The 100% Biker magazine Project Bike.
Part The First.

In what seems to be developing into an annual event, each year I seem to end up spending an afternoon at the Bulldog Bash sitting around with Pat and the crew at the 100% Biker stand consuming large quantities of cheap spirits and talking bullshit. With an awful predictability the pattern repeated again this year, this time involving some cheap duty free Spanish whisky and a bottle of Tequila. As the afternoon dissolved slowly into a blur, talk turned to the subject of a project bike for the magazine. "Ah, Pat", I slurred, "if only you'd mentioned this to me last month, before I sold my FJ1200 to my mate Gez here. Now we have no donor bike. And without a donor bike we can craft no rolling sculpture in metal." "Ah, but..." muttered Gez ominously, sloshing more cheap whisky into a cracked plastic cup, "thanks to the serendipitous purchase of aforesaid FJ1200, I now have a spare GS850 hanging around. Would that do?" "Possibly", I muttered, sliding sideways off my hay bale into the mud, "but the project would need someone to co-ordinate it, to take it in hand, to mastermind the operation and generally get it together. Where would we find such a person?" And as the world started to gently rotate around me like a cheap Hollywood movie I became aware of a pregnant silence, and eight pairs of eyes staring pointedly in my direction. "Bugger" I thought.

Gez's unsuspecting GS850 has no idea what's in store for it. George the goat looks on.

Tony uses the latest high technology computer aided design system to plan the main frame structure. The finished bike will look exactly like this.

And so it was that, a couple of days later, I found myself planning the project over the phone with Pat. The problem was we had a budget of zero (100% Biker not being owned and financed by some huge global multi-national corporation like some of the other magazines I could mention). However we did have lots of offers of help with parts and services, we now had a donor bike and my old mate Tony at B&I Engineering had come through with an offer to build a frame and yokes for the project. To cap it all I had a spare 883 Sportster tank hanging on my kitchen wall I'd been wanting to put to better use for ages. The project was gaining momentum and the challenge was, in true 100% Biker style, to see how far we could get without spending anything.

Down to business. Nick's GS750 motor plonked on the frame jig, carefully levelled up and measured for centre. The freshly turned headstock clamps in between a pair of tapers on a mount adjustable for height and rake.

At the rear end we're using a tube adjustable for height to mount the wheel spindle and wheel mounts. Instead of using conventional axle plates we've decided to fix the rear wheel in place, and are planning to make a chain tensioner based on a Harley primary chain adjuster mounted off a frame tube.

A visit to Tonys workshop for the first planning meeting revealed a huge fat rear wheel and a set of USD forks left over from an unfinished project, which Tony donated to the build. Tony had some ideas about frame construction and wanted to build something with swoopy curves using a gullwing style rear end. All I had in mind was something as radical as we could make it, and was happy to go for a long, low swoopy look. I also wanted to use the biggest, fattest wheels we could find and incorporate as much radical engineering as was practical. The GS850 was going to give us problems with its shaft drive, and we've opted to re-build Gez's motor onto a GS750 bottom end which will give us chain drive. But where do we find a spare GS750 motor? "There's one laying around here somewhere belonging to Nick, he won't mind if we use it" said Tony. I hope he's right. Maybe we should ask him first?...

All carefully aligned, the engine, headstock and rear axle mounts clamped into the frame jig. This is the bit you need to spend time on, get everything lined up properly now and the bike will steer and run correctly. Get it wrong and it could be a disaster. It took a whole morning and four cups of tea to get this lot set up to Tony's satisfaction.

Time for some tube bending. The first rail to go in will locate the headstock to the rear engine mounts, and will later provide a mounting for the Sportster tank. This needs to sit fairly low over the motor, but must allow room for carbs and air filters.

Many years ago Tony had convinced me of the practicality of fitting a VW Beetle distributor onto the exhaust camshaft to run the ignition on a GS engine, which I reckoned would look brilliant. With the right hand end of the crank no longer required to drive the stock ignition system, I fancied the idea of sticking a pulley on it and fitting a big fuck off belt drive up the right hand side of the engine to run a supercharger and SU carb. As yet we haven't tracked down a suitable Shorrock blower, and Tony is exploring the possibility of fitting a single downdraft twin choke Weber carb and cutting a big notch out of the side of the Sportster tank to clear a pair of big bellmouths.

The main frame rail tacked in place. It needs to sit high enough off the engine to permit removal of the cambox, otherwise the engine would have to be dropped each time it needed a shim check.

The first swoopy rear tubes go in to locate the axle mounts to the main section. Tony has bent them up to follow the lines of the top rail, giving the classic "straight line from headstock to wheel spindle" chopper look.

But before we can get that far we have to work out how we're going to get the bike on its wheels. Tony has welded up hybrid wheels before, and wanted to run a GSXR1100 rear rim in the front. A call to Brand X Breakers brought the offer of a pair of accident damaged wheels with a decent hub and rim which we could weld together, duly posted up to Huddersfield and even swapped around without complaint when it turned out I'd asked them for the wrong thing. What top class blokes. Tyres would obviously present a problem, especially in view of the sizes we wanted. After a couple of phone calls Michelin came through with an offer to help us out, though were utterly bemused by my request for a 230x15 rear and a 170x17 front. "But that's a car size rear tyre". "Er, yes I know". After much explanantion and some hilarity over the phone the Michelin guys entered fully into the spirit of the project and offered to give us a pair of tyres, even suggesting a Michelin Pilot wet weather racing tyre for the front because it has a "big sexy tread pattern". The only proviso was that I signed a disclaimer to promise the bike would not be ridden on the road with this tyre combination, which sparked the idea of calling the whole bike "Not For Highway Use". We'll see how it pans out. When the tyres arrived they came with a couple of free shirts and a pack of stickers. With this kind of interest and support I'm going to be using nothing but Michelin tyres on all my bikes from now on.

Beginning to resemble a motorcycle now, the main frame structure starts to take shape.

With the main frame rails tacked in place, Tony can add the two side rails which wrap around the motor and locate the front section of the frame to the middle. A cross brace has gone in between the two front tubes with another curved piece triangulating it up to the top rail. We've turned off a short length of tube for a front tank mounting, and tacked that in too.

Getting hold of some raw billet for the yokes proved a little more troublesome until Ace Engineering of Morley offered to supply us with a lump of ally at cost price. So far that £30 is the total outlay, though we have used quite a bit of tubing from Tony's stock to build the frame.

With the frame now solid enough to be released from the jig, we've turned up a rear wheel spindle and spacer to locate the rear wheel in the middle. Normally chain alignment would be crucial here, but as we're using such a fat tyre we're going to have to make up some dished sprockets later.

As the wheel is not going to be adjustable we can make up a rear mudguard by cutting and widening a trailer mudguard by 3", then welding it straight to the frame. I'll be adding a curvy brace across the back of the mudguard to mount it up solidly to the rear axle mounts.

At the moment we have no idea what we're going to do for an exhaust system, and still have to work out things like footrests and controls, handlebars, lights, electrics and all the millions of brackets and tabs it will need to turn it from a bike shaped lump of metal into a running motorcycle. To say nothing of carbs, blowers, ignition systems, brakes and twin choke Webers. Then it has to be painted, chromed, upholstered, built-up, wired, MOT'd and registered. Oh, and rebuild the engine too... Did I say "Bugger" somewhere earlier?

Next update - on it's wheels!

This months Heroes list:
B&I Engineering 01484 511534
Brand X Breakers 01384 637265
Ace Engineering 0113 252 2611
Michelin Tyres
Nick
Gez

Dr.Rod.