starting a board tracker/vintage inspired bike build

[tattoomark]

I bought it used and originally wanted an Industial News Boy, but started looking more at the Industrial Tall Cruiser for the same reason. This one's getting a tubular tank, a piece of 3" steel tubing fits perfectly in there. I think the frame lines look similar to the turn of the century motorbikes.

 

[truckd]

Something to consider when building the next Worksman bike with a frame style such as yours Get a 4" tube and have it compressed 1" at the steel supplier (if they're set up for it) and then put the tubular end caps in a vice and compress to the same size and you can cut the rear of the tank at the same angle of the bent top bar if using the Worksman INB frame, you can also cut the back of the tank at the same angle as the seat post for your frame style as illustrated on Lurkers thread when he was sharing thoughts about the final design.
Pretty simple to do with minimal welding skills, just remember to weld your tank strap ancors to the tank in the desired location before welding the end caps, I like your bike already,have you decided on the forks yet?

My Dad and I just made one for a small lawn riding tractor about 14" long with bung and cap,took about an hour and a half

 

[truckd]

I was looking at your jackshaft and thought a faux oil box slip cover might look real cool, with cut outs of course for the gear shafts or what ever the cuts would be for, you've got plenty of realistate behind the seat post and could anchor it with self tapping screws on the sides of the jack shaft, sure would hide some ugly too!
Amazing all the stuff you think of when someone else is building something (LOL!)

 

[tattoomark]

The tank caps are already welded on, but we welded some bolts to the tank where the straps will mount to the tank, so that gave us something to ground to while welding the end caps on. Check out the pics in the beginning of this thread and you can see how well it fits in there. And it should hold about 3/4th of a gallon of gas! I ended up getting a really good deal on a set of vintage (not replica) Monarch forks that im gonna run for now. I might end up using those as a base for a leaf spring fork down the line, but they'll look cool and should be sturdier than the chinese replicas.

 

[truckd]

Is this what yer shoot'n for? very similar to Lurkers bike,you two might just create a brand and type

 

[tattoomark]

Yup, thats pretty much it. Im going for a look of a 1900's motorbike, not any specific brand name. If you research the bikes from that era, often they were one off, or if there was a specific manufacturer, they might have differed from bike to bike. We're talking PRE INDUSTRIALIZATION. My imagined bike will be my attempt as something like that. Maybe some unknown bicycle manufacturer was trying to get into the motorbike market and built a couple of weird prototypes? Mine will also have a few small elements that will look like its been modified for board track racing. Ive seen a few vintage photos of 1900's-1910's motorbikes that have been retrofitted for a little more aggressive seating position and probably some engine mods that i can't see. Mainly BTR bars and seat. It will be an interesting looking bike and that's what im going for. I want to 'patina' the bike, just like Lurker did so that people might imagine Im riding great grandpa's barn stashed bike. If you watch Youtube for old turn of the century bikes running, there are a few vids of people who have found them, done minimal repairs and got them running and riding, just like they were found. to me that's cool.

 

[tattoomark]

BTW, the vertical tube oil tank on the bike in that pic is *****in'! Consider that idea stolen. I love the steampunk look of exposed mechanical elements, so i might do that as a faux oil tank, then use it to stash papers or something.

 

[Lurker]

Mainly BTR bars and seat. It will be an interesting looking bike and that's what im going for. I want to 'patina' the bike, just like Lurker did so that people might imagine Im riding great grandpa's barn stashed bike.

This cracked me up when I saw it, because I was working on my bike in front of my house this past weekend and some buy drove buy and asked me if it still ran.

 

[truckd]

Something to think about as the build progress's

 

[konig44]

Wow. Are those production forks or custom?

 

[tattoomark]

^^^Im wondering that too, but If I go with that style, I'll just build my own. Looks kind of like standard cruiser springer forks but with the bars going up to the spring have a bend in them? Looks legit.

 

[tattoomark]

This cracked me up when I saw it, because I was working on my bike in front of my house this past weekend and some buy drove buy and asked me if it still ran.

I've shown my work in progress to a few friends and one said "wow is that frame from the 20's or 30's?....If you look across the top bar and on the head tube badge it clearly says "Worksmancycles.com". I didn't know the interweb was so old!

 

[truckd]

Yes they are production and you can get them at
www.classic-cycle.de webstore
Check em out.

 

[JohnThomas Sorrels]

^^^Im wondering that too, but If I go with that style, I'll just build my own. Looks kind of like standard cruiser springer forks but with the bars going up to the spring have a bend in them? Looks legit.

At almost $140.00 with shipping from Europe I'd make my own too. You might want to add some more bracing than what they've got too.

 

[truckd]

They sell them in america (somehwere LOL!) but I'd see if you could flip the front strut part of the fork backwards.

 

[konig44]

Why flip the struts? I really like the way it looks as is. Would it be for strength?

 

[truckd]

Maybe just to give the forks a look like no other, other than that no big mechanic purpose or reason ????

 

[tattoomark]

I took my motor out of the box today and took all the ugly shrouds off and threw away the plastic fan cover. The cooling fins on the motor look much better than the shrouds. I did the coffee can mod that Im sure all of you guys have seen to make a new fan cover.

The fit came out pretty good after trimming with some tin snips. I painted the cover a bronze hammered finish, which will be a common theme on my bike. I painted the pull start a pewter metallic to try and get it to not look so plastic. Its okay, but it still just doesn't look right. I might make a machine turned alluminum or brass round plate to go in the center that might fix that up. And now ive got to get rid of that ugly air filter.

Oh also, if anyone does this mod, i just got rid of the shoulder/allignment washers because they didn't allow the nuts to tighten the pull start up to the motor. I stacked like 5 brass washers and one large brass washer on top that holds the tin in place, and the alignment for the pull start works great.

 

[\./]

id cut some slits in that coffee can to get some sort of air flow from the fan

 

[truckd]

I second that motion to add the luver/slits but over all you have greatly improoved the appearance of the engine,even the outer shroud looks decent perhaps a hammered silver paint on it would get rid of the plastic look.