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[Dan_Lockwood]

I think that I've mentioned this over the past 11 years off and on, but couldn't find a thread devoted to my build, so here it is.  Hope it's in the correct forum.

Some of you know that many years ago, about 11 or so, I bought a Milwaukee Iron Boardtrack Racer bike project from Milwaukee Iron prior to their going out of business.

It's a Milwaukee Iron frame and I got the wheels, brakes and frontend from them.  The motor is an Ultima 113" with their 2" belt drive and 6 speed trans.  The brakes are HHI 4-piston calipers front and rear to stop the 21" tires front/rear.

I started out with Fat Bob 5-gallon tanks and had the right tank cut out to hide my battery and also hold 5 quarts of oil.  The left tank would then by my 2.5 gallon gas tank.  Cool...   But over the years of it sitting on the table lift, the tanks bugged me to no end.  From the side profile they looked great, but from front on, they looked hideously wide.  So I scrapped them and started making my own tanks, which of course meant that I also needed to make an oil tank now as well.

So I'll start with some old pictures of the Fat Bob version.







The front/rear caliper brackets were SS from MI, but didn't look right next to the caliper, so I had them chromed along with a lot of my home made parts etc.  This is the before picture.



This is the beginning of the new tanks.  Just a bunch of steel cut in pieces.  I quartered a 1-7/8" tube for the rounded corners on the tank seams.  I didn't want the square corners of the sheet metal.  Just added tons more welding is all.





The start of my oil tank.





A rough idea of how the two tanks fit up together with the bib in the middle.



You don't see any gauges as the gauges are in the mirrors.  Also if you look closely, you can see a bundle of wires on the handle bars.  These are for the right side mirror controls, same number of wires on the left mirror.



So this brings me to a good place to add another post.

[Dan_Lockwood]

Here's the finished ready to start body work bike.



I finished the paint work two weekends ago.  Had the color mixed and then put into spray cans.  I used urethane 2K two part glossy clear.  There's a plunger rod on the bottom of the spray can that when pushed breaks the catalyst bag in the can and mixed with the urethane.  The spray color sprayed very well and the clear was a bit to get used to and I did get some runs that I had to wet sand out and polish a bit.  I still have the two tanks to wet sand and finish rubbing out, but that's it for paint work.







I made all of the running board mounts and tried to incorporate anything else with them that I could.  Here's a shot of the home made brake lever along with the master cylinder mount on the transmission.







Here's the home brew shifter assembly.  All bushed with bronze bushing and greased.  Also you may notice that the traditional over the top of the primary shift linkage is missing.  I did a bit of work on the trans shifter and made a new one to come out the bottom and still clear all my primary housing etc.  So my linkage is all under the primary and hidden from view.  Also on the bottom of the belt drive, I incorporated the rear running board mount with the voltage regulator mount.  The regulator is in the wind, but kind of hidden up under the belt drive.





Another picture of the shift linkage and voltage regulator.



The Ultima 2" belt drive was polished aluminum and didn't really look good with the bike theme etc.  I painted it with Harley textured black paint.  I think it looks a ton better black.  Also the clutch cover and pulley cover were polished aluminum.  The belt trim retainer was chromed from Ultima and looked really bad with the polished aluminum.  I had them chromed as well.  My guy can get my chrome work done in less than two weeks.  The last bunch he picked up on Monday afternoon and I got them back that Wednesday afternoon.  He apologized for taking soooo long.



Time for another post with more stuff!

[Dan_Lockwood]

Here's more for your entertainment!

I bought the chain guard with some parts at a swap meet and it was chromed and had two holes for mounting.  I wasn't going to run a chain guard, but painted it at the same time just in case.  I'm glad now I did.  Having to use the two holes made the mounting a bit intriguing to say the least.  The front is a 5/16" rod bent in several ways and then welded to the two sleeves with button heads holding it on.  I used a small plastic washer to protect the paint on both mounts.  The rear mount I had to drill and tap the inside of the rear frame, which required me taking off the rear wheel... AGAIN!  But with the front painted to match the belt drive and the rear painted to match some of the other blue things going on in the rear, I think it turned out nicely.



A rear shot showing the twin mufflers coming out the rear.  The MI frame was designed as a Boardtrack, but made wide enough for a 200mm rear tire.  This left way too much tire to inner frame tube clearance and just looked dumb.  I used this space to run my mufflers through and they took up the space very well.  Looks kind of like a plan happened.



This is the finished oil tank with the custom MI logo I had made up.  I used a local company to do the logo and the tank decals.  I did the original design work on the tank decals and then worked with the graphics lady to come up with the final color and font style.  Two or three tries and it turned out just right.  Almost matches MI's front company sign they have on the Internet etc.





Since you have to lift up the seat to check the oil, I made the seat post rods a bit longer so it's not really possible when riding to come off the posts, but you can easily lift the seat to check the oil.





This is it with just one half of the tank set on for a good look see.  It's really coming along very well now that I've been "working" on it for 11 years.  Bottom line is that I have to finish it and sell it to fund my Harley powered car project coming up.  I'll put a couple hundred miles on it and make sure it's good to go and then list it for sale, but until then, I'll keep you guys updated with the progress.  I hope to possibly fire it up by Sunday before we go to MI for the holidays to see family and friends.





Still have all the frontend wiring and tail lights to do.  But it's going fast now!

Hope you are all staying safe and healthy from COVID.

Have a great holiday season!

Dan

[GregKhougaz]

Very Nice!      

[OBB]

WOW! That looks great. Nice work.

[FLSTFI Dave]

Wow.  That looks fantastic.  Great work.

[Wrongway]

 Looks great and your foresight and craftsmanship are above and beyond! 

[pudgeyxj]

Tres Cool!!! Wasn't sold on the new tank design at first, but the finished product makes it look like it belongs. Very, very nice work. I also like how the duals come out the back. Doubt this will last long once for sale.

Cheers

Paul

[fastfreddy]

home made  CVO .... love it !!!!        have a great holiday and stay safe

[Dan_Lockwood]

Thanks guys.

I still have tons to do on this.  I was thinking last night that I've spent about the same amount of working hours on this as I did building my '40 Willys coupe.  Only I wish I had never sold my Willys and my wife is still pissed at me for doing so.

Now I'm off to the farm store to buy some more button head bolts.  They have a huge supply of custom nuts/bolts etc, LOTS!  Although when you buy a 5/16 1-3/4 chrome bolt for $5.99 each, it doesn't take long to add up on the ole wallet...

So many little things that I missed in my pre-build years that it's taking me lots of thinking time to figure out things, like the chain guard mounting brackets etc.

I'm dreading the handlebar wiring for sure.  With about 12 wires from each mirror for the digital gauges in each, along with 3 push buttons on each hand grip area, it will take some time to get it all sorted out correctly I'm sure.  But with the furnace on in the garage and XM playing on the stereo, I'm good to spend as much time as I need to get it done right.

Yes, the tanks did give me some issues on the design.  I knew I wanted a flat side square'ish looking tank setup, but the front of the tanks kind of had me stymied.  As Paul said, they turned out okay and "look" correct.

I'm excited to get it running.  Had it for 11 years and never heard it fire up.  I think the factory warranty is long gone...   But everything is still NEW!

Thanks again everyone and stay safe!

[RivRaptor]

Amazing!  Nice craftsmanship

[rayson56]

A MAY ZING!! Better clear off some shelf space cuz you'll need it for all those trophy's you'll be bringing home!

[08glide]

I'm from Lynchburg,Va & MI  was herejust down the road a few miles back in the 90's upto around 2007 ( there about. not sure of exact date or year). just curios about the Milwaukee Iron & logo? where did you come up with it? do I know you & can't remember. I have a t-shirt for a benefit we did for Wolfie

[B.A.]

The chain guard does NOT detract.  Nice addition, IMHO!!

Great job!!!

[kevin_n]

Looks amazing Dan, wish I could see it one person before you sell it. I can't remember, did you sell your 76? ( it was a 76 right? 😁) Hope you and Linda have safe travels to Michigan and have a good Christmas.