Stand by...

Well, I'm at a small waiting point.

The engine works well and is on my work bench waiting to get cleaned/stripped. (there's a clear coat on the engine cases that has been stained goldish-brown by a leaky carb and old chain lube)

 The rear hub and rim have been shipped off to Buchanan's Spoke and Wheel in Azusa CA to be built.

The front wheel is being re-assembled by Hagen's Cycle here in Asheville.

Front wheel (before. the final won't have the knobby tire...)

Mmmmmm. Tasty polished spokes ready for the new wheel assembly

 The front end has been assembled and fits perfectly.

So, I'm waiting for the wheels to come back.
Once they get here, I'll be mounting everything to my work table. This will be the "base" for the whole project. I'm going to bolt the rims to the table (through the air valve holes in the rims) along a centerline so they're perfectly in-line with each other. I've designed the bike to have a 1389mm wheelbase, 24 degree rake, and 95mm trail... (not so coincidentally the same as an '06 CBR600RR) After the wheels are fixed, the forks/triples/head tube will be installed and the rest of the frame will be fabricated from there.

That's when it'll be more exciting. It will actually start looking like a motorcycle.

So that's where I am. I think this is an excellent time to bust out the welding stuff. I'm excited to start that "learning curve." This blog may turn into a "look at this awesome weld!" blog for a while, but please stay tuned... I promise to get back to the bike.

Speaking of the bike, wanna see my favorite part so far? It's the fork caps. It's a combination of large stainless steel washers with small brass washers in between. Plus the spiked acorn nut on top. Probably nothing to you, but it's my favorite part so far. It started it's life 21 years ago as a Yamaha YZ250 fork cap that had a large hex head (for removal) and in the center was a brass needle valve assembly for adjusting the rebound dampening. Don't you just love lathes?

See ya!