The 100% Biker Project Bike.
Part The Third.

Last updateI promised that you'd shortly be able to see the bike on two wheels, instead of a rear wheel and a pile of bricks under the crankcase. Time, then, to get the old sleeves rolled up and make the front wheel. You may remember we wanted to make a big fat front wheel to match the big fat rear, and Brand X Breakers had kindly sent us two damaged wheels to work with. Tony at B&I Engineering worked some magic with the spokes from one wheel and the rim from the other and produced a monster, the likes of which you will rarely see.

	To make up the front wheel I started by chopping up the two donor wheels on the bandsaw to leave a serviceable spoke assembly and rim.
	Tony's careful work with an angle grinder results in a close fit with the spokes lining up correctly in the rim.

On it's wheels at last and able to roll, we made up a set of handlebars from 1" o/d tubing welded to 3" risers so we could at last sit on it and wheel the thing out blinking into the sunlight. This has to be one of my favourite stages in any custom bike build. There's still lots of work to do, but for the first time you have something that genuinely looks like a motorcycle, and you get to find out if your sketches, drawings and measurements have actually produced a design which is going to work. Also at this stage the bike itself begins to suggest ways forward. Looking at the bike from above, the Sportster tank was beginning to be dwarfed by the width of, well, everything else, and I had the idea of making two large triangular air scoops on each side of the tank which would serve to ram air into the carbs. We'll see how it pans out.

	There's only one way to make sure the wheel is perfectly concentric, and that's to set it up in a centre lathe, making tiny adjustments to the fit until it spins true. This is highly skilled stuff, don't try it without proper equipment.
	Once tacked up in the lathe, Tony TIG welds the joints. These can be ground and polished later.

In the meantime Andy at Zorstec Exhausts had come forward with an offer to make an exhaust system, so it was off in a Transit van to his workshop in Bradford. Andy asked what I had in mind, and while I did have some ideas to kick around I was hugely impressed by photos of custom systems he had made for other bikes. Eventually I left the bike with him and simply asked him to be creative. When he rang me a week later to tell me it was ready I didn't really know what to expect, but the stunning pipework he has crafted to swoop around the front of the engine simply took my breath away. Andy makes bespoke stainless systems for all kinds of bikes and usually has to worry about the end result being practical and legal. But if you want radical, then radical you can have. Brilliant.

	With the tyre on and a wheel spindle turned off, we can finally put the front wheel in and stand back to take a look. Getting the proportions of the front wheel to match the yokes and forks was a gamble, and I'm delighted with the result.
	With the bike vanned over to Zorstec, Andy gets creative with stainless tubing for the exhaust system.

While Andy was busy with the exhaust I'd sent the fibreglass seat base off to Buckskin Leather at York for a hand tooled seat cover. Gordon at Buckskin is a real craftsman, and took my idea for the 100% Biker logo and incorporated it into a hand tooled leather seat cover with Native American designs, all laid into a subtle tan leather with contrasting hand stitched edging. The result is worthy of decorating any living room wall, and it seems almost sacrilegious to plonk your arse on it. We've wrapped it carefully up in cling-film to protect it for the rest of the build.

	Believe it or not there's only one weld in those header pipes, everything else being simply down to the skill of Andy's pipe bending. He's also made up the silencers, but we're going to have to be careful about the footrest mountings or someone is going to have a very warm right boot.
	Sitting in Andy's workshop the bike is now really beginning to look the business. The pipes do have some baffles, but are designed to sound loud. I can hardly wait to hear it run.

With the bike once more taking up residence in the Shed Of Destiny I got stuck in to mounting up the Earl's oil cooler and working out details of the footrest mountings and ignition systems. We're still planning to hang a VW Beetle distributor of the end of the exhaust cam for sparks, but despite various speculative head scratching still had no carbs. A chance comment from Chris at Bike Tech in Redcar (check out for his bike "Pig Sick" in our featurebikes section here) resulted in the offer of a set of Mikuni flatslides from a GSXR Slingshot, so I'm now thinking of going with a still air box and big fuck-off ram air scoops on each side of the tank.

	Meanwhile, Gordon at Buckskin Leather has been getting stuck in, and working on a hand tooled leather cover for the fibreglass seat base I made.
	Gordon only works in leather, and specialises in belts, tool-rolls, seats and saddlebags which can all be made to individual requirements.

And what a cracking job. This is craftsmanship of the old school, and far too nice to plonk some grubby biker's arse on. Over time the leather will mature and take on a character of it's own.

We still have a mountain of problems to solve, not least of which is the one-off drive sprockets and chain, but we're getting there. This bike is rapidly turning into a rolling testament to the skills and dedication of engineers and craftsmen, genuine bikers all. I can't recommend their services too highly.

Seat on, oil cooler mounted and carbs in place. Looks almost finished, but there's a million things still to do before it's ready for paint. Doesn't it look good though?

This month's Heroes list:
B&I Engineering (01484) 511534
Zorstec Exhausts 01274 733550
Buckskin Leather 01904 791557
Bike Tech 01642 477983
Paul Coward for the loan of his Transit van.

Dr.Rod.