Beautify the Beast!

In an effort to take the 345 to the next level I hope to remake the rear end hardtail section. As part of that i will be remaking the basic support (as per the left of the photo) and make something that looks a lot more Harley (photo of the VL on the right). Plenty of fun with a grinder and a die grinder to be had!

The 345 - Show Class Peoples Champion

Two posts in a week! blimey - that's pushing it!

Thursday nights is my "approved" barn night - time has been tight since the little man came along (he's 1 in 10 days! EEEK!) so I needed to have a set night. Its working well as by Wednesday I'm itching to get up there and start emptying my brain of all these ideas.

To make my life that bit more interesting I've entered myself (well the345) into the Show Class Magazine Peoples Champ competition in the states. I've been looking for a while at what people build for that competition and felt like I needed both a challenge and a deadline. 

Most years there has been a massive contingent of big twin bikes shovel's pans knucks and the like - so I thought I would at least have something different in the 345. In my eyes its a good infusion of British and american, and a perfect bike for a brit guy to build with an american audience in mind.

As much as the bike is largely together there will be a number of things that I had thought of changing, but was probably reigning myself in and  making life a little easier at the same time. If it is going to get anywhere it will need to be revisited in most areas of fabrication.

Last night saw me take a standard Harley oil tank and reduce it in size to Triumph frame proportions. a lot of chopping and head scratching as ever, but i'm really pleased with the outcome. quite a bit of fabrication was involved, but the more I push myself the easier I find the metal working to be. 

I also jigged up and welded the handlebar clamps for the triumph sized helling and stellings style handlebar clamps for the peashooter springer. 

All in all a successful night and good progress made. Plans now swilling round my head involve remaking the back end of the bike!!!! 

1931 Harley VL Hill-climber - Making an Aluminium Tank

Life is very busy, and the Blog has suffered for it, one good thing is that this will have a lot of weeks worth of updates for you all to have a good look at!

The VL arrived a couple of weeks back - its a beautiful old machine - I had an original VL frame and springer a while back (you may have even seen the post many years back) which I sold to fund one thing or another - the springer is not on Guy from GKM magazine's Panhead - (and a fine looking machine it is too!)

Its genuinely about the only pair of parts that I regretted selling - so i'm stoked to have the new project in the ranks.

Coming in as a stripped back roller my plans aren't all that grand (compered to my normal crazy ideas anyway) - show off the lovely castings and details by making it a stripped down racer - Hillclimber style as was seen in the 20s and 30's. I've managed to source a 20" rear rim, and a 20" rear tyre (which wasn't so cheap), and then an 18" spool hub wheel for the front. seems like an odd combo - but its what they ran back in the day. To mock up it currently has a 21" rear and 19" front - so you can kinda see the aesthetic... Back on point.....

The main bit of fabrication was always to be the petrol tank - ive never made one before and have been in awe of how easy some people have made it look (on tv and the internet), so my big project on this was to make an ali tank that slotted between the frame.

below are the progress pictures of where I'm currently at - and I'm completely stoked with y first ever attempt at not only metal beating, but also at ali welding (new TIG welder!!!)

the plan is to have the tank 70/30 (ish) fuel to oil, and I'm going to revisit the etching that I played with many moons ago to etch in some old graphics into the tank. Plenty of pics below for you to enjoy!