Thread of the Day: '67 XLH skinny bike build & daily driver

right then... bought this some time ago. i was rebuilt in 1977 then stashed away "for the winter" immediately after, in the back bedroom of a house.
it sat there for more than 3 decades as the owner died that winter....

they day i dragged it home:


a week later:


start piecing it together:






pull the heavy lump out


holes make it fast, right?


laced up to a NOS akront WM1 21"


and.... i called it "done"... rode the shit out of it for a summer






more.....

moving on...

built a skinny sissy...




still pouring miles on it. it was my daily driver for most of the summer.

a few set backs here and there....
brake backing plate shattered, back wheel locked up at speed. that was a fun ride



but moving on futher...
the original forks were wet noodles. looked good, but scary as shit.
got some late 39mm and started shaving:


and fitting...


and wanted to go skinny. super skinny. with a drum.

got the forks as close in as possible. it was an assload of work. lots of welding/cutting/filing/trimming/cussing.

then came the fun part. a chunk of T6 was carried over to the water cutter dude's place, and i took this home:




quite a bit narrower:


welded on a brake stay for the drum....
mention this was all oxy fuel?


coming together....

yup. skinny.


before and after.
no mill here... a handheld router and file work by hand.






yes. more betterer.


but, now my ass looked fat. err... tank, i mean.

cut up the old z bars, too...


few details here and there....
this is all stainless, silver soldered.


looking right.
or left, whatever.


back to putting miles on it, just like this...



during this time i ran a bunch of different carbs. tillotson, linkert, super E, mikuni round and a mikuni flat slide, an SU.... then i found the beauty of the CV. it's not a pretty carb, but shit damn does it work well.


some old MX pegs and a stainless/silver soldered shifter


more stainless and silver solder...

back to putting more miles on it.



from the day i bought it until this point was.... ahh.... maybe 2 years. sounds about right.

during that time, my son was born. bike didn't get any work done to it for a while.

the daily riding took its toll on it. one day it started making a HORRID fucking sound, screeching like you'd never hear before and hopefully never hear again.

decided to just tear it down.


fresh top end, down to 9.5:1 (i was near 11:1 before... a f'ing monster)




the crazy ass noise ended up being in the trans. a gear rubbing. f'ing weird.
regardless, i was happy to do the top end and lower the compression. it was seriously too wild for the street... pump gas sucked... had to run so little ignition timing it wasn't making much power anyway.
now at 9.5:1 it kicks over a LOT easier, i'm running a lot more advance... it doesn't feel any slower & the throttle response is significantly better.

Bike looks awesome. Digging that headlight bracket.