How to build a deathtrap in only nine weeks..

[Azrael]

This thread is going to be different because it is going to begin with a completed build, well when i say completed I mean completed for the purpose of a bike show. There is still a lot of cool things yet to come for this motorcycle but i only had nine weeks to build it so my focus was to get it more ridable than blingy for the show. Perhaps i should've gone for bling because it didn't win shit..
So its an 84 rz350 motor
4130 chromoly frame and swing arm
all aluminium uni-body tank and seat
107kg dry weight..
Everything you see here has been hand made by one person in 9 weeks whilst working full time.

https://i.imgur.com/V8W8rcg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ltigQJM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/nTI2EWF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jnOemk6.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HCvm2MK.jpg

[sen]

That's absolutely insane! :cool:

[JimZXR]

Wow!

[rod185651]

I can't stop staring at it, amazing work mate, how much weight will the seat hold?

[ozzy1100]

Indian amount of work in nine weeks

[Azrael]

I can't stop staring at it, amazing work mate, how much weight will the seat hold?

It holds my weight Im 125kg.

A lot of people keep asking me that and it will be easier to understand when i put the build pics up.
It has a tubular spine that runs through the tank that you cant see that is hardbacked to the base of the tank and welded directly to the mount point inside the tank.

I am not mad

[rod185651]

I am not mad

Yes you are brother.... We all are, that is why we always greet newcomers "Welcome to the Madness"

Love the build mate, looks freakin awesome

[xa-mont]

some cunt made me come here to look at this...

sure is interesting.

[LKC73]

What a wicked build, Love it Azreal. Very cool custom work has been done to that thing for a 9 week build.

[GammaBoy]

Cooool.

[Gix11]

Still amazed by it mate, and I saw the build photos. How high is the seat height? It looks mighty tall in the photos. There's no photos of anyone sat on it to get an idea.

The frame and swingarm are outstanding mate! Skills I will never possess.

[latheboy]

Needs a Flaming Brick painted on the tank or tail!!!

Awesome work dude

[Azrael]

Still amazed by it mate, and I saw the build photos. How high is the seat height? It looks mighty tall in the photos. There's no photos of anyone sat on it to get an idea.

The frame and swingarm are outstanding mate! Skills I will never possess.

The seat height is standard 800mm same as the aprilia rs250 although it looks exaggerated by the lack of excess shit between the seat and the rear wheel. The seat is kicked up a little and rises about an inch over the 800mm height at the front of the seat to the rear.

[Azrael]

some cunt made me come here to look at this...

sure is interesting.

Glad u like it!

[Azrael]

Needs a Flaming Brick painted on the tank or tail!!!

Awesome work dude

This still needs a fuckton of work to get it to the track but yeah flaming brick could be on the cards.

[Azrael]

I should also point out that it was not my intention to ride this bike, i built it for a competition but also to see how wild and lightweight i could make a trackbike. I entered it under modern cafe racer but was aiming more at racer than hipster wagon. I have a rider for it when it does hit the track who is a former IOM champion and understands how to push a 2 stroker around a track.
What you are looking at is the show bike, what happens next its its transform into a track bike.

[hooligan]

That is fucking brilliant.
Was talking to a guy that builds a lot of hipster cafe racers. Who also races.
it started to piss him off that people focused on cafe, and forgot the racer.

love it.

[geesexar]

aewome smoker it looks insane and be a lot of fun to ride

[timbo]

Cleaver fucker, love it

[Azrael]

Ok so im not really sure how to start this but it kinda happened when a good friend of mine sent me a link to a bike build off for an event called the West Coast Lowdown. This is kind of a hotrod tattoo biker rockabilly thing that has previously been an underground event held by a guy called Irish Jardine who wanted to bring his event into the light and get some more exposure for the Kustom Kulture lifestyle and try to promote clubs, cars bikes etc. Really cool idea, i have many old cars and love the tattoo and hotrod culture as much as i love bikes.

So the at this point it was about 11 weeks out from the show date and i wasnt sure if i could make the deadline on a frame up build on anything with a swingarm so i was thinking ridgid chop until i read the rules which can be found here https://www.westcoastlowdown.com.au/bike-build-off/

The main thing being not exceeding a budget of 10k and you have to do every part of the build yourself without help from any outsiders right down to final assembly. I have my doubts how many people took any of these rules seriously but i followed them because I wanted to see if I could accomplish this in the time provided.

So, i had a quick look around the 30 odd bikes i have layin around and also put the word out on Facecunt if anyone had anything suitable to turn into a cafe racer. I chose this bike genre because I have a deep seeded hate for hipster cunts who cut the tabs off an old bike, put a cafe hump on it and some numbers and call it a custom bike. This is a build off, in my angry, alcofueled and often unstable mind means you need to build a motorcycle. Not change some shit and paint it, that is a paint off.

So I had many offers of various bikes and nothing really appealed to me and then it dawned on me that buried under a pile of other motorcycles and accumulated shit was an RZ350 a friend of mine bought 9 years ago to build a custom cafe racer. I msged him and asked if i could begin the molestation and he was down with that and so was I because i had amassed a bunch of parts for this build over the last 9 years and had nearly everything i needed to get it done.

At this point i was 10 weeks out and i had a plan, i needed to build a cafe racer that would be entirely hand made, weigh as little as possible and go like a cut cat. That's what RZ's do so all i had to do was build it.

I submitted my build off application and began the task of clearing the frame jig and surrounding shed space to accommodate the shit i spread everywhere when i build things.

So i started with some brass to make headstem bushes
https://i.imgur.com/vn3N5us.jpg

Turned them up
https://i.imgur.com/h1qv54s.jpg

Pressed them into some 4130 tube and made this badboy
https://i.imgur.com/SYMZqPd.jpg

[Hagarr]

Love your work Tom!

Not sure how you pulled it off with family and shit to do!

Respect!

[Azrael]

So i used the first block back at work to sit and draw all the parts that i knew id need for the entire build, made list and the order in which to get em all done so i could get the bike jigged and ready to tube out. I dont know how you are meant to build a bike but i start with the basic geometry. The position and angle of the head stem and its relation to the the output shaft of the motor and the pivot point of the swing arm. I then make all those parts and jig them in place where they will be on the completed bike. Its probably not perfect but it works.

So after the head stem i made the swing arm pivot point and the frame points where it will attach to the bike

https://i.imgur.com/bt1hShm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QVrRztj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/GWH40XV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Qpq6hbW.jpg

[Azrael]

Love your work Tom!

Not sure how you pulled it off with family and shit to do!

Respect!

Thanks Danny, it wasn't easy, especially the family thing, but ill get to that in a few posts.

[Azrael]

Its worth mentioning here that i'm not a machinist by a long shot, I'm not actually anything, just another unskilled idiot with a penchant for hitting stuff with hammers so if my work looks a little rough, that's because it is. I aspire to the finishing skills that some of my mates and fellow builders have and i never stop watching how true professionals carry out their trade so maybe one day i build something to their standard.

So my next move was to jig that shit up. The working geometry of the bike was stolen from the aprilia rs250 so i set the head stem at ride height so i could build the whole frame at the level it would stand on the ground. Im a very visual person, i don't work from drawings so much, just how it it will look in motion. I need to be able to walk around it and know it looks like the thing in my head as build it that way there's no surprises when i roll it off the bench.

So i set the engine on a stand supported by the exhaust port bolts and an adjustable support under the engine itself the key thing being never put anything where a frame tube might go.

The aprilia swinger sat in position to get the fall to the axle distance from the pivot point.
https://i.imgur.com/y3dNGrg.jpg

Swing arm just sitting not jigged in place
https://i.imgur.com/iXIlDyo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4c1pQUe.jpg

shit be gettin messy
https://i.imgur.com/x7kpK9g.jpg

[Azrael]

I put the top tubes in first with the swingarm pivot point welded to the bench.
It was about about this time when My dad showed up from the philippines (where hes resided for 19years) and decided he and his wife were moving back to aus. then he changed his mind and flew to NZ, he wasn't well, he gave me his bush knife before he left, I figured this was the last time i was going to see him.

https://i.imgur.com/T0XGZF8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OtS35sO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/VwKTpPe.jpg

[Azrael]

I had this plan to make the swingarm tubes chromo but the axle points and adjusters out of ally and i roughly sketched out this idea and started to mill them up. I really don't know what i'm doing on a mill but this was so much fun sprayin fucken swarf everywhere and drinking beer and trying to keep all of my fingers i would do this shit again in a second. I kinda stole this idea of Steve Burns because well its fucken Steve Burns and he is building a very cool bike and while hes not doing this to his swingarm he is doing it on another part of the frame and i was so impressed with the idea i fully stole it. Sorry Steve.

Step one, buy chunk of ally
https://i.imgur.com/eW0kb6y.jpg

Step two, rape ally with mill
https://i.imgur.com/0nPlkP8.jpg

Rape ally on both sides, rape equally
https://i.imgur.com/dLnx6kv.jpg

Make big fucking mess
https://i.imgur.com/hUNJ8PS.jpg

Drink to this victory against non ferrous metal
https://i.imgur.com/X5evmpD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/p87iSgI.jpg

Make bolt on plates
https://i.imgur.com/yzgT1vd.jpg

Bolt them on
https://i.imgur.com/ChnxA98.jpg

Win and drink some more beer

[Gix11]

Oooh baby - This is one hell of a build thread! You champion Tom. Cheers mate.

[Azrael]

Oooh baby - This is one hell of a build thread! You champion Tom. Cheers mate.

Ill get some more up shortly then ill have to spend some time uploading pics to imgur before i can do some more. It takes me ages because i dont computer much anymore..

[Azrael]

The frame itself went together in just a couple of days and while i was tubing out the frame i was setting up the jig for the swingarm so i could build that also in situe the idea being to weld as much of it on the jig as possible then tear it all down to fully weld it on the bench.

https://i.imgur.com/kPWdI24.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HWSnOEC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/woGgiyL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/lvzgWnk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/YTylnLM.jpg

[Hagarr]

What a champion Beer assistant!

Hey Tan!

[Azrael]

Next came the swing arm, nothing too complicated here, just a matter of jigging up the axle plates where they sit and using a very cleverly constructed mathematical triangle (i bent up some tig wire) with the precise angles of the pivot point and the the two shock mount points or the kawasaki er6. I chose the er6 shock and geometry because i meant i didnt need to build linkages and the rest of the associated nonsense involved in regular suspension because i wouldn't have had the time. Also for a lightweight bike with a short wheelbase the geometry works quite well.

https://i.imgur.com/TrnfPxX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/55LRA9C.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uuERI1p.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uewOrCL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/A2DLEcj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/qoaWwBY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RFxRiB2.jpg

[Gix11]

So much awesome.

[ozzy1100]

Great thread tom

[GammaBoy]

Are you still beding tube with the oxy and formers on the bench?

[Azrael]

Are you still beding tube with the oxy and formers on the bench?

Its the only way i know how.. I did some of these on a mandrel though at this guys workshop, he does tube bending mostly for fancy hand railing and truck roo bars and doesnt have all the imperial dies yet. I can only get chromo in imperial sizes but he said for future jobs he will make dies to suit my tube sizes so im taking him some off cuts so he can get started. Really helpful guy.

[Azrael]

I finished out the swingarm and welded as much as i could of the frame and swinger while it was jigged on the bench then pulled it down and fully welded it.

https://i.imgur.com/yhOdrnV.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iYeRhka.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vkgXDqj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Un4w8TB.jpg

[LKC73]

This is an awesome build thread! Id be so happy to have 1/2 the skill you got doing this mate. Just awesome!

[Azrael]

This is an awesome build thread! Id be so happy to have 1/2 the skill you got doing this mate. Just awesome!

Thanks mate!

[Azrael]

The next step was to get wheels on it and make it a roller so i could start thinking about the tank and subby so i chucked em on and had a good long stare at it.
Staring at stuff is good for couple of reasons, It doesn't require much energy to stare at stuff and its the only time during a build where your beer wont go warm.
I was prepared right from the start of this build to have to turn up custom axles and then something strange happened, i had a win. As the bike gods would have it, the front axle from the wp forks off the aprilia fit the rear axle of the motard rims (kx450) and by fucken ways of powers unknown the back axle fit the front wheel. This absurdity lead me to knocking a bearing out of each wheel, lightly machining the spacers and swapping them around front for back for what was the quickest axle swap in the history of my 6x6 shed. I was so happy i drank some beer.

https://i.imgur.com/rQY3dBq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dEOdPi9.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ajgSV2s.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5A8lfnB.jpg

[Azrael]

Having an abundance of crap laying around comes in handy when you are building something custom, I am a serial hoarder of a disturbing level and this has come in handy when ive needed parts on builds and when i need another dent in my shin. For whatever reason i was drinking beer and staring at the bike trying to imagine the tank in my head, where i was going to put the sub frame and so on when my eyes fixed on an old tank off some horrible cheap chinese bike, a kymco. I picked it up and put it on the bike, it fit, it fit like it was meant to be there, this unplanned event was really quite cool because it meant that somehow through the several thousand beers i had consumed i had made a geometrically correct bike.
It was from here i could get the exact location of the seat and the point at which the seat and tank met so i could begin planning the tank in my head.

https://i.imgur.com/PxvAOBy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/77Q3Tgc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bl5swIK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4gqd5Tf.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KYzcHlh.jpg

[Azrael]

The best thing about being a bit mental is that people aren't all that surprised when you do things that borderline lunacy, they just smile and slowly back out of the shed trying not to make eye contact and that's a win for everyone. So i used the shitty red kymco tank to make what we shall refer to as my dot in space or spacedot for short.
Spacedot marks the point at which the invisible seat and tank meet, that point where under heavy braking your pillion squashes your balls into a thin paste against the tank. That is Spacedot.
I mustve stared at spacedot for quite a while and consumed most of the eastern suburbs beer because at this point i decided to do something very stupid.
Subframes? Pffft, fuck physics and newtonian laws, that shit is for sane people. I had a better idea. What if i made the tank the subframe by welding a hardback through the middle of the tank and up under the seat?
I looked around the shed at various bits of stray alloy and found a length of 6mm walled tube with a bend in it. I put it in the vice and hung my 125kgs of piss and gristle off it and it didn't send me hurtling toward the earth, i bounced, it didn't bend. Fuck yeah this is gonna be cool.

This probably not how you spacedot but its how i spacedot
https://i.imgur.com/3yYnrC8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cTXriBx.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/c43KgN2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DQ7gPcz.jpg

[Azrael]

At some point during this Process my old man shows up again, this time he's here to stay, only this somehow becomes my problem. Ive seen enough gary busey movies to know when someones brain is 90% motorcycle accident and of a scale of 1 to busey hes was looking about a 12. Day 1 he collapses and ends up in hospital and my build comes to a grinding halt. The words diminished capacity and cognitive impairment get tossed around a lot and it soon becomes apparent that ive won the parental alzheimers prize two for two, winner winner chicken hey who the fuck are you? I already care full time for my mum and don't really need this. Where to put him? His wife sent him out with the clothes he had on, which at this stage smell like piss and bad decisions and he has nowhere to stay, no pension and no money. I lose an entire week of fabrication to finding him accommodation, getting an acat assessment done and if it wasn't for an old mate of mine who i grew up with taking him in I never would have got this build finished. So thanks Ainsley, you are a fucking champion.

I should have actually called this thread 9 weeks in hell.

You will notice in the first bike pic that a large block of aluminium has appeared at the top of the tank, this is a very important piece of ally, it holds the whole fucking thing together. It has been welded fully around and drilled and tapped on the underside so two 16mm bolts can pass through a rectangle tube section with crush tubes on the frame pulling the tank down at the front. It is also the point at which the backbone for the seat is attached.

Side note, if you are having a bad day or week even, this will not fix it, but it will keep you warm and it tastes like jesus in a bottle.
https://i.imgur.com/OcVAKFS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JJQSSU7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/a3Jx2QR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xBcPe2E.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JOKeIo3.jpg

[Azrael]

When I built this I tried to use stuff i already had laying around, like the fuel filler housing, that came from a piece of aluminium tube that was once a compressed air ram of some description but had spend the past few months laying on my back lawn where the dogs had been enthusiastically pissing and shitting on it. With a bit of a cleanup it was still a complete bastard to weld (no idea what grade it was) but it saved me rolling a circle out of flat plate.


https://i.imgur.com/YZOQdVU.jpg

Do some nice welds, hide them in a tank for eternity
https://i.imgur.com/Lx9r3ND.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/499FvWN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PnkjiUc.jpg

[Azrael]

This probably not how you petrol tank but its how I petrol tank. All i did here was cut out and roll the various filler pieces and tack them all in place. Tacking aluminium is a bastard job on a bench, tacking it on a tank like this is borderline self harm. You cant hold the fucker while you tack it, you cant use magnets, you can use tape, which catches on fire and leaves a residue that is counter productive to aluminium welding which needs to be very clean. If you hate yourself, give it a try some time.
Oh it needs to be said that rossi welders are cheap as hell and whilst ive only used one once to weld i bought one to use as a plasma cutter and it is fucking awesome. If you want a cheap plasma cutter they are the mutts nuts.

https://i.imgur.com/zpecsxA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vnu0m36.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QKFQeXn.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PnkjiUc.jpg

[rod185651]

I am in awe of your skills

[Gix11]

No need for me to comment again, I reckon you already know what I think.

[rod185651]

This is a true "streetfighter build" makes me almost embarrassed to post my progress pics

[JimZXR]

Feeling that sentiment Rod!

[LKC73]

Feeling that sentiment Rod!
I'll 3rd that statement, bloody hell I feel like a muppet after looking at this build.

[Azrael]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate all the positive comments. i don't see my skills as anything all that special, i'm always trying to do better like i think we all are. Ive learned a fuckload of stuff from reading all your threads on here over the years and im sure ill learn more. Ive been building mostly stuff for other peoples bikes for a long time now and when this build off came up i just wanted to build something complete in a short time and use all the cool shit i've learned over the years. It was fun and putting up the build thread for you guys is just as rewarding, i only wish id taken more pics as i went but i was in such a rush it sorta fell to the wayside. Ill put some more up in the morning.

[LKC73]

Azrael, You are doing a top job by sharing this with us, the work is bloody awesome and enjoy watching it go through the process.

[Azrael]

The next step in this lunacy was to get the tank off and fully weld it and then start working on the seat.
Se seat is a relatively simple idea whereby i fold the top part in a manner that it drops off on and angle sufficient enough for rider comfort with it tapering toward the leg cutouts in the tank and at the same time covering the distance or thickness of the tube which remains in the center.
It's basically two parts and I didn't get any pics while building it because um beer but yeah if you look closely you'll see all i did was roll the bottom piece to meet the edges of the top piece and then fill in the gaps at the front and rear after i slid it over the tube.

https://i.imgur.com/f8n4bJ2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tMztGhy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NCxFfix.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/8Vd4IbL.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RpNairq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Uk0zVJM.jpg

[Azrael]

If competitive liver trauma was a recognized sport, I think at this point i would own nothing but trophies. I drank so much beer doing this tank/seat I'm surprised it looks like a bike at all, i mean i get easily distracted when I'm sober let alone 26 stubbies into a 24 box of liquid enthusiasm.
When i did the tail piece i made it slightly larger than i needed because its easier to roll through an english wheel without crushing your fingers and when you tack the fucker together you can trim it back to symmetry and make it look like you know what you are doing even after 4000 beers. Professionals would cut all their pieces to size and do this a lot better than me but fuck them, we are shed builders and don't have that kind of skill or patience, well with the possible exception of Lynton but hes so good hes a freak.

https://i.imgur.com/Loj4ADa.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/5yw1ls4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/7FQcmtI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/797ICv2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ShYrMCT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/03Mpo5D.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SpIDGMF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eXKDn9P.jpg

[Azrael]

If you looked at the last pictures closely you would have noticed i had started making pipes, well sorta. The pipes are a combination of the original pipes (headers end) and two identical pipes which a good mate of mine procured from his work rather cheaply for me, Mark, you are a legend. They are off an rs250 and after exhaustive research (pun intended) about expansion pipe fabrication i cut the fuckers up and made some of my own.
I did nearly catch on fire on two occasions while doing this. As it turns out all that black oily shit is pretty fucken flammable and nothing proves that quicker than a plasma cutter.

https://i.imgur.com/NwRuHmg.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/R2rgjLo.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jrNnsRi.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/O7S2zAm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/qZtA15k.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0BDghYZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6kDR2V3.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/i25r7gH.jpg

[Azrael]

This is dead set the sunday before the the thursday deadline for the competition. At this point i have four and a half days left to finish this build and I smell like 7 shades of arse, im still drunk from the wedding i attended the night before and that coffee right there caused my stomach to make a noise that scared local wildlife away and unleashed a shit that would make the captain of a prawn trawler wince.
The only thing i was capable of doing this day was getting the bike off the bench or the first time so i could get a feel for it at ground level and cleaning up in the shed so i could get a decent start the following morning.

https://i.imgur.com/TRGLZ4Q.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/x0VZnyM.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FnqSTup.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9FVTfKQ.jpg

[LKC73]

Dude you look wrecked! But yet you still can active something like this!

[Gix11]

Brilliant. There, that's it. No more crappy one-line comments from me until the whole topic is finished as it's ruining the thread, but trust me, I am reading this along with a lot of other people mate and this is, as stated at the start, brilliant!

[ozzy1100]

Without doubt the best build thread in memory......
Btw don't blow wind to far up my arse, your well ahead of me
in panel forming. I haven't ever even used a English wheel as yet,
never lone create something like those panels

[The Phantom]

Not only an amazing build but funny as fuck too :)

[Azrael]

Doing shit the same as everyone else is not something i do well especially when the same is an old bike with the tabs cut off, painted to look like Marlon Brando's dildo, ridden by a legitimately unskilled cunt in a suit once a year for causes they need not worry about because there's not a drop of testosterone amongst them, in fact the moment you put a scarf and a leather handbag over your shoulders your prostate wishes it was dead anyway. And mental health? I don't have any mental health and im pretty fucken sure if i did i would trade it for beer or motorcycle parts.
This is a shame because I actually really like cafe racers or at least I did until mens fashion turned them into an accessory to attract other like minded men to talk about their facial hair or choice of barber over frothy caffeinated beverages. So with that in mind I did the opposite and this is what the opposite looks like when you sober up and tig fuck out of some sheetmetal.
Oh also, when i started this i was clean shaved, but I grew a beard in just nine weeks so i could see if it somehow turned me into a boring herd mentality simpleton but all it really did was itch a little and prevent me from getting a cream donut into my face without looking like a remedial.

https://i.imgur.com/4TWNegj.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/n5JQawh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/G6YjpHT.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ikll6Vm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LFoDzTF.jpg

[Fish]

Fuck this thread is mint!

[GammaBoy]

Needs more dead bird in glass in the tank.
https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/customized-vintage-racing-motorcycle-by-sebastian-errazuri-designboom-15.jpg

[Azrael]

I cant beat dead bird in tank but I can dead moth in metal flake.. this is not the only bug that was harmed during this build..
https://i.imgur.com/lcg7Zlg.jpg

[LKC73]

Hahaha what out Azrael the RSPCA will be onto you :D

[Azrael]

With the fabrication complete-ish i pulled the bike down to start painting stuff and while i was at it i thought id weigh the various parts. Before i began the build i weighed all the various components and made a list which you can see to the right of the scales, i guessed the engine weight because i weighed it on its stand but it was lighter than i thought. I will when time permits get the bike on the scales complete and again once ive changed the wheels and got it track ready just to see the difference. My guess it with the twin disk brake set up and aprilia rims itll check in around 112 but we will see.
The whole point of this build was to create a bike that is fast loose and untidy and then get somebody who knows what they are doing to make it better. My knowledge of two strokes stops at dirtbikes so i will be seek advice from some local guys on how to make this bike great from engine and tuning down to sprocket ratios. Its currently running 16-45 which is essentially suicide mode so yeah i should get on that.

Before paint i rubbed the frame back with wet and dry (i have no idea what grade-thanks beer) and it looked so damn nice, that last picture is not lens filtered it just came out that way after a good rub down.

https://i.imgur.com/jsDnfrK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jRpdoQE.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/sHkTAiG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hNmwuNZ.jpg

[Azrael]

I do for painting what helen keller did for beach volleyball, with that said i still do have a strong shed mantra when it comes to painting pretty much anything, you can have it in any colour you want as long as it black.
At this point of the build the universe decided to treat me to some of the worst fucken weather perth has seen in october ever forcing me to run outside between showers to flapdisk the tankseat still high as fuck on paint fumes from using rattle cans in a confined space and force drying my freshly painted parts with an electric floor heater that nearly caught fire and tripped the rcd on the mains board 3 times.
It also gave me an opportunity to look at the wiring harness which made no sense to me at all because beer + high as fuck on paint fumes.
This is not how you should do anything ever

https://i.imgur.com/Xh0w979.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0948OsD.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mJjG1qr.jpg

[LKC73]

How many projects are tucked away in that shed mate. I see 5 bikes not including the one you currently building!

[Azrael]

How many projects are tucked away in that shed mate. I see 5 bikes not including the one you currently building!

Not sure to be honest, there's probly another 10-15 motors, there's another shed just full of bikes and then there's some next to the shed and the garage has 5 in it..

[LKC73]

Not sure to be honest, there's probly another 10-15 motors, there's another shed just full of bikes and then there's some next to the shed and the garage has 5 in it..

WOW, I want some ;)

[JimZXR]

Holy shit; 15+ bikes?!?

You have a problem I'd like to have!

[Azrael]

This is i think the fourth time i have sat down to finish this and every time i've been interrupted and not got it done, this is of course, on account of my ongoing dispute with the the universe and my inability to properly manage my laps around the sun. So thankyou for your patience and welcome to my last day in hell as it were..

The final stage of building a bike is meant to be fun, exciting and something you do with friends and beer and take your time while you assemble your hard work whilst basking in the smug glow of your accomplishment. Yeah nah im really not that good. Instead on the final day i was still welding exhaust pipes, doing the final flap disking on the seat tank and constantly monitoring the clock back counting the remaining hours i had to complete my rolling shambles.

The previous day i had assembled the bike to a rolling chassis putting the motor in quite late that night but my list to get it ready to be ride-able was vast and it was going to be a sprint to get it done and the smart thing to do would have been to not have a small melt down but this is where my lovely wife stepped in, made me toasted sammiches so i had to stop, breathe, consume several beers and refocus. She is very cool and had she not done this i would have been a dribbling mess on the floor.

I started to look at the bike with a bit more warmth and pride instead of i want to burn you, you fucking hatewagon and then smashed jobs off one by one, slow is smooth, smooth is fast, beer is awesome. By 1030 with an hour and a half to go i was looking good and pretty happy with myself and then the universe in all of its blind hate decided my throttle cable needed to be in two pieces rather than the more practical one piece. Yay! If you are unaware of this please allow me to enlighten you, Rz cables have one cable that drops into a puller tube that pulls two carby cables and one oil delivery cable and they are rarer than good manners at a bukkake party. Despite this, i pushed on with one single hope in my head that a friend of mine might be able to help me out before i deliver the bike the following day.

The following pictures are how the bike looked as it came together on that night. I finished at 1145 and took pics and updated the instaballs and facecunt pages before smashing some red wine beer and sleeping pills and finally getting some sleep. I was proud of what id done in 11 weeks in total but only 9 weeks of actual build time. It was a bike, it looked how i thought it would and i did the entire fucken thing myself, untrained, booze addled and with entirely more confidence than actual skill.

https://i.imgur.com/aHcFzaB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/AHTGJqF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/V5x6AHa.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/xYDCvVe.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6s104vm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3QCTo7D.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SWSgu8v.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LTdWHMl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/x0IboYs.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3jThYkF.jpg

[geesexar]

not a smoker fan but mate you are on a winner there

[Azrael]

So as previously mentioned, on the last day i snapped a throttle cable and they are rare as fuck. I went down to steves motorcycles as ive known steve for about 16 years and hes always looked after me. He got straight on the phone to the parts distributors and found there was only one in the country and it was in qld. Not bothered by this and knowing i needed one right then and there he told me to follow him out the back where he rolled out his own personal rz and pointed at his toolbox and said take mine, bring it back when your done. Fucking legend! So if you are reading this and you are a perth local and you need parts,tyres or whatever, give steves a shot, they are a family business and he has never let me down. They are also a rego compliance centre and understanding of modified bikes.

And here's what you didnt see.. three dead grinders, one very fucked argon reg, a tig torch melted by the heat of a thousand suns and then there's the lists. The endless and ever expanding daily lists mocking me with their incomplete status.
There was not a flat surface in this shed that was not entirely covered in shit and it stayed like that until i summoned the energy to tidy it up.
People often mentioned its hard to see things clearly on account of my shed looking a bit um ..busy. So, in the spirit of drinking in sheds, watching the ways of the spider and putting stuff in jars i created an interactive shed game for you, an easter egg hunt if you will. So if you are ever really horribly bored at work or trying to back out you morning constitutional feel free to browse nearly every post i made throughout this build and find the cheezel. Yes. Its hidden in nearly every pic so youll never know if you missed one or not. Yes its evil. No im not sorry.

https://i.imgur.com/oajDPDA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/KmaF00s.jpg

This is how i bought the bike 9 or so years ago..

https://i.imgur.com/e5lC8To.jpg

To now

https://i.imgur.com/LSQpwkz.jpg

[rod185651]

Dude, thank you so much for sharing your build thread with us. Reading about your challenges and how you pushed through them makes my appreciation of your deathtrap build increase with each post. RESPECT

[Azrael]

Dude, thank you so much for sharing your build thread with us. Reading about your challenges and how you pushed through them makes my appreciation of your deathtrap build increase with each post. RESPECT

Thanks Rod, everybody here has problems, everyone here has other shit going on in their life, my life is no different. I have good days and bad days and i dont always get to choose where i focus my energy and like anybody else, that sucks. I cant even begin to explain how much of other peoples shit has been loaded on me this year but i keep plodding along, hitting stuff with hammers and trying to retain a sense moving forward to better times. I wont bore you with the details of what holds me back from finishing simple things like this thread, this shoulda been done a month ago but i literally have been overwhelmed with other peoples problems and i miss sleep so much.
Ive made a list of what i need to do to this project to get it to the track, i will complete everything i can and then im going to place it in the hands of some professionals to get it to the track so it doesn't sit and atrophy in my shed. Its the responsible thing to do.
I will update this as that happens.

Smile cunts, it could be worse!

[LKC73]

Azrael, this is a great thread not only for your magic in building this machine but the fact that you are human and we all have our own problems. Its great to see you get this thing done with other things pressuring you. The time you have put into getting this tread up here is a testament to your persistence in getting things done. Thanks for the share, and much respect for you as a builder and a person. Hats off to you.

[Gix11]

3 things I have ascertained from this thread:

1. Steve is a legend. People like him are hard to find these days, especially on the Gold Coast. Glad they still exist over there. I would definitely frequent his store if I was over there.

2. Cheezels are the sort of thing Large eats. Finding one in my shed on a normal day would be disappointing; finding one in hundreds of photos would be hell. If you actually did set up a Cheezel in every photo you took, then you are madder than a square spoon.

3. I've never had any doubt (since long before this build), but Tom; you're a complete champion mate. You get things done, lots of things; you put up with other people's shit which they selfishly land on you, and you prove that the human spirit can get you anywhere if you give it a chance. Thanks again for this thread mate.

[kpow]

Great thread you have my greatest respect for what you can do, long live the smoker.

[rod185651]

3 things I have ascertained from this thread:


2. Cheezels are the sort of thing Large eats. Finding one in my shed on a normal day would be disappointing; finding one in hundreds of photos would be hell. If you actually did set up a Cheezel in every photo you took, then you are madder than a square spoon.


Ha! That is fucken awesome......Really!? is there a cheezel in all these photos?!

[Azrael]

Ha! That is fucken awesome......Really!? is there a cheezel in all these photos?!

Yes there is in most but not all, thats why its so mean.. The irony of this is that when i cleaned up the shed i couldnt find the fucken cheezle..so the jokes on me

[Azrael]

3 things I have ascertained from this thread:

1. Steve is a legend. People like him are hard to find these days, especially on the Gold Coast. Glad they still exist over there. I would definitely frequent his store if I was over there.

2. Cheezels are the sort of thing Large eats. Finding one in my shed on a normal day would be disappointing; finding one in hundreds of photos would be hell. If you actually did set up a Cheezel in every photo you took, then you are madder than a square spoon.

3. I've never had any doubt (since long before this build), but Tom; you're a complete champion mate. You get things done, lots of things; you put up with other people's shit which they selfishly land on you, and you prove that the human spirit can get you anywhere if you give it a chance. Thanks again for this thread mate.

Thankyou Si for persisting with ASF and giving cunts like me somewhere to post our shit, good, bad and indifferent! I cant wait to get the smoker done and get building my next project, i think you guys will like it.


Thanks guys for the positive vibes and feedback. Let the badness begin again!