Norm Grabowski article......

Not part of the article below, but the back cover of the Defrance & Defrance (D&D Cycles) catalog, circa 1969. Just thought I'd throw this in....

Shawn keeps bringing me frames!

I love it! This is the 3rd frame I've modified for Shawn. The first one was for his son's project, then I just finished up Shawn's frame for his build, now I'm doing this frame for another son's project. "The family that builds & rides together, abides together", or something like that.....

Here's where we started - a Santee 4 speed swingarm frame, with a 32 degree rake, and a 2" stretch in the downtubes from the factory. Shawn wanted more "up" in the downtubes (he asked for about another 2"), not much out on the neck, and wanted to keep the fatbob mounts intact, and retain the 32 degree rake. OK, we can do that!

Two decisive(?) surgical cuts, and no turning back now......

Part-timer Steve getting with the prep work. It isn't the welding that consumes the shop time, it's the cutting, grinding, fitting, drilling plug weld holes, making sleeves, cleaning the tubing outside and inside.....then the fitting, squaring, trimming. It's like paintwork, your finish is dependent on the time you spend on your prep work, framework is no different.....

Originally, we were going to stretch the downtubes another 2", but after we got it "assembled", with keeping the original 32 degree rake, 2 more inches looked waaaay too cartooney. So, off with the 2" tubing sections,    some 1" tubing replacing those, and bingo! Just right. Now, how to connect the backbone? Most times when guys do this, they just join it at a "hard" angle back to the seatpost. We're going to try a junction I've wanted to do for a long time, but more work......

All the parts prepped & modified, and ready to assemble......again!

Ready to jig it up for the ump-teenth time, and do the final welding. Everything has stayed square up to now, I want to keep it that way. I think the backbone junction went great. Strong, but it "flows" into the seat area, not a "hard angle" junction, and nicely with a little seat area tubing realignment if I do say so myself.  And, I do!

Here's how the backbone looks from another angle, I'm happy, Part-timer Steve is happy. Shawn hasn't see this yet, but I'm pretty sure he'll dig it, too.

Deb said......

"I want some Wild Angels upswept fishtails, a tall sissy bar, some fatbob tanks, med. rise ape hangers, a big-ass S&S engine, a Baker 6 in a 4, a 6 quart oil tank with domed ends, a hardtail with OEM axle plates, and I want....."

Well Deb, we're getting there......

Some spare time, so.....

Seems like every part I order is on intergalactic backorder, so while we wait on the parts that are supposed to be here tomorrow and Friday...... 

Part-timer Steve and I pulled the Shovel out of my project, and fitted those georgeous finned rockerboxes from Throwback Motorcycles on today. These are some special boxes to me, they carry "0001" for the production number. That means these were the first set out the door.

We dropped the bare boxes onto the studs, and like I thought might be the case, we had a little internal interference with the valve spring collars on the inside walls of the castings. These box castings are beefy, so a little work with the die grinder gave us the right amount of clearance. Zip-zip, they dropped right into place.

I also need to say, that because my set were "0001", you won't have to do this, as Josh has informed me that  they come with that little bit of additional clearance machined into them now from Throwback,  and they're ready for you to drop right on.

The heads also received a Cera-cote "fresh blast" coating, and a fresh 3 angle valve job. Not a bad looking 86" motor, huh? 

Now, if Colony will only ship all my hardware for the rockerboxes......

Throwback Cycles also has a nice cast "bird deflector" available, that matches their finned rocker boxes to a "T". I'm going to use a NOS Custom Cycle Engineering finned teardrop deflector, that came from Randy before he passed on.

http://throwbackmcparts.bigcartel.com/

Yep, we hit it.....500,000 pageviews

Actually, 500,196 as of this morning. With all that goes on, like Taptalk, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, etc. I think that this is pretty cool milestone. Here, in no particular order, are the Top 10 most-viewed posts from the last 4 years on Applied Machete. Thank you, very much, for looking!

* Of Tank Girl, Pete Pepe's CFL, and Craig Frasier
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/10/of-tank-girl-pete-pepes-cfl-and-craig.html

* A Hells Angel Goes to the Smithsonian
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/11/hells-angel-goes-to-smithsonian.html

* Von Dutch Monday V (the XAVW post)

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2009/10/von-dutch-monday-v.html

* Single Downtube CFL frames

http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2011/02/single-downtube-cfl-frames.html

* Robert Tessier
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2009/11/robert-tessier.html

* Bill Ray wasn't the Lone Ranger
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/07/bill-ray-wasnt-lone-ranger.html

* They call it FRISCO - Chocolate George's Funeral
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2011/12/they-call-it-friscochocolate-georges.html

* The FXRDG and the FXDG
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2009/11/fxrdg-and-fxdg.html

* Buy Your Last Belt Drive First
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2010/12/buy-your-last-belt-drive-first.html

* Aw yeah, More Psychedelic Love Temple Info
http://irishrichcustomcycles.blogspot.com/2011/02/aw-yeah-more-psychedelic-love-temple.html

Duals to drool over........