She's Alive!!!!

I couldn't wait any longer - the bike was so close to running that I decided to keep working until I had her going. Unfortunately, I was so intent on getting her running that I forgot to take many pics. The first thing I did was make a new wiring harness. I did take a few pics as I was removing the old one, so in the future I will remember where everything went. It was a rat's nest.







With the OEM wiring harness removed I began soldering up a new harness from scratch. This is what I used to guide me - I found it on the internet. It took a couple of hours to cut all the wires to proper length, solder the connectors, and then double check their installation to make sure nothing was crossed. When I installed the battery to test everything I found that I didn't have a tail light. After a bit of troubleshooting, I realized I somehow lost the ground to the tail light, so I simply ran a new ground wire from the tail light housing to the frame and all was good.

With the bike wired I now needed to clean and install the gas tanks. I threw a handfull of nuts into each tank, added a bit of gasoline, inserted ear plugs, and sloshed the mess around to my favorite AC/DC songs. Rinse and repeat until the gas flowed clear. It didn't take too long before both tanks were installed. I then scoured my parts boxes for my old S&S throttle and cables. I installed those, as well as the clutch lever and cable. I then had to fabricate a few new brackets as the smaller Superglide battery tray I was installing didn't fit quite right. After a bit of cutting and grinding, however, in went the new battery and she was ready to start.

It turned out the battery was pretty dead, so I pulled out the jumper cables and hooked them to the Ford Ranger, and after a few turns of the starter she fired to life. I then realized my petcock was leaking badly, so I drained the gas from both tanks, removed the petcock, and headed to the hardware store to buy a rubber faucet washer. I installed the faucet washer and a liberal dose of teflon tape, and the petcock was now gas-tight. I once again hooked up the jumper cables and she was again rumbling in the driveway.

I put about 50 miles on her tonight, and she's a real blast to ride. The front end handles a bit differently than the original one, but I still need to do a little tweeking to get it dialed in. I also need to figure out a front brake. A stop light caught me off guard and I skidded to a stop in the nick of time. Riding without a front brake is definately not something you want to do in the city.

Here she is after her inaugural ride:

She's Rolling!

This weekend I picked up the fork legs from the welder, as well as the new neck stem and axle that I had turned. Everything looked great and I was excited to get the front end on the bike to see what she looked like. While I was waiting on the parts I had cleaned, greased, and reassembled the rest of the front end, so putting it on the bike would be fast.









I greased the neck bearings, slid the neck into place, and installed it on the frame - the neck fit perfectly (I was a little bit worried). I installed the fork legs, wheel and axle, and again everything was perfect. I then bolted on a set of 3.5 gallon tanks. I got a great deal on these tanks, and they are much smaller physically than the 5 gallons tanks I had - much more appropriate for the slimmer front end (I just need to paint them). She was now a rolling bike!






I bolted on the only set of handle bars I had and rolled her out onto the lawn to take some pics. I don't really care for the handlebars, and I think the rear fender is too large, but that is what I have to work with for now. I still need to remove the horns, remove the OEM wiring harness and make a new one, and figure out a front brake, but here's what she looks like now:

My New Fork Legs

I spent several hours today filing and fitting. So much so I felt like my arms were going to fall off, but I finally had axle plates.

I then tack-welded them onto the fork legs. I'll have to farm out the welding, as I can't run a tip big enough on my little acetylene bottle to weld 3/4" steel effectively (or safely). It took forever just to get the steel hot enough for tack welds with my #2 tip, but it did work.

I bolted the legs on the bike and set the frame level. The wheel's axle hole was 1.5" above the holes in the axle plates - exactly where I wanted it. Once the weight of the bike is on the forks it should sit perfectly. Now all I need is to get the legs welded up and a proper neck made for the triple trees and I can mount the forks. I still need to figure out a brake caliper mount, but I haven't found a caliper yet, so that will have to wait.

I'm Copperman!

Today I felt like the old Iron Horse's Chopperman! For the first time I used both a hacksaw and a cutting torch on my Harley (on the girder front end, at least). I installed the front end (with bearings), and then measured three times to make sure I had the right fork length before doing any cutting. The forks compressed 1.5" under load, so I set the frame level, measured to the center of the axle hole in the 21" wheel, and then lengthened the cut by 1.5". I made the cuts with a hacksaw using hose clamps to guide the cut and make sure it was square. The fork legs were 3/4" solid stock, so it took forever with a hacksaw!












I then needed to bend the aft leg so the bottom wasn't too wide and looked hacked. The original space was 1" between legs on the bottom, so I set up a jig with a 1" piece of pipe as a bottom spacer to bend the legs together.

















Then all I had to do was apply heat to get a nice smooth bend where P&P orginally bent the leg. I was VERY carefull not to touch that oxygen lever, as this is the cutting head for the torch (you'll see what that can do next). Never mind the pile of junk in the background - I'm also working on my boat. This really is relevant to Ducatis, as the tube I'm using to radius the bend is a piece of Ducati fork tube!











None of the local steel suppliers were open on the weekend, so I decided to reuse the original axle plates and cut them out with the torch. It was getting dark and I figured the neighbors would kill me if I started running my angle grinder all night, so fitting the axle plates to the legs will have to wait for tomorrow.

Digression

It's been a while since my last post, but late summer is my busy season at work (I did warn you this would be a longer project). I also haven't found anyone local to rebuild my crank. I've taken it to a few local shops, but lets say none have instilled any confidence, whatsoever. So.....I'm going to send it off to Syd's Cycles in St. Pete, FL. I just need to call them. Hopefully I'll get it off next week.

In the meantime, I've decided to completely digress from the intended topic of this blog - narrowcase Ducatis - and highlight another project I've started: I've owned the same '72 shovelhead Harley for 15 years. I've ridden this bike from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and I vowed that I would never sell it. Over the last two summers, however, I haven't even burned a full tank of gas through it. I even began contemplating selling it to buy a different Harley project - my stock FLH was simply too nice to chop out, I thought.

My shovelhead on her last road trip in 2006. I finally completed the Pacific-to-Atlantic tour I started in 1994. I've now ridden this bike through nearly every state north of the Mason-Dixon.







Well, I figured why not turn my nice ol' Electraglide into something that peaked my interest a bit more. The only rules I set for myself was not to cut or sell any of the original parts. That way, 10-20 years down the road I could restore the bike to original condition and have a nice old Harley without breaking the bank or having to scour the world for parts.








And with those rules I began looking for parts. A few weeks ago I found what I considered the ideal front end - an old girder straight out of the 1970s. I then got a 21" wheel off a 2005 Sportster with a disk brake rotor - stopping is more important to me than looking cool! The only problem is the front end is about 14 inches too long. Nothing a hacksaw and a welder can't take care of, though. You can see the Ducati as a towel rack on the back wall!

Last night I got the ol' FLH stripped down and began fitting the new front end. I'm really liking the looks of this. Hopefully I'll have some time to keep working on it over the next few weeks.