PICS!

Here she is, at least for now. Like I said in my previous post, I still have more to do, including new tires, brakes, sissy bar, etc., but I thought some pics were still in order at this point.

FINISHED SPRINGER SEAT AND FENDER

After I got the seat mounted, I went back to the welding supply shop and bought a prefabbed trailer fender ($19). It was designed for a 14" wheel, but I had to cut 1/3 of it off anyway, so the length I used is short enough to look good on my 18".

I made a mounting bracket out of an old framing strap and bolted it down to the original seat mounts. In the picture, I haven't ground off the corners yet so they don't show on each side of the fender. Next I notched the sides of the fender so it fit as low as possible under the seat. I drilled out a mounting hole and bolted the fender to the bracket, and that was it. I went back and did a little tweaking here and there, including shimming the seat springs up about 1/2" with some washers for some extra clearance, and remounting the tail light on the throttle side strut.

So what's next? Hi-Beam switch, maybe a rebar sissybar... I'm also going to replace the rear sprocket with something a few teeth smaller, put on new street tires and mount new foot pegs, My new brake shoes are on the way from Ebay as I write this (I figured better braking was a priority right now.) So there's still a lot of work to do, but as it stands right now, I have a pretty badass little machine that has come a long way from it's trail bike days. Next post, some full bike pics.

SEATS AND SPRINGS

My buddy Taylor was interested in my idea of building a custom springer solo seat, and decided to make one for his sportster. So we made a template and he cut out 2 seats, one for each of us, made from some 12 gauge steel we picked up at the welding yard for $14. Once the seats were cut, we got to work with the bench grinder and a ball peen.

This was my first time trying to shape steel using only a hammer, but it was surprisingly easy... just beat the shit out of it until it does what you want.

Next Taylor welded me up some seat springs, made from 2.5" of the old rear suspension with washers top and bottom to provide a solid mounting surface.

I stopped by Ace and picked up some mounting bolts (hex drive pan head). I drilled out two holes on the seat frame bracing and did the same to the seat. My fingers are huge, so it took a while to thread the nuts on inside the spring coil, but after a good hour of pinched fingers and a shit-ton of swearing, I had the seat mounted. Next post, steel fender.

DRINKIN'

I've been working on the bike on and off this week, but before I get to those pics and descriptions, I figured I'd post a few photos I took the other night when the boys were over getting drunk in the garage. The bike at that point had just been hardtailed. All pics taken with the Toy Camera Ap for iphone.

Kenneth Bonelove, trying to calculate his Bud Light count. 

smoke break 

The Dirty Rambler himself, gettin' his lean on.