Douglas Henderson's Motorcycle Page

I've got things far enough along I've been able to ride the bike for awhile. This is called "riding rat....". You ride it that way for a while, lay down some miles before you lay down some paint. A chance to work out some bugs before you get serious with the pretty stuff.

Latest on the Barn Find Rebuild....the finish line in sight. Almost ready for paint. But bits and pieces requiring fabrication before you can paint... IMHO....You can't say "MOTORcycle" without saying "motor". To me, the motor should be the STAR of the show. Everything else should play supporting roles. The factory/aftermarket air cleaners are TOO BIG. They cover up too much of that motor. So, I built, not an air FILTER, but a carburetor "cover". Before you scream NO AIRFIL...TER!!!! I didn't have one of my 48 flathead. And I don't have one on my '86 that I've put 16,000 miles on; no smoke, no blowby. No problem. And even if you don't agree.... here's the fabrication. I'll start with a photo of the finished product, then, step by step, show you how I got there. I'm not bragging. I learned a few things in progress, maybe it'll be useful to you. Or not.

Finally getting around to updating this build. I've done lots of bits and pieces on this. It's not that it takes THAT long to do or make this part work... but you've got to make all those that DID NOT WORK(I have a very large interesting scrap heap), to get to the one that did. And even then, it's not perfect. But it's as close as I could that day. But tomorrow... that next one...it's gonna be PERFECT!

Lots of bits and pieces are coming along nicely on the Barn-Find. I've just finished making a new seat and grips for the bike. I've made a couple of seats now and those are real gratifying to build. You just make the base out of fiberglass or sheet metal, or in this case, I cut down an old bike seat base. Then glue up foam rubber. Sculpt the foam rubber into the exact shape you want using a flap disc on an angle grinder, which works surprisingly well. I then cover the seat sh...ape with pieces of paper, cutting and taping until I have a pattern for the leather pieces. I cut the leather, punch holes and lace the pieces together. A slow but very enjoyable process. Before lacing the pieces together I also stamp something, like a slogan or bible verse into the seat. On this smaller solo seat I went with the Friedrich Nietzsche(German existentialist philosopher) quote "That which does not kill us makes us stronger...". I don't know; it seemed appropriate at the time. Anyway... after the pieces are all laced together, the seat cover is stretched over the foam and base, and screwed, stapled or pop-riveted to the base. Then rubbed out with neats-foot oil to slightly stain and preserve the leather. It will age nicely. While I was at it... I cut and laced leather to cover the grips on the handlebars. Just for laughs I stamped directional arrows into the throttle grip. One arrow points down and says "FASTER" and the other arrow points up and says "SLOWER". I mean, just in case you forget which way to turn the thing, you can always just look at the arrows. I thought it was funny.