Grown Man Business

Our Work Is Never Over ^{2}

When we last met our heroes, the riser bolts I had stripped out the bottom 1/4″ of threading on my new Biltwell Slimline risers. I bought a new 1/2″ Torque Wrench and ordered a new Drag Specialties Flushmount Bushing Kit and Andrew was nice enough to grab a bunch of spare bolts for me at Fastenal. Note to self: Pay Andrew for the bolts he bought you from Fastenal.

As it turned out, not only were the bolts about 3/4″ too short but they were also 3/8″ instead of the 1/2″ I needed so all of a sudden the stripping made total sense. Here you see the new Drag kit next to the ones I tried to use a few weeks back.

Of course, the new bolts were too long so Janky Jamie slapped on a 13 TPI die and we cut those fuckers off.

Town Moto had ordered me some new Progressive 412 rear shocks but I didn’t like the covers over the bottom, or over the top for that matter.

We modded a spring compressor tool to accept the shorter length of the shocks and removed the covers.

It took a little doing but I’m glad we got them off because we really destroyed the covers in our early attempts. I’m really happy with the result so it was totally worth the extra effort.

I’d started it several times throughout the day but once everything was back together it wouldn’t start – figured it was either gas or the battery.

So we threw some gas in it but… no dice.

So I plugged it into a tender and called it a night…

Went back in the morning and she fired right up! Just gotta swap out that tail-light and I’ll be done for a long while…

…ok, probably not, but how much better is that (↑)? Than that (↓)?

Thanks again to Andrew, Jamie, Town Moto & Frank @ Solid Cycles on this seemingly simple, yet relatively time consuming and frustrating project.

By MattRennick Category: FXDB Street Bob, Grown Man Business, Motorcycles

Our Work Is Never Over ^{0}

So I had all my parts in order, a couple of shortpours courtesy of John at Bellwoods Brewery, and it was time to get this baby back together.

The electrical harness for the rear section was attached with VHB Tape – I don’t know why it would have been so hard to weld a couple of hooks on there to hold it in place? When I went to reattach it after having it coated I just tried the double sided tape I had at home…

No dice. So I tried some automotive tape for emblems and whatnot…

No dice. So I tried some gorilla glue…

Then went back in the next day with some Gorilla Tape and those two together seemed to do the trick – it looks sloppy but it should hold up…

–

In my quest to diminish the chrome on this bike but wanting something a little different than black I gave my signals the old Scotchbrite treatment.

I’d also done the same to the rear signals which had to be cut to pull through their mounting stud…

Rather than re-solder the wires back together once one the bike I figured I’d make my life easier and crimp on some bullet connectors which will also make replacement easier if I ever pull the trigger on these Posh jammers.

Soldered… Badly.

Greased…

Installed.

–

I’d opted to replace the rear suspension with black Progressive shocks. I’d really wanted the 444 Series but couldn’t justify the $300 price difference to I opted for the cheaper, but decent 412s.

They were easy enough to mount (the left, anyway, Bowles had to come help with the right) but the stud bolt is capped meaning that they can’t be installed without the covers so I scotchbrited them and installed until I can go to Fastenal and get some open ended nuts.

Much better, even with the stud covers.

–

Next I moved up to the front end and began prepping the new triple tree to accept the tubes. Because it’s a really tight fit it’s a good idea to go over the clamps and remove any burrs in the metal to avoid scratching the chrome on the fork tubes.

I had to try to line them up perfectly and the manual said between 11.4-12.7mm, I settled on 12mm and came close enough for my liking.

I torqued down the tree clamps using a torque wrench (that I don’t think works properly) and some blue loctite.

Starting to look like a bike again…

Installed the newly powdercoated fender and the front brake caliper…

Managed to jimmy the front wheel into place…

And Bob, once again, is your uncle.

–

Next I set to the task of getting my bars / controls set up properly…

…getting my mirrors set up.

Of course, it wouldn’t be my life if I didn’t take 1 step forward and 2 back, so at the end of the day when I was pretty much ready to head home I felt like my handlebars were a little mushy so I set to tightening the riser bolts. I guess I went a little hard as I managed to strip not one but two Biltwell Slimline risers which means ordering a new set from Town Moto and waiting patiently for them to arrive.

By MattRennick Category: FXDB Street Bob, Grown Man Business, Motorcycles

Our Work Is Never Over ^{0}

I figured it’d be fun to work with a bud in the garage like the old days so I called Andrew to see what he was up to and am so glad he was able to hang because, as we found out, this ended up being a two-person job for sure. Maybe not next time, now that we know what to do, but that was definitely too much for one that night.

We spent a little while hmming and hawwing, trying to make sense of the manual to figure out where the electrical disconnects were for the hand controls… We removed the battery box, poked around in there for a while before deciding that we did indeed need to lift the tank.

The fuel pump petcock has a nice, clean and easy quick-connect that stops the gas from pouring all over the floor should you need to disconnect with gas still in the tank. The front crossover fuel line? Not so much… We both got covered in gas but eventually rigged up a system using a funnel and some 5/16″ hose to drain it without getting any more all over the bike and ourselves.

After that, it was just a matter of disconnecting some of the electrical run through the tank itself (fuel gauge, spedo, etc.) and then she came up nice and easy.

So all the control’s electrical runs into these ports in the frame neck (which are usually half-covered with rubber grommets) and then out under a plastic cover above the engine. It’s not entirely clear in the manual but once you figure out where all that goes, everything gets a lot easier.

Aside from powdercoating the fork sliders and trees, one of the main reasons for all of this work was to replace the top triple tree from the stock tree to one from a 2007 FXD SuperGlide without integrated risers so I bought one and had it stripped and coated with everything else.

The powdercoating job was great but some made it’s way into tiny threads on the bottom of the stem – it’s ok because I didn’t think to tell Rob and I doubt that he even saw that hole. I was able to clean out the top few threads with a knife…

…and then chase the rest with a screw. Pushing forward and then backing out to remove the powdercoat a few threads at a time. Patience is a virtue.

It was starting to get too late so we decided to button up for the night and just hand-tighten everything together so I can go back in with some loctite and a torque wrench later in the week.

We rerouted the electrical through the trees, hit everything with some dialectric grease and reconnected everything under the frame.

Bingo bango.

Goodnight Nurse! Thanks again to Andrew to lending a hand – I know that to experienced builders all this doesn’t seem like much but for a couple of guys figuring it all out as it goes, it’s a fair bit of a work and I’m glad I’ve got a great crew up buds willing to lend time and experience.

By MattRennick Category: FXDB Street Bob, Grown Man Business, Motorcycles

Our Work Is Never Over ^{0}

Spring is in the air and anyone who knows me knows how much FOMO I’ve got in me so if we have one nice day and I can’t ride I’m going to lose my fucking loofah!

Last Sunday I spent a day tearing down the bike which for the most part, was pretty straight forward with a few hickups.

One of the challenges with new bikes, especially Harleys, is that they don’t make anything easy for you. Sure, I like not having all of the wiring inside the headlight (like on vintage Hondas) but that means that they have to hide it somewhere else – in this case that means all the controls are routed through the triple tree, into the frame and then back out under the tank where you can access the connections. So, take the tank off, right? In order to do that you need to disconnect the electrical running through the tank itself as well as the fuel connector between the tanks and yadda, yadda, yadda…

So I left that alone for now and just set to removing the things that were relatively easy, or so it would seem… Within 5 minutes of disassembly I’d managed to strip a bolt that was heavily loctited – fortunately Janky Jamie was able to hammer in a torx bit with a deadblow hammer and wrench that fucker out.

After that it was pretty smooth sailing…

…until I hit a wall at the end of the day (which was a Sunday so stores closed early) when I realized that I needed a 12mm hex head ratchet bit – the biggest any of us had was 10mm and as I found out the next morning when I went on a tour of the local hardware and automotive store, that was the biggest any of them had as well.

I’d taken Monday off work to get all this stuff off to powdercoat so not being able to get the fork sliders off was starting to become a huge pain in the ass so what does a shoemaker do when he can’t get something down? He calls in the pros… I called up Frank The Tank who said he had a bit of time to help me out so I loaded up the zipcar and headed over to Solid Cycles.

As it turned out, Frank didn’t have the long reach 12mm needed so we hopped in his truck and bought one. Then he realized I’d never be able to get these things back together without a 49mm fork seal tool so he called up his distributer and bought one… All the while refusing to take payment for just helping a guy with a seemingly simple task. In the end the fork seal tool he bought was missing parts and Frank is a perfectionist so he went to a machinist and fucking made one! What a guy…

Then he asked where I was going to take everything to get powdercoated so I said Jetkote, just because I don’t really know anywhere else so what does he do? He hops in the car and takes me to meet Rob who has a shop around the corner who took care of everything for a great price. If anyone needs Powdercoating done in Toronto let me know and I’ll get his info.

While I waited for the powdercoat I set to task running a Scotchbrite treatment on my rear turn signals & new mirrors. These are some before and after shots of both.

I could probably stand to run over the mirrors with a finer grit and clean up them up a bit but whatever… Because my work hours are pretty hectic during the week, Frank went and picked everything up for me and reassembled my forks for me.

I seriously can’t overstate just how much Frank helped me out on this; doing a bunch of heavy lifting, offering crucial advice and helping set this young pup on the right path. If anyone reading has a Harley and needs a solid mechanic/builder to take care of it for them – hit up Solid Cycles.

Next up – reassembly.

By MattRennick Category: FXDB Street Bob, Grown Man Business, Motorcycles