Well bung me!

The custom tank that I'd had made up, despite being a great shape, had a few areas that needed re-doing.

One of which was the neck bungs. The neck bungs on my tank were not in line with each other, with one of them also being sunken about 4 mm lower than the other.

To solve this, I'd ordered some new neck bungs from Lowbrow Customs. Since I wanted to use their Triumph style gas caps down the track, it was a no brainer to make this mod.

The new bungs are a much larger diameter, however, with them being more even now, I think it was worth the effort.

 

 

Time for an adjustment

One of the minor hurdles I faced was what to do with my chain adjusters to suit the TC Bros hard tail. Being a universal hard tail, the plates where the adjusters attach are 10mm thick rather than the 15mm that my 75 chassis has. This meant that the chain adjuster bolts no longer line up with the centre of the plates when using the original adjusters.

My solution was a simple one, I'd found Honda 3/4" chain adjusters that happened to suit the10mm axle plate. Perfect!

All I need now is some spacers to that will sit outside of the adjusters.

I thought I may have had a solution right in front of my face in chopping up and utilising washers from the original adjusters for a trial fit. It seems that they're just not wide enough, however, it was worth the shot.

 

 

Decisions, Decisons.

I took the time to get a rough layout for the fender length, seat position and milk jug orientation.

Despite not having my actual Firestone rear tyre in place, it was still enough of an opportunity to discover the orientation of the mik jug, which will likely need to sit with the label facing out and handles front to back. This is due to the handles possibly getting in the way of the chain when facing out to the sides.

In terms of the fender length, I'll check what the regs are her in NSW before committing to any cuts. I think where I propose to leave it should be suitable.

 

Got MILK?

I made a decision today that has confused most of those around me. They just can't get their head around the fact that I'm sticking a Milk urn on my bike!

I originally purchased the TC Bros electric box combo, however, I did have the urge to really make my build just that little bit different and off the wall.

I'm going to use this as a housing for my battery, rectifier, fuses, relays and perhaps ignition switch in the lid.

Even with my planning to use an A123 battery pack to save space, it'll be a tight fit. Another major draw to using this urn, is that I can have cabling run beneath the frame of the bike, thus reducing the need to hide them if they were running from a regular style faux oil tank/electric box.

I even had the supervisors give their seal of approval.

Helmet is striped and done!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Gary Howell @ "Signs by Gary Howell", who did an awesome pin-striping job on my helmet.

I'm so happy with his service and workmanship, that I'll be seeing him when it's time to gold-leaf the tank as shown in my previous post.

I must say, having to sand back and age his beautiful work was a tough chore, however, I think it all ties in together really well.

For anybody wanting to get some pin-striping done in the Sydney area, he is your man!

Once again, thanks to Lisa Cotterill @ Envisage Makeup Artistry for helping out with good old Pepe!

She has a name!

Well, it seems that the urge to name and tattoo my baby was just too strong.

I've decided to name my bobber "Thor's Hammer" (English) or "Mjolnir" (Norse).

The origin of this name comes from my Danish heritage, with my dad being a Dane, and my actually being born in Nyborg - Denmark before coming to Oz at the age of one.

It was this bloodline that also led to my first tattoo of Thor's Hammer (see pic below). Tattoo was designed by my mate Luke at Pictishink Tattooz.

I knocked up a rough idea of how my paint scheme will look on the tank, along with how I plan on having the name written. After meeting Gary Howell, my pin striper, it was determined that we'll gold leaf the stripe and writing on the tank.

Cool Video!

Here's a vid of a sweet XS650 bobber with the same hardtail as mine.

Mine will have front & rear fenders as well as a lower sitting tank. Considering my height, I'll need to get that seat as far back as I can get it!

I'm also trying to find out more details on the Monstercraftsmen chain tensioner, as this is exactly what I am looking for!

Cutting and Grinding

I've made some progress with the removal of the tank tabs, reflector posts, coil mount and steering lock mount.

I still need to cleanup any deep file marks and scratches.

I also removed the old inoperable kickstand and a bracket behind the exhaust mount that's got to go before the hardtail gets welded on.

Mulligan Machine Mids Mod

After having spoken to one of my mates regarding my desire to revert to mid mounts, and receiving the same feedback directly from TC Bros themselves, I'm giving up on the idea of using the forward controls in a mid mount application.

Instead I've decided I'll go down the path of the Mulligan Machine Mid Mod.

I do intend to use the mounting block that came with the TC Bros  brake pivot kit, and adapting the original splined brake bracket so that I can easily throw on the forward controls and suitable pivot kit at a later date with minimal mods.