The shifter

The hand shifter was one of the first parts I made on the Smithy 3-1. I started with round stock and turned it down to the shape I wanted. Threaded the end 3/8-16 and screwed on an aluminum ball that I ordered from McMaster-Carr. I put the bend in it in the shop press.

The tailight

This started life as a marker light on a '51 GMC truck that my friend Hootis owned. I mentioned I thought it would make a sweet tail light and he gave it to me. The guts for the tail light are cut down from a late model Harley. The 1/4 turn bulb holder will be accessible from the back of the side mount plate bracket that I haven't made yet. I used a tail light repair kit from O'Reilly auto parts to make the lens. I cut it out so the grooves in the lens would be at a 45 degree angle to the tail lamp grill.

The switches

The electronics for the bike will all be controlled through this left switch housing. The original switch is from a cop bike(pink & orange wires). I had swapped a regular plastic caps onto it. When I tested the way the switch worked it was backwards and run was actually off. I took the switch apart by bending the little hold down tab and swapped a regular run / kill switch into the left side holder. The wires for ignition are now the normal grey & white w/ black stripe.

The bottom indicator lights are from an FXLR I think. I made an aluminum bracket to go inside the switch housing to hold them in place and trim down a "license applied for" plastic plate to use as the background because the texture of the plastic closely matches the switch caps. I'll be using a Hydraulic clutch master cylinder on my left hand to operate the from brake.

Another year past.

Well I've hit the 8 year mark on this bike build. Sure not breaking any records there. This past summer I did almost nothing to this bike. I did ride my Electraglide 13,000 miles and put a new cam in it. Kari and I are now engaged, July 7th 2012 is the wedding date. I told her I really want to ride the chopper in our wedding. She is now the pilot of the Sportster. She managed to get 7,500 miles on it this year. Bradley also got a new bike this year, an XR70 Honda. Kari's son Gene also now lives with us so we are a family of four.

Anyways this blog is about the chopper. If you want to see other stuff find me on facebook. I think I left off with the fork sliders. The polished up really nice. Ike at work gave them their final touch. Also mounted the brake caliper and kickstand. The bike is alot easier to move around now that it has a kickstand. I had to order a shorter one tho. With this one the bike will tip over if I turn the bars to the right.