I'm still working on this build. I've been trying to find a good welder and nobody wants to do this type of work. I'm not a welder and this has stalled me since the winter. About 3 weeks ago I went out for a ride on my MT10 and 2 minutes out I spotted a cafe racer and I followed him to an ice cream parlor right down the road. I introduced myself and was checking out his build which was a Kawasaki 250 cafe racer that was a seriously cool budget build. What made it so cool was that he did a bunch of custom fabricating which was beautiful quality. I asked if he welds and said yes, he has a small hobby motorcycle business. A couple of days later I brought my frame over to his little shop which is called Lizzie's Choppers - He lives 2 doors away from the LIzzie Borden murder house.
I told him my plan, what I had fabricated and what needed to be welded. Not only did he weld, but made suggestions and improvements. It is so cool getting to work with someone like this. This is the only part of this project I couldn't control and it's exceeding my hopes and expectations. He also has no head for business so I had to insist on paying him almost double what he asked. It's a matter of respect and doing the right thing. He's also somebody that I can learn from and generally pretty cool to hang out with.
In the mean time, I have been doing stuff also. I'll be picking it up in the next day or so and now finally begin to put it together and test fit everything. My motor, wheels, forks, swing arm are all finished and ready to install. Once I get it all fit up, I'll take it apart and send the frame to my powder coater. It's satisfying to realize that the grunt work is behind me. Assembly is generally pretty easy on these bikes when you do the grunt work well.
I'll post some pictures of the frame when I pick it up. It won't show well in pictures until it gets sand blasted and powder coated but it's excellent prep and fabrication. Hopefully with the easily over $8000 in parts I have to hang on the frame , it'll look like something.
