New BoardTrack Project w/Honda Engine

[vrgt2003]

Started assembly of the bike. Here is a shot of the painted frame, wheels, fork, brace and seat.




Hope everyone has a great easter

Mike

 

[elewayne]

Hi, I just went back and reread this whole thing and I wanted to say Thanks so much for letting us all follow your build and the thought process while you did it. Extremely helpful to anyone who wants to fabricate a bike from scratch, so to speak.
I'm building a Lotus 7 sports car and I keep up a web site for my build so I know how much trouble it is to take all those pictures and answer peoples questions. I need to finish the Lotus so I can start a board tracker myself. the plan is to finish the car this summer and then start a bike. At least that's the plan. I've been working on the Lotus about 8 years now.
So, thanks again.
Wayne

 

[vrgt2003]

elewanyne,

Thanks for the comments, it's really been an enjoyable project. We've done a few car projects in the past and I have a couple of car projects that need some attention as well. The car projects are just, well overwhelming and take years to do as you mentioned.

Post a link to your Lotus project, I always enjoy browsing through a site that has details of a build.

Mike

 

[elewayne]

The Lotus site is Texaslocost.com. It also covers my Vespa P200 rebuild.
Wayne

 

[vrgt2003]

Great job on the Locost elewanyne. Your web site really covers your build very well.

Fabricated a new spacer for the clutch and sprocket. Needed this for line up of the chains.


Here it is on with the clutch.


Here is the engine, brackets, and chain guard assembled.


Hey - can anybody let me know how to post pictures larger than the Attachement Manager allows.

I have a couple more pictures to post but do not want to resize them.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[elewayne]

That really looks cool. I can't believe how good you made the engine look. you've got a great look and a quality engine at that. two thumbs up!!
Wayne

 

[rockhopper]

That's just feakin' beautiful.

 

[rockhopper]

I've been staring at this bike for about 5 minutes now.

One suggestion, if you don't mind. That brass plate desperately needs a beautiful engraving. It should at least rise to, or cap off, the quality of your artistry. It is your signature, your approval of the final product.

 

[vrgt2003]

Well - I hated to crop the pictures further but here she is with the tank.


Rockhopper, which brass plate are you recommending we engrave. We did add the B&E logo to the push rod plate.

We have a kill switch coming next along with some period pedals

Mike

 

[K.i.p]

My gracious, this thing is absolutely hypnotizing! Very very nice machine work. I only wish I could see it in person to get a sense of proportion and scale but from the pics it looks like a solid, sturdy ride.

 

[rockhopper]

Well - I hated to crop the pictures further but here she is with the tank.
View attachment 23390 View attachment 23392 View attachment 23391

Rockhopper, which brass plate are you recommending we engrave. We did add the B&E logo to the push rod plate.

We have a kill switch coming next along with some period pedals

Mike

I think the B&E logo should made more memorable. It's a focal point on that bike.

 

[Board Track Racer]

Anything in mind for pinstripes or logo on the tank?
Looks really nice, would like to see a photo of this with a great backdrop when you have it all done.
This picture you posted a while back really would be a nice angle. It gives the bike a nice perspective.
But that's just my opinion. Everything looks great! ........Hats off to ya!

 

[elewayne]

Hi Mike, I want to say again what a great job you've done on the bike,exceptional!
I was wondering if you could give us an idea what you spent to do this project.
( Estimate fine.) Also was the final figure was a surprise. Did you have a $500 budget and end up at $2000, say.

I'll ramble on here a bit, and ask if any of the rest of you guys want to start a new thread discussing cost. you could post a pick and say I spent $200 on this beauty. Was that what you expected or did it go way over estimates in the end. Maybe some good stories there.

My car project, I thought I could do it for $5000. When I blew past that amount it didn't even look like a car,so I figured more accurately and came up with $10000. 8 years later I just blew past that figure and I still need to spend about $2000 to be able to license it.
I also restored a Vespa P200. I thought it would cost about me maybe $1500 and I hit $3000 before I could start it and get a tag. Any takers on a thread such as this?
Wayne

 

[fasteddy]

Elewayne, I am restoring a 1952 Monark Super Deluxe bike that I built a sidecar for. Had to go with an electric motor so that upped the cost about double.
All done it will be $4,000.

It was a no holds barred, cash deal and having restored cars and trucks I was ready for the time and cost. Would not do it again but it has been fun.

Steve.

 

[elewayne]

Thanks, If we get a few more of these maybe a moderator can move this. It is really not my intention to hijack board track racers thread on his wonderful bike.
Wayne

 

[vrgt2003]

BTR - We do have a name and logo on the way, might look at pin stripping a little later. I was inspired by one of your YOUTUBE videos so I am putting together most of the pictures in a build video. Hope to take some nice pics after we are complete with some nice backgrounds. Thanks for the comments.

Elewayne - Thanks for the comments as well. You are right on the money -- literally. We started this without a budget but in the back of my mind a thought about $1000 - $1200 should do it. Well we are probably north of $2500 of out of pocket cost, this is not counting any time involved. If I were to price this as a custom built one of a kind prototype using a shop rate of $60 per hour we are near $20,000. I'm sure we have at least 300 hrs into this. No expectation that the bike is worth that much, but that would a good estimate of cost.

 

[ruppster]

Fantastic job! It sure has come a long way. How can you not ride that thing?

 

[dmar836]

I can agree with Mike. If you have anything but a "good enough" attitude, you'll be astounded at time spent - forget about the cost of parts. I suspect this is why so few of us who have done this respond to the custom loop frame requests.
Keep up he strong work, Mike
Dave
KC

 

[Board Track Racer]

Thanks Dave, 100% agree with that......Mike, what did you say the name is going to be? I must have missed the fine print.
Just kidding, I can wait.

 

[vrgt2003]

Thanks for all the comments. We are close to 99% finished with the build. Trying to knock the punch list out now.

Here is the kill switch design, we used phenolic and a feeler gage for the materials. Check out the leather 'wire' ties.


Decided to change the pedals to a more vintage look. Here we took apart a more square type pedal, added thru bolts and blacked out the reflectors.


We changed our minds several times on the name and logo, but I think we came up something that really fits the bike and history. Since this is built using a Huffy frame, this can be traced to Huffman Manufacturing Company that actually made a "DIXIE FLYER" bicycle. So here we have;


We are looking forward to taking the bike to a few shows. We have a antique motorcycle swap meet in Denton Farm Park, Denton , NC May 14, 15, & 16 we are planning taking the bike.

Mike