The Halibrand Special by Conder Custom

It started life as a 2006 Softail Springer with the 200mm back tire, provided by House of Thunder Harley-Davidson in Morgan Hill CA.

Outfitted with the first set of Conder/Halibrand Hot Rod wheel adapter hubs and Halibrand Sprint wheels.17×6 rear and 17×5 front, chevy bolt pattern.

Sheetmetal, bracketry, overall modification, paint, assembly and design by Tim Conder, Sonoma CA.

Tim Conder's ass was repeatedly saved by Alyssa and Audrey Conder, Charlie Mahoney (sorry about your hand bro'), Annastatia Waterfield and Gordon from Gordon's Forge, Ford Cook, Richard LeJeurrne, Dan stern, UPSand the Barking Dog Coffee house.

Hubs co-engineered and machined by the fine folks at Halibrand Engineering, Wellington KS.

Wherever possible we used Genuine H-D parts.

When it wasn't possible we used Vance and Hines exhaust, GMA brakes, The Goodson air cleaner,a Kury Akin(?) tailight, a Ness lowering kit, Chopper Guys struts and a Drag Specialties License bracket.

After over a decade of a phone calls and a bike or two there, Halibrand Engineering and I finally put a deal together todo my Hot Rod wheel adapter hub for Harley-Davidsons. They asked me to build 'em a Softail that could serve as atest mule for the parts and have it ready by the '05 SEMA show. I had roughly 3 weeks to get 'em the specs on the hub,build the bike and get it to 'Vegas. If you watch TV you know that this is sorta normal for custom bike builders,but I'm hardly ever on TV…and I'm a painter mostly.

The parts are a simple bolt-on and we wanted to show what they can dofor a mostly stock H-D.Customizing this @#$%er was high adventure man, but since we all have to go to work tomorrow I'll just stick to the cool wheel stuff. Besides, who REALLY wants to hear about all the cussin', hospitalization and disfunctional antics of some ol' boy in his garage? SEVERAL MILLION PEOPLE last I heard!

Here she is in all her glory. Richard LeJuerrne is the CEO of Halibrand, and he felt the first hub should be the ultimatehub, so this bike is equipped with REAL pin drive knock-off wheels just like Outlaw dirt trackers and Indy cars.Halibrand is developing a complete show quality wheel and brake kit, but there will be a basic hub kit that uses

common wheel studs. They will be available in any bolt pattern you want, which means you can run ANY Hot Rodwheel ever made on your chop. (If it'll fit in the frame.)

Machined from the finest alloy and rubbed on with much affection until raccoon shiny, this pearl is a dream come true for me,and all the other ChopperHarleyDragsterCustomHotRodGasser nuts out there.

Those are GMA brakes, which are conveniently styled to match the wheels. You've seen the single side brake pulleybefore, and it's a fine part. The Road King guys are asking for these wheels and hubs in a DUAL disc set-up…Okay then, we're on it.

This is the stock 200×17 back tire that came on this bike. That's a 17×6 inch Halibrand Sprint Hot Rod wheel…>

Just put the hub through the center hole from the back…

These are the drive pins for the knock-off hub. The bearings are genuine H-D.

Pop the pressure plate on…

The knock off threads should be coated with a quality anti-seize. It's reverse thread and gets tighter themore the bike is ridden. This'll help you get it back off later.

Spin it on…

Get yourself a good deadblow hammer…

Throw a soft rag over your shiny new knock off and give 'er a few whacks.

Hang this baby on your wall man, it's hard to beat an old style cast mag…

You can see from this view the hub pins/studs are through bolts backed up with nylocks for strength and safety.It's time to bolt the pulley/brake on…

Use the factory grade 8 drive bolts with LOTS of red Locktite. Since the pulley doubles as a brake it's torque loadedforward AND backward, so this is important.

Installation from here on out is like any stock Harley wheel…

This shows how much of the wheel face is covered by the pulley…

The hub kit will come with a complete set of beautifully matched spacers

Mike over at Chopper guys hooked me up with some 2-inch lowered struts. They look great and make changing tires asnap. Thanks for havin' these chromed overnight Mike, you saved our ass!

Niiiiiiice!

Here's the assembled front wheel

Rotor is again installed with liberal Loctite, then you hang it on the bike like any other Harley wheel.

Roll that beauty off the lift, crack open a frosty beverage and brag to your friends… AWWW @#$%$I forgot to BLEED THE BRAKES!

My favorite part, detailin' it before the test ride the next day. It's about 10 in the morning, the sun's out, my wife broughtme a hot cup o' coffee and my job today is to ride the shit outta this thing and try to break something.

A brand new custom H-D with zero miles, and some of the best roads in america just waitin'! Matt up at Lucky'sChoppers in Seattle is stitchin' up a seat, but I like riding without 'em. I don't know why, I guess it's because you sita couple inches lower…That and 12 volts of current from the battery add a whole new dimension to the riding experience…

Lettin' 'er warm up…We've done our best to set the hub kit up to be as simple as possible.Halibrand will be offering some beautiful brake set-ups as well as motorcycle specificwheels in the near future. They've asked me to do some freelance R&D for the bike partsand man, I've seen their giant collection of original wheel and part molds from as farback as the '40s!

Every mold for every part Halibrand has ever made from wheels to brakes to who knowswhat and all of them masterfully carved from hardwood. TRUE ART. Some of it's bound towind up as custom motorcycle parts if they turn me loose on it!

I love reachin' for those bars.

Later cousin…

I know we been missing in action. We’re just trying to work things out. I guess we're our on our own. We haven’t found any sponsors.

Here’s an update.

We are still going strong as we can. No one has stepped up yet. But that's cool, we'll make it. We are building an EVO with a Twin Cam top 100 incher.

The crew dipped from eight to three of us, only the strong survive. Enclosed are a few photos to show where we’re at. We scored an old Bartels race pipe which should work fine. We’re prepping the frame and continue with the mock up.

We are planning our test run at El Mirage in May. I talked to Dave Campos after 30 years and he’s planning to bring the old Easyrider liner to Bonneville this year. He (and Easyriders) still hold the record (321 mph). Dave was the pilot. I know there are a few guys this year who want to break his record.

Bonneville Racer mocked up. We need to mount the Corbin seat and fender.

Older Bartels race pipe mounted. It’s a good, old horse- power pipe.

Larry ground all the tabs off our Midwest Supply ridged frame.

There’s OC Danny installing exhaust insulating wrap. It’s an innovative way to create more horsepower. Wrapping the pipes with exhaust insulating wrap maintains hotter exhaust gases within the pipe, that exit the system faster through decreased density.

Here’s the exhaust insulating wrap done, ready to take the exhaust cone off and send it to be Jet Coated. If you need more about this stuff, check the Wrap Tech in the Bikernet Tech area.

Bob T. hammering off tabs or just fucking around. We’ll take a vote later.

Fuel tank mocked up. Is that cool or what?

We mocked up the tranny and made it ready for making new mounts and battery mounts.

Chop N Grind doing what we know best—dancing on the top of the lift.

All tabs are about gone now. Next, the frame will be set up for making new exhaust tabs.

It was a good day. We started out with a ride, met up with OC Danny on the back side of Big Bear and stopped at Hutchin`s Route 62 diner for some early morning chow and worked the rest of the day on the Chop ‘n’ Grind Bonneville Team Bike.

We need to find some light weight rims. Anyone out there who can help us?

She’s the team mascot. She outta draw a sponsor or two.

Thanks for your Support
Bob Tronolone
r.tron@verizon.net>

Chop N Grind Racing
High Desert Performance Service
7411 Wamego
Yucca Valley, Cal
760-369-7031

Ask for Larry or Bob T