Choppers Australia

Time to choose and set up a guard. Michael's tyre is wider than the normal classic chopper 5" so we needed a bit wider guard. In the seventies when I was building choppers, after market guards were non existent and HD guards were virtually unobtainable. However, a really cool rear guard was a nice ...

Hahndorf swap meet this Sunday 17th January 2021. Starts 6am. I always park just in side the main gates on left with CA flags.

This Wednesday (13th Jan) evening 8pm Villies Richmond...

February Midnight Ride last week of Feb. Day yet to be decided...

Back onto the air cleaner intake manifold. Crowy picked up a mandrel bend in mild steel as the previous effort was using some stainless. A quick trip on the shovel this morning to Crowy's got me the bend so I could get on with the job. Nice to take a quick run on the chopper! Mandrel bend is cut as ...

While I was playing with the tank and intake manifold and welding bits and pieces, Michael was fabricating gussets (and later also had his first go on the lathe). Here a small gusset under the steering head is being marked out from a piece of 3mm scrap... http://www.choppersaustralia.com/PictureLibr...

Michael wanted a greater volume than a peanut or sporty tank and loves the shape of this one. He also wants to see a lot of backbone both in front and behind the tank. My preference was to fair in the rear of the tank to the front of the seat rails and use the area for his telltales. But he is defin...

Tunnel cut to depth and fitted into cutout making sure it is square... http://www.choppersaustralia.com/PictureLibrary7/CAFXV650Michael-19.jpg On this build, no tank brackets will be visible. A piece of threaded rod will extend down from the tunnel and through the backbone. The tunnel is reinforced ...

Tank now being readied for Michael to decide location on backbone. Before any welding can begin, paint needs to be removed. This is done with paint stripper... http://www.choppersaustralia.com/PictureLibrary7/CAFXV650Michael-08.jpg ... which lifts most of the paint that is removed with a scraper. St...

Fuel Tank... Michael has found a fuel tank in my collection that he reckons might suit his project. not sure what it is from, but it is British and very well made of decent thickness metal. Michael wants it Frisco mounted which means the tunnel has to be cut out and shallowed so the bottom of the t...

Polishing brake calipers... Garry wants lots of shine on his chopper, so many parts have gone to chrome platers. The brake calipers however, I will polish as it is too easy for mating surfaces and cylinders for pistons to be adversely affected by the plating and polishing process. HD brake calipers...

Shaun dropped by a couple of weekends ago to get a set of 3 degree raked cups installed on his Evo. HD Big Twin headstem bearings were fitted into removable bearing cups until 1988. After that the steering head is in one piece with the races fitted directly into the steering head. This means that on...

Michael was up at the workshop again on Sunday. Down tubes and steering head gussets the order of the day... Existing tubes have to be heated and moved in to line up with the new steering head... http://www.choppersaustralia.com/PictureLibrary7/CAFMichaelXV650Frame-32.jpg Heating and bending with a ...

Another Adelaide Bike Night occurred tonight... as I understand it, simply a gathering of bikes at Mile End and mostly sports bikes and reasonably stock H"D's, with a few oddballs like us choppers and a few cafe racers. Starts at 7pm and most are heading off within an hour or so. Venue is shopping c...

Having gotten to the previous stage, I sent Michael home with some home work. 1. Did he want to lower the rear of the chopper? 2. Did he want to narrow the seat rails? 3. Did he want to modify the rear frame which is designed to look like a Harley soft tail but unlike the HD is serves no purpose? He...

yes. These things are so loong in the rear end.