Hang onto your asses. This is going to rock your boat, or your solo seat springs. We are building a bike just for you. That's right. A Cycle Source or Bikernet reader will own this one-off custom at the end of this year. No, I'm not kidding. This world-class team of builders, lead by Prince Najar, the vast and all-powerful organizer is headed-up by builder/designer Gary Maurer of Kustoms Inc, and Ron Harris of Chop Docs. We have the Texas Bike Works frame, the magnificent Crazy Horse 100-inch engine, and Jules, of Kustoms Inc. hand-made an oil tank. This issue we welcomed another state of the chrome-arts team into the fray, 3Guyz, a manufacturing shop capable of anything. They work ...

Here's a link to the last chapter: http://www.bikernet.com/pages/Mudflap_Girl_FXRs_Part_8_Wiring_World.aspxWhat a year, and we're cranking on so many two-wheeled fronts. Both Mudflap Girl bikes are running and one is in the wind, but I’d better back up. You're going to love this tech, and the ending. I took the Mudflap Girl bike to Saddlemen during the holidays, at just the wrong time. They faced the holiday schedule, then dealer shows, including the Easyriders V-twin show, then Daytona, before the dust settled and the shop was calm enough to focus on a couple of custom seats. Sure, the economy sucks, but you wouldn't know it if you stumbled into their brick manufacturing facility in a Los Angles industrial community. The shop is cooking, ...

  Having been in the aftermarket Harley business since 1969, I have pretty much done everything  from lacing wheels and custom painting to establishing a performance specialty manufacturing company known as Head Quarters.  Over the years everything in Harley-Davidson aftermarket world has evolved. Today finds old timers like myself better skilled with better tools and far better parts to work with than we had back in the day. I have built probably thirty motorcycles from the frame up  and they have all been builds that kept pace with what the current factory offerings were and the style of the day. The latter builds being Evos and Twin Cams in rubber mount swingarm frames. That being said, I didn't find I got the same buzz ...

Well, here we are, past the point of no return. In this chapter I cover the reassembly of the 1964FL restoration. I have been working on this classic for the past nine months. I know it says frame above, but the frame was bone stock, no dings, or mods. The customer requested paint over powder, so off it went. We sandblasted it clean, checked for cracks, magna-fluxed the frame for imperfections, and checked all dimensions for tweaks. This puppy was straight. With new neck bearings and cups from J&P the frame flew back together. We cleaned the paint off the engine and transmission mounts and went to work. Assembly was straight forward, almost the reverse of the disassembly. Engine goes ...

1964 was an interesting year for Harley. it was the last year of the 6-volt electrical system, and last year for the kick-start only. In 1965 they stepped up to 12-volt system and the first electric start and massive batteries started to appear. So let's get started, I removed the primary, to my surprise it had a belt drive in it. Someone wanted a step-up from the original chain drive, unfortunately it's covered in oil that leaked from the main shaft seal and chain oiler that was never shut off. I might be able to save it with a healthy cleaning, we'll talk about that later. After removing the primary drive and clutch, I thought the transmission would be a ...

Not too long ago, my good friend Timbo approached me with a proposition, restore his 1964 Harley FL, I agreed. Problem was, it's in a box, literally! So after a brief discussion on exactly what we wanted to do, how much it would cost and the possible value at the end of the rainbow, I started the Hard Ride back from Hell with the old '64. I picked up the bike, basically a roller and all the boxes of parts that came with it. As you probably expected, this will be a frame up restoration as close to factory specs as I can get it. There will be some minor changes, which I'll talk about as we go along. First ...

Here's the link to Part 12: http://www.bikernet.com/pages/Mudflap_Girl_FXR_Part_12She_meets_SS.aspxOkay, so my Mudflap Girl FXR was running fine and I enjoyed every ride with the bare chassis, but I got a hair to treat the frame and powder coat some parts, but the corrosion treatment made the frame look almost black, and I didn’t want to build another black motorcycle.I also had some tech obligations. I needed to test the new Centramatic wheel balancers. I needed to install new Spitfire rocker axles in the girders and tack weld them into place. Then the bros at Digital Dawg contacted us and told us about their new keyless ignition. Suddenly I was inspired. I had installed a marine ignition switch in the backbone of the ...

  I’m using a Baker DD6 transmission and they mount on a 5 speed transmission plate as used in Evolution Softail frames. I don’t care for the flimsy stamped sheet metal trans mounting plates available commercially so I opted to make my own.Back in the day we used to have V shaped rear foot peg mounting brackets I always thought looked pretty cool and they helped fill in an empty spot in the frame for a ‘tighter’ look I prefer.   Here you see me getting started.   Four holes later  With a little machining, we have a transmission mounting plate.  Here we see the old style foot peg bracket bolted on.  Now the transmission is in and will line up perfectly with the engine using a Baker ...

Mudflap 8: http://www.bikernet.com/pages/Mudflap_Girl_FXRs_Part_8_Wiring_World.aspxMudflap 9: http://www.bikernet.com/pages/Mudflap_Girl_FXRs_Build_part_9.aspxI’ve been riding and tuning Mudflap Girl FXR for a couple of months. We finally dialed in our rear shocks, maybe. David Zelma, from Progressive taught me the ropes regarding spring pressure and travel. We will get into that. We have also been monkeying with my Spitfire Girder shocks. Again, the problem is travel.My son’s FXR faces similar dilemmas, but hopefully we will be able to transfer knowledge from my bike to his. Fortunately, Progressive suspension is just down the street in Orange County, so David Zelma stopped by with a variety of springs. “Your shock angle is more like a Dyna Glide than an FXR,” David said, “which makes for much more severe spring rates.”I ...

After the engine was removed from the frame, I mounted it on an engine stand and clamped it to a work mate. This worked perfect, as I have limited working space due to all my daunting, ongoing projects. I got lucky with this engine, as I later found out it had recently been rebuilt and had just .010 over in the bore. However, the rocker covers were both leaking and the front head gasket blew. This was a perfect time to for a complete top end job. I planned to replace all the old leaking OEM gaskets with state of the art new gaskets and seals, and check all the tolerances, while looking for any potential problems. Tear down was straight ...