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Rebirth of an American Classic: The Build Begins

   After months of planning, my 1933 Harley-Davidson build officially started on Black Friday.  That’s when I made the long trip up to Replicant Metals (www.replicantmetals.com), located a mere 7 hours north of me in Pennsylvannia.  Owner Tom Feezer was waiting for me with a set of matched 1933 VL cases when I walked into the shop. These will serve as the basis for my build and are the most important part as the VIN number stamped on these cases is what makes the motorcycle a ’33 model. I plan to stay true to what the factory produced in ’33, but technically anything I build with these cases will be titled as a ’33 Harley-Davidson.  Setting aside the cases, I started making ...
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J&P Cycles Giveaway Bike – Part One

  Editors note: The following is an introduction to a 5 part tech series which will document the processes used at Bare Knuckle Choppers to transform the J&P Roller with an S&S X-Wedge motor into a street pounding machine to be given away at the 2015 J&P Cycles Open House Rally. Clocks dictate so much of our lives. My wake up call is at 6am. Checkout is 9am. I’ve been on the road for 30 of the last 48 hours to get to the roller for J&P Cycles’ Giveaway bike.  At least before Paul Wideman of Bare Knuckle Choppers (BKC) rips into it. Kate, who’s been with me since Atlanta, is from my hometown near Chicago. She knows me better than myself. ...
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The Amazing SHRUNKEN FXR Updated

Once upon a time there was a bike built called the Shrunken FXR. Keith “Bandit” Ball, of Bikernet and other assorted fame, built it. By a stroke of good fortune the bike became mine through the generosity and trust of Keith Ball. This bike was my daily commuter for a handful of years. It was and is always a challenge and a ton of fun navigating the streets and freeways of Los Angeles on two wheels and especially on a custom built motorcycle. I decided it was time to update the look of the bike as well as do some fine-tuning of a few mechanical items I wanted to switch up a bit. Below is a brief summary of what ...
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Bikernet Project: Widowmaker Charity Build, Part 4

 We are back at the Widowmaker Custom Design & Repair shop for final assembly of our bike. Everything has come back from paint, powder coat, etc. Now comes the patience part of our build, reassembly. At this point you need to have a plan of attack. Hopefully you took note of how you removed certain items so that your assembly is smooth without and scratches. Let us get started. Item One: Where to start? I generally start by getting the bike back into a rolling state. But this can all hinge on your choice of engine. For Harleys and most v-twin engines this is the best approach. This is the way we approached our setup with the Yamaha Roadstar drivetrain.  However, if ...
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Rebirth of an American Classic: Transmission Rebuild

 My 3-speed transmission started out very similar to my engine, an empty case and a pile of parts, all in need of cleaning.  So the first step was to break everything down into individual pieces and perform a thorough inspection of each piece, to see which parts just needed cleaning and which parts needed repairs or replacement.  Luckily most of the parts were in good shape, even the transmission studs, so everything was put into the blasting cabinet.  It’s always important to note that you don’t want to blast bearing surfaces and fine threads, so these areas need to be covered before the part goes into the blast cabinet.  After a couple of hours of blasting, the results speak for themselves.  Next ...
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The Mudflap Girl FXR Saga

It all started when a brother was desperate for cash and I bought a basket case Dyna, and with the help of JIMS machine turned it into an FXR. I started to build it for my son, Frank, the tattoo artist, around an old Kenny Boyce-styled pro street frame. Making progress on this build, with a massive upside down Custom Chrome front end, a brother stumbled into my shop and told me about Paul Cavallo and Spitfire Motorcycles. Paul’s been around the industry for a couple of decades. When the economy tanked, he hung on with his dad and started Spitfire motorcycles. He was struggling and a brother thought I could help by using a couple of his Spitfire components ...
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What the Hell is 5-Ball Racing?

 It all started when my mother ran over my metal- flaked Honda 55 Super Cub with a single shotgun pipe. She stormed into our tiny stucco house in Long Beach and announced, “Get that damn thing out from under my car.” Her car was a massive ’59 Ford station wagon. It was 1964 and I was 15.5 years of age. That Honda was my first motorcycle.   Mom and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on a couple of issues. The day after I graduated from high school, I joined the Navy and was shipped to a heavy cruiser off the coast of Vietnam for three tours. I fell in love, and got married, to my mother’s chagrin (my loves have always played a ...
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Bennettā€™s Performance Final, Maybe

Bennett’s Performance touts being the performance test bed for all-things big twin performance and handling in Long Beach, California. The team is also very involved in Bonneville Land Speed Record efforts. Unless the California Air Resources Board decides to shut down every California custom or performance shop, they will be burning rods, turning lathes, and twisting wrenches until they die.I say, “They,” and I’m referring to Eric Bennett, the boss, and his longtime mechanic and Dad, Bob. Other technicians come and go. Plus, next-door are the men, including Jerry Branch, and John O’Keefe, who are the masters of the flow bench and headwork at the Branch O’Keefe machine shop. All shops big and small in California live in fear of ...
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How to replace grips on a Harley-Davidson by J&P Cycles

Today, J&P Cycles shows you how to replace grips on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. From removing your old grips and adding new grips watch the entire process take place.In this video they use a 2013 Harley Davidson Softail Slim for demonstration but the process will be very similar for all motorcycles that utilize dual throttle cables.Advertisement
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Doug Coffey’s RetroMod Panhead Part 3

 I needed an oil tank for this build that would be rather unique. It had to hold a full size battery from a late model electric start Dyna or Softail as my large high compression stroker motor would need all the starting power it could get. It had to completely hide the battery because I didn’t want any of it to protrude above the frame rails and it had to hold lots of oil.
My preference was round oil tanks so I started looking for cylinder like containers to see what size might fit.
After testing a variety of ice cream containers and my wife’s Tupperware I found a one gallon paint can to be perfect. (once I cut the bottom out ...
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