The Work - parte UN

So as I mentioned in the last post, there has been a load of work done in the last few months. I bought the bike in December of 2010/January 2011 and stripped the bike by March of 2011 and then let it sit until about July/August until I could wrap my head around it again. Since then, here's pretty much a nice detailed list of what I did to it...

STRIP DOWN:

Then, I cleaned, sanded, primed and painted the frame in a truck bed liner type of paint. Gives it a nice "shit kicker" texture to it and makes it seem pretty indestructible...

Next up, it just sat for a while. But then, starting around October/November, I kicked it into high gear again...

First thing I did was to bring everything into the living room. I had always wondered why people do this. I have a garage, I keep all my bikes and tools in the garage. Why would I want to build the bike in the living room? I have no idea...It doesn't make sense, it just works. I think it has to do something with the fact that with all my art up to this point, I have always liked propping it up somewhere and staring at it while I work on it. It gives you a nice total composition of the piece and you are able to tell how everything is working together. I feel like these type of "check ups" are more than necessary with this bike. Since I am building a lot of the parts by hand and ordering non-stock replacements for others, it's important to me to make sure that as I add and get things on the bike, they look good together. I keep saying this (in the back of my mind knowing it isn't true) but this bike is being built for form over function (not the other way around). So, the form needs to work. So, here are some more shots with the bike in the living room and working on the tank and the custom fiberglass tail section that couples with a 2010 Kawa Ninja ZX-6 tail light.

The beginning of the fiberglass work for the tail section:

Here you can see the ZX-5 tail light before I tinted it black (to match everything else and still function) with the early work on the fiberglass tail section

The newly re-hand-painted badges:

More sanding, bondo, sanding, bondo, sanding, bondo, sanding and primer...then bondo and sanding...

That's a decent stopping point for this section. In the next part of the work, you will see a lot more of the fiberglassing, painting, bondo, new parts, cleaned old parts, etc...

The Build Sheet

So it has been a while since the last post and there was A WHOLE LOT of work done. I am going to try and separate it a little to make it easier to follow but since my last post, here is where we are at now...

What's missing from this picture is the finished seat and the wheels which are both cleaned, painted and being mounted with tires tonight. Here's a picture of the bike with the seat on it...

So what has been done since the last post? I will try and list it out, but it has been almost 6 months since the last pictures, so we'll see if I can remember all of it...

In no particular order, here's what's been worked on...

1. Seat - .12g BB filled felt tubes upholstered with faux alligator on a seat pan with a bunch of mounts all over the bottom
2. Tail section
• Bought tail light from a 2010 Ninja ZX-6
• Integrated tail light into a custom made fiberglass piece to mount to the frame
• Hand made custom fiberglass "lid"
• Custom hinges to allow the lid to rotate backwards and up (dual hinges)
• Entire tail acts as a trunk space for any gear to bring along
3. New Rear shocks. They aren't Ohlins, but they are highly praised lower quality versions of them. Nitrogen filled gas shocks...
4. Tank
• Cleaned, painted, relined
5. Wheels
• Cleaned, painted, reassembled with tires
6. Brakes
• Cleaned, repaired, rebuilt, painted (front and back brakes)
7. Engine
• Began work on stripping and rebuilding the entire engine
8. Frame
• New head bearings
• Cleaned, sanded, primed, painted, sealed
• Cleaned and sealed oil tank (in frame)
9. Swingarm
• Cleaned, repaired, sanded and painted
10. Bash Plates (front and back)
• Initial fabrication complete

So that is pretty much where we are at right now. Coming up, I am going to show all of the different parts of the build step by step. It is only 10 items but some of them took 3 versions to get right, or lots of sanding, priming, sanding, painting, sanding, etc...There's a lot of work in these 10 items

And now here is what is to come in the future (short list):

1. New Fork Nut, Install triple trees and forks (painted and cleaned)
2. Install front brake
3. Install front wheel
4. Install rear brake
5. Install rear wheel (no chain yet)
6. Install headlight and front indicators 
7. Handlebars (mirrors, grips, turn signals, etc)
8. Relocate rear master cylinder
9. Paint and clear coat tail section (and pinstriping)
10. Engine work
11. Install engine, chain, etc...
12. DRIVE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF THE BIKE!!!

I am sure there are probably some other steps I am missing, but this list used to seem a WHOLE LOT longer than it is now. Just glad progress is being made, even if it is taking a while to get everything right...

So, check out the next few posts for more details, more build pics and just more of the Bearoness (may be changing it from the Baroness to the Bearoness to match up with my Eightangrybears deal-e-o...)