The saying is: the last 10 percent takes 90 percent of the time to do the job. That is an exaggeration, perhaps, but a lot of little details have to be done, and in custom building, some of that means making parts. A set of fork spring cups for the top of the springs was turned on the lathe to finish the fork assembly. The powder coated parts are back, and look great. Sub-assemblies are going together like the fork components, wheels, muffler, and footpegs.
The spring cups were turned out of aluminum, and in addition to being a place for the top of the spring to rest, it has a groove that secures the top of the fork gaiters
Honda makes a part that holds the top of the fork gaiters, but they are made to be used with fork covers. Without fork covers, they do not look quite right, or at least they don’t look as clean as these pieces do.
Most all of the aluminum polishing is done, the parts are back from chrome and zinc platers as well as the black powder coated parts. One of the jewels are the chrome plated thumb screws for the seat hold down. The muffler was painted with high heat ceramic paint, and looks really sharp with the fresh chrome plating on the heat shield. The heat shield was attached with Honda screws and heat insulating washers. Even though the bike is anything but stock, when it comes to assembly of these parts, a lot of care goes into using as much of the original style hardware as possible.
Another sub-assembly getting attention was the handlebars and fork top clamp. The headlight assembly uses the bolts coming from the bottom of the handlebar clamp to hold the top of the bracket in place. The throttle was rebuilt using all new parts from Honda. A set of aluminum knobs were used in place of the original rubber ones.
The chrome plated wheel rims are from TB Parts, and look perfect! I tried out the aluminum rims, but the polish on those rims was nowhere as nice as these chrome ones.
Several sets of shocks are on hand to find the best match with all the final finishes. The yellowing gold reservoir shocks used in mock-up could still get the nod, but I am leaning toward the chrome ones.
Another 330mm shock, this DNM brand set will be an interesting one to try. More an off-road shock than street, it will probably end up on another build.
Some of the Honda bags, saved and photographed to keep track of supplies.
Inching a little close every day.
A set of Heidenau K-38 tires and some Michelin S-83 tires were considered for the build. I have used the Heidenau tires on multiple builds, and love their performance and looks.
It was hard not to pick the Heidenau’s. They look great with the assembled wheel rims and hubs. Even though there are stainless steel fasteners used on other parts of the build, I went with new OEM hardware when it came time to mount the hubs to the rims.
All ready for assembly!
In other news, some brass covers were made for the horns on the Tijuana Trike. With all the stuff going on on the front of the trike, it was more about safety than the need for another ornament. Brass discs were punched, domed, and soldered together to make the balls, and a simple cone was made from the same sheet, and soldered to the balls.
The finished product, safety-wired on with stainless wire.
The fire scale and excess solder were left alone for the patina.