73' shovel

[Stretchhh]

What's up everybody I've been lurking around chopcult for quite some time now looking for information and reading about other peoples builds, so I figured it was time for me to make my own account and start a build thread of my own where I can post progress and ask stupid questions. Basically it started out as a 73' shovel I bought out of a barn that had been sitting for years and now it's a money pit that I love.

This was it when I first brought it home and took it out of the truck. thought I wasn't going to change anything about it until I decided it looked way to stock.

So I stripped it down and figured I might as well go through the top end and ended up doing a whole top end job on the bike.

Went with avon tires front and rear for it. cut and shaved the rear tabs for my fat bobs so I could run a sporty tank and also cut and shaved the fender brackets off my paughco front end. It also needed a clutch job so I decided to say fuck it and go kick only and ended up with a 1.5" karata belt drive set up and a Barnett scorpion clutch. (Still waiting on a crankspacer before I can put the new seal in and button up the primary set up.)

And here's how she sits now with the new sporty tank mocked up and me trying to figure out how to make a sissy bar setup on a swing arm that doesn't look like hammered ass... I have no intensions of riding two up on this thing I just want somewhere to strap down my gear and a case of beer every now and then. Hopefully cutting down a fiberglass fender I have in the next day or two to see how she looks. Only issue I'm seeing is that I may not have enough space between my fender and tire so it might hit on bumps. Right now the way I plan on going there's 2.5" between the top of the tire and the bottom of my fender when the bike is sitting on the ground. Can anyone tell me the tire to fender clearance I need to make this work? Also thanks for checking it out and reading all this crap. (And I know my pics aren't the best sorry in advance)

[Tattooo]

Pics look just fine...... At least you posted some.......

Looking good so far.........

[Stretchhh]

Well I decided I didn't like The sissy bar set up after cutting up a fender for it. To many wonky angles that I hated. So I used another fender I had laying around and just cut it up to what I wanted.

[TriNortchopz]

Got enough clearance between fender and tire when shocks are fully compressed? Is the bottom front of the fender mounted to the swingarm? Couple of brackets from the back of it (kinda hidden behind the shocks) to the inside lower shock mounts could be a real tire hugger.

[Stretchhh]

Ok so the fender is mounted to the frame only. I thought 2 1/2" of clearance between the two would be enough but now I'm not so sure. When you say compress the shock all the way how do you go about doing that? I put a ratchet strap on either side of the bike tonight and cranked them till I couldn't move them anymore and it still didn't bottom the shock out. However it did hit the fender. I don't know how soft shocks are supposed to be on a bike like this since it's my first non hardtail but I can tell you I had a buddy hold the forks while I jumped on the frame right above the battery box (I'm 210lbs) and the supension barley moved more than an inch. It sinks maybe 1/8-1/4 when I sit on it. Are these shocks just wicked stiff or is this normal? Do you think it would be ok to run considering how stiff they are maybe they wouldn't even come close to the fender? My other thought was to take the shock apart and put a two piece shaft collar around the shock at the stop to essentially shorten the travel of the shock by bringing the stop down farther... thoughts on that? Here's a pic of a shaft collar in case everyone doesn't call them the same thing.

[Theretic]

If you mount the fender to the swingarm it will move with the tire eliminating the need to compensate for clearance. As Tri said you can also run a much cleaner and lower fender by doing so. Lowbrow sells a fender bracket that can be welded onto the middle of the swingarm. Bike looks great btw, nice work.

[Tattooo]

If you mount the fender to the swingarm it will move with the tire eliminating the need to compensate for clearance. As Tri said you can also run a much cleaner and lower fender by doing so.

Yep you sure can, I did it back in 1977.......... The only down side is you can't ride a bitch on the back.....

[Stretchhh]

Thanks for the responses, i was considering going with a swing arm mounted fender before but I'm not sure about how I feel about the look of them. I really like this fender I made up for the bike and it can't be mounted to the swing arm unless I cut it more. What you can't see in the pic is the way I have it tapered off into the rear of the oil tank which I think makes a really clean transition into the rest of the bike. If I were to mount a swingarm fender where are you guys attaching your struts? To the axel or are you just welding tabs to the swing arm for the struts to bolt to. I don't really care about haveing anyone on the back of this bike it's more of a pain in the ass anyhow. Alothough a place to slap some gear would be nice so I don't need to wear a back pack.

[Theretic]

You could use the back side of the shock mounts with longer bolts. Or the chain guard mount on the left and weld another on the right.

This piece from lowbrow works great for mounting the lower fender to the swingarm.

https://www.lowbrowcustoms.com/lowbrow-customs-weld-on-upper-fender-mount-tab-for-curved-and-ribbed-motorcycle-fenders.html

Run that sissy bar you wanted with the same application listed above. That would probably work best for tying stuff onto.

[Tattooo]

Thanks for the responses, i was considering going with a swing arm mounted fender before but I'm not sure about how I feel about the look of them. I really like this fender I made up for the bike and it can't be mounted to the swing arm unless I cut it more. .

My take on that type of fender is it's useless...... You can't strap anything on it and when it rains you will get drenched from the front and the back..... Unless it's a sunny day only bike.....

But it's your bike do as you wish..... The bike I have a pic of above was my only transportation for 2 years so it had to be practical........

[Tattooo]

If I were to mount a swingarm fender where are you guys attaching your struts? To the axel or are you just welding tabs to the swing arm for the struts to bolt to.

Why do you need struts?????

Look at my bike, I don't have any struts no need for them.... Hell I even cut the strut tabs off of the frame....

[Tattooo]

If I were to mount a swingarm fender where are you guys attaching your struts? To the axel or are you just welding tabs to the swing arm for the struts to bolt to.

You don't need any struts..... Look at my bike......

[Stretchhh]

Tattooo forgive me I guess my terminology is wrong because when I said strut, I was referring to the supports you had running from your swing arm to your fender.not the factory fender struts that bolt to the frame. Was just wondering if you attached them to your axel or welded tabs on to the swingarm? I took my shocks apart tonight and added the spacer behind the bump stop that I was talking about.

and it actually helped inhibit the travel of the shock to the point where the fender is just about safe. I also noticed that my shocks have an adjustment for spring pre load and they are set to the lowest setting right now (longest spring length) so tomorrow I'm going to crank them up and see if that will give me the tiny bit I need to clear the fender. That's my last stich effort at trying to save this setup since I really like it. Ride quality isn't really a big deal for me as I love my hardtail and have no problems riding that thing all day so I figure this set up should be more comfortable than that anyways.

[Tattooo]

Yes those are fender braces/supports.... and they and welded directly to the swingarm...

To me fender struts are what bolt on to the frame and the fender bolts to them on a swing arm frame..... But I might be wrong, I've been wrong before....

[Stretchhh]

Ok so I was working on the bike tonight and got my pegs mounted and tried to adjust the shifter on the forward controls to a good spot for me but I wasn't able to get it just right. It feels like it has a large range of motion in it before it actually shifts. I also bought a coil/key switch bracket and mounted that up but it seems like the ear on my ratchet lid comes wicked close to it. So when I looked at it closer it seems like the previous owner flipped the ear over on the lid for some reason? When I tired flipping it back to where it looks like it's supposed to go it hits my bearing support on my trans. Also the rod between my trans and forward controls isn't long enough when I flip it to the original spot. What the hells the deal with this? Thought I read something in the past about FL and FX trans lids being different but I can't remember. Bike is supposed to be an FX acording to vin on motor but who knows if the trans is original at this point. Any help would be awesome. Thanks! (You can see the key switch bracket just above the trans in the pic. Also in the pic the ear on the lid is in the position the previous owner put it in)