Pipe dreams

Knocked off early yesterday and got up the barn. Was totally on one and got the pipes all tacked up, a seat pan made and mocked up the front wheel.

ongoing updates! does anyone care? Who gives a shit, here's what I've been up to!

I keep hearing that blogs have died the death, no one reads them any more - no one is bothered, Instagram is King!!!!

Pah! Who cares - I'm still going to rattle on about the stupid shit I've been up to and the crap I've spend my hard earned folding on! One day Blogs will come back round again, you'll see!

I guess Instagram suits peoples lives these days - a quick snap and a short narrative, and away to go... I barely have time to sleep these days, but still find myself checking whats going on any spare second I can- like i'm going to miss something.... I guess it hooks you like that - especially if your a berk like me.

The reality is that your actually missing the good stuff - all the little bits and bobs people are making, the mistakes that they are now to conscious of themselves to post, and the narrative of their thought process when tacking a problem!

I am always more interested in the "this is what I made and how I made it" posts than the " this is me looking cool on my bike" side of things. I always try and have a crack at making things - its the only way to learn, There is absolutely no shame in having a bash at something you've seen someone else do - I've been narrowing tanks - its been done hundreds of times before - but people just look at them and say "I've seen those before" - yeh, you may have seen them done, but every one of those dudes put serious hours into those tanks - and until you've done a set I don't think you can understand fully what the builder was doing.

Everyone is in this scene for different things - to learn, to push themselves, to overcome fears, to look cool or to make cash - its taken me a long while to realise that people are in it for different reasons to me - and they are not all motivated the same way as me. 

Anyways - enough of my musing and ramblings, here's what I've been up to!!!!!!

I actually did some tidying up in the barn! I found this whole corner under a pile of parts and bags! I got a little welding table local and my buddy Elliott hooked me up with a lift in his van! top man as ever!

Work has continued on the split tanks for the pan. The left hand tank has a dimple on it, something to do with the fuel tap.... I don.t know - I'll have to look it up, but I cut it out prior to the narrowing, and then had to weld it back in. Basically I tacked it in a couple of places, then used a panel beating hammer to match the insert to the tanks. Plenty of buggering about, but well worth the effort I think!

Once it was cleaned up it was looking pretty damn good if you ask me. another couple of hours of my life wisely invested!

I did my usual trick of winning 2 of the same thing of what I wanted! The 2 springers are from harley singles or peashooters as they are known, the left set have been further narrowed for some stupid reason. I'm gonna make one good set from the 2 and they will be run on the 345 - that'll probably be a job for over winter I would think!

Ma and Pa came up to visit the new house, and more importantly Little Jack. He's a total little dude - He's such a happy little guy, so here he is with his nan on the pan! maybe that should be a new tag line - "grab your Nan - lets ride the pan".... or maybe not...

I finally got the filler sorted on the flamee tank. that went out thee door yesterday to a place that does this weird spray on chrome effect. they guy says that its actually silver that's sprayed on to the tank. it should come back all shiny and reflective! its been a long time in the wash, but I'm totally stoked with how this baby is coming along. Once I get an idea in my head i find it hard to stop thinking about it. Its going to (Hopefully) look amazing on the little 345!

I had a massive clear out of parts - I had so much stuff sitting round up the barn that I was getting distracted with all sorts of thoughts of long choppers, alternative tanks and all sorts. I actually cashed in over £2k in parts there - I know I like to buy good stuff, but even I was surprised with how much was there!

I've been threatening to do it for a while, so I took the plunge and bought a tube bender. So far I have 1" and 3/4" dies - so should be good for small projects and subframes. My buddy Mike from Survivor Customs (check his awesome work out on instagram) - haha! there it is - instagram taking over again! back on point - Mike and I are going to make some 60's styled mini bikes, so we can use the bender for that as a test run!

Ive just started making the pipes for the 345 (or kenosha kicker as i'm now calling it!) the pipes on the right have been bent up to match the curve of the stock 45 pipes in stainless. Hopefully i'm gonna be on with the pipes tomorrow.

Giulio is a dude from London, but a crazy Italian. Ive only met him the once, but seems like a decent dude. I saw that his bike was missing a front end - and he had said he was waiting for some guy in London to do some welding for him. Didn't sound like they were going to be done any time soon, so I offered to help out. A pretty neat solution really - he wanted some laser cut tabs welding onto some really nice narrow yokes so that he can run fork shrouds like I have on my pan!

 Finally I scored a couple of cool parts. A chromed out an rebuilt Linkert for the 45, and a starhub springer drum setup. the wheel will need rebuilding, but that's OK with me!

I'll try and be a bit more up to date with my blog from now on!

Pan ride

Took the pan out for her maiden voyage yesterday. The bike feels tight and strong!

Pulled into squires with Mike from survivor customs, had a cuppa and after an hour or so set off down the road.

Made about 3 miles before the bike died, turned out to be a dead sparkplug.

Gonna stock up as this seems to be a common fault!

Still- a great morning out though!

Chopping

Guy popped round last week and we had a bit of a chop afternoon. Always good to have great company!

Second tank all chopped. Loads of work still to do on them, but looking good.

My baby springer also showed up. It's gonna need some loving, but can't wait to get cracking on it!

Busy busy!

Gotta maximise every bit of time I get up the barn now. Today was the sissy bar for the 345 (or the Kenosha kicker as it's now known), and narrowing tanks for the pan.

Narrow wideglides

Had a spare day due to a last minute cancellation- sheer joy- a sneaky day up the barn!

Cracked on with the wideglide yokes today - time for more narrowing!