can see, the seat sits a little high, but with the existing bracket at the front the seat, it doesn't have a lot of options. I will definitely be changing it so that the front of the seat comes down, and of course I will bring the bottom of the seat springs further down the threads - but this part will have to wait until the rear fender arrives and is mounted, so I can ensure there is adequate clearance between it and the seat.

This is kind of what I was trying to describe yesterday - you can see that the original rear fender struts still attach over the top of the new seat bracket, so the fender will be cut (shown by the yellow lines in the picture) and a padded seat will be mounted to it. I'll also put a handle on the back for the passenger to hold on, in case they don't want to hug me :)

If however that still doesn't clear the new fender/tail light/indicators, then I will go to plan 'B', which is using some steel tubing to mount the seat - but we'll go down the path if we have to! The aim is to just have four bolts come out, line up the passenger section and put the four bolts back in, and voila! A Pillion-Passenger-ready bike!

-Hayds

Cut, Grind, (fix wire), cut, shape, bolt and smile...

My Father-in-law came around today, who is a champ at all things cutting, welding, beating, painting, etc, which doesn't surprise me after the thousands of hours he has put in to restoring his FJ Sedan and FJ Ute (from literally rusty shells). When he's around I have more confidence to attack things 'head on', so after some discussions, planning and looking at photos of what some other people have done, we:

1) Cut off the metal bar that the original seat rested on
2) Cut off the excess plastic section at the back of the battery box
3) Ground down the remaining welds that held the metal bar on (then fixed the one wire I cut half way through, lol)
4) Got some light sheet metal and made a 'skin' for the top of battery box to protect the electronics from any wayward water that might get in while riding - shaped it to have a lip at the back, then bolted it in using the existing holes that the original battery support mounted to.

 

After cutting  

  

Excess Parts

 

After Grinding

 

The 'skin' (won't be seen in the end, so I won't paint it)

The plan is to now get some heavy sheet metal and make the top cover that will run from under the tank, along the top of the (now flush) frame, right down to near the rear fender - where it will then fold down so that it can be bolted to the existing bolt holes (where the rear fender was attached to) and bolt in. It will be mounted at the front by the same bolt holding the front of the seat down.

There will be two bolts coming from the bottom, up that the seat springs will mount to. We will most likely strengthen the metal by folding it into a triangular shape at the back. Height at the back of the seat will be controlled by the having two lengthy bolts, with sheaths and washers over them, so depending on the length of the sheath, the springs will be raised/lowered. But of course, I need to wait for the rear fender to arrive before I can do any of this, given I don't yet know it's exact dimensions.

I think the existing bracket at the front of the seat sits too high - I have some plans to lower it, which will also raise the back of the seat a bit, which will also help me not slide off the back while riding :)

We also made some plans for the passenger attachment - using the original struts that held the rear fender on, and a section of the rear fender, these will the have a seat on top (and handle) that can simply bolt on over the top of the bobber fender, tail light etc, so that it's just a 5 minute job to attach it.
Again, I need to know the size of the rear fender that's coming, to make sure this attachment clears it safely. If it doesn't, rather than using a section of the original rear fender to join the two original struts, I'll use some steel rods or sheet metal to fold up and over the height required, and then make a handle at the back.

I'll try to draw all this up to show what I'm trying to say! :)

-Hayds

Seat Arrived

My seat arrived yesterday - I put it on the bike straight away, just to see how it sits and to make sure it is a good size, etc. I'm happy with it so far. I will be getting the angle grinder out and cutting off the stock seat-bar as soon as I can - I'll then weld on a new strut further toward the back of the bike (if the original is too small to relocate), to mount my scissor springs on to. It may be best to wait for the rear fender to arrive though, to make sure there is good clearance between the seat and fender....hopefully that won't be any later than next week!

-Hayds

Electrical Work

I had a couple of hours spare today, so I relocated the Ignition Coil Igniter from the plastic section under the seat, to one of the storage compartments on the side of the bike - continuing to make the section under the solo seat look flush with the frame.


The IC Igniter did fit in the battery box with the small dry-cell battery, starter relay, junction box and pickup coil, but it was a tight fit. So I thought it would be better to just extend the wiring harness for the two clips that go to the IC Igniter and position it well out of the way. Some wire, solder and wiring loom tape later, I have this:


I think it has cleaned it up pretty nicely, and once the seat arrives I will work out the best way to mount it and start looking at shaping some sheet metal to cover the battery box etc. I think it might be a good idea to keep this as 'bare' metal as well, with the opaque blue/clear paint over the top - could look good under the seat.

The best part though was the sound of the bike starting first go after my meddling :)

Parts Parts Parts...

Now that I'm back from overseas, I have made a few orders for parts; a Solo Sprung Seat, some exhaust wrap, a rear fender 'kit' and an electrical kit containing a fender light/license plate holder (given here in Aus we aren't allowed to mount the plates down near the chain guard) and some rear indicators.
I'll post some pictures when they arrive - hopefully won't take too long.

I have been doing some thinking regarding the colour scheme, and I am currently leaning towards the idea of stripping the currently painted metal back to bare metal, and then clear coating it, with highlights from either decals or pin striping - to get something like this, but to make it that little bit more different, I might try mixing in some blue colour to give it a faint blue, opaque look over the top of the 'bare' metal, kind of like this, but not green....I think it looks great.....I'll keep thinking :)


-Hayds

Where to begin...?

Since getting my Motorcycle License in August last year, I have been slowly but surely falling for the simplistic look of Bobber motorcycles. To cut a long story short, I decided to 'build' one.
I am off my standard restrictions on 21st November this year, so have a few months to work on it in my 'spare' time, amongst work (which takes up a lot of weekends), working on my yard/new house etc.

So I went looking for a bike that I could by in good working order and modify my own style, with inspiration from all the awesome bobbers out there. One that wasn't 'too' powerful (if there is such a thing!) and not too expensive - but it had to be reliable.

The resultant donor bike? A 2003 Kawasaki Vulcan 800 Classic:

I know a true 'Bobber' is a bike that has nothing on it that doesn't make it go faster or stop harder, but I really don't want to mess with good working mechanics of the bike - I will stick mostly to aesthetic alterations, and some minor electrical stuff....for now.

I have had a look at a few forums where people have bobbed these bikes, and studied the 'Blue Collar Bobbers' on their website and Youtube - I have also taken a lot of inspiration from the Headbanger Motorcycles' "Hollister", "High Flyin' " and "Summertime". If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend you take a look.

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A lot of decisions are yet to be made, including colour scheme, but think it's best to get the guts of the bike done and all 'mocked up' before deciding on the colour/paintwork required.

So where to begin? I've decided to start with the rear end - the fender and seat came off ASAP and I did some measurements/mocking up for seat and fender sizes. I realised that to keep the shape of the frame the way I want it, the BCB 'Seat Kit' was not the way to go - it was too bulky and takes away from the overall look of the bike. So to do it the way I want it done, I had to replace the stock (Lead Acid) battery with one of these, an 8cell Dry Cell Battery (LiFePO4). I ordered it on a Friday, and received it in Melbourne the following Tuesday morning (from the U.S.A) - awesome.

It kicks harder than my stock battery, and is a third the size.
Not the best photo, but it shows that the Battery and other electrical components will fit in the original battery box, clearing room for my seat and keeping the clean look I'm after.

I will be ordering my Seat and Fender/tail light 'kit' when I get back from overseas in a couple of weeks. For now, it sits in pieces.


-Hayds