Well, I have been on hiatus for the last few months, due to my newest project, our first child. Anyone with kids will remember their first and knows that it takes a ton of work the first few months but is well worth every second.
Now that I am sleeping through decent chunks of the night and my life has settled some, I am back at it.
I received the tastiest of packages from our friend and JMR Porting, which includes a stage IV head that shines like a jewel, as well as a Wiseco 836 kit and some Cycle X rods. It was a big cash layout but I know it will be well worth it in the end. The upsides is that the largest single outlays of cash should be behind me as I work from the top down on this engine build.
As I get going on the build again, I have turned focus to a few nagging items. First is getting all the aluminum parts that I have made ready for hardcoat anodizing. I am sold on hardcoat simply because it is not a decorative finish like regular anodizing, and since most parts would be black anyway, it seems like a no brainer to go with hardcoat, enhanced with black dye. Parts that will be black hardcoat include the rear caliper mount, rear master cylinder mount, all front brake mounting brackets, the Weber intake, rearset brackets, and engine mounts both front and rear.
I had to pull the engine to do a leaky head gasket which is now done, so its time to finish up the frame by getting all the gusseting/bracing finished up and mounting the AP Racing rear master. Once I get some paint on to cover the exposed areas, I can continue my mock up build. My plan is to get this thing vetted over the next year before I go to final paint/powder. I hear of too many guys who build their dream bike in one go then remember that one bracket that costs them days of downtime and new powder on the frame.
For the front end, which is shaping up to be my favorite part of the bike, the only thing left is axle spacers. Those too will be black hardcoat anodized. Beyond that I will need to figure out what to do with brake lines. I can either do two full-length lines from the master to each caliper, or do one short one to a splitter and a line to each caliper from there. Finding a place to mount the splitter that doesn't clutter things up is my main concern. Probably going with two full-length lines.
On the rear, I have powder on the Marzocchi shocks, and the rebuilds are ready to go in with fresh oil. All that is holding that up is getting a few pieces refinished, like the adjuster collars and top spring retaining collars. This damn hardcoat anodizing is causing quite the bottleneck in my project!
Other things to button up are getting some upholstery on my seatpan and getting the tank cover, seat in at least the same color of primer so I don't look like a complete idiot.
Though the list is long I am shooting to get a rideable bike before the sun sets on summer here in Michigan.
More to come (pics too!) as I get moving on this again.
