|
| This is what you
should have. Naked softail front end. If is doesn’t look
like this, you did something wrong. Go buy more beer and
check out what’s left in the pizza box, then go back and
do whatever it takes to make it look like this. |
| Now this part is
fairly a bitch. You need to remove the bearing races
from the frames. These are just little round pieces of
metal that and pressed into the frame. You can whack on
them all day with a screw driver or some other
uninspired fake tool, but the fact is you won’t get them
off and you could damage your frame. GET THE TOOL that
removes bearing races from the frame. A couple of
companies make them and any shop worth its salt has one.
Sometimes you can bribe the local chopper shop to rent
you this tool, we’ve found this to be the most effective
method as you rarely ever use this tool for anything
else than the installation of this front end. Trash has
a dent puller hocked up to the tool to band the races
out. |
| Stick your glasses in
your mouth and suck on 'em. Well, OK, this part is
optional. |
| With the bearing
races removed, read the instructions again just to make
sure you’ve got everything right, then apply some grease
to the frame cups where the races used to be. Yes,
you’ll get grease on your hands. Wipe them on your pants
and go out later on that night to a bar. Go home with
the chick that thinks you smell good. |
| Position the top of
the new trees in the greased frame cup. Here’s the weird
part – it has what’s known as a heim joint, which means
it’s gonna flop around. You’re gonna think something is
really wrong, but it’s not. The top of your trees will
eventually be held stable by the tubes. The heim joint
has a large bolt-like rod that extends down through your
frame. This will eventually mate up with the bottom
piece that the lower tree will ride on. |
| This is the lower
piece that shoves up into the bottom frame cup. Your
bottom tree will now ride on that spindle pointed
towards the front of the bike. This piece essentially
fools the tree into thinking that the frame has been
cut. |
| This is well-machined
stuff and fits tight. |
| We gave it a few love
taps with the rubber mallet to seat it in the bottom
cup. The two spindles towards the frame side will act as
your new fork stops. They’re not “hidden” and believe
me, when you see this baby finished, no one will care. |
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Badass Bolt-On Chopper: The ONE DAY
Chopper Build
Continued...
Now, saying this process is simple is like getting to the part
of auto repair manual where it says “remove transmission”.
Depending upon what you’re tearing into, this can be four bolts
or four days. It’s the same with the statement “cut the frame” –
if you took welding in school, have a relatively well-equipped
garage and a fair amount of skill, you can take scoot you have
sitting in the corner and take off the tanks, take out the
motor, take off the front end and then cut away. If you want the
frame to look like anything but some kind of Frankenstein
monster (which some folks don’t really seem to mind these days)
then you’ve got to tear this beast down to frame only so you can
paint or powder coat the frame when you’ve completed the surgery
– thus making a two or three day job into a two or three week
job.
Until now – thanks to the folks at AME. They build “bolt-on”
chopper front ends that work.
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