No no -- that's too American, not British.
What is happening is that the front end is going to change. Frank's Forking is making new fork tubes, and the upper fork covers/headlight ears are going away. So it's going to be the chrome fork tubes all the way up, more of the external springs will be showing, and a pair of John Tickle headlamp brackets from the '60's will be used. It think it will look cleaner, and it'll really be more along the lines of how I intended the front to look.
The headlamp brackets were just dropped off at the powder coater today (they're going to make them gloss black), and they should be ready in a few weeks.
Japan Meets Britain
Just got the headlight brackets back from the powder coater. Only $ 20.00 to have them blasted and powder coated, and I buffed the corroded bolts/nuts to a nice shine.
I measured these brackets next to the existing ones on the bike, and the headlight housing will end up sticking out about 2" further from the forks than stock, and it may be slightly higher. Hopefully that won't look too horrendous or affect wiring length, tach cable length, etc etc. Next step is getting the fork tubes back from Frank's, new fork seals and a couple of fiddly bits. Hopefully this will all be done by the end of the year.
Just got the new fork tubes back from Frank's, and boy they look great. For some unknown reason they made them 3/8" shorter, and I haven't been able to get ahold of anyone there to find out why they did that. When you line them up at the bottom with the old one that I sent them, all of the grooves and holes line up (plus they added two grooves for some equally unknown reason), but it leaves me 3/8" short up top. Very odd, and hopefully that won't cause me grief!
All of the other parts have been acquired and are ready to go: John Tickle headlamp brackets, re-lettered headlight nacelle ('Special') from my good friend Lee Hulteng, a 29 tooth aluminum sprocket from Sprocket Specialists, new fork seals, new front axle nut to replace the chewed up one, new license plate bracket to replace the broken one. Sorry, no new decals this time around -- I'm actually getting rid of the 'SuperHawk' ones that are presently on the upper fork covers, so it will be a bit cleaner (if that's possible with this creation!). It goes to the mechanic on Saturday and should hopefully be done in a couple of weeks....just in time for the 35 degree riding season!
Dropped by my mechanic's place today (Dec. 31) and it's just about done! The front end needed more fiddling than first anticipated, but overall it's exactly how I envisioned it. Those John Tickle headlight brackets had to be cut about 2", otherwise the headlight would've been sticking out in the breeze. The new fork tubes weren't quite as nicely finished in areas that perhaps they could have been, but they'll work fine. John did a 'progressive suspension' on the internals, so it's not going to be quite as stiff as it was with the addition of the external springs.
The only things left to do are to install the new rear sprocket, do an oil change, and re-apply the checkers around the top of the lower fork units, and I think that's it -- Mid-Ohio here we come!
Last edited by Vince Lupo on Thu Jan 15, 2009 1:30 am, edited 5 times in total.
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