I see you!

I have been busy going through and crossing things off a punch list of little things I wanted to tweak on the Beezerker. The biggest item was getting rid of the capacitor and replacing it with a small custom lithium-ion battery I had made. Now the halogen bulb lights up nice and bright!

Beezerker T-shirts in the works

It's been just over a week since we got back from Sturgis. Life is starting to get back to some resemblance of normal. Finally taking some time to work on little projects that took a back seat to getting the bike done. I had all the best intentions of getting some Beezerker t-shirts made before AMD but that just didn't happen. Normally I burn screens and print them on the kitchen table. This time around I will have someone else make them so I can focus on other Speed Shop projects. I drew this a while ago and thought it would make a cool shirt. Not sure what the final color selection will be but it will be basic one color printing on a solid color T. If anyone wants a shirt I'll sell them for cost plus shipping, probably between 10-15 bucks depending on the number I order. Just let me know size and quantity... I'll place my order in a couple of weeks.

The Little Bits

Lots and lots of little bits! I have been wet sanding and buffing paint for what seams like forever and now I get to put the Beezerker together. Still probably have close to 100 hours of sanding and hand polishing on the tank and tail piece before we head down to Cali for the Long Beach show.

A body of work!

Today I finished the fabrication of the body work and I am so relieved! This is the first time I have ever made anything out of aluminum sheet metal and I have to say it was a bit of a challenge. I did something a little unusual in that I kept most of the edges really sharp. I like the stealthy look of it and it will really compliment the sheet metal fork as well. Originally I intended to make the seat and tank one piece all welded together but after experiencing how much stresses will cause some welded areas to crack I decided it would be best to fasten them together. The vertical seam matches a detail on the fork which will help pull it all together.

I'm liking it!

A few weeks ago while my brother was in town I dragged him into the shop to help me mock up the Beezerker for the final time before I tore it down to rebuild the motor. It was the most complete I had ever seen the bike and was the first time I got to sit on it and make "brum, brum" sounds while my brother took some pictures. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it stacks up to the big boys at AMD this August.

Aluminum is your friend!

For the past couple of weeks I have been beating aluminum into submission and having a blast. I have never made a complete body from aluminum... come to think of it, I've never fabricated a tank from aluminum. What you see here still has a ways to go and will look pretty different when I'm done. Along with the body work I have been filling short windows of time with smaller projects like a velocity stack and an extension to the engine case to what I am calling the chain guard. The case stopped abruptly and it just didn't flow into the frame and now it looks much better.

Back on track

After being gone on vacation for two weeks I was very excited to get back in the shop. Here is a shot of one of the stainless headers I built just before I left for Tokyo. The other image is of the shift arm and linkage in the works. The peg will mount where that socket head is. All pieces are stainless steel.

Overly complicated never looked so simple

Tonight I finally got the rear brake on the BSA put together. What your looking at is a mechanical sprotor. I designed the rear caliper around a simple mechanical brake you find on industrial machines. The way it will work is the left rear set control will actuate it via a wedge which pushes up between the two adjustable ball bearings, pushing the arms open and the brake pads together. The brake arms are aluminum and most everything else is stainless. I still need to rivet the brake shoe material to the backing plates.

I got pegged :p

The other day I spent way too much time on the mill making these pegs for my rear-sets. More of what I like to call freestyle machining. I always have a general idea in my mind but as I whittle away I let it evolve. I feel that it just makes a better part in the long run. Reacting to lines and proportions as they change is a very exciting way to see something materialize. These started life as 4 1/2" long pieces of 1 1/2" diameter 6061 T6 rod. I plan to do a fair amount of hand finishing and then maybe a bead blasting and spot polishing for final finish... we will see.

Filler....

Next week I will be buying the aluminum for the one piece tail piece and fuel tank for the BSA. To get under way with it's fabrication I need to turn a few parts such as oil filler, gas cap, and the petcock bung. Today I was able to pump out the gas cap and it's bug and I am really happy with it. It's over sized in that it is 3.75" in diameter but very thin. It will fit the top of the tank perfectly. I can't wait to get the sheet metal underway!

Christmas comes late...

or early depending on how you look at it. I scored this carburetor on Ebay for twenty dollars and it is in mint condition. I have a mock up carb on the BSA now and was dreading having to rebuild it because it's in bad shape. This is an original carb that was rebuilt years and years ago and sat on a shelf till I found it on Ebay. All I need to do to dial it in for the BSA is alter the float bowl angle! I'm very happy!!!

More is Less!?

Well in this case it's proving to be so. I am loosing track of the hours I have spent bending, cutting, tapering, welding, and grinding of various tubing profiles to achieve the cleanest lines possible on this build. The killer is if someone doesn't understand tubing and the limited profiles available all this work is lost. Oh well, this bike certainly won't be appreciated nor liked by all and that's just fine with me!

Pretty Colors

Today I worked nine hours on the BSA and had so little to show for my efforts at the end of it. Oh well, they say slow and steady wins the race, eh?

One of my accomplishments was welding up and tacking on the rear motor mount.

I enjoyed welding today... surprised it came out as well as it did considering how much coffee I drank this morning ;)

Coming to a head.

Head tube fitment to the BSA's downtube.

Striking Oil!

It's been a very busy couple of weeks here at Speed Shop. Between all the family gatherings and holiday celebrations and the eating I have been busy at work on the BSA. What you see here is the down tube which just happens to be the oil tank. When you see the entire bike as a whole it will make lots more sense but until then here are some details:

Happy New Year everyone!

Staying the course!

It may not look it from my lack of posts but things are moving along well with the BSA. I have the wheels back from Buchanans and they look awesome! Tires are mounted and I am really happy with my tire, rim, and hub combo.

A while back I purchased some 1" x 2" race-track oval tubing to use in the frame construction of the BSA. A couple of weeks ago I made some 1" diameter rolling dies and rolled a length of the tube the hard way. After determining the lengths needed for the chainstays I chopped up the arc I created and then began to taper them down like a bicycle chainstay. I was able to cut out curved pieces of pie from the flat sides. After dressing the weld area I tacked then fully tig welded each of the tapers up.

After all this work I was only about half done because now I needed to bend them in towards each other to wrap around the front of the tire. This was done by bending a piece of 1" tube which I split and welded in 1" flat bar to make my bends. After much more welding and hand finishing I think they came out pretty nice, I'm really happy with them.

Oh, forgot to mention what I did about three weeks ago... I brazed stainless steel axle slide plates to both sides of each drop out. It took so much heat to flow the silver, it was a big pain in the butt. I ended up having to use some fire bricks to make an open top furnace to get things hot enough to braze and get full coverage.

I'm really wracking up the hours on this build. Between the cainstays and drop outs I have about 40 hours :P

Tire mounting magic!

My BSA project utilizes clincher rims and tires which I had no experience with until today. I found this a couple of weeks ago and tonight I was amazed how well it worked.

Tire Mounting MAGIC!

Being framed

Finally after countless hours building the girder fork I have started on the frame. A portion of the frame is made of stainless with the majority in mild steel. Where the two materials meet I wanted to treat it like you would a lug on a bicycle frame so I coped the steel and press fit the stainless into it after which I ran a little tig bead around. I love the zen like moments that tig welding creates... I love the focus!

Parts is parts...

... well not really. Last week I spent allot of time on the lathe, mill, and the belt sander making more components for the BSA project. This bike is about 95% one off components, pretty much the only thing I'm not fabricating is the engine. What your looking at here are a couple of top plates for the girder fork as well as some front axle pockets. I also machined some stainless exhaust couplers for the unique 2 into 1 system the bike will have. The other pieces are aluminum and something I am not going to talk about... you will just have to wait and see the finished bike to understand what they are ;)

Hopefully next week I start welding some frame components together but I'm not so sure, I still have a shopping list of parts to machine about a mile long.

Bustin some BSA butt

I have been working every spare moment on the BSA project these past couple of weeks. Lots of parts machined and cut out of sheet steel for the front end. I also have the hubs and clencher rims prepped and ready for powdercoating then off for some custom spokes.

Here are some images of the steerer tube and head tube assembly. I'm pretty close to starting the sheet metal for the front end so I am super excited!!!

I am machining lots of stuff from stainless on this bike like my last one(#6) because it allows me to not have to worry about plating effecting my tolerances plus a stainless finish never fails ;)