My forks are at the powdercoater’s and the wheels are being fine tuned at the shop, so there wasn’t a whole lot to do on the Bonneville today. Great day to give my Honda CL 360 some love. She got an oil change, a clean up, and a new paint job!
Before
After
It’s like having a whole new bike.
In between the coats drying, I also got the axle, bearings, etc out of the front Bonneville wheel – ready to get the wheels and forks on the frame next weekend. Then Sunday…. MotoGP at Lagune Seca!!!
We work!
Ok, we do have fun… but we do both. We’ve got a great crew at Re-Cycle. Some shots from today’s garage session…
Since I shared the triple assault photo on my last post, I thought I’d share another cool pic of my grandfather’s from WWII… one of my faves.
Can you name this bike?
Grandpa Lankford's photo from WWII - so appropriate right now.
Hit a bump today. My front wheel is almost perfect. It’s almost there. So I decided to work on my rear wheel a bit, and upon tightening all the spokes completely, before they pierce through the end of the nipple, saw that nothing was tight and still had too much play. Definitely a no go. Our only guess was that the rim needed to be turned the other way, so I removed all the spokes and started over again. It was sticky (spoke oil) and I was definitely feeling a little perturbed, but figured this had to be solution. Tightening the spokes up a bit, realized THIS try wasn’t the answer, either. The spokes weren’t fitting correctly through the rim and were starting to bend the ends of the spokes, straining to reach where they weren’t supposed to be in the first place. Seemed off to begin with but it was the only other way. My pattern’s correct – I’m sure of it. But something is not working.(!!!!!!!!)
I think I must have the wrong sized spokes, so I’m taking the wheel back down to Raber’s to see if they can’t figure out what the problem is. While I’m at it, I might even have them lace and true it for me. At least I laced ONE of my own, right? Am I going back on myself by giving in having them finish the job?
For anyone out there reading this, I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about spokes, too, right?
Anyway, here’s what else I got done today:
I spent many hours getting not much further ahead, but doing a lot. I swear, sometimes it feels like I take one step forward and two steps back. Ugh. It’s just one of those days.
Time to get the forks done. I’m thinking I’m going to powercoat them black. They’re clean, but I think it would make for some nice contrast. Do I want the whole bike black and silver though? I need to figure out some ways to add some more color/ detail. It’s tough making choices that need to be made now, not having a full visual of the end result. Maybe it’s time for some good mock-ups. I know there will be many things I wish I’d thought of before it was too late. Every choice made cancels out so many other possibilities. Kind of scary, really, and one of the harder parts of the build, wheel frustration aside.
The latest Motorcycle Classics mag blog post is up! I’ll never think of the term “tried and true” in the same way again…
I am not a mechanic, nor am I a naturally technical person. Rebuilding a motorcycle from a pile of parts isn’t something I ever thought I’d do, but despite my lack of experience and mechanical know-how I have committed myself to the job. My hope is that my journey will inspire other newbies to take it on. For you experienced gear-heads out there who have done this many times, maybe this column will spark memories of your first build or even encourage you to take on something else you wouldn’t have otherwise thought you could do. Or, in this case, perhaps try lacing your own spokes if you haven’t before.
Apparently, lacing and truing spokes is a right of passage in the wrenching world. Despite the furrowed brows I get when I tell people I’m doing this myself, I’m finding it more a matter of patience than know-how. I have two old wheels to copy the pattern from, but a little logic goes a long way in figuring out what the pattern should be. My Bonneville has cone-shaped hubs, so the short spokes attach the wider side of the hub to the rim, with the longer ones on the side with the smaller circumferance. For each length there are two types with either a more obtuse end or shorter, flatter end opposite the thread. The greater angle is for those spokes that need to wrap over the hub and bottom spoke layer to reach the rim effectively. You’re most likely to have an old wheel to rebuild, so if anything, take pictures of the pattern before dissambly and simply recreate it. This step is surprisingly easy to do, but for more technical details on the process, check out this great how-to on lacing and truing wheels.
Spokes laced and tightened as evenly possible, I’m in the middle of truing the wheels. It’s essential that the wheel is secure on a truing stand so you know the wobble is coming from the wheel, and not affected by its rotation on the stand. At first, I had a severe wobble and obvious difference in the vertical spin, but I’ve managed to get the wheel spinning pretty close to true. I still have a ways to go, but every time I sit down to work on this, I get closer and closer. Asking around for an easy way to do this, it seems there is none. It comes back down to patience, concentration and regular breaks in times of frustration. My preference is to do this while no one is around with some good music to zen out to, and I’m actually finding the process somewhat enjoyable and meditative.
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to take a tour of Blastolene, Michael Leeds’ garage, who makes some of the most creative and over the top hot rods and motorcycle art pieces you’ll ever see. In a way, he views his creations as super human prosthetics. I told him about my project and that I was in process of spoking my wheels, and after our discussion, I’m really glad I chose to do this myself. His advice was to not rush to the finish line. Someday I will get to ride this bike, but enjoy the process while I have the opportunity to experience it. Every spoke I turn and part I have my hands on will give me a greater connection to the motorcycle once it’s complete, and ultimately, truly make it an extension of my own body. It’s really great advice, and I’m sure many of you can attest to this. I’m very much looking forward to experience it for myself, but in the meantime, I’m taking my time, not skipping corners and enjoying every last minute of it.
This weekend I had the rare honor of visiting the Blastolene garage, where creator and visionary Michael Leeds creates some of the most unusual and incredible machines I’ve ever seen. His space reminded more of a store room for the 1900 World Fair than a garage, where airplane and semi-truck engines are reinvented into strange hot rods and trikes with every day found objects for functional parts, glass eyeballs for accents and other oddities. The walls of the garage are covered in all sorts of interesting things, along with his found-art motorcycles. Incredible. Even his tools are pieces of art, his favorite of which is a saw from 1865.
Talk about thinking outside of the box. His philosophy for creation put men on a level with gods and sees his creations more as prosthetics than vehicles. World renowned, even Jay Leno has one of his cars in his garage. A visit to his garage was highly inspirational and opened up a whole new way of thinking about my project and its possibilities.
“What is Blastolene? A highly concentrated distillation of pure cosmic essence – High in Demand, Low in Supply – VIRTUALLY PRICELESS – Blastolene is basically an “Attitudinal Conditioner” – When you open up a can of Blastolene it’s like opening a can of “WHOOP-ASS” - It’s got that – I CAN DO IT EXTRA CRAZY FLAVOR”
Thought I’d share a little something from my day job… One of my clients is a social virtual world called Meez, where you can create an avatar and interact with the other 13 million users on the site. Chat, watch videos, listen to music, play games, etc. Most of our audience are teens, but I’ve been having a lot of fun making my avatar pretty cool. 
Thanks to Evan Wilcox, a master in custom alloy tanks, fenders, seats and other parts, it looks like I’ll be sporting this unbelievably gorgeous Manx-style tank on my bike…
the Manx tank
I can’t tell you how ridiculously excited I am about my bike and what she’s going to turn into. I’m speechless.
I’m barely done with my wheels and the life is already being pumped into my Bonnie. She’s totally taken on a life of her, and I feel like a giddy school girl. I have so many ideas for special details to make this the sickest ride in town. Am I the luckiest girl alive right now or what?! Life is grand, life is grand.
Whenever I tell someone I’m going to lace my own spokes, I get this look… like oooh really? That’s tough. Good luck. You’ll need it.
Apparently, it’s a right of passage for true motorcycle restoration. Even the most experienced mechanics I’ve talked to raise an eyebrow when the topic comes up. I’m not phased though. I said I’m tackling this project head on and that’s what I intend to do. Liza at Re-Cycle thinks everyone’s just afraid of the process. It is pretty confusing, after all. You tighten one spoke and it throws off the rest. Quite the puzzle.
I laced the front wheel this weekend with relative ease. Now, I’m down to “truing” the wheel.
Here’s the process I went by:
Now, for the hard part. Which I haven’t gotten to yet. Spinning the wheel on the truing stand, there’s an obvious wobble on one side. Driving on this thing at high speed would NOT be good. I’ll be spending hours and ours making minor adjustments to correct the wobble. If you have any suggestions on how to simplify this process – do let me know!