My bikes | A labour of love

Looking around its safe to say that I like to get things off the floor. And when you're talking about bikes this also rings true. I had a minor meltdown a while back and decided that enough was enough. My Flat Track KTM 350 that I had spent way too much time on is now no longer, in fact, I pulled three bikes down to parts and sold the entire lot on my local buy/sell site. I just felt like I was losing a battle and needed to work out what I really needed in my two-wheeled world. 

I figured out the things that I needed and didn’t need, this 1986 Sportster I definitely need. With a really clear direction on where I was going, I decided to fix all the things that had been bugging me over the past year of riding. I remade a heap of things, made it a little more legal, ran all new oil lines, remade the exhaust, reworked the tank and made it truly insulated since the motor vibrations were really trying to rip it apart. I made a number plate mount that is removable and also well lit, put a rebuild kit through the S&S Super E Carb, then fired it up and went for a ride down the Great Ocean Road here in Victoria. It was flawless and a blast to ride.

Do you know why I love motorcycles? The exact same reason I love cars, being able to build something, understand 100% of it, improve it, modify it and make it your ultimate machine. Well it just so happens I can legally ride my ultimate motorcycles any day of the week but my cars…the same can't be said for those. Using old motorcycles also means working on old motorcycles and for some strange reason, this is what drives me. I thoroughly enjoy the mechanical vulnerability, I know that in my hands the motorcycle will get better with age, that’s a promise you have to make to yourself otherwise there is no point in owning one. 

So, off with the primary cover and clutch and then time to replace the worn kick start ratchet mechanism. It's also a good chance to replace the gearbox oil and tighten up the primary chain. The motor in this bike is 50 years old now and it's probably had 20 owners in that time, maybe more. I am also giving the magneto an overhaul with a fresh set of points, condenser and coil. These are basically the only electrical parts that make the bike run so it's worth doing once in a while. 

Behind it on the bench is the 1951 Triumph I built, I also had a few things to finish on it. The guys at Prism Supply Co build some amazing stuff and sent me some of their vintage cloth wire for a kill switch I had in mind. Its as simple as a piece of circuit board material, an old BMX seat clamp and a few screws used to earth out the magneto and kill the spark.

If you want to start to learn how to work on projects like this, or maybe something completely different, the Fabrication Fundamentals course is the perfect place to start out the right way.