Huntington Cross Bones build

I love it when a customer takes my advice and finds a good bike that suites his fancy, and then gives me the bike and $385 and I build him a great ride.

He paid ~$285 for the bike, and though pretty pricey for just a coaster brake 1-speed with no fenders, I really liked the upswing down tube sleek look, and it has one heck of a solid frame and wheels.

2011 GT5 66cc Skyhawk motor but a new style short intake and Speed carb.
I had the head and all side covers off anyway so they all got several coats of high temp black motor paint to give it a matching contrast.
Oh ya, that pesky metal manufacturer 66cc plate yelling it is illegal here must have fallen off during painting ;-}



I took a little more time with my pictures of this build and found another new free animated .gif program so I tried it out.

Too much? Or a really good example of what I did with real life comparison pics?



I don't what you would call it... an obsession or compulsion or whatever, I have one when it comes to making new builds 'look finished'.
That little nit picking stuff like painting all of the brackets, re-wiring the whole electrical system and matching up all the cables at the handlebars kind of stuff ;-}

Since I know I'll be asked...
The tank was mounted by bolting the bottom 2 kit gas tank brackets to the top of the top bar.

I don't have pictures but I used an H8 drill bit (ya, that is what it is called), and drilled a hole through both the 2 tank mounting brackets into the top of the frame where the tanks studs lined up.

Then I used a 1/4" tap to put threads in the top of the top tube.
I reamed out the holes in the brackets so the 3/4" lock-top bolts screwed in through their holes into the top of the frame and really secured tight.

I put some padding between the bolt tops and tank bottom, and once the 4 tank stud nuts were on and I had the tank angled for best flow and look and secure, I just cut the rest of the tank studs off so it appears to be floating on top of the top bar.

I really don't want to sound condescending to other builders or ramble on about the little things that to me make a difference, only that it doesn't really take much more time or money to improve it.

I hope those building tips will help inspire all of you builders to the extra step and time of building something you don't just need to ride, but would be proud of it pictured like this one ;-}

rustycase said:

Kool animation, but it's running too fast!

I like to loook at your work!!! and it's going by too fast.

and I like to snag pics... the animation takes 'em all, with the change-O.
Not sure I like that part???

OH, Nice Work!
rc

Click to expand...

Thanks guys ;-}
I make all my images 700 pixels wide to fit pretty well in any forums text space but this site shrinks them to 640 pixels wide for display I think. No problem, just click the pic for a full size version.

If you want to view a given image of the sequence just hit your ESC (Escape) key when it is displayed, that halts the animation for a nice screen shot or good long look.
To restart the animation just reload the page.

As for making an animated single .gif image from a from some still shots, well, it does take some time and a couple of free tools.

The main one I use is Easy .Gif Animator. I have it for free DL on my computer web site here.

http://elitepcs.info/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=318

It is a basic tool and for the above all I did was add in the bare bike, then the finished bike, then the motor closeup shot timed at 3 seconds, 6 seconds, and 3 seconds respectively.

I then DLed the newest free trial of Ulead gif animator to load the Easygif animated image and add the transition effects.

There are plenty of other free tools too, these are just the ones I am familiar with just like my still using Paint Shop Pro ver 4.12 to do all my picture processing and sizing regardless of the pic even though it is to like ver 8 now.
I have that on the same site as well here
http://elitepcs.info/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=316

Anyway, the hardest part of a good animation is getting those initial pics to match up.
Nothing beats a good photo wall with some floor markings and similar light conditions to get the before and after pics, but there is more to it than just that.

If you study that .gif you will see I actually staged the position of the crank arms, the pedal themselves level orientation, and even the reflectors on the wheels location in both the before and after pics to be the same.

In short you stage the before pics first, and when you finally get to the after pics you look at the before pics first and match it back up or it just won't 'look right' when you combine them.

I have been doing electronic media photo work so long it is a skill I take for granted sometimes, which makes it easier to explain, but harder not to just take for granted that everyone can't simply do the same thing with little effort simply given the tools like I can.

The same holds true for building any of these bikes to begin with I suppose...
You can put a rookie in a big shop with every tool there is but if he has no skills or mechanical intuition the bike still won't come out right the first time.

On the other hand, give a mechanically inclined guy enough of the right tools and parts and just enough comfortable dedicated work space, and he can pop out a quality motorized bike on the first try every time.

At least so I've heard...
Hahaha, naw, I know this first hand.
I have a long back story as to why I am renting the house I live and work from, but in essence it was this back room I set up my shop and office in that made me rent it.

It was all plush padded white carpet back here.
With the big sliding glass door to wheel things in and out and the quite road neighborhood roads it was perfect so I told my landlord straight out on the first visit to look at it that he could kiss the carpet in here goodbye.

I like a clean room but **** happens with these things and after more than a year this carpet shows it (lots of grease and gas/oil stains), BUT, few things beat being able sit on a nice piece of well padded carpet to adjust something eye level on a bike, and find dropped parts on white carpet as they don't bounce far and easy to see ;-}

ANyway, I ramble, sorry, I am just a little passionate about building motorized bikes to sell to others AND ride myself.

Speaking of which...
I am **** bent on building myself a new 4-stroke race tuned 3-speed jackshafted new luxury ride so I am selling my personal baby for $950.

I won't go into the details about my personal ride in this topic other than to say the basic bike itself was $500 and few bikes I ride with can keep pace and nothing can outrun me when I push her, and she'll take pushing, I broke her in right myself ;-}
If you are interested in my race tuned 66cc 3-speed shifter drop me an E, we can talk.

killercanuck said:

Great looking bike! I'll bet he was happy with her

Click to expand...

What I really should do is snap a pic of a new customers first ride around the block as he comes riding back in.
Those wide eyed huge smile faces I see on grown adults remind me of a kid on his birthday being surprised with the perfect present ;-}