I gave up on Cats. I like building bikes, not overpaying for rare parts, or driving six hours each way for a fender. The next one I see, I am putting a Predator 212 on, with a Jack Shaft, and as many Chinese nuts and bolts as I can find! :hammer:
And Doodle Bug Fenders and Harley gas tank! :laugh:
Unless it's the uber rare 250X.
And Doodle Bug Fenders and Harley gas tank! :laugh:
Unless it's the uber rare 250X.
Hey guys I love retro too I really do! The restoration stuff is amazing, especially those on here, doing all the research and making decals and seats, and rebuilding motors and even matching all the hardware and all of the other amazing stuff that you guys(and gals) do. It's impressive as hell. Someday I would like to restore a bike.
But this frame wasn't really worth it IMHO, I even started a thread on here looking for a set of ARCO forks to try and at least keep the forks original. But not a lot of luck. Once I had to replace the forks, I figured all bets are off now since the original forks were beyond saving.
BTW I had some time yesterday, she is officially a roller yay
I found this front wheel & tire combo, I think it looks cool but the axle is 3/8"(or metric equivalent lol) but the fork tubes are standard 5/8". I found some needle bearings and made some temporary sleeves, but I think this wheel might need a trip to the machine shop before I'll race on it.
The unexpected thing was the solid wheel/fat tire weighs the same as that skinny wheel/tire, plus the skinny spoke wheel is Chinese made, the DWT solid wheel is U.S.A. made. I'm going with the solid wheel, since weight savings would be the only reason to run the skinny wheel. Other than the fact that it looks cool :laugh:
Oh and thanks Marcus
Now I'm singing R Kelly LMAO
That chop job and that bike looks killer BTW
But this frame wasn't really worth it IMHO, I even started a thread on here looking for a set of ARCO forks to try and at least keep the forks original. But not a lot of luck. Once I had to replace the forks, I figured all bets are off now since the original forks were beyond saving.
BTW I had some time yesterday, she is officially a roller yay
I found this front wheel & tire combo, I think it looks cool but the axle is 3/8"(or metric equivalent lol) but the fork tubes are standard 5/8". I found some needle bearings and made some temporary sleeves, but I think this wheel might need a trip to the machine shop before I'll race on it.
The unexpected thing was the solid wheel/fat tire weighs the same as that skinny wheel/tire, plus the skinny spoke wheel is Chinese made, the DWT solid wheel is U.S.A. made. I'm going with the solid wheel, since weight savings would be the only reason to run the skinny wheel. Other than the fact that it looks cool :laugh:
Oh and thanks Marcus
Now I'm singing R Kelly LMAO
That chop job and that bike looks killer BTW
imp: glad I could help :laugh:OK so some serious updates to this thread.
Motor plate welded in, brakes installed.
Forks/handlebars completely cut apart/rewelded.
Briggs flathead installed, Vortex clutch, etc.
Vintage vinyl throttle & grips & plastic puke tank.
The bike is running, haven't made a full pass yet, been battling some issues.
Right now I can't use my right hand for at least 2 weeks due to wrist surgery, so that is obviously hurting progress right now.
Motor plate welded in, brakes installed.
Forks/handlebars completely cut apart/rewelded.
Briggs flathead installed, Vortex clutch, etc.
Vintage vinyl throttle & grips & plastic puke tank.
The bike is running, haven't made a full pass yet, been battling some issues.
Right now I can't use my right hand for at least 2 weeks due to wrist surgery, so that is obviously hurting progress right now.
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So I bought a pair of Azusa forks online last year when my ARCO forks were not salvageable. The Azusa fork plates interfered with the ARCO frame so I bought a better set of plates from an OldMiniBikes member and set up the front end and welded up the forks. I was building a cruiser/pit bike at the time with very deliberately sized front/rear wheel and tire with a small front wheel/tire combo. The forks were never perfectly straight (my fault :doah: )and they always bugged me.
Fast forward to a year later, suddenly we're going drag racing and now that size wheel/tire isn't going to work anymore. The front of the bike is too high I kept thinking, but it actually looked kinda cool and I was trying to see if it would grow on me since I wasn't looking forward to cutting the forks apart again lmao!
If you look hard at this pic you can see it. At least I can lol. I wasn't helping matters by going with a 10" tall rear tire. Going up to an 11" helped but I found it a terrible time to find a high performance racing tire in 12" height so I had to stop there.
After battling a terrible high speed wobble, and going back and checking just how crooked these forks/front wheel actually were, I decided that it was time to stop expecting the bike to want to go straight when the front wheel is slightly off and the forks are slightly twisted plus way too high.
Time to bite the bullet and cut the forks apart. Started with cutoff wheel but most of it was done with hand files since I was wanting to reuse the forks.
After dropping the forks down 3 inches, now the handlebars were 3 inches too tall. Bars interfered with fuel tank, throttle/brake linkage doesn't reach lol.
So I cut the handlebars off completely and removed 3 inches and welded them back on.
Little bit of cleanup later, I now have the straight true forks that the bike should have had all along, as well as dropping the frame in front which really lowered the bike quite a bit. I think this is really going to help stability, on the limited runs I was able to make it really seems to help.
Thanks for reading!
Fast forward to a year later, suddenly we're going drag racing and now that size wheel/tire isn't going to work anymore. The front of the bike is too high I kept thinking, but it actually looked kinda cool and I was trying to see if it would grow on me since I wasn't looking forward to cutting the forks apart again lmao!
If you look hard at this pic you can see it. At least I can lol. I wasn't helping matters by going with a 10" tall rear tire. Going up to an 11" helped but I found it a terrible time to find a high performance racing tire in 12" height so I had to stop there.
After battling a terrible high speed wobble, and going back and checking just how crooked these forks/front wheel actually were, I decided that it was time to stop expecting the bike to want to go straight when the front wheel is slightly off and the forks are slightly twisted plus way too high.
Time to bite the bullet and cut the forks apart. Started with cutoff wheel but most of it was done with hand files since I was wanting to reuse the forks.
After dropping the forks down 3 inches, now the handlebars were 3 inches too tall. Bars interfered with fuel tank, throttle/brake linkage doesn't reach lol.
So I cut the handlebars off completely and removed 3 inches and welded them back on.
Little bit of cleanup later, I now have the straight true forks that the bike should have had all along, as well as dropping the frame in front which really lowered the bike quite a bit. I think this is really going to help stability, on the limited runs I was able to make it really seems to help.
Thanks for reading!
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Update on this bike:
After an over-rev condition, this motor needed a new rod, rings and a hone and some other stuff.
Then needed serious carb adjustments in order to even idle correctly.
It seems to be sorted out now, it's all broken in and has good compression. On the first dyno pull, the bike tried to jump right up off the dyno so we had to add 2 more tie downs. True story.
I am just so relieved to get the bike running finally and being able to ride it. It was starting to get ugly there for a minute lol.
Now I just have to learn how to ride it in 2 days lmao wish me luck I'll need it!
After an over-rev condition, this motor needed a new rod, rings and a hone and some other stuff.
Then needed serious carb adjustments in order to even idle correctly.
It seems to be sorted out now, it's all broken in and has good compression. On the first dyno pull, the bike tried to jump right up off the dyno so we had to add 2 more tie downs. True story.
I am just so relieved to get the bike running finally and being able to ride it. It was starting to get ugly there for a minute lol.
Now I just have to learn how to ride it in 2 days lmao wish me luck I'll need it!
So my bike ended up running pretty good, competitive at least which was my goal. i had it running great but then ran into traction issues.
This is when a design flaw reared its ugly head: the brake disc was too big in diameter, not allowing air to be removed from the rear tire to increase traction. I was working with some random parts and definitely under a time crunch so as long as it would reasonably stop the bike they were good enough to make the race.
Now that this little design flaw has turned into a big design flaw, I am having a different brake disc made with a 7" diameter VS the 8.5" in diameter the current one is. Also will be using a jackshaft and 60 tooth rear sprocket, instead of the 72 tooth rear sprocket that almost puts the chain on the ground. Between these two revisions I hope to be able to drop air from the rear tire to improve traction. I think I will achieve that goal.
Here you can see the size of the brake disc
And believe me they worked fantastic lol
This is when a design flaw reared its ugly head: the brake disc was too big in diameter, not allowing air to be removed from the rear tire to increase traction. I was working with some random parts and definitely under a time crunch so as long as it would reasonably stop the bike they were good enough to make the race.
Now that this little design flaw has turned into a big design flaw, I am having a different brake disc made with a 7" diameter VS the 8.5" in diameter the current one is. Also will be using a jackshaft and 60 tooth rear sprocket, instead of the 72 tooth rear sprocket that almost puts the chain on the ground. Between these two revisions I hope to be able to drop air from the rear tire to improve traction. I think I will achieve that goal.
Here you can see the size of the brake disc
And believe me they worked fantastic lol
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