Each step of the building process is important, but one of the most critical is the frame preparation before the paint job. At this stage, we must check that all parts are fitting together and make any brackets or holes in the frame. Because when the paint is dry, it’s too late to make any modifications. Or it’s going to be very, very costly.

First, we need to make two slots in front of the rear fender to be able to bolt and unbolt the custom oil tank.

I don’t intend to do extra fabrication on the front tubes to hide the voltage regulator. Because I don’t like regulators held on a bracket in front of the engine mount, I decide that it should be “buried” somewhere else.

The best hiding place is in front of the custom battery box that we fabricated. Because the box we made fit the dry cell battery very tightly, we cannot bolt the regulator from inside the box. So we weld a block of steel, tap two holes in it and bolt on the regulator from outside.

It means that we will have to route the regulator wiring through the left lower frame tube, up to the engine. For this, we drill two holes, one to enter in the frame, one near where the alternator will be plugged to the engine.

Usually I like rear brakes to be placed in a 12, 3, 6, or 9 PM position around the rotor. Because of the unusual shape of our swingarm, it seems that none of these positions works properly. The rear brake seems to “compete” visually with the flowing lines of the swingarm. After many tries, it seems to me that the 5 PM position is the best. The boys approve. So we custom make an anchor rod running parallel to the belt. A hole is tapped inside the swingarm to connect the brake to the frame.

We always custom make our brake and clutch lines; we buy bulk lines and install the fittings ourselves. This is something we will do at final bike assembly. We just need to know in advance how we are going to route these lines. We will have a hydraulic clutch control, so we can route the line through the frame tubes without fearing bends like with a cable clutch. A hole is made in the left front tube for the clutch line to enter. Another hole is made at the exit of the line, just under the side transmission fitting.

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