It never ends, it never ends, it never ends….ok, it does eventually end. Sometimes the end gets farther away though. So, it never ends.

Been a couple changes made to the design since the last chapter in this saga. For one I bought an 18X5.5 rim off ebay and a tire. Now this is a good thing, but that means some of the stuff I already bought can’t be used. Ok just the axle adjusters, but I was going to use the Buell rear brakes.

Luckily the rear axle was going to be 1in, larger than I need now. Joel will just have to cut some more material away. I could use an off the shelf item instead, but my Brother has done a bunch of work on this one so we decided to just finish it. His shit is always better than you can buy anyway.

So let’s see. What other wrenches did I throw into the works? The new rim/tire fits the frame perfectly. After all, it’s the exact setup the frame was designed for. You might remember me wasting a bunch of time trying to make the Buell rim work. As it turned out the only way to make it work was to machine it to move the sprocket in a bit. That makes the rim useless to anyone but me. I also decided to change over because I just didn’t like the looks of the 17in rim on the bike. It looked as if it was too small. Finding the right one on ebay cheap cemented the deal. Less than $400 for the rim and a brand new Avon tire does fit the low buck criteria.

Oh ya, wrenches. The rear brake rotor on the Buell was this little 9in number with a single piston. In the beginning I just figured Buell knew what they were doing and with the massive front setup, who cares. Enter the new rim and now I had a good reason to find some fault. For one thing the rotor uses a 4-bolt pattern so it wasn’t going to fit anyway. Back to ebay.

I found a brand new take off rear caliper from a softail. Hey! I’m building a softail! Scooped that up and bought a rotor to go with it. It’s not going to just bolt up, right side drive remember, but it won’t take a lot of work to make things right. I’m going to center it in the swingarm and fab something to keep it from moving. I picked up a new stainless steel rotor also. Unfortunately it’s got the wrong hub size. I might just make a spacer for it. Remember, money counts.

Another thing that changed a bit is the tank. No I didn’t buy something off ebay. But I did take that cool looking flush gas cap from the Buell tank (before I sold it on ebay J), and cut a hole for it on the Sporty tank. I went up to the local metal dealer and bought a 4in dia piece of steel and took it to Joel. He’s going to make a nice cup to receive the Buell gas cap, then weld that to the inside of the tank. Then the cap will sit flush with the top of the tank. It should really look great too! Don’t have a buddy like Joel? I bought a regular gas cap for $10 too. Want it?

The last remaining roadblock (major) to me riding was the exhaust. I’ve gone back and forth between doing something up with the stock part and buying something. I even put in an order for a set of pipes, twice. Neither time did I ever get anything! I waited several months the last time for delivery before just giving up. Making my own again.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well, it might just be since it was the third time I started taping pieces together that I chanced on the right combination of curves to make something cool. I do need to get some more straight SS pipe to finish it, and weld it. But I like what I see so far.

I need to get some baffles, the number depends on if I make a 2 into 1 or not. I’ll bend up something for a mount once it’s welded up straight. Not a lot of weight here so it shouldn’t have to be heavy. Maybe a nice piece of wrought iron. I can bend it to shape and hammer the ends flat. Drill a couple of holes on the frame side and BAM!

This has been a low buck type project from the beginning. I’ve spent a bit where I needed to and tried to fab anything I could. Sometimes that means my Brother Joel makes it and I work for him to pay for it. But that’s what this is all about. Building something for your self and being able to stand back with pride and say so. It doesn’t always move along as fast as you’d like. But that doesn’t mean it’s not moving.

Next up I NEED to get Joel to finish the rear axle. When it’s finished I can decide exactly how to keep the rotor still. It will mean welding something to the swing arm. After that all I need to do is bend up some brake line. I’ve got the short length of braided line that run’s to the rear caliper. I dropped into Earl’s Supply in Kearny Mesa and picked up an anodized aluminum T fitting with AN style ends and a spot for the pressure switch. Since AN fittings use 37 degree flares instead of 45 I’m waiting on delivery of my new tool. I’ll bend the line up and put the ends on at the same time. I’ll either buy or build some small clamps to hold the hard lines in place.

Still plenty of fun to be had. Stay tuned.

Rebel

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