Yeah its a few months away yet, but for those of you in the tri state area, mark your calendars! Hopefully the vendors will be a little more reasonable this year... case in point Me: *picks up bates headlight with $25 written on the box, whips out wallet and proceeds to pay vendor* "$25 right?" Vender: "No way, I want $75 for that light" Me: "But you have $25 written on the box" Vender: "yeah.... thats what I paid for it new, thats an ORIGINAL BATES! $75 for it." Me: *puts light back down and walks away*
Anyway, last year was perfect weather and its a great ride to get up there. See you in June...
Sewed the fender back up this afternoon. I am by no means a tig welding expert, but I got some good passes in. Its smoothed out but I need to stretch it next. I need to smooth out the slight peak in the center. Next I have to cut out the dimples for the fork tubes and graft in a new piece.
the sides and the bottom hehe. I'm taking my stock sportster fender and triming it a bit. I'm not just chopping it or cutting it. I'm adjusting it to comform to the bike better. As is the whole drive behind my sportster. Just adjusting or tweaking or shifting things to make mild chop but to keep the bike loooking stock.
I dont always run a front fender, but I plan on some big road trips this year and its just nice to have for a long haul. So this is the fender with the 21" wheel. The radius is fine. But the 5" wide fender and the 3" wide tire just doesnt look slick.
So time to get to work... Mounting bracket removed and the sandblasted the fender. Cut 1" out of the center. It still leaves me 1/2" on either side of the tire. However I know have to cut out the dimples for the forks. I'll just graft in a new piece. Ill then take 2" off the front and 3" off the back. Tomorrow I plan on sewing it back together.
I havnt been posting much because the past week I've been very busy in the garage. Flipping bikes, selling parts, repairing bikes and choppin bikes. So glad winter is finally on its way out of here!
The Slum Goddess is finally finished. I got the front end working. It seemed as if it was binding and just wasn't moving. I always thought I had 4" tubes, it had 4" spacers. Turns out I really have 6" over tubes and the previous owner did not have the correct spacers. I dropped some 6" spacers and now it works like it should. Also got the front brakes working and the front motor mount installed. The mid controls were put on a month or so ago and work awesome. This thing runs and rides like a dream.
Also got a ton of work done on the 550 suzuki. Finished up the frame, got the horse-shoe battery box mounted. New tires on the rare GR650 wheels, and a new set of carbs put on. This thing has a great stance! Next up is clutch work, mount the rear fender and tall ass sissybar. Just as a recap of what it was when it was first brought home. ALSO got it running for the first time in over 10 years. Only a crappy cell video, but shes a growler!!!
Did a little more work on the 3d Knucklehead! Its now a roller!
Just finished the front end tonight, about another 6 hours worth of work.
Now remember folks, there are no measurements taken, no number crunching to get these models made. I am doing this all by eye and a few reference photos. The best way I can explain to people how I do my 3d work is like modeling with clay. You start with one simple shape, and just start forming it into what you want. This isnt the kind of program where you enter a bunch of numbers, hit ENTER and its done. This takes a critical artistic eye, and a strong sense of space and form.
