Made me laugh like a drain when I saw this….. reminded me of my boy ‘helping me’ with my Harley when he was that age! – pinched it off the Rogues site – hope you guys don’t mind – love what you do!!

Anyway the surprise actually refers to the number of visitors to our site. We didn’t even have a counter put on til a few weeks ago and well – I’m amazed that folk are interested enough to check in and see what we’re up to – Thank you!

This site was really only an exercise in cataloguing what we get up to when we have some spare time. It’s not updated enough – because we’re busy…… frequently forget the camera when we’re building or frankly can’t be ar**d.

I’ll try and do better.

Just a quick update… Heisenburgs still at it with the XS, Fruitshoot has a new shed so works afoot on his XS400, Silus has a new shed and plans for the Suzuki before the summer, The mad prof ……… is well  -mad and nobody (other than himself) truly knows what he’s up to and Mac has too may toys and not enough time – The XS is pretty much finished, The V50 needs Electrics and he’s just fell across a low mileage 1200 Harley engine to start his next chop…… oh and there’s the café racer too………. needs a holiday!

Thanks for checking in and we’ll (try to) keep you updated! Ta!

On reflection the standard bros brakes were a bit naff so as I mentioned before it was time for a modern upgrade, I removed the lugs that mounted the original calliper and have made a bracket to fit the new calliper from a Suzuki Hayabusa, I won’t be attempting the welding on this part of the project as I have no way to join aluminium other than jubilee clips and nails so I have handed the parts over to Stable fabrication in Towcester http://www.stablefabrication.co.uk/ , great bunch of chaps who will have a go at anything within reason for very sensible rates. – Heisenburg.

I collected the forks from the fabricators yesterday and was very impressed with the welding job, very neat!

Tonight I managed to find some time to start putting things back together, the weld had penetrated inside the tube a little and distorted the inner wall so much the stanchion would not slide inside the leg anymore, I hadn’t even thought about this happening but managed to fix it easily, I made up a 38mm aluminium cylinder with a thread in one end to take about a foot of threaded bar, this went in to my drill, the other end I hacksawed a cut and attached some 400 grit emery cloth, I reamed this in and out of the fork leg for a few minutes with some thin oil and it all fits quite well now.

Next job is to finally start the yokes, I have a bit of an odd design in my head but it should be fine, I’d prefer to go the normal route but I couldn’t blag the right size of aluminium slabs for free so second best will have to do. – Heisenburg.

The Runnaround ………. relatively standard………. at the moment!!

Quick update

Finally found time to start the front end after my supernatural illness…. new bearings fitted, new dust seals and a stainless axle made for the mock up, Honda 400 bros forks slightly modded but with standard calliper, the calliper doesn’t fit well so will swap out for a more modern unit.

I have the slabs to make the yokes now so time to get moving, BFOM is sneaking up on us!

Time to get on with the café racer project that’s been sat around for years!

Xs 650 (our fave) frame that’ll be trimmed of all it’s unnecessary clutter, big old brit tank, small tailpiece, rearsets – you get the picture.

Plan is to attempt a reverse head engine on this project – so get the exhausts exiting from the rear under the seat and out high level – need the advice from the ‘Mad Prof’ on this one!

To keep it looking like a 50’s racer the old Yam disc brake set up has been ditched, an early drum brake purchased and reconditioned and the later fork legs have been shaved and adapted to take the drum brake (courtesy of the Mad Prof).

New Drum………………………….

and New hoops………………… powder coated gun metal grey!

Time to start stripping the old wheel…………..

With the end in site for the ‘Scavenger bike’  and Sarah’s Guzzi, Mac is looking towards his next Project.

Having sold the Harley last year (and the KH and the Hornet) to make some room in the garage he was left with a hard tail frame to suit the Sportster. Despite being more than pleased with the V-Max ‘run around’ he bought to fill the void  – he does miss the “potato  potato”.

Plan is – over time and when funds permit to do the opposite to Heisenburg – to put Jap running gear on an American bike – so looking out for some Gixer or zzr running gear (and a sporty engine of course)!

And there’s more…………. How nice is that tank?

Bit more…………………………..

Prospect ‘Silus’ popped round to the shed to catch up with Heisenburg and sent in these pictures of the evil genius at work.

Nearly there ………….. Just need to chase down Cooperman to advise me on going battery- less, got a PMA fitted and a Boyer system but got to see if I can ditch the battery and go with a capacitor. Then it’s time to get the carb tuned into the new exhausts …… then playtime!!

Got the Scavenger bike back from Wolfy’s today!

The man is an artist when it comes to metalwork, got exactly what I wanted – and more – two inch stainless with the welds on show to follow the lines of the bike – beautiful!!