[neilwilson]

Hi. I have got so much inspiration from looking at others chopper and bobber builds, I thought I'd say thanks to all who built or supplied parts for my bike and add some pics of how its turned out.
For the build parts:
Big thanks to the guys at Flyrite Choppers for the Smokin Gun rolling chassis. What you sent was top notch and has been positively commented on by anyone who visited the build shop.

Fab Kevin also provided excellent service for the parts I bought. (license plate and light and oil tank bracket)

Mooneyes supplied the oil tank, Youngs Choppers the air cleaner, and Debrix was a source of other bits and pieces

For the build welding and powder coating. Slim and his "Slims Garage" in Atlanta is who and where the majority of the expert work was done over the course of the build. Many thanks.

The original bike was a 75 Sportster that others had messed about with before me, and of course I mucked about with too. The result or my starting point for the rebuild being this.

To cut to the chase, this is the end result. Something I'm super happy with. Converted to electric and Kickstart. Gear shift moved back to the right side. Interesting concept of the sprotor works pretty well as a rear brake (I'll be sure to keep it oil/grease free form the chain). Some imaginative work on the rear master brake cylinder. We'll have to see how well it works seeing how low it is.

and

Yes. Its about an inch and a half off the ground. I have to be a bit careful not to scrape it.

 

[neilwilson]

Thanks

 

[neilwilson]

Reference for anyone else doing a build
I don't presume to be able to teach anyone much. What follows is merely a catalog of what I did, incase others happen to be looking for reference material

My Background:
I am a mechanically minded and have built small projects in the past. Usually brazing soldering and hand fabrication on a woodwork bench. I know my way around a lathe and milling machines, nothing requiring welding though, so I had to eventually admit the build was beyond me and get professional help from Slim's Garage.

Research:
I learned tonnes by readying others articles. So many good bits of information out there. I looked at a lot of manufacturers of rolling chassis (Paugcho, nash brothers etc…) all of which are really cool, I settled on Flyrite because of the compact look, pleasing (to my eye) fork rake and springer front end.
The chassis , and brakes were bought in about 2009, I then spent a lot (A heck of a lot) of time reviewing other peoples builds on Jockey journal, chop cult, and other places for ideas lessons learned ec.
Alp Sungeturkin's The Whip Sportster, Various Nash Bikes, Boneshaker Choppers, Courthouse choppers "blood roots", The warbird on Bikeexif to name but a few I saw as inspirational, though there are so many cool builds to view.

I'm about 5'8 and the Flyrite Smokin Gun is a perfect size. Good riding position too. I had toyed with putting forward controls on since the left gear shift and right brake were causing me to think a lot about the mechanics of the build.
A lot of the build was planned, but some was down to "we'll see what happens if". I played around with drawings until the things began to look about right to my mind.

 

[neilwilson]

In order of construction.
I eventually collected the pieces
Chassis and brakes (flyrite)
Oil tank and bracket mounts (Mooneyes, Fab Kevin)
Custom pipe kit (Biltwell)
Seat - (La Rosa)
Seat bracket and spring mounts (Fab Kevin)
Head lamp bracket, chain, kickstand, ( Debrix)
Internal throttle (Radii International)
Ignition system - (Crane Cams)
I like the look of a velocity stack, but didn't want to have to fix the engine after grit and insects got in the cylinders so I was happy to find Youngs Choppers "Air horn"
Hand controls (Jaybrake)
Miscellaneous nuts and bolts - General Hardware (Ace)

 

[neilwilson]

The transmission was proving to be a pain. HD's shift mechanism from the right side to left is not the clean look I was after and it wouldn't work on a Flyrite Chassis so Slim took the old foot pegs and mounting brackets off the old frame and fixed the transmission up (had to get an old shift lever from earlier year XLH to go through the sprocket cover, and shift lever

 

[BigDawg]

Welcome from Buford...Slim does some nice work. I would've left that Sporty as it were though.

 

[neilwilson]

Point taken. It was fun to ride...

 

[neilwilson]

The oil tank mount was a case of put the engine in, leave enough room for some air flow around the tank and enough space to get the oil lines in and out.

 

[neilwilson]

I can't take credit for the idea of mounting the rear master cylinder or reusing the right side foot peg and re welding the foot plate to make it a left pedal. It works, maybe not the safest or fool proof, but functional for now. The foot rests are going to have to be changed, probably to black rather than chrome.

 

[neilwilson]

To make the bars cleaner and still have an electronic ignition, the switch is mounted below the tank. I found out the hard way that switch gets damned hot…..

The mirror is useless. Its too close in, I might as well turn round to see what's going on