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1940 SS Knucklehead: People's Champ 5 Build"

118K views 327 replies 63 participants last post by  Rigidspeedtwin 
#1 · (Edited)
OK, I know a lot of you have seen my girder fork thread, so a bit of this is rehash, but I wanted to get some of this stuff on here chronologically. If you read the fork thread, you can probably read the beginning of post 1 and then jump to post 4. I posted this over on another (the other) forum that prefers angle grinders to machine tools (but I still love them). It's going to seem like a huge blast right off the bat, sorry about that. I'll update it as I go from now on. Maybe print it out in full color on your company's printer and go read it in the shitter, IDK.

So, a bit of backstory, everyone who knows me knows I talk about this thing all the time. I was trying to keep it on the DL online because I was trying to get invited to a "cool" event like born free or Brooklyn. I've since decided that I'm just a nobody and don't really deserve to be invited anywhere. Maybe sometime in the future. Also I am simply just not good at selling myself on social media, so here's where I'm at and I'll update this as I go.

Basically the whole project started like this, a titled basket 1940 EL motor.



By now I've accumulated basically all OEM (not year correct, though) external parts. I'm going to use S&S/Jims/Andrews internals. The motor will be mostly stock. I don't plan on making it anything other than clean, I want to leave all the "wear" marks in the parts that have accumulated over the last 75 years. Sort of like how I shined up this cam cover:



For the sake of the story, not much has happened with the motor, I've been too busy with other things to really dick with that. Also, for the sake of the story this is going to be a little out of order, but no one's probably reading any of this anyway.
I wanted to build a fork for this build, so here's the story of that:
Drew it in cad.







Got castings made from 3d printed wax off cad models. Material is 316L. This is not inexpensive, but I don't spend much money on things besides motorcycles, so it was within budget. All said and done I have into this what a nice condition early springer would cost.



Had to machine the castings. Fixturing these was often difficult and quite a learning experience for me.























 
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#230 ·
I hadn't noticed the lacing pattern on the front wheel before. Somewhere back in your thread, I'm sure there are good side-on shots of it. Do you recall what page? It'll take me half a day to admire my way through the whole thread.
 
#233 ·
Got a few things done the past few days..

Got the brake mounted, which involved making this fixture:



And then making polished parts to weld on to the frame. The welds came out really nice but I don't have a picture.



Then the caliper mounts to those. I know what you're thinking, how do you adjust for chain stretch, well, it's not simple, and it will involve shims. I know it's not the best solution, but it was the cleanest, and it's not like this is exactly a miles bike, so I don't intend on having to deal with that too often. I am using a Beringer caliper, which looks really cool, although I have a chrome one on order... interested to see which blends better.





I also made a kickstand. It's made from 1/4 plate, cut out on a bandsaw, then welded and sanded. The bevel in the top, which is hard to see in pictures I put in with an angle grinder, I'm surprised it came out as well as it did. The spring mechanism is a stainless gas spring in compression. Still operates like a normal kickstand. The gas spring is hidden when it is retracted. I think I will make a nicer shoulder bolt, though.









Here's a little video showing more:



I also foamed the seat. Initially this is how it came out:



But I wasn't too crazy about that hump. So I cut it off and made a new one. Good thing this gets covered.



Thank you for all that have voted (especially those that voted for me). Tomorrow is the last day of voting. I encourage everyone who hasn't already done so to go check out the bikes and vote for someone! There are some great bikes being built.

There are three places to vote.

1) The best first place to vote is at http://www.lowbrowcustoms.com/show-class-peoples-champ-voting-2017 here you can see all the bikes and read a bit about them, then choose a name and vote for it! My name is Christian Newman, the picture they used of my bike is pretty old.

2) On instagram check out @show_class_mag and comment "vote" under the picture of my bike (my username is @ctnewman and the pic they used is old)

3) This online poll is hosted by the Show Class. https://www.poll-maker.com/poll1009690x35F8B500-42

Here are a few more pictures.



 
#239 ·
Modified my new cycle electric voltage regulator. Got the idea from LeBeef, tried to send him some money for "the inspiration" but he refused. Cool guy!



This is what his look like. I think it looks a little cooler, but I couldn't just copy it, so I had to com up with my own design.

 
#250 ·
Scrambling trying to get the engine together and working on 3 things at once. Seat at at upholsterer, tins are at painters. Focusing on trying to get the engine built so that I can get the exhaust and foot controls built.

Here are some things that happened in the past week:

Made some special stud covers to close off the holes in the CE reg I modded.



Started working on some floorboard pedal thingers:





Always a shame grinding off (semi) pretty welds





I got this cast exhaust piece that I designed. It goes underneath the trans and will have vbands on both ends.



I welded my vband flanges that I made a few posts back to the head. Super high stress job. Took about 7 hours. Preheat, weld 3/8", back in the oven, repeat, then slow cool down cycle. Welds looked good and no cracks. Then I powdercoated them wrinkle black which may not be everyone's thing, but I like it. Valve guides and rocker shafts are one-off... I have a plan coming together there. Rocker shafts are out getting carburized now.



Last night I bead blasted and prepped the case for glyptal. Me and my buddy Dave at BA enterprises put new Jim's main races in the case and honed them. Cover bearings reamed, lots of threads fixed, etc. Hoping to put the bottom end together this weekend. I think I have all the parts.





 
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