What have I done?!?!

Build Update

UPDATE- All parts save the CE clutch kit have now arrived. I have mocked up the motor and a spare small tank I had lying around in the frame in the pic attached to show a little bit of what we are working with on this build. This bike will be extremely practical as a commuter and exploring bike here in the NW.

Jimbo (Usagi Yojimbo, for those who know) is a Ham and had to get in on the act when he saw me taking pics of my new project!

Today we will begin cleaning and prepping the entire bike for the installation, laying out all parts of the SBP kit, hardware, etc. Fire Belly Evan will come and take some measurements of my frame and look at mounting options before making the motor mounts. I am planning on doing some painting to several ket accent parts of the motor and SBP kit to work with the bikes colors. Also we will be painting the 2.5L tank as well. I will take my time with that however, as I have the spare tank to run while I decide on my final motif for the tank design. This way we'll be able to run the bike in just a few days.

So, here's a question for you guys- Do I run the stock motor and exhaust/airbox during break-in before adding the upgraded parts? I'm thinking we may do that, as well as wait on milling the head, until I've got a hundred miles or so on it. I was thinking that it would be a good way to see and feel the difference between whatever this motor has going for it stock and what I'm hoping will be noticeable improvement with the pipe, airbox, hot plug and wire, and Hi-Comp head.

I will do my best to take a lot of pics here over the next few days, but that never works out exactly as planned so don't expect this will be a detailed step by step build thread..

I am so hyped to get this thing together, taking my time now is going to be the biggest challenge!

I'll watch out for that, L.O.F! Hopefully will not be a big issue! (fingers crossed!)

BTW All- the Gasbike.net kits came in perfect boxes, and wrapped with a good attention to detail. It all looks great too, the finish on my motor is better than I expected actually, and the larger tank looks good too.

All the SBP pruduct also came expertly packed.

Getting set up to start building now.

I too love the classic MTB bars, they're identical to my very first MTB from way back in 1983, a Ross Force One.

UPDATE-

NO pics just yet, because all I had yesterday with me was my phone camera, but progress has been made.

I'm very lucky to have Evan from Fire Belly Cycles as a friend, he came down to my shop yesterday morning and we took the motor over to his machine shop where we did a little work on the engine cosmetically, shaped the inside radius of the front engine mount to match my bikes downtube diameter perfectly, and he milled a few thousandths off the head. Evan's a great guy and has an eye for detail, the mounting will look good and be solid when we are through. Evan has a few ideas for other things we want to incorporate into this build which I will save for later- suffice to say there are some cool things we plan to do with this bike in due time.

The awesomeness does not end there, however! Evan and I were stoked to be joined by Jim from Sick Bike Parts for part of this build. Jim emailed me yesterday offering up his help in making sure I got the kit on with no troubles. As some of you may know, I live in Seattle. Jim lives in Bellingham, a couple solid hours north of us on I-5. He came through around noon and spent the better part of the day working on my bike with limited tools, and me as his scatterbrained assistant. By the time Jim left, we had the shifter kit installed, and the motor mounted up in the frame. I'm hoping that with some steady effort today I may even be able to test fire this bike by this evening.

Jim and Evan are both awesome guys, and it is a pleasure and an honor to have that kind of help in getting this done right.

I can't fail to mention this last thing- I've been squirrelling away all my parts and goodies and hiding them from my Ever faithful girl, Nicole. I came clean this morning to her, and got slapped, poked, pinched, and yelled at for a while, but she eventually forgave me because she usually assumes I'm up to no good, and she's usually right! I really am a lucky guy- I think some of us get kicked to the curb for these kind of shennanigans!

Thanks to everyone paying attention to this thread, and showing interest in my project. Better pics to follow but I guess I can't resist giving you a sneak peek now..

Well we got the bike riding today and all I can say is wow. The shift kit changes the way I can ride the bike in every way I thought it would, even more than I thought it would. You can make such better use of the available power from your motor, it's amazing. Evan helped me finish the build last night, and after fighting a little with chain length and tension, finally got it dialed in this morning. He actually got to ride it first! I had to wait a couple more hours to take it out, but I made up for it. After work I filled the tank up and joined my buddy for a ride with a group of local moped riders. We met and did about 15 miles with a group of 10 or so, ending at a local establishment in Seattle. The bike didn't just keep up with a fairly sporty group of moped riders, it did so with ease! We rode again later, and my friend and I finally rode home to our respective homes just moments ago.

In total, we did 36 miles, average speed 23 mph, max speed 40.2 mph. I stopped and checked chain tension, both front and rear hubs, headset, and cranks between the first ride of the night and the second, and all seemed to be holding up well!

Thanks are owed to both Jim from SBP and Evan from Fire Belly for all they did to make this a successful build.

I'm going to bed- will post a pic or two tomorrow.

A little better pic of the bike so far:

It was great meeting Jim and having his expertise on the build, Paul! I would have had a lot more challenges without him and his ingenuity in overcoming my limited tools and workspace.

The bike is still only really about halfway to where I want it as of now. Evan and I plan to build a lighting system from scratch to work off the white wire (sorry Norm!), and I want a fresh Bottom Bracket as the one in there is from the mesozoic era, as well as better brakes. I am running a V-brake up front and a Cantilever in the rear, they pull slightly different amounts of cable so it is hard to adjust both to the level of responsiveness I want right now. Other than the lighting though, the rest is just continuing to clean and adjust the bike, and chain tension. Yesterday I had the whole shift kit off the bike and Evan helped me lock the system down by improvising a slightly different arrangement for pre-loading and maintaining the placement of the bearings and the motor drive sprocket. I have to add a couple fender washers to the outside of the now drilled and tapped Jack drive spindle, and install the SBP chain tensioner and I believe we will have the desired stability. The stock kit is good, but I ride a lot and at a reasonably vigorous pace, so the extra precautions seemed like a good idea. Let me know what you think of our improvements.

Yeah Paul, it's just a metal dowel. Basically takes the place of the inner locking collar, and makes it a little harder for the system to migrate. I think we have the chain alignment good now so I hope this will fix it all in place.

Rode to work today, 15 miles. Sucked up my chain over a big bump at 30, but a quick chain repair later I was back riding and made it in great time. I love this setup! Just gotta be more careful over bumps, even with a chain catcher it's possible to go south of the chain into a wraparound scenario. Glad I didn't lunch my derrailleur!

Roger that Jim. Shortest chain allowable that will still achieve all the gears will be the method from here on in..

Yesterday I rode after work for a while with a friend. Total mileage yesterday without other mishaps (other than running out of fuel, lol!) was 47.2 miles. No slippage of motor or loss of chain tension. No shift kit movement, no chain troubles after that slip up in the morning. We rode all over and had a blast!

I'm almost at 100mi on the new setup and she's shaping up nicely..