The Freebird 1957 Triumph exhaust fishtails and seat frame finishing.

If you are going to do it, go big. Smaller sizes were contemplated, but looked a little dinky when mocked up. Trying to keep the lines right with the top of the tail in line with the muffler and the rear lining up with vertical.

Cheese grater or saltshaker? The choices are endless, but one of these will most likely get the nod. Once they get pierced, they will be welded along the edge.

Salt and pepper got the nod. Still need to clean some welds where they were joined at the edge.

There are also some removable baffles in the neck of the fishtails, but the megaphones are still going to make it loud.

Digging on the vintage simplicity of holes.

The seat for the Freebird bike got some attention. The welds were cleaned up and the right corner got revised to take a 1/4’ section out. It is hard to believe that such a short length would throw off the symmetry, but I could see it and it was bugging me.

Still a couple small areas that need touching up, but mostly there. It will go for cadmium plating when done, and then a leather seat cover will be made.

Patterned after a Lycett style seat, some changes were made such as a round bar instead of flat. Don’t know if it will be any more comfortable, but the rear edge of a Lycett looks like it might hurt if you hit it too hard.

The bottom view.

While working on the exhaust tails, it occurred to me this is how cowbells are made. The exhaust now has more cowbell.

Making a seat mount and gas tank mods for the 1993 Harley Davidson FXR custom

Liking how the seat and tank are lining up. Fenders will be coming up next. The filler neck on the tank has been stripped in preparation of shortening.

This was the first version of the seat support that looked too high. Now on the scrap heap.

Brackets for the rear brake master cylinder and reservoir were made. These are the stock brake components from the original bike.

The rear tank hold-down bracket waiting to be welded on. I usually try to get all the brackets made while the bike is in the assembly area of the shop and then get them all welded on at once, reducing the time the bike is in the metal room potentially getting exposed to grinding dust.

Working on the template for the cover. The seat support and battery cover were made as a single unit, strengthening and stabilizing both.

Recycling old medical office folders for template making. A pile of schnitzles litters the base of the bike.

The primary is off the bike in preparation of the 29 tooth front sprocket and belt change.

Looking kind of naked without the primary drive.

The tank tunnel square opening that needed to be made to match the new frame.

A small arc of 1/8” steel was grafted in, welding only to the existing bracket, avoiding the body of the tank. The space above the tunnel opening is where a tab from the tank-top center console will attach.

There. That’s better on the tunnel, but the gas filler neck is pretty high and needs to be cut down.

I tried to strip the paint and heat the filler to see if it was perhaps silver soldered in like British bike tanks, but turns out they are welded in. In this before, the cap measures 2 3/8” tall.

The neck was cut off, weld carefully cleaned from inside the tube and around the filler insert, then silver brazed in.

1 1/2” inches now. With a pop-up screw cap, it will be even shorter.

Even with the stock gas cap it looks better!

Making an internal cable throttle for the 1957 Triumph Freebird bike.

These are the brass reverse levers going on the bike. They are made by hand in Ukraine and are a BMW knock-off. The holes for the screws had to be enlarged to allow the cams to slide enough to tighten them up and the cable perches needed filing out, but hey are otherwise strong serviceable units. This particular pair was chosen because the cable exits toward the back wall of the inner handlebar, allowing room for the throttle mechanism.

The Honda components that make up the internal throttle cable mechanism. Made for a 1969 Z50 minibike, they were chosen because they leave the interior of the handlebars clear enough to get the brake cable through. The longer piece at the top of the pic is the slide that pulls the cable end, and the other piece is the cable sheath holder. The cable sheath has a threaded end that screws into the holder, making for a solid joint that can’t back out like most cable holders.

The hardest part to make was the internal spiral that drives the slide.. getting the angle of the slide was not hard, but getting the spiral to lay down perfectly flat and getting the right tolerance between the bar was tricky. Although the throttle is based on the Honda design, it was changed a little by adding the ring at the bottom to act as the flange that rides against the bar. A thinner outer tube will cover the spiral.

The inner workings of the throttle mechanism can be seen in place. The cable holder is held in place a couple of different ways. There is a round keyed portion at the top of the slot that keeps the top located correctly, then a flange that slides over the bar and keeps it from being able to come out the top, and finally a screw that secures it from the bottom. The slot for the slide was cut by hand and made a few millimeters longer than the stock Honda one to accommodate the longer travel of the Amal carb slide.

This is the flange that slides over the cable holder. It also is the spacer the outer throttle tube rests on, and the ring at the end keeps it from sliding inward on the bars. A stopper screw was turned from a hex bolt. In addition to anchoring the bottom of the cable holder, it keeps the throttle tube from being able to slide off the end, and limits the range of the throttle twist. The exit hole for the cables can be seen on the underside of the bars. A shroud (seen below) was made to go around the hole to support the cable and keep it from resting on the edge of the hole.

Other than the cable for the brake, this is all that will be on the right side.

That is about as clean as it gets on the handlebars.

The exits for the cables were given some shrouds that were brass-brazed on.

Because there are two cables exiting the handlebars on the right side and they are not as fat as the left-side clutch cable, a thinner, taller shroud was made.