Frankie Jr., the Venice Tattoo artists flew through the night on the stretched FXR I built for his dad, Frank Ball, the Newport, CA tattoo artist, who is also working out of Jack Rudy’s historic shop, Tattooland. I built the bike sleek and slim, with a Spitfire Motorcycle stretched FXR pro-street frame and a super slim girder, for splitting Los Angeles congested lanes in the middle of the night.
The bike felt light and agile as he moved through distracted drivers and slippery painted flourscent stripes, from one happening joint, to the next tattoo gig in Hollywood. The nights were wild, and the girls hotter than ever before and dreaming of their next nether-region tattoo.
Neon lit the asphalt in a variety of wild hues as Frankie tore up the through the slimy streets of Hollywood looking for action. “I was on my way to TRUE TATTOO on Cauenga and Hollywood Blvd, to meet my dad and the knockout, Erika,” Frank said. “My Dad’s friend Greg Christian was in town from Ohio and was doing a small tattoo on Erika, my dad’s ol’lady. On my way over the chopped FXR was cool, but as I pulled onto Cauenga and was backing my bike into a parking spot the front end collapsed on the right side, and then from all the pressure the left bolt, that was holding the rocker to the tree on the left side snapped.”
Frankie stood quickly, braced himself and tried to right the bike. The stretched FXR settled on the concrete like a tired dog needing a break. We reached out to Paul Cavallo, the boss of Spitfire and he volunteered to make it right. He mentioned that the American manufacturer, who made the pins dried up and he was forced to go overseas. He since developed an alternative system.
Frank and Frankie loaded the bike and delivered it back to the Bikernet Headquarters, where we started to wait for the repaired girder. Unfortunately, it never arrived, and Frankie’s mom and bike building boyfriend pushed him to replace it with a glide. I didn’t like the notion of a glide for this bike and wanted to give Paul a shot to straighten it out. But ultimately, we started to look around and discussed it with Tim at Custom Cycle Engineering.
We started to collect internal components and order parts from Bartels H-D. We still had the dog bone Custom Cycle Engineering risers and the Spitfire custom Z-bar bars. We had a new set of grips from Jeremiah, and this was a good test for Frankie.
He had to organize the parts he needed and figure out how this damn thing was going to work. He also needed to find a set of lower legs. We discovered all sorts of issues with various 39mm years, types of axles and we needed to make sure we ended up with a ¾-inch axle for the MetalSport Nitrous mag or we would need new bearings. Plus, we needed a single sided brake system.
In most cases a bro buys a used front end, makes some changes and moves ahead. Or he just modifies his existing front end with CCE trees and Dew Manufacturing extended tubes. We were starting from scratch. We even needed new neck bearings. Plus, the CCE trees used a different fork stop system from the Spitfire job. We were starting from scratch.
A little CCE Background:
Randy Smith founded Custom Cycle Engineering in 1967. Randy was a unique pioneer in the Harley aftermarket industry developing some of the first custom aftermarket parts and building some of the industry’s most ground-breaking customs bikes.
After running Custom Cycle Engineering for many years Randy sold his interest in the company to Rick and Jim Whitehead of DEW Mfg. in 1989. DEW Mfg. was est. in 1971 and is one of the largest manufactures of extension fork tubes for the Harley aftermarket industry.
DEW not only makes fork tubes, they also design custom triple trees, risers, front hub spools and tweak bars.
Teamed with the creative genius of Randy Smith and DEW’s ability as a precision machine shop the product line increased in the early ’90s. Today CCE is a solidly entrenched into the Harley-Davidson and V-twin aftermarket with a wide variety innovative custom parts that have a purposeful need wrapped in a stylish design.
Custom Cycle Engineering is constantly developing new products with an eye on the future, but never forgetting their rich past.
One of the newer additions to the Custom Cycle Engineering family is Tim Wallingford. Tim followed Randy’s career through his motorcycle articles and through the workshop that Randy held at his shop in Westminster Ca. Tim is a renowned Harley mechanic and custom bike builder in SoCal. He has built many innovation Harleys and countless classics. One such restored classic is Randy Smith’s 45 Magnum that now sits in the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee Wi.
We decided to run with CCE Triple Trees and new golden tubes just to get a little crazy.
Custom Cycle Engineering started building custom triple trees back in the late 1960s. They developed one of the first narrow-glide and wide-glide billet steel triple trees on the custom market. They also introduced custom widths in those years with what they called 2-inch and 3-inch narrow 41mm triple trees.
But their most successful triple tree design was certainly the 35mm wide-glide conversion. This gave all the narrow-glide owners the opportunity to customize their stock front ends without investing in a completely new fork.
The popularity of billet aluminum in the custom market turned our attention to this new medium. Now we offer the widest variety and fitment of aluminum triple trees on the market. Our line of trees covers all the standard Harley fork tube sizes and we have three different centerline widths: narrow-glide, mid-glide and wide-glide.
We decided on 39 mm for a narrow look.
FORK TUBES
For over 30 years they have been manufacturing extension fork tubes. They start with DOM 1026 steel tubing that is ordered specially from a tubing mill. They centerless grind the outside diameter to OEM specifications and also machine the rest of the tube to exact ID specs.
They buff the material to a mirror finish and chrome plate the final product to a show chrome finish. This is a product that they are very familiar with, and they cover every Harley-Davidson fork tube model all the way back to 1949.
They maintain a large inventory and offer sizes from 4 under stock FL to 20 over stock FL. When ordering please specify model and year.
That was a challenge for Frankie as we didn’t have a model and year. We had to ask and get recommendations. We ended up ordering the 2-over 39mm Titanium Nitride –Gold. Tim had a set readily available in gold and we decided to go for it. Our length request was based on a measurement from the top of the Spitfire Triple Tree to the center of the axle, which was 40 inches. Tim recommended the 2-over version.
Their coatings are TNC an extremely hard ceramic material that reduces friction and is wear resistant.
Stock Length 1987-Present XLs
Stock Length FXRs
Stock Length Dyna’s up to 2005
Features
Model : T 1345TN
Shipping Weight: 13
Manufactured By: Custom Cycle Engineering
There are a bunch of little pieces when it comes to glide front ends. And sometimes the manuals don’t do them justice with photos and line drawings or even instructions. I asked Frankie to buy a Dyna Manual for his other bike and a parts manual. Often the parts manuals do a better job of showing you how components line up.
So, we had to remove the tab for the fork stops from the neck of the Spitfire frame. Then we removed the top race and installed the special Custom Cycle Engineering race incorporating the fork stop mount. We installed new Timken bearings and greased them thoroughly. Make sure the races slip in squarely. After we run the bike for a short period, they may settle, so we will check the adjustment again.
The CCE trees fit perfectly and the mounting system and fork stopping system was a breeze. I generally like a stem nut above and below the top tree. CCE addressed this with a fork stop plate under the tree and a stem clamping system holding the tree firmly in place. Plus, they designed in a stem bolt locking system to prevent the lock nut from backing out.
We put the entire front end together, trying to follow the manual and the parts book line drawings. I used a large chunk of PVC tubing to drive in the seals, but we ran into issues. The powder coater allowed black powder inside the lower leg to the bottom of the first seal area. We had to fight the seals into place. Some powder coatings are .050 thick enough to fuck with us. With the front end sorta together with the beautiful 2-over golden Dew Manufacturing tubes in place the frontend was nowhere near the length I asked for. We needed approximately 40-inches from the top of the triple tree to the center of the axle. This system came in at 33 inches. The bike was slammed.
It was one of those days, when you wonder just what the hell you’re doing? Everything seemed wrong. We reached out to Tim from CCE again and he had a set of 4-over tubes and we discussed the lower bottoming out spring and longer PVC spacers, which would add height and more tension against the spring for a more solid ride. We also reached out to a powder coater who recommended heavy duty paint stripper to remove the unwanted powder. We took a break for a week, ordered another set of seals, and I went to California Harley. We were able to get a set of springs and I told the trainee at least three times, “39 mm.” He slipped 41 mm springs into the bag, but we received the correct drain fasteners. Frankie cleaned out the lower legs with the gel paint stripped, swabbing them down and leaving them over night, and then hitting it again, using rubber gloves—nasty shit.
I bought another large 39 mm fork washer at the dealership to use as a tool under the PVC pipe seal installation tool. It worked like a champ to prevent any damage to the seal as you drive them into place. The PVC is cool, because it’s thick and won’t scratch chromed or golden tubes. This time we made sure the tapered end of the seal was facing down and we oiled the outside of the seal and the inside of the lower leg with Spectro fork oil. Regarding the wrong-sized lower springs we called Tim and he had two suggestion but the one that worked was to take the 41 mm springs to a belt sander and face off the necessary amount. They were only about .050 over the size needed. I shaved them down and we were good to go.
I will make one more comment regarding building a 39 mm front end from scratch, maybe two. Jeremiah recommends lots of WD-40 when sliding the tubes up through the trees to prevent scratching. We were able to build two entire legs with the top springs in place and with the PVC, 4-inch spacers and caps in place, then gingerly slipped the tubes through the trees with the clamping Allens loose. After we did this a couple of times it was necessary to use a small screwdriver to loosen the clamps to allow the tubes to slide easily through the trees. Keep in mind that if you spread the clamps too much, it defeats the purpose by making the space out of round.
Okay, the other topic includes the cap at the bottom of the damper rod. It seats on the bottom inside of the lower leg and seals it. There is no gasket like in the old wide glides. You need to clean this area thoroughly, so it can seal. I asked a pro about this and he recommended a use of a slight coating of silicone gasket sealer on the bottom of the cap. I did and it sealed, but I’m not sure about that notion. The next time we take the frontend apart, it will be a bastard to clean.
We made sure to install the correct lower leg in the left hole for the disc brake. Of course, we installed the front wheel in backwards the first time. “By the time we finish this,” I told Franke, “we will be 39 mm experts.”
With the 4-inch over tubes the front-end length was 36.5 inches. Frankie rode it around the block, and it wasn’t bad, but still on the low side, about 4 inches of ground clearance. I jacked up the bike and made the caps flush with the top tree for another half inch, so we are now riding at about 37 inches of length, better. I believe if we can install 5-inch PVC spacers we will toughen the ride with more rebound but add to the height. “Add just ¼-inch at a time,” Tim said, “and test it out.”
We used a medium weight Spectro oil in the tubes with about 10 ounces of lubricant in each tube. We had installed a Wire plus digital speedo, but it wasn’t working right and the company, unfortunately went out of business due to a divorce. Too bad. They made great products. Guys contact Bikernet constantly for Wire Plus info. I try to help, but I’m limited. Who else makes this kind of product line? How about Dakota Digital?
Yesterday, I removed the Wire Plus speedo. It contained the neutral light, the oil idiot light, turn signal indicators, speedo, etc. We wired up the rear turn-signals to be brake lights, which is bitchin’. I removed the oil sending switch and replaced it with an oil pressure gauge. I asked Frankie to find a high/low beam switch for the new Twin Power headlight. He had a terrible time finding shit, so I dug in my drawers and found an old on-on toggle switch, made a bracket and installed it.
The deal now is Patina. Stuff needs to look old and worn, even new stuff. It was time to paint the sheet metal, but the Hollywood girls loved the look of Frankie’s bare FXR. We modified the super-tough KlockWerks rear fender. It’s made of very stout material, so it was easy to reshape without damage or warping. Frankie had a dragon scales notion for the paint, so we reshaped the fender for a more chopper/dragon look. He took the tank and fender to Chris Morrison in Harbor City, next to Larry Settle’s Custom Motorcycles and Chris did his number. So, we painted some elements of the frame and others we left rusty.
The bike is now a mixture of black powder, rust, chrome and gold. It’s going to be major competition to his Dyna Glide. It’s lighter and more agile. His dyna has mid-controls and this has Spitfire forward controls. Maybe I should take the Spitfire girder off my FXR and replace it with a Paughco narrow springer and we should ride to Sturgis. That was the plan with my son about 2014.
CUSTOM CYCLE ENGINEERING
DEW Manufacturing
(click on CCE)
KlockWerks
MetalSport Wheels
Paughco
Spitfire Motorcycles
S&S Cycle
