Lesters Swing Arm bobber, Brat type build thread

[Lester]

looking good so far hope You get a welder soon.
It's great that You have such good help.
That seat is going to ride fine.

Thanks Carb,

 

[Lester]

The primer was nice and dry so I spent the evening Trimming and fitting the tubes. I also made up some weld plugs that were tighter fitting than the ones that came with the kit.... this made fitting alittle more time consuming and teadious. I think it looks OK like this. I REALLY need that welder ! Parts are in the mail and should be here this week!
I also got a hold of a big set of bed sheets to get the busy background out of the view.

This is where I am now.

 

[Sn34ky]

Did you use a tube notcher to fit the tubing on the downtube/backbone? nice progress so far! Keep it on!

 

[Lester]

Did you use a tube notcher to fit the tubing on the downtube/backbone? nice progress so far! Keep it on!

Thanks. No, just grinding and fitting and grinding and fitting... took a good couple hours to get them right... and they probably have room for improvment. I like to use the flap-disk grinding wheel for this kind of fitting.... I put the grinder in the vice on my work bench when I am in fine tune mode... LOL. It works.... just protect your eyes, ears and watch your fingers.

 

[I am Carbon]

If I didn't have an angle grinder I would be lost!
cutoff wheels, flapdisks,grinding wheels.
Looks good

 

[Lester]

Well I had to side track as I wait for the welder parts... should be in the mailbox byt now. I have always had a bicycle type pedal on my kicker so I wanted to have this on the XS as well. I had a set of vitage pedals laying around... german made so they are bullet proof.

They looked sort of Bicycle-ish so I wanted to bling them up some. I played around with the CAD program at work and came out with two options I liked... asked some good biker friends which was more pleasing to the eye and option 1 was chosen.

So machining I went... With the help of a CAD drawing I was able to make a 1:1 stencil out of thing plywood... set the dail indicator on this I was able to machine the radius pretty good following the coordinates on the drawing. No accuracy on this just blig-bling, next I eyeballed in for the holes in my home brew drillpress.

The vintage pedal was rivited together so I had to get it back together somehow... ended up going with M5 threaded stock and stainless steel nuts.

Now to get the kicker arm ready... also had to fitt the pedal axel to the kicker arm...
Now I need the welder again ! ! !

 

[Lester]

I have finally got a chance to experiment with the '54 pontiac hubcap I have been waiting for. Jdizon... we have discused this before in different thread... well it looks like its a no go... I really think it looks amazing and gives new life to the mag, I really like how the Pontiac letters show too BUT as you can see its a sloppy fit.... 5-6 more mm and it would be perfect.
I will be looking into running a 19" mag in the rear which was Plan B.... not a bad plan B.

 

[jdizon]

I have finally got a chance to experiment with the '54 pontiac hubcap I have been waiting for. Jdizon... we have discused this before in different thread... well it looks like its a no go... I really think it looks amazing and gives new life to the mag, I really like how the Pontiac letters show too BUT as you can see its a sloppy fit.... 5-6 more mm and it would be perfect.
I will be looking into running a 19" mag in the rear which was Plan B.... not a bad plan B.

Damn it would have looked badass with that hub cap! Get your welder fixed! Can't wait to see more progress!

 

[Lester]

Damn it would have looked badass with that hub cap! Get your welder fixed! Can't wait to see more progress!

I know its killing me.... the other hub cap is red instead of white.... would have been so nice if they would have fit.... they will look nice on the wall in the shop.
I picked up the spares for the welder yesterday.... Hopefully I'll get most of the day in the shop tomorrow. I'll post as soon as I have something to show off.

Cheers
Lester

 

[jdizon]

Right on! Can't wait to see your show off pics

 

[ember]

That plywood contour template is a cool idea. Did you manually feed the lathe as you turned it so you can make the fine adjustments?

 

[Lester]

That plywood contour template is a cool idea. Did you manually feed the lathe as you turned it so you can make the fine adjustments?

Ember,
yea it was a cool trick and it worked pretty good too. The lathe was turning at about 600rpm... I first turned the stock down to max diameter and zeroed out the dial indicator... then I turned down both low points in the contour... then I just machined from the low point to the high point both ways useing the dial indicator and the coordinates. I had a smiple chart with coordinates every two millimeters. With the way I placed the contour "jig" or "stencil" I had to lock the main quill and only use the cross slide and top slide. Its alot of help to have a large radius cutting tool too.
Have a go at it its not that hard really.

Best of luck
Lester

 

[Sn34ky]

How about rolling a rod around the edge of the hub cap, just the smallest diameter that will fill the empty space and get a tight fit? Weld it to the cap and your good to go!

 

[Lester]

How about rolling a rod around the edge of the hub cap, just the smallest diameter that will fill the empty space and get a tight fit? Weld it to the cap and your good to go!

Thanks Sn34ky,
I did give that a thought but I don't like the idea of "loose" items on wheels. Not a bad Idea just didn't apeal at the time. I haven't ordered the front to rear wheel kit yet.....

 

[Lester]

THE WELDER IS UP AND RUNNING !

That was about time... well I got started welding the kit on the first bike...
tubes are on and the welds don't look too bad... presentable anyways...lol
Still need to weld the shockabsorbers to the tubes, I just playing around with placment.
I'll tack them in place then flip the frame on its side to weld the seems... I'll have more luck with the result that way.

I also got to finishing up the engine stand... all made of scrap so it is what it is...
made two of these... its a splitt deal so I can scoop it on to the engine instead of lifting the engine in.
It works pretty good but has improvment potential.... like when I have to split the cases.... I'll get it right next time .
Yea I know its overkill... I made a real solid design since I'll be dragging it along the floor out of the way and so on.

 

[smoker]

Man, that hubcap idea is sweet... hard to tell without seeing it in person, but what about reshaping the outermost part of the cap? It looks like it has a bit of a lip on it, would it be possible to flatten it out to kind of stretch it a bit? And I'm liking your build so far. I'm starting to lean towards keeping my swingarm for my build... the back roads around here are not smooth, to say the least.

 

[Sn34ky]

are you planning on using stock rear shocks or shorter like rebel shocks? don't forget your drive chain before tacking those shocks mounts!! too much angle on the swing arm might get you some issues! Love your build man! Hope some warmer days show up for starting my tear down!!

 

[I am Carbon]

Lester Its good to see your welder is going again.
I like the kickstart!
the hubcap is looking cool too.
Keep up the good work!

 

[jdizon]

Another vote for the hub cap!

 

[Lester]

Man, that hubcap idea is sweet... hard to tell without seeing it in person, but what about reshaping the outermost part of the cap? It looks like it has a bit of a lip on it, would it be possible to flatten it out to kind of stretch it a bit? And I'm liking your build so far. I'm starting to lean towards keeping my swingarm for my build... the back roads around here are not smooth, to say the least.

Smoker you are right about the outer most part of the rim and I have tried pressing it "flater" but its not happening unless i splitt it.
I'm all for the swing arm pushing 40.... lol.
Plus it will handle better and can be ridden harder... not too old for that.

are you planning on using stock rear shocks or shorter like rebel shocks? don't forget your drive chain before tacking those shocks mounts!! too much angle on the swing arm might get you some issues! Love your build man! Hope some warmer days show up for starting my tear down!!

Thanks Sneaky,
I've got a set of new shocks stock lenght for my bike and the wifes bike will have old stock shocks until I get some more cash.
I've heard negative stuff about the rebel shocks, wouldn't go out of my way to get some of thouse.
I'm pretty sure the chain will be fine... hope so because one side is all welded up already....LOL.

Lester Its good to see your welder is going again.
I like the kickstart!
the hubcap is looking cool too.
Keep up the good work!

Thanks ! I'll have more pictures soon.

Another vote for the hub cap!

I'm loosing sleep over this hub cap.... LOL.
When I get a roller going I'll put it on and see how it looks on the bike and take it from there.