Need a creative outlet for the winter. I want to fabricate a lot of the peripherals, but will be buying the major components, probably all new…
I don’t want to build a frame, and will probably order a paughco frame.
I will probably order a new S&S motor, and a new transmission and drive.
Is this a bad plan? (not so much from a financial standpoint, but from a practicality standpoint) I’m going to put my budget around 20K. I don’t expect to ever get that out of it.
I just don’t want to spend time that I could use doing interesting stuff like building and planning on FIXING.
Where can I find people with experience about what’s good start. Once I have a solid foundation, I can let my imagination run…
What I don’t want to do is get bogged down with what I refer to as the “MkIV disease” where there is “a way to do it”. You gotta poke & stretch and slam or else it won’t be cool… But I also don’t want to start with a cavalier and do a juiced_z4 build (no offense dan, you know what I mean)… if that makes any sense.
The combination of seeing these pics and riding my dad’s harley for the past couple weeks is what gave me the itch:
I can’t see the pics, they are showing as red x’s for me but are you looking to a standard kind of chopper with a big tire and raked front end or something more one off? I don’t think building your own is a bad idea if you have the time and money to do so, and you can make it exactly what you want. I’m restoring/modding an 80s bike and that is a challenge for me with finding certain parts and fabrication needs, so I personally wouldnt take on building one from the ground up w/o more available equip, but it’s something I’d def be interested in giving a go at somepoint in my life. If it’s going to end up just like some chopper you can buy, I’m not sure I’d do it aside from the fact of being able to say that I made it. New S&S motor will eat up a good chunk of that budget.
You seem to make some cool stuff, so I say do it.
Hard tail? You will learn where pot holes are really quick. Even the spring loaded seats aren’t much help. How ever you build it MAKE SURE YOUR COMFORTABLE SITTING ON IT.
I mean, there your legs are, the rise and pull back of the bars and seat potion. My 58 is way more comfortable than dads 06 soft tail. O’m slouched on the soft tail, on my hard tail I sit in the seat as it almost gives me back support.
that is a blog i started keeping up on of a builder in oakland, posts some pretty some stuff.
you also know my take on this… mod something existing, you may have to do a bit of fixing but i dont think it will be nearly as time consuming as you think, i had half my engine apart and back together in a day on my bike…
Are you dead-set on a Harley engine? My take on it is that just about every conceivable type of chopper has been built based off of a Harley. Put a Ducati V-twin in a chopper frame, or even a Jap V-twin. It doesn’t have to be fast or anything, i’m assuming you just want a cruiser to toy with.
Here’s a Ducati you could buy locally and rob some of the parts off of such as disc brakes, master cylinders, etc, wiring, signals… and it’s only $5k. A S&S engine can set you back way more than that.
Probably but I feel ALL bikes are more or less air-cooled regardless of if there is coolant or not- if you don’t keep moving your nuts roast. What’s the concern, where to have a radiator without it looking ghey??
