Each year I need a crazy adventure or a new woman. New women can be the best adventures, then there’s trips around the world, 2000 mile road races and of course Bonneville. My codes: No Time To Lose, Never A Dull Moment, and You Only Go Around Once. So let’s take a couple of bikes to Bonneville this year and have some fun with the Greats: Dennis Manning, Wink Eller, Bob George, Dave Campos, etc. I was fortunate to be on the Easyriders team that broke the worlds fastest motorcycle record in 1996 to 321 mph. It still stands.

But this is about fun. It’s our 10th Anniversary and we’re riding to Bonneville and inviting anyone to come along for four days in the salt. This bike is appropriately named Salt Shaker, the first Panhead Sportbike and it’s the CCI kit bike except for a few parts. We’re going to run an Accurate Engineering 120-inch Panhead motor, a Baker Transmission and a BDL belt primary. The rest is all CCI and John Reed. I will list all the kit components here somewhere. We plan to give the bike our own style with a new headlight to add an old school touch, different bars, controls and we will make pipes to go along with the Panhead motif. Of course we’re looking for another fairing to enhance the run on the salt.

Our second effort will be a 45 cubic inch 1940 flathead which we’re calling the Bonne Belle. Lee Clemens at Departure Bike works is hopping up the engine and trans. US choppers currently has the frame for straightening, gusseting, seat mounting and mounting up a 39mm Sportster front end. Then we’re going to build the roller in preparation of the engine’s return from Richmond, Virginia.

It’s almost 6 p.m. and Happy Hour at the Bikernet headquarters. I haven’t carved through my vast list of daily accomplishment, and I’m thinking about a Jack on the Rocks. So let’s ramble through the build so far. One of the terrific aspects of this project are the components. This is a dream build in so many respects. Everything so far is top of the line. The wheels are forged Marchesini Italian acing wheels, with Avon Venom tires that are light as a feather. The front end is state of the art front suspension and even the trees are carved perfectly for lightness and added strength. You should see the webbing under the bottom tree.

The absolute first thing we did was to take the Marchesini, Italian, wheels to be balanced with the Avon Tires. Or plan was to put the bike together, fabricate anything necessary then tear it apart for finish work.

The Santee built CCI V-frame is extra strong. The swingarm is an inch longer and the webbing for high speeds is built into the design. It’s massive. The Brembo brake calipers and rotors are top notch.

First we cut all the boxes apart and sorted some of the items. We pulled the frame components, the shocks, brakes wheels, rotors, pegs, fasteners and laid them on the lift. We ditched as much cardboard, foam peanuts and plastic bags as possible and went to work. CCI did a helluva job of organizing the fasteners and labeling bags. We pulled the groups we planned to use immediately and kept the rest carefully locked away.

If you plan to build one of these hot rods or any kit bike, order some special tools from JIMS first. They’ll save you tremendous time, effort and they’ll handle precisions jobs correctly. I would suggest a neck bearing race tool, the tools for installing swingarm bushings and clutch and front pulley tools. You might order a JIMS catalog, first.

We started with the neck bearing races. I used a brass hammer from JIMS and a massive socket as a guide to get the race started. Make sure to tap around the race carefully until the race is completely seated. I needed the socket as a guide, because as the race passed the neck lip. Then I seriously recommend that you install the front end, ride it for a few miles and recheck the bearing play. If the races seat anymore the front end will loosen--dangerous.

Then we slipped the bottom tree and Timken bearing into place with the smaller dust cover. Next, we added the Timken bearing to the top and the larger dust cover, then the two pinch nuts slipped onto the steering stem. Well made, quality parts have that feel to them, like running your finger along slick glass. They just fit cleaner, no lumps, bumbs, burrs or scratches.

Then we slipped the inverted tubes into place. What a nice clean fit. They came with metric Allens, plus Custom Chrome supplied us with another sent of bright plated fasteners. These might be the only metric fasteners on the bike, including the Brembo brake and Marchesini wheel fasteners.

We slipped a couple of fork stop bolts into place to prevent part damage, added the billet riser and the Custom Chrome handlebars. That gave us some control.

Next, we decide to balance the act by installing the swingarm. We dug out all the parts including: Harley-Davidson swingarm bushings/bearings, the swingarm axle, fasteners, swingarm caps, bracket and rubber mounts, dust shields, etc. This gets tricky. You need a press to install the bushings in the swingarm. We also needed JIMS press guides. We had some, but weren’t sure they were correct. We attempted to press in one side and stopped.

When in doubt, take the shit to a shop, or even a dealership. I took the swingarm and all the parts to see Larry Settle at Settle’s Customs in Harbor City, California. Larry’s shop is small, but he’s been around forever and knows what he’s doing. He had the correct JIMS swingarm press guides and we did the job in no-time. Hell, he only charged me $75,000. Cheap.

Here’s where it doesn’t hurt to have a Harley touring manual around. Unfortunately, the kit doesn’t come with a manual, but they could use these articles when we’re done. I’ll try to explain how this swingarm contraption goes together, and we’ll take more shots during final assembly. From the outside you have the two swingarm brackets and four bolts that came in a labeled bag. Most of the fasteners were simple to understand, but these bolts didn’t make sense. Two of them were way too long, so we scrounged around.

The diamond shaped brackets go on the outside with the inner pins up then those weird rubbermounts slip into them with the slots up to meet the pins. There’s two large plastic washer that go against the swingarm bushing, pressed into the swingarm, with the smaller section out. Then the bushing and rubber dust covers fit between the swingarm bearings and the transmission case, and finally a washer that slips into the dust cover on each side.

When you install the shaft start on the right and push it through. There’s a spacer that runs on the left end just before the nut. In the manual it shows that spacer on the inside of the rubbermount. We’ll get to the bottom of that before final assembly.

Next we pulled out the sharp Progressive adjustable shocks and found the bag of fasteners. Progressive also supplies varied fasteners and spacers. Plus included is a precise description of the fasteners and what fits what. Of course we didn’t fit into any stock bike category.

Then we found all the fasteners, spacers and axles for the wheels and went to work installing them. Nothing is tight or torqued as this point.

Between the wheel spacers and supplied axle and axle spacers the wheel slipped right into place except for the axle adjusters. We’re still trying to figure them out.

Some pals showed up and we pulled her off the lift to test the Corbin seating position. One of the guys was a Drag Specialties rep, Gene Koch and Dr. Hamster.

Everybody dug the frontend, brakes and frame. We’re undecided about the rear shock height, but that can be easily adjusted.

Dr. Hamster and Gene signed up to be Bonneville team members and plan to ride to the salt flats with us this year. Next we’ll install the tank and brake calipers, dash and start to work on the position of the foot controls.

We plan to move the rear taillight, add some snazzy light and mount the license plate so it’s solid and cool.

The Corbin seat will be tested for the ride to Sturgis. I don’t think we’ll fuck with it. It’s made to fit the rear fender.

So there you have it. Next we’ll bring you a report on the 45 flattie and more on our chassis assembly. I’ve contacted Berry Wardlaw of Accurate engineering about the 120-inch Panhead engine and asked his advice about the transmission. With the engine and trans in place we’ll order a tough, high performance BDL belt drive system to tie it all together. Now it’s time for a drink.