One liquid cooled framer - done!

Without further ado, here it is...

(low res pics taken with my compact. Proper studio shots to be taken later).

Victory!

I'm very happy to report that I'm now the proud owner of a fully legit, road legal, street tracker. My framer passed the final inpection about an hour ago. Now I'm going to mount the proper tires and the ISR brake stuff and take some pictures for you of the finished article. Then it's time for a professional photo shoot (if everything goes according to plan you might see the bike in one of our favorite mags in the not too distant future).

BTW: It wasn't the carb that was acting up, it was a faulty ground wire.

Buggeration!

Believe it or not, but I missed my M.O.T-appointment this morning since the bike absolutely refused to start. This is the first time ever that I've failed to get it running. I kicked the damn thing for 40 minutes and got it running for one (1) second only for it to die again. I've now bought a new plug and have another carb lined up if it turns out it's the carb that's acting up. I've managed to get a new M.O.T-appointment already on Monday morning. Fingers crossed.

I'm now on the look out for a flat slide 39 or 41 mm carb. My friend changed his Dell'Orto for a Keihin flat slide and it runs like a dream now and start first kick every time. So if you've got a spare one, drop me a line.

Damn it! (part 2)

Well, look what I got in the mail today... Yes, I went for the radial one. And yes, it is a little bit on the large side. But as "Road Warriors" pointed out: the rest of the running gear is really modern, so I decided continue my theme of juxtapositioning old school elements like the tank and seat with bang up to date engine and brake components. I think it's this mix of 1975 and 2010 that makes my bike stand out somewhat among other trackers.

I won't mount them until this weekend after the final MOT on friday. Will post some pictures of the finished bike then, including some other minor touches I've been busy with. Then it's on to the next one. I'm working on a Photoshop composite of a café racer at the moment. I hope you'll like it!

Damn it!

I promised myself that I would keep my old Brembo brake pump and clutch lever, but I just can't resist ISR's stuff. It's just so... bl**dy gorgeous in a Mies van der Rohe "I didn't intend for this Skyscraper to look this good, I just paid a lot of attention to the proportions" kind of way.

So... I called Acke Rising (owner of ISR) to hear what I should buy. He suggested the old style brake pump (he knows I'm building a tracker), but I had my heart set on a radial one. What do you think: radial or old school?

Free distort.

I like italic racing numbers on bikes. They look like they are forced into leaning backwards as the bike accelerates. At least if you view the bike from the left side. The problem is that if you put italic numbers on the right side of the bike – then they lean the wrong way! Not nice. Thankfully there is a workaround. You will need Adobe Illustrator (or another vector graphics application) and a little patience. But it will be worth it.

Step 1 is choosing a font that you like. I very much like a font called "City" that was designed in the 1930s for the Berthold type foundry in Berlin. So I chose that.

Step 2 is firing up Adobe Illustrator. Make a new document and write your desired numbers two times. “Create outlines” of the numbers (It's under "Type" in the top menu). This will turn your numbers into easily manipulated vector objects.

Step 3: select the effect called “Free distort” (Effects/Distort & transform/Free distort). You can now distort the numbers into pretty much any shape you like. In order for mine to fit in with the lines of my tail piece I made my numbers a little bit lower towards the end of the bike, which will emphasize the "leaning" effect. I added a black outline to my numbers for that "Nascar" look.

Step 4 is saving your document as an Illustrator eps-document and then emailing it to your local digital printer who will print them on vinyl and cut them out for you. There really isn't more to it!

polymimetic alloy.

No, the part in the picture is not manufactured by Skynet in some sort of potential alternate future. It's actually made in good old Sweden by a firm called ISR.

As I'm waiting for the beuraucratic paper mill to return my paperwork, I've been busy making some decals and surfing the web for a replacement for the crude looking Tochico brake caliper I've been using so far. And beeing Swedish, there just is no way around the fact that ISR makes som pretty impressive and affordable stuff. At least if you compare to other calipers of the same quality (I won't post the price here since I suspect my wife checks this blog now and then, but it was about a third of the cost of a comparable Brembo caliper.). ISR makes six piston calipers as well, but I went with four pistons since I think it looks better. And besides: who has ever seen a race bike with six piston brakes?

It needs new spacers, but the very friendly proprietor of ISR, Acke Rising, has promised to turn some for me. I'll post a pic of it mounted when the spacers arrive. Now I just have to resist the temptation to buy new master cylinders from ISR as well...