First up: Zoroaster’s brilliant Voice of Saturn album. I’ve had this on endless repeat for the last two evenings in the shop. Upon stopping playback, Joel seemed confused/unhappy. My work here is done…

New and improved front end (yeah, it kills me that I didn’t get a chance to shave those lowers down) with swap meet 21/speedmaster.

Rear view with brand new Speedmaster MkII/ribbed fender. Lots of work went into fender mounts on the swingarm.

My shiny new PA antique motorcycle tag and ultra expensive tail light ($1 from Spring Carlisle).

And finally, a comparison: (before)

(after)

It’s rough around the edges, and I’m sure that I’ll have a million and one little things to chase down, but it’s all in one piece, and really close to being ready for the street. I can’t wait…

Complete photo set on flickr.

Edit 06.04.10: I’ve spent the last two nights bolting things back together, wiring, plumbing, bleeding brakes, etc. Last night, I got it started. Today I took it around the block in between rain showers. Nothing major fell off, and I’m still in one piece — I’m stoked.

Thanks for putting up with me being in the garage every night since we got back from Mexico honey…

Edit 06.06.10: Rain stopped long enough to ride around the block a few times. One of the seams on the gas tank is opening up and letting gas pour out. Gas running all over the hot engine kind of cuts down on my fun until I can get that sealed up.

Pretty good weekend if you ask me…

Lots of pics here

After:

So I’ve been making some steady progress on the bike. Since the last installment, thanks to the fine folks on the ironhead forum at xlforum.net, I figured out the running issue I was having with the S&S Super E. Basically, just boiled down to some clogged up passages in the carb.

Now, while I was chasing down info on the issue and doing some troubleshooting, I had to remove the tank. While I was staring at the bike without the tank, I started thinking that I should pull the back fender. Of course, to do that, I had to pull the seat. Do you see where this is going? Right, the bike is in a million pieces.

A few weeks ago, I checked out the Jebby Shack — very cool place. I needed a few stock bits and pieces that were bent up on the bike by being dropped by one of the previous owners. While I was there, I saw this sweet little Wassel peanut tank for a song that I just had to have.

Last weekend was the Harrisburg Motorcycle Swap, and I scored a few deals there too: new 12.5″ shocks, new peg covers, used 21″ front wheel with a decent Avon Speedmaster, and a few other odd little trinkets.

Which brings us to where we are now (and the picture above). I think I’ve gotten the big pieces figured out and mocked up. I’m waiting on a few key parts to come in (fender, seat), but hopefully I’ll have it back on the road within the month. By the way, don’t mind the ratchet strap… I was using that to try to figure out what it would look like with 2″ taken out of the front forks.

Got a call today from the bike shop to tell me that my helmet finally came in. So I stopped by on my way home from work and picked it up. I also couldn’t help noticing that the weather was beautiful, so I figured when I got home I would play around with the ironhead.

Went down to the garage, tried to start it.. *crank crank crank* nothing. Seemed like the battery was a little low on voltage so I threw the charger on it. I waited a little while, then tried again… nothing. Now I’m getting a little annoyed. I checked for spark, have good spark. Pulled the fuel line off the carb, fuel ran out. I have fuel. So what’s the problem. Pulled the air cleaner off and shot some starting fluid in there, bike started right up for a second. AHA! I must have some little piece of shit in the carb somewhere, or something is gummed up (the bike has been sitting since I got it about a month ago).

So I proceed to pull the carb all apart and look for *something*. What, I’m not sure, but clearly something has to be wrong in here. I cleaned everything all up, and put it back together, still doing the same thing.

By this time, the sun has gone down, and I’m not even sure which little piece of the carb I should be swearing at. Out of sheer exasperation, I twist off the goofy ’screamin eagle’ gas cap on the tank and notice that there is next to no fuel in there. The side with the petcock is pretty much completely dry.

So I proceed to dump some gas in it, and try to start it. First time, it runs for a few seconds, then shuts off. The Second time, a little longer. The third time it stays running. Wow I’m a moron.

At this point, it’s completely dark and I have no tags on the bike. After all this shit, I don’t really care.. I’m riding this thing even if it is only up and down the driveway. I made two laps and the seat fell off. Literally.

So, I guess I don’t feel so bad. I really couldn’t have taken it on much of a ride without the seat bracket failing. Time to start chasing down parts I guess.

We are making good progress, but as usual, actual work falls somewhat short of ‘I think we can get _____ done today’. Oh well, it’s all good.

What we did get done today:

• Welding table put into some sort of usable shape (Joel has rockstar-like metal acquisition skills)
• Second boxing plate final fit
• Second boxing plate final welding (final in this case is used a bit liberally — we’re going to have plenty of cleanup on the bottoms of the rails)
• Stock Jaguar springs cut down for mockup (plasmazoid to the rescue)
• Jag engine mounts and stock front end mounting points hacked into submission
• Approximate ride height figured out

That last bit was pretty crucial. Without doing that, we really couldn’t move on to finalize the location of the front crossmember, or start figuring out what needs to happen with the back of the frame. As it stands right now, we’re figuring that we’re going to need a pretty tall notch in the back to get things where they need to be. As of right now, the rear end is literally sitting with the lower shock mounts on the garage floor, so it needs to come up a ton to get wheels and tires on it.

First, a bit of catching up…

Above: Not easy to see, but there is a beam axle of questionable origin, and a Geo Metro (?!?!) rack under the truck. This is a delightful setup if you like sudden, inexplicable lane changes at speed.

Above: Test fitting the Jaguar IFS under the truck.

And where we started off Saturday…

Above: Saturday started the real work: trimming the ‘extra’ flange off the bottom of the rail so we can attach boxing plates to the inside of the stock c-shaped rail. This should add a lot of strength as well as providing a convenient place to mount the new IFS.

Above: Extra flange removed, time to make a template.

Above: Much like all of the car shows on TV, we’ll skip over 8 hours of work so you’ll think it’s really quick and easy. Boxing plate cut out, fit (grind, test fit, grind, test fit, …), all of the extraneous holes welded up, and boxing plate tacked into place.

A productive and fun Saturday afternoon/evening.

More photos on flickr as part of Joel’s ongoing set of build pics.

• We moved
• I have a garage now (woohoo)
• I’ve been working on projects around the house
• I managed to screw up my foot
• Working in an unheated garage in PA sucks
• More recently, I acquired some much needed tooling (and a heater) for the garage. This forced Joel and I into a Bob Vila like rampage through the garage to at least get the walls studded out, insulated and drywalled. Drywall finishing will have to wait a few more weeks at least. We need 50° temps in order for the mud to cure.

On a more exciting note, progress has resumed. Stay tuned…

So, I traded a bunch of stuff I didn’t need for something I’ve needed for quite a while. Kim is super impressed that it immediately came home and kicked her car out of the garage. Unfortunately, there is too much snow in the driveway (3 feet is too much by anyone’s standards) to get it down to the shop.

Plans for right now are to strip it of anything with a screamin’ eagle on it, give it a little mechanical attention, then ride the hell out of it this summer. Over next winter, hopefully tear it down and chop the hell out of it.