Triggerfinger

Last Thursday we went to Triggerfinger @ 013 Tilburg, Holland , great Belgian rockband. No attitude just pure rock'n'roll! Check them out at www.triggerfinger.net

Headlight bracket

Tonight I finished my headlight bracket made from scratch.

Colour Haze @ Baroeg Rotterdam, Holland

Last night my girl and I went to a Colour Haze concert @ the Baroeg Rotterdam. I've got all their albums but it was the first time we've seen them live... but surely not the last! If you're into psychedelic stonerrock, check their website www.colourhaze.de! (this video was not shot @ Baroeg)

Before hardtailing

It's been a while that I posted something about the XS
project. Nothing interresting happend lately. But here's
a photo to keep you updated. As you can see I put in the
front fork and made an attachment for the tank. I bolted
on the enginemountbracket to use it as a reference point
to keep the lower frametubes parallel with the ground
and the top of the engine.

The Black Keys @ Tivoli Utrecht, Holland

Last Friday we went to The Black Keys concert @ Tivoli. I've seen this band for the third time now, still not getting bored, great music!
(This video is from earlier this year @ Melkweg, Amsterdam.
Couldn't find a video from the last concert.)

The new frame in half

I cut off the rear end and all needless shit.

Temporary frame support

Before I cut off the rear end, I secured the 2
downtubes and the middle one, to avoid bending
while cutting and welding it.

Another frame

Today I bought an original 1978 XS650 frame
including title and all documents for almost
nothing (!). This changes my plan a bit:
Now I'm going to modify the '78 frame to a hardtail
and gonna sell my other '86 frame as a rollin' chassis.

This gives me the opportunity to make a better
looking frame than the one that was modified
by the previous owner.

The project so far

I still have to change the rear-end
to fit the HD discwheel. The tank is
roughly finished. I modified a pair
of white grips from Motorcycle
Storehouse to fit the 22mm bars.

Tank bottom

Bending a steel plate (1mm) around an iron tube.

Made it fit the frame.

Welding it into the tank.

Rear wheel

Piet from Old Mill Choppers made me some
spacers for the rear-end. One thing left to do:
welding it on to the frame.

Tank halfs and Belgian beers

Last Saturday night Michael (General Wheels)
and I started to shape the tank by cutting out
all the holes with thread and closing them by
welding 1mm steel plates in to it.
-Thanks for the welding tips and Duvel beers, Michael!

Today I made a simple mould to weld the
2 tank halfs in. The width of the mould is 22cm,
exactly the same as the front fork.

The picture above shows you the tank so far.
(Don't pay attention to the position of the tank,
it's just to give you an impression.)

Another tank

The other tank looked cool on the bike.
But... I've got this one left from one of my
previous bikes. I think after the modifcation it
will look way cooler than the Sportsers one, without
spending a lot of money. Above you can see how I
started it by cutting it in half.

Frontbrake installed

Pass it on to you

A new blog started by a man who tried to
sell his wife and kids on Ebay to achieve more
spare time to spend on his CB500 Caferacer
project. You should also check out his copper
and brass pieces of work on his blog!
pass it on to you

Modified caliper

Yesterday I modified an old type Suzuki GS850
frontbrake caliper to fit the GS550 fork in combination
with the CB500 brake disc.

Brass!

I found out that underneath the black paint
the shell was made out of brass.

This is the result after cleaning en polishing.

I used this H3 light and socket from a car
to modernise the thirties headlight.

The front end so far...

Tonight I assembled the front end.
The 21" rim is now combined with the
Honda CB500 hub, polished the legs and
risers ...found a thirties bicycle
headlight in my attic that I'm going to
use instead of the Bates one.

Paintings

Some oilpaintings that I made.

Oil on canvas 70 x 50 cm

Oil on canvas 50 x 70 cm

Oil on canvas 70 x 50 cm

Oil on canvas 50 x 70 cm

Oil on canvas 100 x 120 cm

Detail

Japanese threesome

Triple tree from a Yamaha XS650,
forklegs from a Suzuki GS550
and a wheelhub from a Honda CB550.
Thanks to Piet from "Old Mill Choppers"
for making the spacers!

I'm going to combine this 40 spoke 21" Harley rim
together with with the Honda CB500 wheelhub.

Psychedelic bars

Michael from "General Wheels" walked in this mornig
and surprised me with these freaky handmade bars!
Awesome job mate, thanks a lot!

Changin' the rear wheel

My neighbour Berry gave me this HD disc-wheel
(and a 21" HD spoke wheel)
He replaced those on his bike with racing-wheels.

I have to modify the rear end of the frame
otherwise the chain won't fit.

Next week's plan...

I'm trying to get my XS650 hardtail on the road again.
Goal: achieving cool looks on a low budget.

Today I finally got my stuff together