I am quite happy (and proud) with the swingarm we fabricated. This “stepping” theme has to be developed in other parts of the bike.

A couple months ago we marketed two front fenders inspired by my other bikes, “Dreamliner” and “High Octane.” Builders have to promote their own parts, and I already know that the “High Octane” front fender is going to look good on Expresso. It just needs to be adapted to the theme of the bike we are building.

A welding rod has always been my favorite tool to draw curved lines directly on a bike. It’s flexible enough for the most curvaceous shapes you can imagine, thin enough to be able to draw precise lines. Helped by my welding rod, I use a thin felt tip pin to draw two lines from the point of the fender to the rear. It gives me three steps (to look good, always use an odd number when doing steps). From top to bottom, our swingarm has steps going from outside to inside. I want the same for the front fender. So the fender is going to be wider at the top, narrower at the bottom. I immediately call Colleen, the goddess of bodywork. I show her my fender and tell her to make steps less than 1/16 thick in the rear and dying to zero in the front. I ask her how long it will take. She says five hours. I tell her I’ll see her in five hours (it’s 4 p.m.). Five and a half hours later, she brings me this beauty (sorry for the poor picture quality).

I install it. Because my fender brackets are made narrower than the fork legs, from profile we get continuous stepping lines from rear to front. Colleen smiles. Me too. It’s already 11 p.m. She cares, but I don’t. She escapes to her personal life. I stay, just staring at this new fender that I like so much.

On to Part 6, Page 2........

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