The means to "the ends"

I have the engine, but was thinking about "the ends." Specifically the front and rear ends of the motorcycle. I knew I wanted NO suspension, but where do you actually get a "no suspension" and how do you incorporate it into a (semi) modern motorcycle frame?

Well, lets start with the wheels.

Boardtrackers had huge rims. I don't know the sizes, but they were big. What's a big rim size today? 21inches? Dirtbikes use them, and some Harleys... but being the "anti-Harley" that I am, I'm sticking to the dirtbike wheels. Dirtbikes also have good brakes. I wanted to capture the soul and appearance of the old board trackers, but have modern conveniences... like brakes. Good ones.

So far, it looks like I needed to start looking in the motocross world for leads. Turns out that Yamaha's wheels both use 36 spokes each front and back. So, if I want to lace a 21inch front rim to a rear hub I can do that because of the common spoke count. Ok, so a few weeks of searching ebay nets me the front and rear ends of a 1990 Yamaha YZ250. I disassembled the wheels, forks, triple clamps, gave my friend Fred the body guy the hubs, rims, and triples to be painted black... and look at them now!

Next was the new wheel bearings

and finally, the incredible front end!

What you're looking at here is a set of triple clamps from a Kawasaki KX500. Why did I choose those? Because they use the EXACT same steering bearings as the 1981 Suzuki GN400... my donor bike. Gotta love the internet for searching information like that! Notice the nicely machined bushings between the triple clamps and fork tubes! Those tubes are what slides in and out of a normal set of dirtbike forks. They also fit perfectly with my frame and wheel size. -Instant "no suspension!!!"

More to come on this! It's getting exciting now!