Motorcycle from the ground up

[Donald Branscom]

I built a chopper style motorcycle from scratch.
It used a Honda V4 gear driven cam engine VF1000R engine 121 HP.

Photo finished frame ready for paint.


One of the incarnations.
Frame right after it was removed from the fixture.
I have re made the exhausts at least 6 times, and the present ones are 4 separate pipes.

Here is a photo of the frame still in the fixture.

[Blondie_486]

Definitely old school!!! I like it, you did a nice job on it!!!

[Donald Branscom]

Thanks Blondie!

Another photo of the build process.

[Donald Branscom]

Definitely old school!!! I like it, you did a nice job on it!!!

"Colt the original point & click interface!" Or....Drop and drag! LOL....lol

[Pass-N-Gas]

Very good job indeed..

Did you get the family involved and throw things at each other like psycho family choppers do on tv?

[jbmprods]

mighty nice scooter Donald. my butts to old to ride rigid. well maybe if the seat is gel filled lol. my buddy built a hard tail knucklehead a few yrs back and i don't remember the rake but that wheel stuck so far it just flopped over when he turned the bars. i was following him to town and he went around a really tight corner at about a hundred and that rear tire was hopping so bad i thought he was going to loose it. the funny part was i was laughing so hard i almost lost it. you got to picture this guy all of 400lbs built like donald duck every time his butt hit that seat his cheeks would wrap around it and looked like big old wings try to flap. i told him the only reason he didn't go down was his cheeks where flappin so hard and fast that they kept his belly airborne.

[Donald Branscom]

The only seat that works is a spring mounted seat on a rigid rear suspension.

Harley-Davidson got it right many years ago.
No high tech foam or gel pad will work ,only springs.

Some of the seats I see on rigid choppers may look good, but I know they will not be rideable. If you do not use a spring mounted seat your spine will suffer permanent damage.

BTW....Thanks for the compliments.

[Donald Branscom]

One more thought to help others.

If you build the table 22 inches high the hydraulic lift table will go to that height and you can lift the engine up and just push it onto the table.
When it comes time to take it all apart for painting you can slide the engine onto the hydraulic lift table.

The tubing for the frame fixture does not need to be 1/4 inch. Save yourself a lot of money and use 1/8 thickness. The tubing is just being used for alignment.
I see this mistake a lot.

BTW As far as family involvement ... The family WILL usually get involved, so be courteous. LOL

[Markswelding]

Bike build

Very nice, does it straight line down the road?
Wish I had the patience for stuff like this, so cool
Thanks for sharing

[Donald Branscom]

Very nice, does it straight line down the road?
Wish I had the patience for stuff like this, so cool
Thanks for sharing

Yes it will go down the road AND around the curves with no funny business.
It has 42º rake and trail is 5 inches.
With a wide rear tire and skinny front tire you have to be careful about pulling off and entering from a sloped bank road.


The best is of coarse a front and rear tire of equal width like a racing motorcycle.
This motorcycle is more art project that high performance motorcycle.
It is just about the looks.

[warrenlark]

Awesome. I had a VFR 500 and that thing was a rocket, I can only imagine a 1000 on a hard tail. Looks really cool