Lanesplitter Garage Blog

Finally arrived after about 17 business days.  It'll be my holiday shirt!

Harley Davidson have released 9 new models for the 2011 lineup.  Following last years 883 Iron, there are a couple of Sporties that have been brought in to entice the younger rider into the Harley Brand. They've realised that the only way for them to grow as a brand is to create a product that fits in with todays motorcycle scene.  The Bobber and custom scene is gaining momentum here in Australia, and I think what they wanted to bring to the table was a motorcycle that could fit in without a large price tag that most customs attract.  Something is a base that can be modified if need be, as that's where Harley makes a lot of it's revenue. The one that caught my eye was the the Sportster Forty-Eight XL1200.  The Iron 883 was the first piece of harley media that I saw that didn't have some old biker dude cruising down the highway.  In the same vein the Forty-Eight has similar marketing. Check out their their new Ad .

Stuck for Ideas?  Well I've been thinking about things that I would buy myself for christmas and most of these things are motorcycle related. So here are my top 5 motorcycle related gifts for christmas.  Obviously you could apply this to birthdays, anniversaries, graduations etc. 5.  DVD Harbortown Bobber - Great Motorcycle docco about building a custom triumph. 4.   The House of Simple Pleasures - Nice book to sit on your coffee table while eating the christmas left overs for the 10th time. 3.   DVD On any Sunday - Another great Motorcycle flick from 1971 featuring some of the top riders of the time.  And some great Hill Climbing and Flat Track racing. 2.   Biltwell Flaked Helmet - I love these things and even though they're not street legal here in OZ they'll look good hanging off your bikes handlebars for those happy snaps. 1.  Air Compressor - During building the Switch this garage tool was nominated for tool of the month more times than me so it ri

After reading an interview of on HFL , about a motorcycle company in Cleveland that decided to start manufacturing budget motorcycles in China and then sell them in America it got me intrigued to see what type of bike you could get for a small budget. After browsing their website  their bikes looked quite impressive and from what I've read from the previous interview the quality of the build should be high also. Something like the Heist for around the $3500 mark definitely begs the question about the old saying  "you pay for what you get".   Well from the looks of things to come from this lateral thinking company, it may not be necessarily the case. The Heist (picture taken from the Cleveland Cycle Werks website)

Just come back from a 2 week trip in Singapore.  While I was there I spent a day in a tattoo shop in the Far East Plaze while a few family members got some ink done. I sat in and watched the process and got some tips from the manager, scored some snippets from a book and the workings of a tattoo gun. Think I'm going to have to give this a go. Here's a snap from the shop.

Was looking through the lowbrow custom store and stumbled upon this beauty. This triumph built by  Troy Fabrications   it has a 70 frame and a 71 engine that was completely rebuilt.  He also has some other fabricated bits and pieces online but mainly for the trumps.

After a weeks wait my Posh grips finally arrived.  I love these grips and they'll go with the tanned leather seat and the exhaust wrap. I ordered these from deus ex machina as I couldn't find them anywhere else.  Originally I was going to go with the early barrel style but decided on these as we still have a switch block on the bars.

Walking home from the shops today I noticed something shimmering in the corner of my eyeball.  And like a bowerbird to a Fosters bottle cap (for those of you that are not familiar with Fosters, it's an Australian beer exported for the international pallete as no-one in OZ drinks it). I picked it up and took it back to the nest (aka garage). I'm not exactly sure what it is but I found a neat spot for it on the bike.  It now has a touch of class and sophistication and adds to the Paddington antique character.

While sitting at a cafe doing some work I noticed a pair of boots that would match the Switch colour so perfectly I couldn't have even envisioned it any better.  It was an uncanny match that I made me instantly take a quick shot on the camera phone. All we need now is a matching helmet and jacket. Check it out.

On a lot of motorcycle forums there is always the question about which motorcycle movie is the best.  Well I've seen a quite a few of them and the one that I rate as my all time favourite is "On Any Sunday". However I've yet to watch the independently made The Harbortown Bobber and from what I've read it sounds like it could creep into my top 10 as a raw, cut to the chase documentary based around the building of Scott DiLalla's '69 bobber. From the Harbortown Promo From the directors of the award-winning motorcycle movies "Choppertown: the Sinners" and "Brittown" comes a new motorcycle fabrication documentary. See more at:  choppertown.com Two years in the making, The Harbortown Bobber follows the ground-up build of Scott DiLalla's '69 bobber as various back yard masters put their hands on it creating a unique custom motorcycle and telling their own personal stories as they work. Featuring: Irish Rich (Sinner Nomad), Ear

So managed to decide on some artwork for the tank, I called her Skull-Eisha.  Sounds like more of a Jerry Springer Guest than a sketch on the tank. I wanted something that represented the build and history of the bike.  The idea behind it was a Geisha representing the origin of the bike (Japanese) and a skull which represents the modification Kustom Kulture symbolism. I want to make it subtle on top of the tank.  So will need to be candied over afterwards.  I know it will loose some of the detail but I don't really want it to stand out too much.

While I was in Italy I accidentally stumbled across the Italian Hells Angels HQ in Rome. I was able to identify them them by the leathers and open face helmets and obviously the Harley Davidsons. Luckily I managed to get out of there without a scratch, but before that I did take a quick snap with my camera.

Nice cafe racer from Cafe Racer 74. Really into the flat seats at the moment.

Yep that's right it's what the label says but without the chickens, although I just ate a whole roasted chicken for dinner and am now contemplating laying an egg. Since we decided to move the electrics under the seat we needed to also relocate the battery to under the seat to clear up the frame triangle.  It gives the bike better Feng Shui and also stops potential muggers from hiding behind the bike since you can now see through to the other side. We used google sketchup for the first time to draft up the box and once we were happy we printed out the drawing and traced it onto a sheet of Ally and proceded to cut and fold. Here is a shot in sketchup and the final result painted in Epoxy black. The Battery Cage turned out pretty well considering you probably couldn't even keep a chicken in there anyway.

So we got around to spraying some coats of paint onto the Frame/swingarm/forks and a number of other items.  We put about 4-5 coats of paint on, starting with a light tack coat then onto the final wet coats. Used a 1.4 Gravity Fed gun with a 2.5HP compressor. It turned out nice and shiny.

So we managed to strip the frame and swingarm off the original paint removing any rust. We used paint stripper and after that a wire brush attachment on the grinder, and a smaller brush on the drill to get into the "tight playces, small playces, rusty playces" said in a Ronalado Castrol Oil accent. Now ready for paint!

I stumbled across LC Fabrications website and this modified TT Triumph instantly caught my eye.  Based on an 06 Bonneville which was picked up for a mere $300.00 from an auction. Owner builder Jeremy Cupp turned this into something special.  Reading the website he based his concept around a 1900'ish cafe racer.   I really like the 2 into 1 pipes and the small rear cowl and of course the paint job. The attention to detail is amazing from the leather work, to the copper leaf on the tank. Also the wiring harness that he created was the first one for a modern day Triumph chopper. Awesome work!

Just found a link to some different looking moto boots made by French company Hunt .  Seems like all the ones you get at the moment are either track inspired or Blundstone wannabees. Besides the new Puma Boots I think these look cool.  They have almost a snowboard boot feel You can check out their range here

So we've spent a lot of time on the seat getting it smooth and true. Started out with some sanding, then some filler, then some more sanding, then some more filler, repeat x 20.  It has been the most time consuming component of the build thus far.  But we're pretty happy with the final result. First lot of shaping   The final seat with the glassed seat pan

First snapshot of the hand stitched leather seat. Picked up the leather from a shop in Lutwyche.

Finished this one up over the weekend. Using AutoAir and 3M Acrylic clear over the top.

So last night we stripped the paint off the tank using some 3M paint stripper.  This was the hardest working stripper I've seen since my 21st birthday FAT A GRAM party. It took off the black top coat and left the blue OEM paint underneath.  There were quite a few nice dings from where it had been dropped.  1 nice one on the seam and one either side and another on the top near the fuel cap. Base OEM Blue Good thing about this stripper is that it didn't give me an STD and it didn't pretend to be interested in what I had to say.  See you again sometime. Next up BOG

After spending some time thinking about the seat design and construction we decided that it'd be cool if we could utilise the existing seat pan.  For one it would be the perfect shape and secondly we could utilise the current fittings so if we needed to get to the under seat area we could flip it up. Once that was decided it was time to make a fibreglass mould of the seat pan.  We glassed the base seat pan where it met with the tank so we could keep the snug fit, but for the tail we would shape this ourselves and then glass over that. We put 3 layers of glass down and it turned out super strong.  Definitely strong enough for a big boned person to use. Once that was dried we shaped up the tail section ready for fibreglass.  It took a while to get the lines proportions correct, since we were keeping the bracket underneath the seat.  This space will allow us to store the battery and a few other electrical items Still high from the fibreglass... peace out

Greazefest 2010 was on this weekend so took some time to head to Rocklea to get my fix of Kustom Kulture. Quiffs were abundant along with tattoos, pinstripes and rock n roll dancing. I really felt out of place without my hair slicked back and patches on my jacket but nonetheless it was good fun. I was keen to check out the bikes on show and some of the paint jobs. Took some snaps in between lining up for a line up to get beer.