Up to you.

I guess that’s the challenge of using a “naked”bike since there isn’t anywhere else to “hide” them.  What if you embrace the exposed truth and go for a level steampunk engineering?

Posted by: @thane-lewis

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I guess that’s the challenge of using a “naked”bike since there isn’t anywhere else to “hide” them.  What if you embrace the exposed truth and go for a level steampunk engineering?

Probably not, the style of the bike now is close to what builders in Japan are riding. I may return the bike to what it looked like in 2008 though.

Now the axle block. I wanted this to be as heavy as possible, so it is mostly 1/4" plate. The axle tube is 1" ID .188 wall that I honed to be a snug slip fit for the 1" Dyna rear axle. It is slightly adjustable for height and adjustable for camber by using various size chassis shims. The aluminum plates help distribute the upward load over a greater area. So as not to totally rely on my amateur welding, a 1/4" strap around the tube adds a mechanical restraint. With the axle, the whole thing weighs almost 16 lbs.

With the rigid setup of the rig, seems like the extra "beef" is great for durability, and for the added weight.  

Plus it just looks bad-arse.  😎 

Nice work. 

Posted by: @scott-h

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With the rigid setup of the rig, seems like the extra "beef" is great for durability, and for the added weight.  

Plus it just looks bad-arse.  😎 

Nice work. 

Thanks. I tried to get as much weight near the wheel as possible. In a pocket directly under the axle block I hid a pile of steel bar stock, and in the frame between the bolt holes hide two more chunks of bar stock.

Current activity. After the bazillion TIG welds on the top and bottom came out so well, filling in around my giant tack welds on the verticals with the MIG resulted in 24 really ugly welds. Since this thing weighs over 30 lbs. already, with about 15 lbs. of steel yet to be added, and my erector set arms have limits, I need to clean those welds up now.

Also drilled the 5 holes in the first reinforcement plate for the underside.

I wear a lot of hats around here, but found some time for this. I needed to find my groove with the MIG, playing with the auto set, and then my own settings, push, pull, sitting, standing, etc. Center frame tubes fitted, lower mount round tubes tacked in.

This is why I boxed the lower strut mounts. I can clamp them down and simply adjust the upper struts until they find the place they want to be. Just clamping them close here, I get 1.5 degrees lean in, to 3 degrees lean out. So it's in the ballpark already.

The angles look to make a very solid rig. 😎  

Another mock up day, the upper mounts were the last parts that had to find their place. So a lot more pieces to add, and it's gonna get heavy now. Tomorrow though.

Had to sit back, drink some beer, and stare at it for a while. Thankful that even being pretty screwed up physically, I can still take a pile of nothing, and turn it in to something. Good day.

Definitely a lot of fun to build from scratch based just off a thought.  😎 

The completed first chassis, with internal ballast, weighs 43.9 lbs. At this point, the incomplete second chassis, weighs 39.2 lbs. The next time it comes off the fab table, it will be with my HF hyd. lift cart.

Eight more TIG welds to get the center frame rails in, and it still sits flat (enough) on the table. So I didn't build a rocking chair, or a pretzel over here. Winning. All the rest of the welds will be with the MIG. The only thing left to do, is everything else!

Very clean work!  Have you started thinking about how you'll wrap it?  Or is that even in the plans? 

Posted by: @scott-h

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Very clean work!  Have you started thinking about how you'll wrap it?  Or is that even in the plans? 

For the rear, if this thing works, I may build something useful to fill all that empty space. Maybe a cargo rack.

That would be very cool.  Maybe turn a pony keg into a lockable storage bin and mount it on the rack. 😎