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Sanuk Canuk

Thanks Marmite!

attaboy

I had this gem for awhile.

Eliminator

attaboy, you should have kept that one, not too many around in that kinda shape, real nice bike.

Sanuk Canuk

Interesting that a bike of that era and design would have a rear disk. Rear disk and spoke wheel, and is that a kick start level I see there?

attaboy

^^Eliminator- What can I say? I was young and had a need for speed so I moved on to things Japanese while my friends went the Harley route.

^SC- I believe it was called a kick start "lever". Setting my leather helmet and googles on the seat would have rounded out the historical shot.


The first Harley in our group. My friend built it himself.

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As a kid I always thought my nickname was "attaboy" until I realized they were rooting for the dog: "Attaboy, get 'em! Get 'em!".

aging one

Can you explain that a bit. Chopped it? Built it from spare parts? How do you build a Harley?

attaboy

AO I am not a Harley mechanic nor am I part of the Harley culture. I would say he chose a frame that suited his own body's frame so he would be most comfortable riding the bike. He rebuilt a used engine to his specs. Possibly the tranny too. Then he assembled the bike.

Eliminator

attaboy, I would have thought that would have been obvious to the aging one but who knows what goes on in peoples head. I've finally got mine into the gallery and will be adding the Pattaya bike pics after I get the next roll developed and into my computer.

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Eliminator
1986 Kawasaki 900

attaboy

AO- I think I understand what your getting at but I am not knowledgable in the aftermarket sale of Harley engines and trannys. I beleive you have to purchase an entire "basketcase" bike and then rebuild it to your own specs if you chose to. Is that what you are aluding to? It has something to do with limiting the blackmarket trade in stolen bikes parts. Like I say I am not knowledgable of the Harley culture.

aging one

Harley Davidson builds motorcycles. What you do with them after that is your business.

friscofrankie

I've built more hogs out of aftermarket parts then Ihave with original parts.
back in the 60s & 70s we'd scrounge alltehparts we could and 'build a bike' bought three running bikes in my life, built too many to count for myself and others.
Buy (or build) a frame, get a set of cases, by flywheels (stroked for sure) custom forged piston blanks, bough al my bearngs loose in a bag or box. Even built a set of cylinders out of weldment of crome moly tube and high stregnth plate good for drags only no fins.
you take a cuttin' torch, grinder and tig torch to a frame and then go from there. One time it took six months to locate the parts for a very stock appearing 53 panhead. Fuckin built my rep big-time there. Weren't any aftermarket parts back then. Finding that '36 seamless oil bag and VL springer was an acheivement that had the entire biker community talkin' tha bike was a collection of parts from '51, '53 '36 and alot of '75 home made shit.
i think that building parts with mill, lathe, blanchard grinder and hand tools qualifies as building the bike. Everything is just parts, until you make it whole. it's what builders do. Hell, the Space Shuttle is built with (mostly) off-the-shelf parts. Any engineer worth his salt will have a stack o' catalogs higher than he is tall when he sits down to design, bikes ain't no different.

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For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.

insanity...

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hillbilly

So true! My first minibike i built was designed from catalogues. Growing up on a farm I did not have the money to order the original. Had to use the old man's metal pile.

My first hawg? A Rapido 125cc.

Dougal

I couldn't get the hang of Tig but we only had one set so I didn't get a lot of chance to practice. Now MIG is easy, just like squirting molten metal.

aging one

Thanks Frankie,

Thats what I was looking for."I build bikes" "Oh year what kinda bikes to you build". "Harley's from the ground up" Yes.

friscofrankie

I started weldng school right afer I turned 25, had a choice of stick or gas to start. the class was afull three units semester course with mid-terms and finals on metalurgy heat treating and indentification. tough course I learned a lot kept the books for years and years.
Anyway I took gas welding. Actually cleaner and a purer weldment but too much heat for some metals unless there' a good deal of pre/post heating. The manipulation of torch and filler, being in different hands is tough & takes tons of practice. Friend of mine is getting one (tig/stick)setup. Haven't in years. Gonna go play. Loved it.
Wirefeed is actually easy to start but will give you a brittle weldment. Manipulating gas flow, voltage and stickout can really change the properties of a weld. I never wanted to be a production weldor so only I used wire feed for quick tack when fitting up. never did alot of it. Did some wirefeed aluminum on one contract.
Welding 110,000 PSI steel on crane booms was interestng as hell. Lot of tricky shit there man; all stick.
When I worked on bridges or large projects I was the guy did the lay-out, piece nesting, and as-built designs; stairs and rails were fun; done a few circular stairs in Iron. always loved lay-out work The money was in computer engineering back in the late eighties up until about 2001. Always liked fuckin' with 'em (computers) was writing code at night after workin on heavy equipment.
Like the whore I am, I went with the money. I always missed buildin bikes and fabricating. hopefully I can find a way to get back into it here in some small way. Figure another six months or year. Build maybe 5 6 a years gotta build my own first.
Starting to meet folks, but with no bike? I aint no fuckin' hang-around

Eliminator

I'm not a builder by any stretch of the immagination but "rebuild" I can do. Guess I just love taking a wreck and putting it back into shape. My problem is I tend to go overboard on everything being right and spend more on em than they're worth but then this last one will be my last bike to keep. I would like to have a shop that does quality stuff, not this sand by hand stuff,painting outdoors and all the other stuff you see here in Thailand. I get my tools and parts brought in from the US and England and have been pretty lucky so far. It's this last shipment that's held me up on the 900. She''l get there.

friscofrankie

hand work can be very good, on the paint? Got a friend that's got him a powdercoating shop does custom show quality work. Wonderful stuff, powdercoat. He's a pro and does a glass-like finish. Always hated painting. i spend a fortune, take hours to get my lowers down to .0003" runout. if I didn't have a friend that could paint i'd can paint it. love a nice paint job, but It will never get done by my hand.

Marmite the Dog

How much do you think it would cost for a custom paint job for my chopper?

friscofrankie

Dunno but I know where you can sme rocket engines to mount onthe back of it. Hell I'll install 'em for free. 'long as you test ride it where I can see

Marmite the Dog

What does "sme" mean?