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[Dan_Lockwood]

Hi all....

Well it started big time for this project yesterday about noon.

I picked up my new motor, trans, belt drive and starter.  Also picked up were a pair of Avon tires, 120/70-21 Cobra's.

I've attached a few pictures of the motor trans combo here and the rest are on my Picture Trail site.

Enjoy...









This is an Ultima 113" rated at 125 rwhp and 115 tq.  It comes with a Mikuni carb/A-C, heavy duty oil pump and adjustable single fire ignition.  I'll have to supply the single fire coil and point cover.  The trans is Ultima's 6 spd O/D model and I'll be converting it back to a chain drive.  It takes a standard electronic speedo sensor so I'll be using a speedo on this bike.  The belt drive is their 2" Old School with Barnnet clutches.  The starter is also an Ultima 1.75 Kw chrome version with a start button on the end of the solenoid if needed.

So as they say, "Let the games begin".

My frame, wheels, brakes, frontend etc should be here in a couple weeks.

I'll be posting updates as I progress.

As I said on another thread, I've painted cars before and done some of the new urethane painting, but not too much.  This is a small enough project that I'm going to try and do my own paint work.  I'll also be fabbing the gas tank and oil tank myself so I can get what I need to have to make it all come together.  I think the tank will be two tanks, one on each side.  One will be gas and the other side will probably be my oil and a gas reserve tank.  Having them split, I plan to do all the wiring and hide it within the two halves with a cover matching the tanks.  I'm still thinking of the issues and just what I want it to look like.

If anyone has suggestions or questions during my build, feel free to bring them up.  I'm learning as I go and I see others may be following this with a prospect of doing something similar.

If anyone wants to take a look at the rest of the Board Track photos, or some of my "other" projects that I've had, you can go to the following link.

www.picturetrail.com/Dan_Lockwood

Later dudes and dudettes...

Dan

[sadunbar]

This should be great fun and enjoyable to watch as you progress thru the build.  Thanks for sharing and include lots of pictures!   

[Hoist!]

This should be great fun and enjoyable to watch as you progress thru the build.  Thanks for sharing and include lots of pictures!   

I'm with Scott on this! Can't wait to see your progess reports thru this build! Good luck and have fun with it Dan! And you can be sure the peanut gallery won't be quiet! Cool project man!

Hoist!

[Rooster452]

Any plans for the color scheme yet?
Thanks for letting us tag along......

[Dan_Lockwood]

Any plans for the color scheme yet?
Thanks for letting us tag along......

I'm thinking about red.  Maybe two tone or three tone, not sure.  I'm thinking some pinstripes on the frame as in the "old" days might look good.

As I said before, my thought about the tank is to make it in two pieces, left and right halves.  The left half may have the oil tank up front with the rear portion being a reserve tank.  There may be some internal areas opened up so my wiring harness and the electrical controls can be hidden away.

I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate a speedo and tach, both 60mm or about 2-3/8" diameter.  I've ridden my buddy's Black Betty and without a speedo you end up going way too fast.

I'm also toying with the idea of converting to hydraulic clutch but not sure of the pay off on that.  Mirrors are another item that are hard to hide or to do right.  They have to fit the style of the bike without looking out of place. 

I know I'll be doing a spring leather seat, probably brown leather.  There are several companies making pretty cool seats.  Some are dirt cheep, about $70 with springs, and some approaching the $300 range.  Again the seat will need to sized large enough for my fat ass but not look too large for the bike.

The frame will be here in about two more weeks.  When it arrives I'll pop pictures and get them up for you all to view.

Thoughts and suggestions are always appreciated.

Thanks for the interest in my project.

My neighbor was over last night and looked in my garage and about crapped.  We live in a very small subdivision and I'm the only one on my street with a 3-car garage.  My wife does a little house cleaning for a few selected friends and one of them had a '96 Honda Helix from his father in-law with 598 miles.  It doesn't run and my wife said Dan can fix anything, so it's now in my garage with the nastyist smelling varnish for gas.  It reminds me of my very early years when I was learning mechanical chit from my dad.  We started a marina and I ended up being the mechanic.  Lots of old outboard motors came in just stinking of the gar turned varnish.  Once you smell it you can't get it out of your nose for nothing.

Speaking of the old marina back in the mid '60s to mid '70s, I started to do the work while in my mid highschool years.  To get started we had just a 55 gallon water drum and I had gas on the lake for sale.  Not much of a start but when we sold the marina we sold Johnson outboards, Mercury outboards, Polaris snowmobiles, Johnson snowmobiles, Arctic Cat snowmobiles, Four Winns boat, Crest pontoon boats and during our early years we sold Bridgestone motorcycles.  They were always a day late and a dollar short on their models and motor sizes.  When everyone else came out with 250 cc bikes, Bridgestone came out with the 175 cc bike.  When the other went to 450/500 cc bikes Bridgstone came out with the 350 cc bike.  I'll have to say though that they always ran better and faster than the "other" larger bikes.

I'm sorry for getting off track here, I was going down the path to what we expect from a service provider and how we perceive them.  I was about 15 when I started and people would bring in their motors for work and I also did service calls within about a 50 mile radius to all the lakes in our central Michigan rural area.  I never gave it a thought then that I was just a kid and these people respected our marina and just took it for granted that I would do the job needed to fix their toys.

Today I would no sooner take anything to a service facility and knowinly drop off my toy to a 15 or even 18 year old kid.

Back then it was just a different time and people trusted people.  The area had great trust and respect for my dad, so I was grandfathered in, so to speak.  I look today at all the young people getting out of school and most of them want to go to college for the big bucks, I can't blame them on that.  But what about the trades, where are we going to get qualified people to build our homes, schools, roads, or work on our cars and bikes?  We're losing our youth to the white collar jobs.

Okay, I'm rambling and once my fingers start talking, I can't shut them up.  Sorry for the trip down my memory lane.

Later to all and I'll keep you all posted as I go.  No time for spell chech, got to go.

 

[Rooster452]

I know that smell all to well. I like your plan to use newer technology with the old school look. Got sold on Hydraulic clutch on my off road bikes some years back when they first came out.

(I administrate trade schools now and served my apprenticeship in the '70's working in Palm Beach. We are not replacing the "mechanics" at the rate we are losing them and they will be missed in the near future. I remember when fathers were proud to have their kids in the trades.)

[Dan_Lockwood]

Fair worning, no speeel chcek on ths updat.  Sory...

Well people, it's been a long dry spell, but I've purchased items for my new project and that's got me working again.

So here are some updated pictures of the new boartrack custom project.  I say custom as I've changed gears, so to speak, and it's really not what I had envisioned in my minds eye when I started this project.

I had big hopes of having a coffin style dual sided gas/oil tank.  But when I got out the poster foam board and started to tape up and shape the tank with the amount of fuel I felt I needed, it looked VERY ugly, especially from the front.  So I found this pair of old FLH 5 gallon tank set at a swapmeet for $100 brand new.  Boy is it a lot nicer cutting and hacking on new metal versus the old painted crap.

So here are a few teaser pictures.  I'll give a brief description on each picture of what is new or relavant.   The rest of them can be seen on my Picture Trail account in my signature link.

Enjoy.


Good stuff first...  This is of course the side profile with the tank in just about the correct position.  I have to have forward slope on the bottom of the tanks to maintain oil circulation from rear to front.  I tried it low in the back but this really did look the best.


Just a side shot showing the battery tray removed behind the trans.  You can also see the rear fender that's been a very big and time consuming issue.  I bought a swapmeet fender for $10 and I thought it fit quite well, until I started to bend and roll the inner lip over to clean it up.  Also the front fork dimple on each side had to be hammered out as this is not a front fender anymore.  More about this later.


My new seat.  This is made by a young guy that's right here in the greater St. Louis area.  His name is Rich Phillips and his web site is www.bikersaddles.com and he has lots of leather seats to look at.  This is made custom for my wide ass.  He extended each side another 1" to fit me a bit better.  This seat goes for $149 and he charged me $175 for the wide load version.  This leather is all saddle quality leather and very thick.  We weren't sure about the color so I got the antique color and if I need to go black, it's an easy over dye, but you can't black back.  Is that politically correct enough for everyone?  He does a boardtrack seat that I liked, but not for $400.  I do have my limits.


Here's the tank as close as I can get to having tabs mounted.  I'm going to get the rear of the tank split a bit closer when I do the mounts.  It also shows my wiring junction block.  The inside of the right (oil) tank is all cut away right now.  I will be mounting my AGM battery on its side off the main frame backbone inside the cavity of the right tank.  I'll box in the right tank around the area I need for the battery.  I only need 4 quarts of oil so I have 1.5 gallon of "space" to play with.  If I have enough room, I'm going to swing the wiring block inside the right tank as well.  This will open up the tank split on top for a small electronic speedometer.


A better view of the wiring block.  This thing is all sealed in jell and has all the harness plugs underneith.  There is a handlebar harness, rear harness, indicator lights harneess and motor etc harness.  They are all prewired, color coded and labeled at both ends.  This kit was only $179 from Jireh Cycles.  This same kit, only another privite label name from Custom Chrome is over $400.  Jireh Cycles is where I bought the motor/trans/belt drive/starter from.  They handle only Mid West Cycles inventory, so you can't get everything you might want from them, but what they do sell is dirt cheap.


BDL billet hand controls with hydraulic clutch and 3-button left and right switch housings.  These retail for about $325 a side and I bought these at the swapmeet for $250 complete.  There are just a couple minor scratches on the top cover on the front brake, but nothing that can't be buffed out.  I'll have all the normal electrics on the bike.  The Hi/Low switch is a monentary and will operate a latching relay.  Push once for Hi, push again for Low, etc.


Side stand remounted and shortened to size.


My pride and joy so far of the project, my new '39 Chevy taillight.  I bought this at a Hot Rod shop and rotated the lens etc to be on the bottom.  Then I reused a hole on the left to start my turnsignal mounts.  I bought the turnsignals for $30/pr at the swapmeet and combined I think they look great.  See next couple pictures.





Sorry over limit on space so I'll do a second reply to finish up the little novel.

    

[Dan_Lockwood]

Here's the second installment, enjoy.



I started on Saturday to make my shifter mount and mount my '20s style Paughco running boards.  I made a sandwich mounting system off the original motormount as supplied my Milwaukee Iron.  I had a few bushings in my stash and have a nice solid mount made up.  I have to change out the lever on the inside for the shift link, but in general I think I have it all figured out now.




Here is the 2" belt drive with the decorative covers etc.  I'm going to have the entire belt drive chromed with the rest of my chroming needs.  I think it will look better with the running boards and the trans cover and chrome starter.

So for now, that's it.  I'll try to get some more pictures after next weekend and hopefully a fully mounted shifter, rear brake system and running boards.

Boy, this stuff takes lots of time.  I had this problem when I built my streetrod.  I made lots of custom stuff and I spend half or more of my time just looking at things figuring out what to do.  The tanks took a while to decide what to do and how to hide my battery.  I think it's going to end up okay.

I plan on using 3/8" stainless tubing for all my oil lines.  I have all the AN fittings, flaring tools and benders from my streetrod days.  3/8" stainless does not want to bend easily, but it does bend and when polished it looks kick ass.

On the rear fender I'm going to cut the pinch lip off the outer edge so I'm only one sheetmetal thick at the outer edge.  Then at work I'm going to waterjet two outer 3/16" thick cold rolled half rings.  The will be about 1/2" wide and will go over the outer flat of the rear fender.  I'll do the same for the inside but with 1/8" thick material.  I'll have waterjet holes about every 4" or so around the perimeter of the lip.  When sandwiched to the fender, I plan on mounting the center of the fender to the cross bar that the seat springs mount to.  Then in the front lower I'll mount the bottom of the fender to the "U" shaped part of the lower frame just behind the trans.  I'm hoping that with the 4-point mounting and the 3/16" & 1/8" sandwiched out fender lip, that I can just leave the rear of the fender free standing without any loop off the rear of the frame.  I'll see how strong it is when laminated together.

My color theme is going to be, at least right now, the same paint as my '08 SERK Annie.  I have a body shop owner friend and he can get me a mix with the flake and color almost the same.  For my use if it's a bit different, it won't matter, not like I was trying to paint bags for my SERK.

So if anyone has any suggestions so far, let them rip.  Color is still somewhat up in the air, but I think the Annie colors will look cool and not be too outrageous.  My hope is to not date the paint job, remember the pastels on the streetrods of the '80s, probably on a lot of bike of the time too.

I'll update you all again sooner than later.  Now that I'm going full bore on it, I'm sure it will be sooner.

Later dudes and dudettes.

    

[RayG]

Looking great Dan, I agree with the others, thanks a bunch for sharing your build. I'm jealous as hell, it's cold and crappy out and it looks like you found the ticket to utilize your time and skill. Like many others I'll be following your progress. Over the long winter I had planned a major motor build or a Jim's 131" installation on my twin to your SERK but some stupid thing called finances just derailed us. If I can just find the right financial path to take advantage of the economy upswing when it happens, and it will happen with or without me on board. I don't have a crystal ball but I have been studying the markets and other potential ways to take advantage of our current economic situation, there has to be something out there that I can take ownership now while most everything is at sale prices. If I do my homework right the build will happen and I might throw a few bucks towards my 61 Duo Glide Pan that just sits being neglected. I got lucky back in the 1990's doing that and took some profits to do a 3 week vacation/bowhunt in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Victoria falls with my wife. At that time the dollar value was 40 to 1, that was some kind of purchasing power. Today I'm paying for my poor financial planning and performance which reduced me to being a spectator. Things could be much worse for many of us so I'm thankfull of what I have. Looks like you planned well Dan and can take advantage of your skills thrown in with some hard work and the long hours you may be putting into your project.     

 You are going to have a well deserved blast!

Ray G.     

[Talon]

Dan, looks great! Keep sending pictures as you go!

Craig

[Dan_Lockwood]

Another long weekend in the shop working on my new project.

Here are some pictures with descriptions of each.

I spend about half my time just sitting and looking at the bike wondering what or how to do something next.

It is lots of fun though.  My neighbors come over and drink a few sodas and we talk a bit.

Enjoy...


This shows the narrower stance of the rear of the tanks from last time I posted.  Even though the center doesn't look to be centered, cheap ass Tiawan tanks, the outside to outside from the frame center seems to be pretty good.  I have the rear mounts tack welded into place, but will finish welding when the motor is out.


This one shows the front of the tank opening and the battery mock up inside the right (oil) tank.  The gap in the middle will be tweaked to house my horn, so it will be centered and framed with the tank.  I also just have a couple pieces of angle iron tack welded to the front of each tank to do the locating for now.


Through spacer just tacked into the frame backbone for now.  This will be my upper front mount when finished.


Here is a picture of the new redesigned shifter pedal and linkage.  When I finished a week ago, I had to use what I had and I wasn't happy with the ratios of the two levers.  I had very little travel on the pedal to shift up or down.  Neutral would have been a bitch to find.  The shifter plate is laminated between the frame support and the outer running board mount.  I have it all bushed with two bushings so I shouldn't have issues later on.


You can see the bottom linkage arm.  This is now a lot shorter than my original up top arm and lets the pedal move a bit more.  I plan on taking the lower lever and cutting it a bit to let it curve up a bit towards the rear so it's up more level from front to rear.  I'll do that when I tear it all back down.


I took an extra swapmeet trans shifter arm that was not chromed and cut it up.  I think it was forged iron.  I cut it down and mounted it 90 degrees forward.  Then I cut up a cardboard template and did some tweaking.  I cut a 3/16" plate arm and TIG welded it to the cut down arm.  It's like a big "C" now hanging down.  The "C" in the arm allows the center section to clear a belt drive mounting boss for the transmission.  The bottom of the arm curves backward just a bit so it's just about below the trans shift shaft.  I made this arm about 2" longer than the original shorter upright chrome arm.  This gave me even more throw on the shift pedal.  It really feels good now.


No picture set is any good without a full frontal view.    
Both boards are equal length away from the frame.


Another view of the cut out of the oil tank and the mock battery kind of in place.  I made up a tray out of 14ga and broke the sides with curves on the ends to wrap around the main backbone.  I'll weld it all up later.


Picture of the rear brake pedal side.  Right now it looks a bit wide, but when I get the brake pedal designed and mounted along with the master cylinder, oh and maybe an exhaust pipe or two, it will look more in proportions with the other side.  I still have both rear running board mounts to make, but I need the brakes done first as well as what I'm going to be doing for the exhaust.  It all has to work together.


This is the revised now slightly wider mounting position for the left side running board.  The first mock up mounting was a bit too narrow.  When I added the pulley cover it got a bit too close for me.

Like I said, the planning, what little there is of it, takes tons of time.  In my old shop up in Michigan, I had my lathe setup along with 20T press and lots of other cool tools.  I also had lots more for raw materials.  I just haven't salvaged through out scrap metal here at work enough yet.

It's really gathering momentum now.  Things are getting a bit more easy to envision now.

I'll the next installment next week.

[Talon]

Nice! I like the bar design, might steal it when I get around to doing a bobber. Looking really good!

[09S/E roadglide]

lookin good

[SBB]

Dan

It is refreshing to see someone actually build a bike.
Anyone can take a bunch of parts and a wad of cash and say, build me a bike.
What your doing is very cool!
Can't wait to see the end result!
Good luck and keep the pictures coming.


                           

[hogasm]

Dan

It is refreshing to see someone actually build a bike.
Anyone can take a bunch of parts and a wad of cash and say, build me a bike.
What your doing is very cool!
Can't wait to see the end result!
Good luck and keep the pictures coming.


                           

Or buying a custom bagger already built......HUH