Stafford swap

Lots of newer take off parts, $500 41mm front ends, and a ton of people. There were a couple of cool things to take pics of though.

Cool iron hillclimber with a vintage Bates seat I'd probably have to sell my car for.




Lowrider?


Gargoyle swordmaster.

some stuff

More stuff that I got from the unfortunate machinist situation downstairs.

Mitutoyo height gauge and misc tap and die stuff.

process

Jason's bars

Sumo's bars=done

Lunch ride

Went for a lunch ride in this beautiful, warm fall weather.

Other rabbits

While bending and cutting a bunch of tubing for customer's bars I snuck in another set of an "experimental" design. Not as much pullback as the last set I made, more of the feel of a t-bar rather than the long bike/layback feel. All the normal stuff, 1" .120 wall dom stainless 304 w/ cnc'ed bungs, 3 1/2" mounting. Interested parties can contact me at roche.special.79@gmail.com. Price is $180 plus shipping.

Shop score

A 70 yr old recluse machinist/fabricator in the basement of the building I rent space in is closing his doors. The story is that he won the lottery years back and started living in his workspace, hiding his finances from everyone. They guy wouldn't even walk 50 yards to go to the bathroom, his shop smelled like piss and shit because there were buckets of human waste in every corner. He cut his leg a couple months back and never tended to it. Long story short, his family is shutting the shop down and moving him into a assisted living home (and he may lose the leg).

In comes the nephew to take care of moving his uncles stuff and clean the shop out. Bridgeport, Atlas lathe, and other misc stuff has been SCRAPPED! Man, I wanted to punch someone. Yesterday my shopmate Shawn got his hands on these two saws for next to nothing though. I'll be checking back with the nephew for a couple more bits.

3 bend bars for sale

Shoot me an e-mail at roche.special.79@gmail.com if you're interested.

-304 stainless 1" .120 wall dom tubing
-cnc'ed 304 stainless bungs w/ 1/2" 13 tpi, 3 1/2" mounting
-8" tall, 30" wide, with just under 8" of flat grip area

bending question

This one goes out to all you tubing bender's out there. I find myself needing to get bends close to each other pretty often and can't do so with my bender due to it's design. I now do one of two things to reach my final design goal. One, I make the bend angles I want and cut/slug bends together, weld, and blend. Two, make first bends with the model 3 JD2 bender and use heat/sand bending to create the following bends. Is there a bender out there that anyone has used that allows you to get multiple bends closer? I know there are machines out there that can do this but I could never afford them. Is there a affordable alternative?

Here's an example of how close I can get bends to each other with my bender (between the vertical and bottom bend). Between the bottom bends are what I have to do to get them closer (cut/slug/splice).

Coping with the bends

Thanks for the digital angle gauge Jake, I"ll be getting myself one in the near future.

the daily process

A big bearded customer wanted a 1.25" dom tubing detail on the lower mounting points of his bars. This is how it played out.

Stainless rabbit things

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Handlebar testing

Fall ride

Sunday fall ride with HG to go enjoy New England's worst cup of coffee.

Africa on a KTM, the story

I met my friend Gregg while we were in school @ UMASS Dartmouth. At the time there were probably only 5 or 6 skateboarders in the whole school, so we became friends instantly after many a late night session on our stolen parking block. Over the last 23 years, we've done a lot of stupid/fun things together and I consider him one of my closest friends.

Here's the story in his own words.

"I was on an 8 day riding tour of morrocco with some buddies of mine - we have done similar trips down to baja - this time on wonderful KTM 450s - on day three i was hauling ass after an afternoon learning how to ride sand dunes. - i was trying to push my speed a bit and was doing well - moving at about 50mph across a wide open rocky desert plane - hit a small grass bush and it pushed me off my line - before i could correct i ran into a large rock which was pitched forward as well as being deeply seated in the ground. it stopped the bike - tossed me - the bike then sort of snapped sideways and the tail of the bike swung up into the air and the bike went over my head as I did my superman impression thru the air. I ground into the hard pack - elbow first followed by my face - thankfully the bike landed some distance away. god bless my friend is a doctor and he was riding behind me with a full medical kit on his back. 20 hours of driving later. yes 20 hours of driving from Efroud to Ouarzazate and then over the Atlas Mtns - without pain meds as my lower arm floated around - I got to marrakech where they operated - trussing my elbow back together with an artists touch. its like nothing i have ever experienced. i cant describe the overall effect, but it moved me to my very core. i was very lucky to get away with just my elbow being blasted. jesus hates a pussy."

I'm glad you made it home safe GG.

1,2,3

My new drawers

Picked up some storage drawers for odds and ends. Looks like someone before me had the right idea.

Cold night blast

Feel the cold weather creeping, get in as much riding as you can.

chopped struts

Shortened fender struts for a 4 spd swingarm frame. Full how-to tech in upcoming Iron Horse issue 134.

I feel like I'm cheating...

... on my files.

I use rubber isolators on tanks sometimes and I'm sick of the standard metal strap shape, sooo I drew some up and had them cut out with a water jet.