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Beer Runner on a Budget–Part 8

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Article By: Wayne at Wicked Willy’s Choppers

Here in part 8, we will finish our foot clutch that we started last month. We will make an end for our cable and also make up a set of kickass handlebars that flow with our tank and have enough pullback for this long trike. Then I will show you how I build a seat pan out of steel from start to finish.

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First thing I’ll do is machine a stainless steel disk one inch in diameter and .300 thick to make my cable end for my clutch cable. Notice how I have laid out the shape I want my cable end to be. You can also see where I have offset marked for my through hole. You can use a factory clutch cable end to make your marks.

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Shown here is my completed cable end and a sleeve I machined to go into my cable end to bolt it to my forward control. All parts were machined from 316 stainless steel.

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Next, I’ll machine a stop for the arm on my forward controls to stop my clutch pedal from coming back too far. I machined the stop out of cold roll steel.

Here I have set my clutch arm in the right place I need it to be and tack weld my arm stop onto my forward control plate. Notice I tack welded the stop on so once I get my cable in place, if it’s not right for the rider, I can remove it and adjust the stop where it needs to be.

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Once I have cut my clutch cable to the length I think I need, I take the stainless steel end I have machined and I slide it onto my cable. Then I sweat silver solder it to the end of my cable. Builders use soft solder but I prefer silver because of the greater tinsel strength.

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Here you can see my foot clutch completed with the cable hooked up and adjusted. Notice that I have adjusted the cable where it pulls back against the pedal stop.

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Next, I’ll start a set of handlebars. The first step is to straight knurl the part of my bars that will go through the risers so they will not move.

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This is my part with the knurl on it. The knurls are 3.5 inches, from center to center, apart. They should fit in nicely to our one inch risers. This way, when the rider is taking the trike down the road, the bars will not move up and down.

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Now I’m going to arch some tubing. Here I am using my hand tubing roller. When I make something like handlebars and I will need more than one piece with an arch that needs to match, I cut my tubing so I can get the number of pieces out of one piece I roll so that the arch will have the same radius.

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Using the help of a friend’s hand, I measure my arched piece of tubing and cut it in half to give me both sides of my handlebars. Sometimes the guys that hang around the shop come in handy.

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Next, I lay out my tubing on a flat plate or table and weld up my bars. I use a plate that years ago I laid out a center grid on, and that way it makes it easy for me to set up my bars and make both sides the same.

Here, after I have my bars welded up, I put them on the trike to make sure it’s the look I am after. Also, I took a 4 inch flapper disk and polished my welds down.

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This is a side view so you can see how and why I arched my tubing. I tried to make the bars follow the arch of my frame. A photographer once told me that a bike should flow like a woman’s body. I try to picture that every time I build a bike.

After the bars are finished, it’s time to move on back. Next step to this build is to fab a seat pan. I try to use steel when I can. I just took some poster board and made a pattern of my seat pan.

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Now I’ll take my pattern and trace it onto a piece of 18 gauge sheet metal. I like 18 gauge because it’s sturdy and it’s not too hard to work.

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Here I am using a set of electric nibblers to cut out my seat pan. They work great and I don’t have to worry about heating things up as I would if I used my plasma to cut it out.

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After I have my pan cut out, I place it across the seat section of my frame and use a 2 lb. hammer to roll the edges over the sides of the frame.

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Once I have my seat pan shaped up, I take it to the bead roller. I come in about an inch and a half off the outside edge and roll a ½ inch bead all the way around the seat pan. This will really make the pan stiff and keep it from losing its shape.

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Here is our finished pan. All I will need to do is smooth up the outer edges and it is ready to go to the guy that will make us a seat cover. If you have any questions about what we have done here in part 8, feel free to e-mail me through my Web site www. wickedwillychoppers.com or call me at the shop 828-303-0422.

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