Chris's homebuilt yammie chopper was featured in Choppers Australia News in January 2006. It's taken 15 months to get it into this forum, but hope you enjoy this ride...
Chris’s bike has taken two years to build and is at last on the road. It is a lot of work building a bike from scratch especially when building a house (in the pic with the bike ) at the same time. Chris tells his story from here...
I am a builder by trade and I only got one shot at doing a bike so I had to get it right. I have been interested in choppers as far back as college and let me tell you that was a long time ago!! They have changed a lot in style, but I wanted to have the bike low at the back rising up in front.
I began by buying the 1100 motor then working out though mag's like Easy Rider what I wanted the bike to look like and then started buying second hand parts. The 200 X 17” back wheel is off a TL 1000. I got the front wheel and disc's from a GS 1100. I uses GSXR 1100 fork sliders, 900 Suzuki triple clamps and 43mm 600 Honda motocross tubes. Fork extension works out to about 5 or 6 inches.
Setting it up… I started by measuring all the parts and drawing the bike full size on a 2400x1200 packing sheet. Then I put another on the ground put a line down the centre, put a small block on the line and sat the motor on the block until it was balanced and at a right angle to the line. To get the rake, I attached a 4x2 up the side and put a 40 degree line on it and screwed a dowel to it. Everything was taken off the measurements from the drawing.
Bending and welding… To bend the frame tubing (1¼” x 3mm wall), I took tracings from my full scale drawings and had an engineering company do the bending to match.
I spot welded the frame and got a certified welder to mig and tig it together.
I made the soft tail by cutting the back forks off Honda 900 swing arm, using the bush and welding it to the soft tail. I put a Kawa 900 mono shock under the seat which gives around 80 mm, travel.
Handlebars… I made my handlebars and got the mirrors and grips from the States. The handlebars are raised 8”. They aren’t really high, because I wanted good handling and with the stretch tank, the bike flows really nicely. I am really happy with the length of the forks and the rake.
Making the seat pan… I read in a mag how to build my seat As you can see in the photo, mine curves over the back fender and is moulded up towards the tank.
I laid wide masking tape over and beyond where the seat is to go, and drew the outline of the seat on the tape. I made sure that the bike around the seat was well masked off, and epoxied five layers of fibreglass mat onto the tape. After a couple of days I peeled off the fibre glass. Once I cut it to size with a jigsaw I had a perfect fitting seat. Then I took it in for upholstering.
Moulded tail light/blinkers… I moulded the tailight onto the back fender using some 40mm polystyrene foam (off a building site) which I shaped with a Stanley knife and then epoxyed to the fender. This was followed by several layers of cloth, sanded smooth, I cut out a window for the light and then dug out the foam inside to allow room for the light and blinkers. I did a similar thing with the small guards on each side of the bike.
Rear Fender... I bought an old Harley back fender. Because it was too narrow for the tyre and I wanted the bike to look meaty at the back, I cut the fender down the middle with my jigsaw. I then shaped a piece of steel and welded and glassed it in.
Final pieces… The tank is off a Suzuki intruder. I stretched it using polystyrene foam and fiberglass to give nice flowing lines. The foot controls are also from an Intruder.
I got the pipes made and brought the mufflers from a bike shop who had a few different styles I could choose from.
Bike is painted candy apple red.
A rocket ship… The bike has just been tuned and the jets changed in the carb's. The mechanic took it for a spin and said it was a rocket ship. It shot up to 160km. in no time and he said it would do around 220km. as there was plenty of throttle left and it was still pulling. He also said it handled great, so I am stoked !!!
I am more than happy with the bike’s handling and grunt. To be on the safe side I have taken the frame to Auckland to have the welding checked.
The bike has its own VIN number and is awaiting its final check. Then it can be registered and on the road at last.
A bike built from the ground up. Go to it folks...