John Henry's Made It Home!

Finally got the bike home from James Banke's shop today!



I'm SUPER IMPRESSED with the console he fabbed up for housing the tach, and ignition. As simple as it could be. Headlight bucket is from an old Triumph.



The exhaust megaphone needed a bit of a relief bent into it in order to be far enough away from the rear wheel. It was a difficult thing to design around but I think for the "up" pipe look, JB did a great job and it's going to look really boss.



Here's another view of the exhaust megaphone adaption...another view of the tab he welded onto the assembly at just the right angle to fit onto the frame...lotta work getting that done just so, i bet.









Another profile, JB machined up the headlight mounts, the pictures don't do it justice. That's a 320mm twin piston Brembo front stopper: It will stop.



Here's where we'll be in drydock while I get all the body work finished.

nicky hayden go sideways!

Latest Profile Edit

Really like the flow of the saddle onto the tank on the Honda FTRs below and am thinking the saddle needs to wrap around the tank a bit in defiance to the flat tracker's typical butting saddle/tank junction. FTRs seem a bit less cobbled together than the Ascots did:




This will of course be a mondo bitch to upholster, but then again, what isn't sheer tedium when it comes to fabricating the bodywork on a moto?

exemplars

Cute little SR500


Just b/c an XR600 Thumper would make a really cool track bike

Frame Done!!!

Huge milestone reached with the frame done and engine cradled therein. James Banke got it painted and ready. The exhaust is of course only there for reference and IN NO WAY will represent what the final product will be.

frame review

Took one final look at the frame before powdercoating down at Banke Performance yesterday. Here you can see how the frame rails were reattached for a more horizontal position with the swept down right side for shock pin accessibility.



The distal end of the XR's only Exhaust pipe is absolutely hopelessly not going to work. Too long, too wide in the tire's way. The header will be fine, but Banke will have to come up with some sort of muffler and adapt to it. alack.

Banke's powder coater guy is some curmudgeon who won't do anything unless you select a chip from his special samples box though my colorblindness should preclude such fussiness.

another nose job

Still trying to sort out the profile of the tank. probably will try something where the upper side is a more shallow curve than the lower. This is closer to what I'm thinking, tho it seems a bit conservative: