Hey, look at me.....

I can make handlebars just like the other guys! OK, OK, I'm kidding here - no poison pen Emails. I would have liked to make them narrower in the center, but the risers need to be on a 5 1/4" center to plug into the back legs of the Denvers springer.

Holy Smolies.....it's May already???

This Saturday. Man, if I wasn't such a broke-dick motherfucker right now, I'd be there........

Fork stops......

I have a thing about fork stops. With most guys, deciding on the front end for their bikes is the easy part. How to keep their forks/handlebars from crashing into the front of their gas tanks seems to be an afterthought solution- especially with springer forks and girders.

Bolt-on, pad-type stops that locate to the bottom tree are OK, but the two that I dislike the most are the button head allen bolts that guys drill and tap their backbone for, so they contact the springer's back leg pads on at full lock. For one thing, that's a long way for the front forks to pivot before they contact the stops, limiting your gas tank placement on the backbone, so the forks or bars don't hit it. Plus, eventually the button heads mash to the point where the forks/handlebars actually do hit the tank. By then, the key socket in the allen is mashed closed as well, and removal for replacement usually means welding a nut to the buttonhead to take them out. Not fun. Plus, that's a couple big holes to drill and tap in the backbone at a stressed area. 99% of the guys don't weld in a bung to tap for the buttonheads.....can you say "cracks in the backbone..."?

The one's I really hate are the chains that are welded to the frame, and attached to the bottom tree. Those are UGLY, and like pipe wrap, seem to say to everybody "I couldn't figure out what else to do, so I did this....".

Hidden fork stops are relatively simple to install, and are.....hidden. With a little pre-planning, they'll work on 95% of the front ends, either springers, or glides. On most aftermarket springers, you simply unbolt (or press out) the steering stem, and use a short length of 1" dia. bar to locate the fork stop plate in position on the tree, and use it as a pattern to drill the holes for the mounting screws or pins.

For the springers (including the OEM-ones) with a welded in neck stem, it's not much more difficult to install them, just a little trickier. Here's how Elliot's hidden fork stop install turned out on his old Denvers springer. Eric over at Hot Bike magazine has asked me for a series of tech articles, and I have one almost ready to go, and I'm thinking one on installing hidden fork stops on springers (or glides for that matter) with non-removable neck stems would be another good one to do for him.

Another thing I noticed when I took Elliot's old Denvers springer apart. The upper springs have "locators" top and bottom that keep the springs in place, but the bottom springs only have a locator on the top - the bottom of the lower springs can rack back and forth when the front end is moving. You can see how the springs have danced around all these years. I don't know if this is the way they were all done, or if they just didn't make it on this one. We're going to remedy this as we go along. Hopefully, I can get this springer shortened soon, but I have to wait until the rear tire shows up, so I can block the frame to the right ride height to do it. I'm looking forward to doing the work, and the 21" front wheel that Elliot found for his project is one you've probably only seen pictures of in old ads, and it's NOS tits perfect, never run on anything.

This is Elliot's front end......

This is the front end that Elliot came up with for his project bike I'm doing for him. It's an old Denvers springer, and it's solid. It needs some work, and it needs to be shortened about 5", but hey, Elliot has always wanted a Shovel with a Denvers springer, so that's what he'll have. I never paid much attention to the way Denvers built their springers, but they have some unusual touches. The neck stem is really skinny - 3/4", and the top tree nut is machined to adapt the 3/4" stem to the big twin's 1" neck bearing, There's a corresponding "hat" sleeve that slides down the stem to do the same on the lower tree.

The needle bearings in the rockers are in great shape, but their shoulder bolts are long gone, replaced by regular bolts. The original nuts for the rocker studs are there (well, 3 of them are), as well as the original top tree nut, and the original top spring nuts and hats. Did you know that Denvers used automotive custom wheel lug nuts for their rocker stud nuts? We'll match up the lost one, and get the right shoulder bolts in there. We're also going to put in a hidden fork stop on the lower tree, and make him a set of plug-in T bars to fit into the back legs. Like always, stay tuned, you should like this......

Never posted the finished 2 into 1 collector.......

I never posted my 2 into1 collector system after I finished off the welds on all the joints. This will look killer in gloss black porcelain. If you can't tell, this is my homage to Dick Allen, and his pioneering collector system, with a few of my own tweaks. Well worth the time it took to make this, I'm stoked.

This goes right along with Dick's aluminum rear wheel I'm using, which is off in this photo. I'm sending it in to Centerline for a rehab. Did you know that Centerline will remove the old sealer between the rims, re-seal it, give it a full polish, and send it back for $55.00 ???? Are you kidding me ????? I'm also getting the hubs and the rotor carrier polished here in town while the wheel is away. And, I got a chance to drill the 16, 5/16" holes in the solid rear belt pulley, spaced in the same pattern as the wheel's rivets, and hand-bucked in the high-domed hard aluminum rivets. Now the pulley matches the wheel.

I didn't want band clamps for the merge pipe connection, and I know you can buy these from Cone Eng., Burns Stainless, etc, but I just couldn't see buying two - they probably wouldn't have fit up as well, and they aren't as thick as I made these. If I were doing a V-8, and needed 8 pairs, yeah...I'd have bought them. I just have them tacked in place here, but the whole system is pretty strong, and self-supporting. I'm still going to add a small support to the collector itself.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ........

Elliot's 530 chain primary drive.

"Can I grind you a pound or two, sir?"

And....this Sunday....

Kick off the racing season in style over at Illusion Cycles. T-rod and Rusty are two of my favorite people, I wish I could make it out for this. Go out and support T-rod and Gene this year, on the world's only Evo-powered speedway sidehack racing rig. Costa Mesa Speedway is their home track.

This Saturday - Hippie Killer Hoedown........

You should make this one. I thought I'd be able to come out for this, but...no extra dough, damnit!
It's a good show.....