BREAKING

Tech Tips/ DIY

Part 5 Of The High Life Project

Published In The November 2013 Issue Of Cycle Source

Article & Photos By: Daniel Donley

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I’m pretty stoked this month! We got the ACME Choppers’ Springer! Let me tell ya, this thing is sweet: great craftsmanship, nice lookin’ welds and it even has needle roller bearings in the rockers! So, ya know this things gonna be a smooth operator! First, we are gonna get the mockup finished so we have a roller. Then we will tear down and be off to Mr. Powder Coater.

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Before I install the neck bearing races, I use a burr bit in a die grinder to cut small reliefs on the inside of the neck. This will make for easy removal down the road when servicing them becomes necessary.

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We needed to make some front wheel spacers for the ACME Springer frontend and knocked them out on the lathe.

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Because we’re not running a front brake, but the rim had a provision for one, I made a wheel hub cover to clean this area up.

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With the neck bearings and races in place and the front wheel spaced, Duke and I installed the ACME Choppers’ Springer. We stood back and liked what we saw. Duke grabbed the gas tank he picked up from a swap meet and sat it on the frame. After looking at it for a bit, we found and marked where it would be located.

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We drilled some holes in the backbone to install the stepped bungs (provided by Hugh’s Handbuilt) to mount the gas tank. In this photo you can also

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see the one-off custom made risers that ACME Choppers’ provided!

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Here we are getting the gas tank pressure tested and metal finished.

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I used some stainless steel Allen bolts as fork stops.

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Not wanting to use zip ties for the 75’ long brake line, I made a handful of small rings that are welded to the frame to run the brake line through for a nice clean look.

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Duke didn’t want a stock kicker pedal for the build. He found this old H-D kicker pedal and with a few mods, we had it welded in place.

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Hugh’s Handbuilt hooked us up with a set of their Speedster Pipes, and we added a set of turn-out tips to them. We also installed a Pandemonium E-Bomb electronics’ tank to put all of the electronics into.

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Well, here she is all mocked-up and rollin’!

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Within a couple of hours we had the High Life project in a lot of pieces! Here, Joe Schindler is prepping all the parts to go off to powder coat. Well let’s see, it looks like powder coating, final assembly and engine build are next on the agenda. I wonder if Hugh’s got any of those sweet re-phased XS650 engines available? Guess you will have to make sure you read next month to find out! Feel free to call or email if you have any questions: 419-576- 6812 or info@pandemoniumc2.com.

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