Destruction to Construction

This is the point in, retrospect,i should have made it run good and sell it and buy a frame and title and go! Just a parts bike or 2 and eBay your set! Most all the stuff I didn't make myself, came from eBay! I pretty much destroyed a perfectly serviceable classic Honda. To me I took a ordinary, old, trail bike and made it to my liking, the way I thought would look cool. I will have to say my buddy Todd did help lots to keep it real and laugh at some of my ideas Here is the 1st mod, a painfull one for most! Cut off frame tube at body weld.

Cut neck off above air filter hole.Get busy with grinder.Cut hole in body,weld 2 new tubes!

Fish mouth the 2 tubes in line with your rake angel , if not right a little grinding changes alot!

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This is a good point to check ride height! And body angle, you can change it with tire and or wheel and tire size. Just measure some different bikes and get idea how big of a rim you want and what size tire. I ended up with a few different ones before finding the 'one'.

My buddy Todd said it "looks like a dirt bike" with the swing arm this long. I thought it looked great! But I was afraid it might prove unstable...but now I think it might work fine.in this picture it is not being held up by anything! it is that low, if I was going to just show it, it would have stayed this way,,maby the next one,,,

I put in slightly smaller than the stock size frame tubes that are about 5 and 3/4  inches longer than stock. Rake was done by the much more Traditional American Style of Fabrication, or more like,,,nope,,needs more ,,little more,,,,ya! kinda way the whole thing was made, and remade,,, almost all of this bike was done by eye, no pesky measuring,no square, kinda like dead reckoning! I think that's what made it so fun! no beating myself up about every thing being perfect to the 100th of a inch. as long as it tracks straight, tires are in the middle of the fenders and stops straight I could friggin care less! I dought it will ever hit 50mph, or be ridden more that 20 minutes at a time, I think it will work out ok. It's always the details that gets some projects shelved or slow to finish. Brake rods you need to make,like cable kits that you can now buy online and make your own! It was at this point in the construction Todd and I would be riding it around the block testing stuff, playin really, that people started asking " what the hell is that?"

I took the original yellow plastic covers off the rear shocks, and now there really squeaky! I like the way the front end looks, but, it drives like crap. It needs all new bushings in the bottom pivot, hard to justify the work cause I know I would do it all, springs and,shocks , convert neck to caged bearings,,,sigh,,,,,I think it will be worth it,why not?  We have gone this far.

1968 Honda Trail 90 chopper project

This is how it started, a free Trail Bike. Bone stock and original running condition. I had been following Chalopy.blogspot.com/ for a few weeks and it felt like destiny knocking. You really need to check out Ralph's blog, very nice and he spells much better than me! Tod my buddy next door really helped with sanding, painting, and talking me outta bad ideas! Some of the bikes I was seeing on Chalopyblog then and now are works of art, not built to ride, but still hugely creative! Most of the customs of the Asian style are meant to ride, some barley, but are still used and driven at rallies and shows. I will be trying to get mine into a few local shows and test the reactions, and see if i can get it in, American culture is not very supportive of adults riding small displacement motorcycles, I hope to help change that, what with lots of folks wanting to be more "green" and thinking there carbon footprint needs to be smaller. I have been involved in building , customizing, repairing and maintaining just about anything that spews hydrocarbons and I will say that this little Honda project has been, and still is, a blast!