Feral Motorcycles

11/11/2021

Kawasarley part 1

If Kawasaki made Harleys..............is this what they would look like?

What have I got this time?

It is a 1975 Iron head engine that turns over and has good compression, 1977 sportster frame, front end and rear wheel from a 1996 Kawasaki KX500.

This thing is wild!

I bought this from someone who clearly had a vision, but had no idea how to execute it.

I have already removed some of the dodgy and unsafe engineering and the so called wiring harness is going in the bin, cos it is dog sh**.

I look back at some of the things that had been done to this bike and it sends a shiver down my spine as to how dangerous it was.

The starter of this project couldn't even put the tyres on the right way round despite there being big arrows to denote this.

To be fair to the guy, the front end conversion has been done pretty well, but the back end is a disaster.

I have already machined the correct sized rear wheel spacers so that the drive sprockets are in line and machined down the spindle so that no spacers are required on the outside of the swinging arm.

The rear wheel is in the process of getting a new wider rim, new high tensile stainless spokes and when built the rim will be off set by 8mm so that it fits true between the swinging arm forks. At least it will get down the road in a straight line!

Once the rear wheel is built and fitted it will be time to think about the shock height and work out how much travel to have.

I think that this one will need a chain tensioner because of the angle of the rake on the swinging arm, but I will see how the shocks fit before deciding that.

If the shocks compress a lot when I sit on it, it is likely to tension the chain naturally. If the shocks are quite tough without much movement, I will add a chain tensioner.

There was a crude aluminium battery tray behind the oil tank that would have fouled on the back tyre at the first bump. Clearly it had to go. The oil tank has also gone to make way for a standard Sportser one with a battery tray to fit behind the rear cylinder. A much tidier solution.

I was concerned about the brakes, as to whether they would be adequate to stop this big lump. This model of Sportser originally had a 12" disc on the front and a drum on the back, now I have a 10" disc on the front and a 9" disc on the rear. It will be fine.......at least that is what I am telling myself : )

In nutshell, it needs everything. I will build it up in it's fabrication guise, get it all looking balanced and functioning as it should, before tearing it down for paint.

The potential is there.

18/03/2021

03/10/2020

Old Dog Part 2

So this is what you do with an old dog. You teach it some new tricks!

Pull it to bits and rebuild it giving it a new colour scheme. In my view, this how BMW should have painted it originally.

I have replaced and sourced all the lost and broken bits with thanks to the local BMW dealership, Motorworks and Ebay.

This is a nut and bolt restoration except the engine which is strong.

I sourced a great frame with a V5 that had similar miles to this bike and then powder coated and painted a good chunk of it in black which gives it a more moody look.

The rusty forks have been rechromed by Philpots Chrome, the wheels rebuilt with chromed brass spoke ni***es to stop them rusting again (spokes are stainless steel as standard).

All the steel components have been shot blasted and powder coated along with the wheel rims and hubs. The wheels were then shod in Heidenau K60 rubber.

Most of the nuts, bolts and washers were replaced with stainless steel.

All the bearings have been checked and replaced as necessary including a full swinging arm rebuild.

New sprockets and chain help to get this machine down the road and new brake pads and a fully bled brake system help it to stop.

All the electrics have been gone through, checked and repaired where necessary and is powered by a new Motobatt gel battery.

All in all a ton of works and a lot of expense, but it's all worth it in terms of satisfaction, but I may struggle to make it worth my financial while.

This one maybe a keeper and is sure to go up in value as it rides on the edge of classic bike status. The BMW F650GS is much under rated with it's big brother the R1150GS grabbing most of the headlines.

If you are planning a trip with some gravel roads, sand and green lanes, I say ditch the R1150GS and take one of these.

It is more agile and will do the motorway donkey work too whilst costing less to run and still has a full luggage package available.

It could be yours for £3250

26/09/2020

Old Dog

What do you do with an old dog of a bike like this?

It is a 2001ish BMW F650GS.

It came into my possession as a part of a multi bike deal and I was promised the paperwork. I got the papers for the other bikes and sold them on, but this one on closer inspection didn't even have a VIN number. My fault I thought, I should have done my due diligence.

After clearing it with the local authorities, who agreed that there was a high chance that it had been stolen, but what could they do about it? They had nothing to go on apart from the make and model and their systems weren't flagging anything up.

It was mine to keep and do with as I wished.

So what to do with it?

First job, does it run? I recommissioned the engine with the usual checks and servicing and fired straight up. Result!

Maybe there was hope for this poor neglected hound of a bike.

More checks later I found that surprisingly, everything worked apart from the rear indicators which were absent.

With a strong engine and low miles being it's strong points and general neglect, lack of VIN, broken and missing parts being it's down fall.

Do I pull it to bits and sell it for spares, flick it on as it is, create something weird and wonderful out of it or try to resurrect it somewhere close to it's original form?

Decisions, decisions

06/08/2020

It's a bit of an animal! Part 2

Well here it is. A fully functioning starting stopping, very loud thunder machine.

As I suspected the foot boards and foot controls were a challenge. You will notice that I went all out and made a toe heel arrangement for the gears. It makes changing gear a breeze with the foot boards on.

The tanks are re pop Indian Scout tanks from India that I got cheap because they weren't as described when they arrived. I had to modify them to fit this frame and also blank off the original petcock holes and replace them with Harley sized bungs to accept HD petcocks. Having three is a bit a luxury, but when yo have three tanks in the space of two, what are you supposed to do?

I should explain that the right hand tank is actually two tanks. The front section would have been used for oil on an Indian Scout.

The exhaust as you can see is a bit of a work of art. I can't take credit for it, it was built by Wojtek Spyra of Spyra Custom Exhausts in Poland. Check him out on Facebook if you need a custom exhaust.

On my first ride of the thing, I burnt my leg, so he is making a heat shield. He is a good man!

There is not a lot else to do other than tidy up the wiring, fit a number plate and the rear indicators and it is fit for the road. Then it's shake down time.

I am quite liking the wax oiled slightly rough look so I am not going to go down the route of making it beautiful just yet. I want to grap big fists full for a while. Yeeehaaa!

So there you have it, a 1946 frame (well some of it) with leafer forks, a rubber mounted 2009 Buell Lightning Thunderstorm 1203 engine, state of the art electronics, disc brakes front and rear and shod in modern rubber that looks old and a seat big enough for the fattest of bums!

PS I still have motorcycles for sale.

06/06/2020

It's a bit of an animal! Part 1

This beast was started around 7 years ago. The idea was to build something for myself to tour on, ( I have a dream of riding to Istanbul the long way down and longer way back) however, building bikes for sale got in the way.

The frame started life as a 1946 Harley Davidson FL. It was in poor condition, but came with all important American title.

I sold my excellent, but somewhat dull Honda Pan European and raised enough to cash to buy the frame with enough left over to put towards an engine.

My luck was in and a few weeks later, I dropped on a 2009 Buell Lightening engine in the form of the S1 Thunderstorm 1203. This engine had done a 1000 miles before the bike was dropped at low speed whilst turning at a junction.

Apparently insurance companies just right them off because they can't guarantee the integrity of the petrol tank which is in the frame, once dropped. Result!

I was excited about my new project, but had no idea how to fund it. That is when I decided that I could restore, build and sell motorcycles to pay for my long term project.

Well that went well, only 7 years to get back to it!

I joined a few forums and started asking about leafer forks, just because I think that they look cool.

When I suggested that I wanted to put the Thunderstorm engine in a frame with leafer forks, there was a resounding, 'Don't do it' from all around the world.

Well that was like a red rag to a bull. So here we have it. At least in it's partial dry build form.

The frame has been heavily modified mostly because a lot of the original metal was shot and the rest because I wanted to rubber mount the engine to stop it shaking itself to pieces.

So, what has been done?

Apart from the obvious that you can see, various problems have had to over come. The biggest and most worrying one was the fact that I was thinking that I could pull the points cover off and stick some Sportster electronic ignition in, swap out the fuel injection for a carb and it will run. Right?

Wrong! The carb part wasn't too bad, but identifying the correct manifold to use was difficult as Harley dealers are not that helpful when they find out that you building the weird and wonderful. I took a punt and more by luck than good judgement, the correct manifold arrived.

The biggest problem was the ignition. I took the points cover off and was aghast to find oil pipes behind it. Nooooooo! How was I supposed to know that Eric Buell redesigned the engine in 2009?

Not to be beaten, I took to the internet.

All was not lost. Step into the breach as my saviour, Charles Altmann. He is a super clever guy who designed the P3 which controls the ignition via the crank sensor fed by the battery.

Altmann Micro Machines products are the way forward if you want to get rid of your fuel injection and that bulky harness. Here's the link:

http://www.amm.haan.de

I also ditched all the relays which are notorious for failing, by negating the need for them. The answer came in the form of Honda CB750 switches from the 70s. They are robustly made and can handle the power consumption, especially of the starter solenoid.

The wiring was testing, to put it politely. I dislike wiring, but it is now all done apart from the rear indicators which will be mounted in the number plate.

Converting the spot light that came from a Studebaker was quite fun though. It's surprising how you can cobble together old Lucas parts with Americana.

The next big head ache is to build the foot controls and foot boards. This is a challenge to get it all working, feeling and looking right. All with no real points of reference to measure from.

I can feel an organic approach coming on!

PS Don't forget that I have a number of bikes for sale:

1975 Honda CB750 £6250
1966 Triumph T100C £7750
1977 Honda XL250 Rat Rod £3500
1994 Harley Davidson MT350E £3500

27/03/2020

Chopper to Hopper Part 5

Here it is, the finished article!

The first thing to note is a little indulgence in the form of some very good looking stainless steel tail pipes. Straight throughs were just too loud.

I wasn't happy with the way that it was running after the rebuild, it was smoking a little and detonating from the exhaust.

After I pulled it to bits again and my local engineering shop measured the bores. What I thought were good bores were actually slightly oval. I was left with no choice but to order some oversize pistons and get the barrels re-bored. Ouch on the pocket!

When I put it all back together, the smoke was gone, but there was still an annoying occasional backfire.

I borrowed a carb from a mate (cheers Laurie) and it cured it.

The wallet was out again and a new Amal carb was winging it's way to me. Sorted, it runs like a dream. Now for the joy of running it in at 40 mph humph!

I would like to thank Richard from Ward's Engineering, your work is top notch as usual, Steve from Progressive Classic Products who supplied the trials sub frame, Mark from Car Interior Trim in Hinckley who did a blinding job covering the seat, Roy from Os Pipes who put up with me for hours whilst he hand made the tail pipes exactly to my specification, what a gent! Finally, a big thanks to Andy Gregory and the team at Tricor who have put up with my constant ringing for information and parts. Cheers all!

Now who wants to buy it? £7250 PM me