GAS TANK UPDATE:

Only time for a quick update tonight: I modified the tank lift. On my buddy Chris's advice, I used a deeper socket and got rid of the washers. I also pulled apart the front end again, took off the dust boots and flipped the headlight. I'll post some pics tomorrow. Also, soon to come, custom made 12 gauge steel springer seat... hopefully that'll be done soon.

GAS TANK LIFT: GHETTO OR BADASS???

I woke up yesterday morning with a plan already formed in my head for lifting my gas tank. Like I mentioned in the previous post, my goal here is to beef up the aesthetics of the bike, for that "gorilla" geometry. I think I got the term "gorilla" from my buddy JMan who once claimed that a dude should transform into an ape as soon as he straddles a well-built bike. So, in an effort to make myself and my motorcycle more ape-like, I headed out to the garage to forage around in my many tool boxes of random shit until I found the perfect riser mount.

I started by removing the original rubber mount that friction fit under two tabs welded to the frame. Then, I ground out the rivet on a turn of the century window sash lock that I had left over from a remodel we did on a late 1800's house a few years ago. I knew it would come in handy at some point! Thanks to homeowner Joey Meese for letting me keep all that old hardware.

I drilled out the old mounting tabs on the frame and bolted on the sash lock. Then I began the arduous task of selecting spacers. I wanted to raise the tank about 2 inches, so I started with some washers and then started trying out random other items. Finally, I found the solution.

An old, stripped 14mm socket put the tank just about where I wanted it, so I stacked everything up, ran a 2.5" bolt up the middle of the spacers and through the tank mount tab, which already had a hole in it. A couple nuts on top secured everything down, and I was done.

Next, it's time to move my headlight down, and I think I'll get rid of the dust boots on the forks. Then, I have to figure out how to fab and mount a springer seat... I'm thinking straight steel. So here's my question: is this super ghetto? Or just straight up badass? I'm ready for some feedback on my project, so let me know!

'72 HONDA SL 125 HARDTAIL

Once I decided to hardtail this bike, I had to figure out the best way to do it. I played with a few ideas, and then went down to the local steel supply warehouse to see what they recommended. I ended up with two, twelve inch lengths of 1/12" wall 3/4 square stock.

The width was the exact same as the original suspension mounts, so all I had to do was drill out the holes in the right spots for the bottom stud and top bolt. I was about to make a plywood template when I realized I have a doweling jig, donated to my garage by my father in law. The jig self-centers, and keeps the bit perfectly plumb during drilling.

Fortunately, the bottom stud diameter was 1/2" and the top bolt was 5/16- both dimensions included in the doweling jig. I clamped it down and used my corded drill for a little extra power- the holes took a while, but they came out perfect.

I set the first strut, leaving the seat frame about 3/4" off the rear tire. Then, I drilled the bottom stud hole in the second strut, so I could mount it and mark the exact center of the final top bolt hole. This strategy worked great; I drilled the last hole, mounted the second strut, and that was it. Now I've got a (sort of ghetto) hardtail frame.

The location of the rear light will have to be changed, and I'm gonna have my work cut out for me trying to figure out how to mount a fender, seat, and sissy bar., but I'm stoked on the way the bike sits so much lower now. I went back to Google Image Search to get some ideas for the fender, etc., and came across a couple pics of bikes similar to mine: small frames/motors with a bulky look to them, but I couldn't put my finger on what was different about them. Finally, around midnight, I realized that all those bikes had an elevated gas tank that provides a sort of "gorilla" geometry. Also, many of these motorcycles have a lowered headlight. I like how both these elements really make a bike stand out, and I ought to be able accomplish both pretty easily, so... I guess that'll be the next post.

'72 HONDA SL 125 FINISHED! (OR IS IT...)

Well, I finished it... at least as of a month ago. Once I got the bike together I still had a couple tasks- namely, registering it and getting licensed to ride it. I went down to the DMV and got my permit since all it takes is passing a written test. That made me feel comfortable riding it around the streets of our immediate area. Then, I took a 3 day motorcycle safety/training course through CCMT. It cost $250 but it was worth it. After the course I felt safe and confident on a bike, and just taking it waves my DMV licence test.

(Done)

Next I had to go down to the DMV again and try to register the bike for dual use- street and off road. So I went down and filled out a billion forms and hoped that they didn't ask to see the bike... no blinkers and a chopped exhaust probably wouldn't go over so well. The lady at the DMV asked to see it right away. "You don't need to see it" I said, using my Jedi powers. "It has lights and it's an SL, so its Street Legal- you know, 'SL'." Apparently that was pretty convincing; the lady looked at me strange for a second and then sighed and handed me plates. I guess SL could stand for 'Street Legal,' who knows?

I've been riding her around for about a month now, and it's awesome. Top speed is about 55 mph if the conditions are right. For getting around town, going to the store, or riding out to my Dad's house ten miles away, this is the perfect bike. Since this is my first motorcycle I'm fine with it going slowish. And I'm fine with it being the obvious street legal dirt bike that it is rather than a cruiser.

But... I sort of want a bike that can at least go the speed limit, and I've been spending a lot of time looking at a shitload of bikes on the internet and in magazines. The speed problem is easy; my rear sprocket is a 58t, which is huge. I could easily drop 10 teeth and still be on the big side. I figure I'll go down to a 48 and see what that gives me. Maybe it'll get me to 65 mph. Plus an OEM sprocket for this bike isn't too expensive. The magazine and Google image problem is much bigger. I've realized recently that there are a lot of people out there who aren't in to stock motorcycles, cool though some may be. These people aren't into fancy show choppers either. Rather, they're all about building a rusty, badass conglomeration of gasoline, steel and anything else that can be altered or transformed into a low slung, growling bike to get you from A to B. It's not flashy, but it exudes creativity, individuality, and ton of real, gritty, knuckle grinding work put in at night, on weekends, any time there is a spare second. Poring over these bikes for the past couple of months has really inspired me; hell, the whole purpose of this blog is to showcase the shit I build, and there's a reason the blog's called contraption.

So I decided I'm gonna go all in. I'm hardtailing this baby. Dropping the frame 4 inches. Installing a springer seat, etc. I think I just can't stand to have a project finish. My brother was over the other day when I was working on the bike, and he asked me, "is it fun to own something that you have to fix constantly?" My immediate answer was yes. That's the best part, in some ways. So I'm going to make this little bike look smaller and bigger at the same time. It's going to be a beast. A relatively slow beast. Next post, the frame gets slammed and strutted.

'72 HONDA SL 125 PART 4: CHOPPIN' PIPES AND MOUNTIN' LIGHTS

After spending some time poring over a ton of similarly ratty bikes in Google Images, I decided to ditch the original seat in favor of a flatter, leaner looking one... so I pulled out an old sheet of 3/4'' ply and a jigsaw and went to work. I've never upholstered anything before, but I was surprised at how easy it was. I stapled a couple layers of carpet padding to the wood base, wrapped it in batting and finished it off with some faux-leather I got cheap at the local fabric store. My wife is an avid seamstress, so she gave me some tips; I think the whole thing came out looking pretty slick, and it's not uncomfortable.

I also shot the tank with some flat black barbeque paint. The dents are still noticeable, but at least I got rid of the surface rust and old orange paint.

I think a motorcycle should be as loud as possible, so, seeing as how the exhaust pipe looked pretty stupid to begin with and had a hole in the muffler, I went ahead and sawzalled it off just past the foot peg. I flat blacked it to match the tank, and remounted it with new bolts to replace the rusty, stripped studs that miraculously didn't snap during removal. Now the bike sounds like an amplified, coal powered chainsaw on steriods. I recently left my buddy's house and rode home, a trip of at least a mile through my rural hometown. He called me to say that he could hear me all the way to my house!

The next day all my new cables and my headlight finally showed up. Unfortunately, it didn't come with mounting hardware. I dug through my bin of old bicycle parts and found a couple of crankset bolts from an old fixie project. They look great as mounting bolts and even have rubber bushings that keep the light snug and relatively vibration free.

Now that I had a headlight it was time to think about tail lights. I shopped around on Ebay trying to find an old bobber-style break/tail light, but I didn't want to drop the 50-100 bucks that a cool one would cost. Finally, I went down to Kragen to see what they could do for me, and I ended up just buying a replacement 12v Taurus tail light. I replaced the bulb with a 6v, mounted it with a modified Simpson framing bracket, and wired it up.

It works great, and looks pretty good sitting on the edge of the old plastic dirtbike fender I chopped and painted. A little conduit routes the wires up under the frame. The whole setup cost about $7: way cheaper than anything on Ebay.

'72 HONDA SL 125 PROJECT: PART 3

After I replaced the battery and coil I was able to get a weak spark, but I still couldn't get the motor to start up. I tested the compression, which was ample, kicked it over until my leg felt like it was going to fall off, and even tried bump starting it on the hill in front of our house. Nothing worked. Finally, I realized that the fuel line (which I had not checked, for some reason) was attached to a vent port that the previous owner had JB Welded a fuel nipple into. I decided to take apart the carb and see what else was wrong, so I disassembled it and bathed everything in carb cleaner.

Since the fuel nipple had been welded into the wrong hole, I had to make a new one out of a brass vacuum hose fitting (see pic above, the old nipple on the left and the new one on the right, in the correct port.) It worked, and finally I was able to get gas into the float bowl. I shot a little starter fluid into the spark plug hole for good measure, and she fired up on the 20th kick-- for about 2 seconds. I repeated this process a few times and gave up for the night, satisfied that I could at least get some combustion. The next day I bought and installed a hotter plug, smashed around the wires a little bit more, and she fired up. I was able to keep the motor running for a few minutes this time, until I accidentally touched one of the wires and immediately lost spark. Also, the timing seemed pretty off. So I cleaned the points, adjusted the gap, which helped the spark issue a little bit. Still, the bike still wouldn't run for more than a couple of minutes and it died every time I rolled the throttle. Finally, I called my good buddy known locally as The Scoutmaster, a mechanical engineer with an addiction to restoring vintage scooters and Volvos; I figured if he couldn't get this thing running right no one could.

(The Scoutmaster (left) and me all dressed up)

The Scoutmaster took one look at the wiring on my bike, cracked a beer, swigged, and burped. Then he rewired the whole thing. With a brand new harness, an oil change and a little work on the timing, the bike fired on the first kick and ran strong! Unfortunately, I learned the hard way that if you tighten the nuts that attach the carb to the manifold even a bit too snug, the throttle slide tube will bend slightly out of round and cause you to spend an hour sanding the slide into an oval. All in all, though, the day was a success, ending with a fat spark, a running bike, and clean wiring with tight connections.

(New low-profile, conduit wrapped wiring harness and new battery)

Next, I get busy with a sawzall, build a new seat, and make this baby street legal (sort of.)

MORE PROGRESS: '72 HONDA SL 125 PROJECT

Since I had the front end pulled apart and the new coil and battery were still in the mail, I decided I'd just do all the suspension components at once. I pulled off the rear shocks, which were pretty much locked with rust and dirt. At some point I'd like to replace them, but not right now. So I spent a few hours cleaning, wire brushing, re-oiling and finally re-painting. The result wasn't bad- they're not the smoothest or quietest shocks ever, but they get the job done and they look a hell of a lot better.

I also removed the 2.5" extension spring, which lowered the bike a bit. I've since gone back and forth between shock heights a couple of times, but I think I like the bike as low as possible in the rear- both because I'm not very tall and because it looks better than way.

I removed the fork arms and flat blacked the bottoms and tops, leaving the middle in it's chrome-and-rust condition. I ordered some black rubber dust boots to cover that part. I didn't bother changing the fork oil for now, since everything operates smoothly and the seals seem fine. I bought some used chrome headlight mounts off Ebay and I ordered an OEM headlight from Thailand, which ended up taking 2 months to arrive.
Once everything was painted and lubed, I put the front end back together- a task which ended up being fairly time-consuming. I also took apart the front brake and cleaned everything with heavy-duty degreaser. I re-oiled the springs, adjusted the arm and put the old cable back on while I waited on the new one I ordered. I also ordered a new clutch cable, OEM levers and a lever mount to replace the one I snapped a bolt and then 2 easy-outs trying to remove. Sometimes, rust just wins.

MOVING ON TO MOTORCYCLES: 1972 HONDA SL 125 PROJECT

I've been wanting to buy a motorcycle for a while now; it's not that I've lost enchantment with building bicycles, but something about the noise, power, and (i'll admit it) cool factor of riding a motorcycle has always appealed to me. It's like picking up smoking for older people. My wife has been opposed to this plan, since she's concerned (rightly) with my safety, but it's not like the past few years of weaving through rush hour traffic on fixies sans brakes was particularly smart or safe either, so in September, on my 30th birthday, I convinced her to let me buy this non-running 1972 Honda SL 125. It was a steal on Craigslist for $160, registered off road through 2011 and complete with a clean title. I made it my goal to get her running and revamped for around-town duty by Christmas. It took me a bit longer than that, but as of now this bike has a new lease on life, as my next few posts will show. I'm still building bicycles, don't worry- my current project is a 26" MB/road crosstraining bike- but I thought i'd share the process of building this motorcycle with the 7 or 8 people who still read this blog. Keep in mind I've never rebuilt or even worked on a motorcycle, so everything I did here I learned as I went. So, here we go...

The bike as it looked when I bought it: non-running, with a bad orange paint job and a bunch of corroding plastics, dents, rust, and greasy mud from almost 40 years of being used in the dirt and stored outside. It was time for a little TLC, degreaser, and a self-taught, crash course in motorcycle maintenance.

After a little research and some advice from my more mechanically inclined buddies, I decided to start with the electrical system. I pulled the tank and seat, and started checking the wiring. A tug on the plug wire pulled it right out of the coil; it had literally been melted in half, possibly from a short. I ordered a new OEM coil/plug wire off of Ebay, as well as a new battery. While those were being shipped, I began pulling the front end of the bike apart and cleaning it up.

I pulled the forks, bars, and front wheel off, teaching myself how everything connects... as far as the headset/tripletree is concerned it's not much different from a bicycle.

The cups and races were pretty much welded together by rusted bearings, but once I tore everything apart, went to town with PB Blaster and repacked it all with a liberal amount of lithium grease the headset works great- smooth turning and silent.

A wire wheel quickly took off the corrosion on the triple tree, brake mounts, throttle switch box, etc... I love the wire wheel. Next, the forks get a new paint job, the front brakes get overhauled and the front end goes back together!