I thought you might dig a project that I was asked to be a part of titled "Stories of Bike".
It's a platform for riders, enthusiasts and builders to discuss what
makes them tick. I see a big future for Cam Elkins, the project
mastermind and producer.
I was lucky enough to be involved in the making of episode 2, hope you guys dig it.
Having recently joined Roller Photography as an account manager and producer, Michael the owner and lead photography wanted to do something special and fun.
The result is the "Ghost Rider" pic you see below of myself with the "Cherry Bomb".
The goal is to spread the word to the fashion industry that we're experts on ghost mannequin techniques, whilst advertising agency creatives should be equally impressed with our technical abilities and creativity.
All in all, the image is turned out exactly how we'd planned. Cool hey!
I'd been somewhat sidetracked by a second project!
I'd recently obtained my rider's licence in December 2012, with my feeling the need to ride asap.
The decision was made to get my hands on a cheap and cheerful runabout that I could gain experience upon, and then pass onto my girlfriend who also recently gained her licence.
I picked up a pig ugly Honda CB250N at the right price site unseen over 300klms away from me. So after one hours experience of riding a motorcycle I packed my bags, flew down to Batemans Bay and rode her back to Sydney!
Here's some pics of the ugly turd from the sales ad.
Now, me, being me I had to tart it up quick smart. The beauty of the bike is that it is registered till August 2013, so I could simply tidy it up and ride without any dramas.
The challenge was set to build it asap, so after 21.5 days I present to you the "Cherry Bomb"!
I couldn't have done it in such a short time frame if it wasn't for the significant help of my grirlfriend (and future owner of the bike) Nicci, and my brother Michael whho helped my with direction, welding and painting in his workshop.
Here's a handful of pics of Nicci posing with the bike in it's current guise.
And finally here's some footage of it the morning I completed it getting a dyno tune. Final results were 20.76 hp at the rear wheel.
Now time to blast around town and get back into completing Thor's Hammer.
Today I had the opportunity to tack a coil mount to the frame. AS you can see I need to be somewhat cautious when welding in a second story carpeted apartment!
Now I'm looking to see if there are any suitable cloth wrapped plug leads that are suitable for my Pamco electonic ignition.
After much farting around I finally made the effort to add a chain guard to the bike.
With very strict Australian laws, I simply had no choice but to utilise one. My greatest concern was that it needed to be a neat and tidy guard that when added to the bike looked stock.
I purchased a Royal Enfield repro guard from India as my starting point as it was a clean and simple design that was long enough to do the trick. I removed the old tabs, remounted one and made a fresh one for a mount to the left side engine cover.
I'm pretty happy with the results, with it sitting well and mounted as solid as a rock.
A couple of days ago, the package that I was really looking forward to finally made it into my hot little hands.
The custom bent exhaust headers from Gordon Scott Engineering had arrived and looked amazing. The best thing about them was that they fit perfectly, straight away, with absolutely no modifications required.
Scott did a brilliant job of turning my pictures and measurements into reality. He was so easy to deal with and a genuinely great asset to the XS650 community.
After having to put the build on hold for way too long, I finally had the opportunity to order some engine parts from MikesXS and made some inquiries into purchasing some headers.
With all of the positive talk about Gordon Scott Engineering on the XS650 boards that I visit, the choice was obvious. I wanted to deal with a professional outfit that were XS650 friendly, as well as eliminate the need to disassemble and re-assemble the bike to get it in and out of the second story apartment to get pipes made by a local shop. My time and effort would have been much more than the great deal I received.
As it turned out Scott actually already had a product that was close to what I required.I did however feel that they were not going to be a straight fitment, which lead me to take some shots and measurements which I sent with a quote request.
As it turned out Scott was very quick to respond to my inquiry, and very helpful when it came to pricing up my custom headers.
Here's some pics of my measurement technique, which called for the nearest broom handle to be shoved into the muffler. I chose this novel approach as I suspected it would be the best way to visualize what I required with my header design.
