JaPanhead - Last ride before rebuild

Daytona is coming up again, so it's time to tear down the bike and finally make her pretty! The goal for last year was getting the bike running to take around while we were in Daytona, and this year's goal was to have it finished for the trip. The last year has been spent getting all the details right, and now it's time for a tear down. More updates soon!

JaPanhead gets a rear fender

...and some exhaust tips. They kinda go together.

Junior's Chopper - Done with phase one

This is what a unit chopper/bobber should look like! Just the right balance everywhere, and it runs great too. It's ready for a good shakedown, and then he'll take it back apart for final finishing (after Daytona). I really love the headlight. It's an old Indian Chief one, which a spun brass rim made to fit the lucas 6.5 inch fitted to early post-war Triumphs.

JaPanhead - custom seat pad

The seat pan was always something not quite done on JaPanhead. It has spent the last year sporting a custom bent pan, more recently with a quick powdercoat job on it. Dennis started playing around with getting some padding on it. He took a workshop floor pad, cut, glued, and shaped it. It was originally supposed to be covered soon after, but it looks pretty cool, so it's staying that way for now.

Josh is freakin nuts!

So it's Saturday night and it's about 18 degrees outside. I can see the excitement of getting your bike running for the first time since 'the incident'. I can even see excitement of trying out the new foot clutch/hand shift setup. I'm not convinced that a sane man does the test ride in nothing but a wife-beater though. Bike ran well...

JaPanhead - Titanium fasteners

So Dennis has his birthday a while back, his wife asks him what he wants, and he says "custom titanium fasteners for the bike". Not sure how much weight savings we are getting here, but you have to admit that they really look good!

Junior's Chopper - First Ride!

This is a bit long, but definately worth the watch. She runs really well, and has the best gas tank mounting setup I've ever seen on a bike!

Tuning JaPanhead's new exhaust

If you check back a few posts ago, you can see the crazy exhaust we built for JaPanhead. Of course, with an back pressure change you gotta tweak a bit. Check out the sound of those new pipes - awesome!

1950 TR5 - First Ride!

Well we couldn't have a running bike without taking for a ride, could we? The video is a bit dark, but worth watching. This is later in the evening on the 23rd, the first day the bike ran. We just added a primary cover, some footpegs, and zip-tied the hanging bottle to the frame. Fantastic!

1950 TR5 Update - She runs!

We were really exicted about this project when Dennis picked it up, and immediately put the bike back together using mostly what came with the bike and stuff we found on the shelf. Our original plan had been to get her rolling, then see if she might want to run. We got as far as a roller that would kick over, and then the workload at the shop became too heavy to spare any more time.

So fast forward several months, and Dennis decided there would be a shop fun day on the 23rd (last day we were open during the year). RC spent the day getting the odds and ends sorted, and then...

Started on the first kick!

How's that for a bike that had been dismantled for decades? You just can't kill these old Triumphs!