Tag Archives: carpy

Working in this Pandemic time of life

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
16 Apr

Well, as many of you are in the exact same boat as we are, this Pandemic is a terrible thing to happen to anybody, but, we are abiding by the safe distancing and I continue to try and make parts from home and in a timely manner, but, as so many people are now stuck at home, it is the perfect time for you all to be working on your projects etc.

I have had many orders already and wanted to let you know that I am working as hard as I possibly can and in the amount of hours available, to get your orders completed and off into the mail to you, I have customers all over the world and EVERY one of you is important to me.

Please could you have a little patience with me on special orders, ie Exhausts, as I have to get all the tubing, and bends, weld and sand and then send to the ceramic coater, this does take time even in normal circumstances, but I have so many Exhausts on order, I am trying to get everything completed as fast as I can.

 

I will be bringing new parts out soon too, and will post them on my website as soon as they are completed, so keep checking back from time to time.

I also appreciate all the orders and giving me the opportunity to make parts for you and keep my family going in these difficult times, being self employed has huge risks in times such as this and I cannot thank you all for the orders, no matter what the size of them are, they all add up.

Let me know if I can help you with any parts for your ride, as I have been doing this for over 20 years in Southern California and have so many repeat Customers, you are all like Family to me to be honest. Stay safe everyone and thank you for purchasing from me, love you all.

 

Working from home during this time?

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
28 Mar

Well, the world has changed dramatically in the last few weeks and, for the worse- But, we are all keeping our hands clean and away from our face etc and Social Distancing is the new Norm.

Now, I have been quite buy as home at my shop inside the garage as many people are restricted to their home quarter’s, and to try and alleviate any frustrations and of course anxiety, people are trying to work on their projects or hobbies- And in our fraternity, that means working or creating a motorcycle that they were hoping to get to at some point but were busy with life in  general etc.

I like to build bikes at home, less stress and close to the kettle for my favorite brew etc and I am sure it is the same for you lot as well?

There is something satisfying when you create your own machine, even just adding some Custom parts to individualize your motorcycle, and I receive many emails complementing me on the parts and service that I give via my website or over the phone etc, I really enjoy taking something that is old and tarnished and revamp it into to something cool and unique in many ways.

I try and do everything my self, but on things like the chain Guard etc above, I make the first one and then make a fixture and take it to a steel bending company to press out more, as if I didnt do that, I would be making chain guards all month, and that can burn the candle down real fast, but, as these times right now are tough, many supply shops are closing temporary and this holds my orders going out a little, but- if you lot can be patient like I am sure you will, as soon as I receive my materials, I can finish orders I dont have and ship right out.

 

Wishing everybody a healthy weekend and if I can hep you at all you can email me at carpy@carpyscaferacers.com call me on 714-598-8392 and even text me on the same number.

Thanks for reading.

CARPY

 

Built a set of Custom forks for a Customer, thought I would share.

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
23 Mar

Many people have sent me their forks over the years to rebuild, polish or just hop up a bit as they get tired after 40 years of taking punishment from all road surfaces over time.

As the photo shows above, this is the old set that I am going to be working with, I strip these down, clean up and then what I do is machine some cool looking ribs into the stanchions to have that Custom look and then magnaflux it to make sure all is ok.  Once that is done I polish the lowers and then get brand new fork tubes made for the uppers.

I like to use as much Genuine HONDA parts as I possibly can and these will look so clean when everything is put back together and then you fit to your inline four machine.

As you may be able to see, I have New Hard Chromes fork tubes fitted and I have just put the OEM Honda Fork seal in place, here is the trick that I use to fit these seals, also- Remember, make sure the lettering faces upwards not down.

I use a piece of UPVC tubing that I bought from Home depot for about $2.00, this slides down the tubing and sits snug on the seal, but it fits inside the aluminum stanchion perfectly.

I simply tap the Plastic tubing with a Rubber Mallet until the seal bottoms out on the shoulder and there you go, no press needed and no damage at all, I have been doing this method for over 20 years now and never ever have I had a fork that has leaked by using this tubing.

I use some Harbor Freight Circlip pliers to snap the Original 2 hole clip back into the recess inside the fork leg, you will feel it seat when you let the pressure off the pliers.

I use as much genuine Factory parts where ever possible, and in this case I use New old stock Dampner Bolt and Copper crush washer, just to make sure all is new and fits as it is supposed to.

I use genuine Honda Dust caps to make sure all the crap stays away from the forks, then- Just to add some super cool Custom finishing, I like the way these complete that Custom styling on the front end.

See what I mean? Its a nice Custom finished look that really does not cost a lot of money and it is chrome, no plastic crap.

I have always used ATF for forks, the old Pro Racers mechanics used it and I still do today, I also used stainless washers on top of the springs to set the pre-load.

That’s is how much I pour into rebuilt forks and people ask me “How do you know how much to pour in”?

This is one of my Bibles that I use on things like fluids, point gap, timing and the like, always served me well.

I also make sure that ALL the threaded holes are chased through with a tap, this makes sure that the refit goes smoothly and you dont scratch the lovely polishing I have done.

I make sure that I hand polish the lower clamps and use stainless nuts and lock washers, this set up is really a thing of beauty and I am so stoked when I complete a set for a customer, a lot of work and time, but boy is it worth it and changes the look of the front end.

A great looking set of Lowers that will turn heads where ever you go, not a five minute job and not made in China either, all done from right here in California.

These are now ready to ship out to the Customer, so he can easily fit them in to his triple tree’s.

Just take a look at them, what a cool set up these are and all New hardware, Hope that you enjoyed this blog about that what I do with the good old inline fours.

Let me know if I can help you with your Honda, I have been doing it here in California for 20 years and never tire of it, it is a passion of mine that I hope shows in my work?

Thanks for taking your time to read my Blog and hope it may of inspired you to work on your machine?

The Vesco Honda SOHC 1974 CB750K Custom Built Brat Bike

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
09 Mar

Well, this was a super fun build that I did and it is not often that I purchase an old snotter and then, after building it, sell it back to the owner I purchased it from, but this was how it was, I saw that there was a SOHC 750 in a garage in the City of orange for sale and made arrangements to drive down and take a look at it.  once I got there and the garage door was lifted, I could see this sorry arsed looking inline four that was parked up, leaking a little oil and looking worse for wear.

I mean, it had everything there to make it look cool, but- it had not run for many many years and the young lad who owned it said he tried a few ties to get the bike to run but he lost interest and its been sat in the garage just collecting dust, so- we stood and kicked the tires for a while and eventually came up with a figure, shook hands and it took the three of us to push the old girl into the back of my van, but at last I had this old 750 in the Transit and had already worked out what I wanted to do with this 500 pounder machine.

The old girl is in my van and getting ready to drive home, I looked at the title and noticed his last name was Vesco- Your not related the the famous Don Vesco are you? I inquired.

Yes, he was my Grandfather, That is so cool as Don Vesco held many Land Speed records and had tons of 750 Honda’s back in the day, so I was super stoked to be able to own something with Vesco’s name to it, so, I drove home with a smile and half an hour later I pulled the old girl out and took a look at what I have to play with..

The Old girl was tired but, this is not my first 750 and as I have been creating Custom Motorcycles out of these here in the USA for over 20 years, I was quite eager to see what I had to work with but knew I had my work cut out if I was going to make a Custom creation out of this 1974 Honda.

Motor needs some love and had no idea if it would even turn over but I love these inline four engines and was going to see what it took to at least get to run and see where I can do with a full build on this 500 pounder.

The carburetors had seen rain, wind and snow by the look of it and the slides were stuck solid and as I have have rebuilt many of these rack of four set ups, I wasn’t too worried and thought I would strip the bike to where I need it to be and see where I am at.

 

I wanted to try and get this running, so I pilled carbs off and cleaned them up, fitted new jets etc and fitted new intake manifolds , as well as putting an old set of handlebars on as the clips on’s didnt fit right, I also hooped the frame as it was cut already and thought I would add my own style seat and see if I can at least fire it up, I had a 4 into 1 exhaust that I make that was in the rafters, so pulled the old rusty Kerker off and fitted mine, added an oil Pressure gauge so I can see where we are at if the old girl fires up.

The rims were too rusty, and was lucky to have an Original set of Lester wheels in storage that I could use on this bike, so fitted them and added some new Bridgestone tires and fitted one of my drilled brake rotors to the front end too. This bike went together really quickly and in the space of a week I was ready to fire this puppy up and see if it would even be able to move under its own power, I had spare parts in my garage or in my storage so it was a zero cost other than the tires to put this Honda together.

With rebuilt carbs and my 4 into 1 system cut down to a more aggressive loo, I was eager to see if this will fire up, it had compression and spark so I kicked her in the guts and she fired up right away with a nice brak from my exhaust system, I knew this would be a fun bike.

I made the handlebars and the seat too and this was probably the most comfortable bike I have ever ridden, I was so suprised how much fun this bike was and it had linear power too.

Well, I was happy at the way this bike was looking but the gas tank looked horrible just black and wanted a cool Custom 70’s flake look set of tins on this bike now.

 

So, I thought I would use the original tank that was on the bike, but wanted to get rid of the factory gas tank fuel cap and make a custom set up, just to be different.

I cut the old neck off and then ground it all down to make sure this was flat to the tank, I made sure there was no gas left in this tank before but it had been empty for about 7 years lol.

I make a gas cap kit now and this is how I did the conversion on this tank, as you can see, I fit the weld in Gas Cap Bung into the opening on the top of the petrol tank.

It sits in the original location really well, I simply ground all around the gas tank to make sure I have a good ground and then simply tig weld the bung in place, for a neat smooth Custom look.

All welded and to be honest, I do not need to grind the welds as I shall be doing a little body work on this to smooth everything out, so this will be covered up anyway.

I used a Harley screw in Gas cap and this really gave it a custom but Classic look, I was really happy at the end result of this and glad that I went this route on the bike.

Now that looks a lot better with the Custom 70’s style paint and am happy I went this route in the end, the 750 looks pretty tough like this.

This bike turned out great and even though I wasn’t finished with it, I wanted to get a few miles on this bike before I finally completed the other bits that I wanted to do. As you can see, the Vesco bike is on the Dry Lake at El Mirage where Don Vesco himself races bikes and broke records and the day this was fired up, Team Vesco did over 400 mph at Bonneville, so I thought this was fitting that i was at a SCTA meet in El Mirage with my Girlfriend Jennifer.

This has a great stance and is so comfortable to ride, the drive train works smoothly and my aggressive 4 into 1 barks like a scolded dog, I fitted an Led headlight that is 5-3/4 inches with internel led turn signals to make it all legal for the road. She sure looks swell out there in the Desert.

I like the meaty Bridgestone tires that were shoe horned onto the Lester Rims, those rims came of a CR750 Race bike and I had them in storage for almost 20 years.

I love it out here at El Mirage dry lake, if you can get a chance to get here for the SCTA racing, you should, I loved taking the Honda out here and I think it felt at home to be honest.

So there she is, the Vesco Honda Four, a brute of a bike and it looks pretty tough out there in the So Cal desert, I am so glad I went ahead and built this machine.

Now it was time to take the bike back home to Las Mirada but what a great time we had out on the dry lake, watching the Hot Rods and Motorcycles race on the Lake bed.

My Girl Jennifer takes the reins as I help a broken down Motorcyclist on the race track at El Mirage SCTA event.

So, I now get ready to put the Vesco bike in my Van and take it back home to my garage and figure out what I am going to do with this Motorcycle.

So, I sit the bike on the drive way and I am think of what else I might do to it, and I have to write a few emails to customers etc, it was when I got on the computer I see I got a message that I had been invited to the OG Bike Build show in LA and its in about 4 weeks, heck! I could maybe strip this bike and redo it to how I want to and show the bike, of which is a tall order but heck, why not eh?

So, even though it is a tall order, I had to come to the decision to take this bike and strip it to the bare frame and begin a cool build for the OG show, I shall still keep the Gas tank and side covers the same and the Handle bars etc but the rest will get some rework.

The strip down begins, I want this to be a trick frame when I am done and now is the time to take the bull by the horns and remove everything from this 500 pounder and make this a head turner.

I am taping the frame where I will be cutting and making quick release Custom Pieces that make engine removal and cylinder head removal way easier as the stock frame is so difficult to remove the motor when in the cradle.

Top frame removed and I shall be fitting my New  Steel tubing Frame kit that I now offer on my website for the 69-78 CB750 Chassis.

Heave ho and away we go, I have removed so many engines on my own over the years, there are many ways people do it, some lay the frame down etc, but I like the old school brute strength of removing the 230 pound behemoth, I always go this way and then put the motor on a milk crate as its about the same height as the lower frame rails, I am always knackered afterwards though.

 

Well she is out at long last, time for a cuppa and an Ibuprofen lol- But seriously, the Motor is out and now the hard work begins, you too will notice how dirty and grimy a frame becomes after being used for 40 years and this thing has more oil on it than the Tin mans Elbows.

I Have welded the New removable top Rails in the chassis, now time to cut the right Lower side of the frame, so I can make a removable side for the 750 Four.

As ypu can see, the top rails and side rails are now in place, looks bloody awesome and not seen this EVER done before, I wanted to really push the boat out in the short amount of build time that i have on the Vesco Honda, I bet people wont even notice it when I am done.

Make sure all the weld area’s are clean and my Kit that I sell will work great for all of your machines from 1969-1978 and glad I have made these kits to be honest.

See, all nice and shiny, and soon to be ready to media blast all the paint on, prep and paint for a Custom Color and this time I think I shall go with a metalflake Silver, to keep with the Custom 70’s paint style.

All media blasted, she is now ready for the start of paint, this will take some time as i want the thick flakes but this will look great in the Sun against the Gold of the tank etc.

The race is on, and as you can see, I have the Silver Flake paint on the Chassis and I went ahead and chromed the rear swing arm, just for that added Custom look.

I have to rebuild some front forks, I went ahead and machined the fins in the lowers and polished them, then I needed to add new seals to the old girl for new life.

I use a piece of Plastic tubing and gently tap the tubing onto the seal and this easily presses the fork seal into the stanchion with no damage at all, so easy to do like this.

Custom look and even have chrome topper caps on the Original black covers, just to give it some nice bling and look a little different from the rest out there.

New tubes, springs and I set the pre-load using 4 stainless washers, as I dont like using that Plastic shit that many fork places offer, washers is the old school way and I also use Automatic Transmission Fluid instead of gear oil, another old school way.

Time to work on a custom rear brake Hub Assembly and I shall strip these, clean it drill the holes for aeration and cooling the hub and then polish it and fit new brake shoes and actuator arm to it.

All done and am happy at the look I was after, a nice custom touch that I do and offer this service to many people and is available on the website.

Front brake rotor gets the same treatment, I do all this at home and use my old drill press to make all the holes and then countersink both sides, for me, its therapeutic to be honest and boy does it look good when finished.

Now I just need to clean it up, paint the center and I shall be ready to mount on the Original 1977 Lester mag wheel, now for the cool pics below.

You can see the Custom paint nicely, all seems to flow really nicely and am super stoked I got the job done in time and it runs like a top, this sure is a stunning Custom bike and am proud to have completed such a creation, I just went for it and there you go, I have never built a bike twice but it was well worth all the hard graft.

Rebuilt and polished Caliper, Rotor is polished and painted and braided brake lines too, I did all I could think of on this machine, it really is a head turner.

Vintage style metalflake Candy paint with fish fad aways, captures the spirit of the build and hope that you like the direction I took on this SOHC bike.

Custom master cylinder, new switches, hand made and triple chromed handlebars really do set this build apart from many but- I hope I have inspired you to have a go at your machine now?

I wanted something a little different on the exhaust set up and thats why I thought I would go with a stainless steel 4 into 2 into 1 performance set up and boy does it sound sweet.

I did so many tricks to this bike, I machines some upper fork covers to match the lowers and this time I went with a Custom headlight that is so different than the others that you see, it is pleasing to the eye and I just cannot stop looking at this bike.

You can see the detail and the quick release chassis rail too, hope you like what I achieved in such a short amount of time?

Custom drilled levers, hand made front fender and a machined bucket out of 6061 Alloy to house the GPS speedometer, all flows together on this 74 CB750 Honda.

The Devil is in the detail they say, I did as much as I could in the short amount of weeks I had, but so stoked the way she turned out in the end, well worth the hard work.

Riders view, thats a GPS speedometer and I had to hand make the housing , this really is so cool to look at from any angle, so many tricks on this ride.

Re-charged shocks with Custom machines finned covers and 2 inch allot risers,make this Brat bike sit to the height I needed to sit my fat ass on top of.

Oh yeah- I even painted a Vintage Skid lid to match the paint scheme of the bike and think it worked out pretty good.

The stainless exhaust systems has a deep bellow that gets your attention, and this breathes so well it gives you Linear power all the way through the band.

This has been a fun adventure, not sure I could warrant another build so fast but this was a fun challenge and the cool thing is that the original owner that I puchased it from loved it so much, he bought it back off me.

So many cool little Custom touches I did on this bike, I would have to take a long hard look to remember what I actually did.

Sitting in the parking lot in Downtown LA, I got many cool remarks about the Vesco Honda and so glad that I made it in time to show people what this bike is about.

Hard to top this build but, I love creating them and hope I can continue having fun with this old 750 Honda bikes of the Nineteen Seventies.

Just goes to show that with a little imagination, there is a lot that you can accomplish on something, I was certain I would get this completed for the show too.

Plenty of eye candy and color, hope that you like what I have managed to create.? The good old SOHC Honda Four.

Took me some time to figure out the finned aesthetics etc  but the long process worked out really well and all seems to flow very well on this Custom Build.

This bike does look really well in the sunshine too, all the nuts and bolts are stainless steel too so no rust ever.

The Vesco Honda sits pretty level and you will be surprised how comfortable this Motorcycle is, I sure miss it already. LOL.

A tough bike, super strong Motor and sits well, this will last many many miles and hope to see it again one day.

Thanks for taking your time to read about this Vesco Honda build, I hope you have enjoyed what I have created?

Sat in my driveway before I took it to the Original owner in the City Of Orange.

Well I guess its onto another build, hard to top this one though.

At the OG show in LA where the Vesco Honda made its Debut and many people gave me the thumbs up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL !

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
01 Jan

Wow !! How about that, here we are, 2020 and no flying cars or motorcycles.  As a kid I saw the Jetson cartoons and they said in 2020 there are flying automobiles, but its now 2020 and all 4 wheels are still firmly stuck on the tarmac.  but a new year and much to do that is for certain.

The festive season has gone by the wayside and now things need to continue forward like the momentum of my next Motorcycle, this was going to be a laid back build, accumulate a few parts and ease into building something to celebrate my 20th anniversary as a bike builder and parts designer, then the phone rings, a gentleman asked if I was still fiddling about with my mechanical machines, and of course I said yes.

He then informed me who he was and he took my tenacious Ton bike to the Sturgis show a few years back and is now creating another new event held at Sturgis in August, to celebrate older builders that have been in business for 20 years and still going, well that is what I am celebrating this year and he wanted to see if I could build a bike for the show in South Dakota that so many thousands of people flock to once a year.

 

Jeez I would be honored to be in amongst the best of the best there and whilst most of them will be choppers, I will build MY style bike, no point creating a chopper for Sturgis, I mean, its so hard to create something so unique in 7 months and I am sure that have seen it before, so, as with my original Plan, I hope to build a caff bike that put me on the map, but with a few different bits of styling to show of my little bit of homebase skill I still have in my skull.

My old Black and Gold Dunstall bike caused quite a stir and a bike I should of kept onto if I could of, so I thought what better way than to do something in that style as people know me for Cafe machines, so, even though this will be a tough thing to complete in the times scale, as I have other commitments, I have to try and get into creating a tough looking tarmac eating Caff bike that shows what I am about.  Of course some will scoff and say I should of done something else, but, I want to celebrate my 20 years here with the bike that put me on the map, and what better way is to do something that I love, the Good old Ton up Cafe Racer Machine.

 

And so it begins, I had an old frame that a friend donated to me, someone had ran it as a Cafe back in the 70’s in LA and I am glad to be able to do something with this old rusty chassis and this is where we start the New year by working in my garage, doing what I enjoy. Look Below and you can see I removed the stock front end and managed to wedge a GSXR upside front end in its place and, am happy with the thicker fat look up front.

No idea on what I am going to do 100%, but I am hoping to get this to look how I have imagined it for quite a long time, money and parts are what will hold me up, but we shall see how we go.

So, here we go with a few videos of what I have managed to do over New Years Eve, and New years Day, bit of fun working in the garage over these resting days LOL.

I just wanted to show you lot what I do myself and using minimal tools in the garage, this will be a fun build thats for sure.

I am lucky that I have good neighbors right?

OK, I have cut the frame rails and wanted to show you how easy it is to fit the slugs into the frame, so that the hoop fits over the slugs for a snug fit.

Still a little more to go, but hoping this is giving you some insight to what I do when I am creating my machines in the garage.

A little closer to what i want to achieve, just needed my compressor on, and of course, a drill and a air grinder.

I am glad that we have good weather , and I have accomplished quite a bit today.

I made a little bit of noise but, my neighbors know what I do and are fine with that.

With the day coming to an end, I was happy with all I managed to accomplish to be honest.

I hope that you are enjoying these little snippets of what I have done over the last 2 days?

Always had Old Motorcycles and Jalopy’s

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
17 Dec

Hard to believe that Christmas is already upon us and not long left until some of you will be burping and snoring as you have demolished anything that was left of the Turkey, well, that is if you are from back home in Britain, out here in the states, Turkey is eaten at thanks giving, so usually we have Prime rib or Ham for Christmas dinner here, still takes me a bit of getting used to, even though I have been here almost two decades. hard to believe that I left the UK back in 1997, the pic below is the last ride I had on my Triumph to an event.

Loved that Old Daytona and did many miles on it, going to hemsby was a 260 mile ride and I sure had a blast with that 1969 Daytona, but the bloody carbs always went out of tune and was forever tuning the bike, but, thats the trumpys for ya.

Heading back to North London, darker hair and only 140 pounds, those were the days, I loved Motorcycles and Hot Rods and had many over the time, something I still do to this day.

Before I moved to the other side of the world, I repainted the Triumph Black and gold leafed the tank badges, I really wanted to take the bike with me and wish i could of had the opportunity as I knew every nut and bolt on that machine, this was the last but one  pic taken of that bike in Alexandra Palace where I loved in North London, I rode this machine every day in Rain, wind and many times in the snow, as thats all I had in 1997.

A happy guy as I had just tuned the carbs once more, I took her for a blast up around the M25 and boy did she rip, as I had just repaired the cylinder head as it had a hair line crack in it, fitted a Boyer Ignition and this T100 would really pull hard as you hit 4000 revs, it was like it found another gear and would literally take off. Wish I still had that 1969 Daytona.

Old photo of me with my 1961 Ford Consul Lowline, I bought it from original owner and painted it Red with a white roof, as it was boring grey, I drove that all over the place and was always doing different things to that car.

Above is just as I started work on the Ford, I didnt like the stock grey color and needed it to be a bright Red, this was a fun project and off I started with another Custom machine.

Jeez, that was a crazy fun time in my life, look at that high Flat top hair cut for a start, but I remember it as if it was yesterday and glad I had this image still.

Probably should of deleted this one LOL but those were the 80’s and you would have to pay me a lot of money to wear that shirt again ha ha ha.

So with that I shall bid you lot a fond faewell, just wanted to share these pics with you, I have always tinkered with old stuff and always will do.

 

Adding Bags to the Old 750 SS Honda in the Garage

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
26 Aug

Been a while, but I thought I would fir some Bags I have had for a long time, onto the 750 Super Sport, as to be quite frank, I never fecking see them and, I had these on many bikes as I was a Disatch Rider, Ie Courier, and the more that I could carry on my bike, the more money that I would earn, as i rode all over the UK and parts of Europe and having unboltable saddle bags were a blessing indeed.

So, I have had these for a while, I did for some to Jenn’s bike and she has had them at least 5 years and uses them all the time, these will take a while to get to fit right and this is my 3rd set of brackets, still not there but its all trial and error and eventually I will get to the stage where I am happy and can tear the brackets down one last time, cut and weld and paint then refit.

Its good to be able to simply bolt these on and go, sometimes you need to carry stuff and these will be just the ticket when I have them completed, I am a long way off as they need to come in about an inch and half tighter but, Rome was not built in a day and these will not be either.

The trick is to make them look factory fit, then also once they are completed how I want them, they will painted to the same color as the rest of the body work and the uniformity will probably make these bags almost disappear once I have the livery that I am happy with.

Right now I think this bike will be a Dark Navy Blue with white Racing stripes and some logo, but thats a while away and also I need to fab a lower bracket to support the bottom of the bag and give it some rigidity as well as allowing for the shocks to still function smoothly with no binding etc.

 

Shame there wasn’t some off the shelf brackets available like Triumph have but I think Once I am completed and happy at the way they fit and function, I may make a few sets and off for sale on this website.

So,for now I have got this far, some will like these on the bike, and others will not.  What I like about this particular set up is, well, you can simply unbolt these and leave the bike in its naked form, but, if you need to go to lets say the Chrome shop to pick some parts up, just bolt these bags to the rear shock mounts and you are ready to go, no need for a bulky back pack etc.  I may add some LED turn signals into the back of these and a brake light to make more functional and keep me from being bumped off in rush hour.

 

 

 

Finally I am ready to take the Vesco Honda to the OG show in LA

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
22 Mar

Been hard work getting this bike to the stage it s now in, but- All that hard work is well worth it as I am really happy with the look of the machine right now.

A lot of hard work and time has gone into this machine and I wasnt sure if I would makew the deadline of four weeks as we had 3 weeks of rain, but somehow I managed and I got it on solid ground for the first time last night, so stoked about it.

I will leave this at the OG show until Saturday evening but its a great show and look forward to seeing some of you there in LA.

Thanks for all the cool support and emails encouraging me to get it done, couldn’t of done it without your motivational words.

What a crazy month, but some how I managed to pull a few tricks out of the hat and get this ready for the OG show.

The Rebuild of the Vesco Honda Brat Bike Now Begins

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
16 Mar

Time does seem to fly- especially when you do not want it to, but not much that I can do about that, the same as the weather.  California usually has great weather most of the year round, but last month we were plagued with the most rain ever recorded in the history of weather measurements, this severely held me back in the tear down of the bike as I needed to move stuff out onto the driveway to give me access to grinders, welder and tube bender etc.

And I am sure that you have experienced the same as me when it comes to a deadline?  So, I put together the Vesco Honda with bits and pieces I had in and around the garage, just to see if it would even run, low and behold it did and you know the deal, you add this and that and before you know it the bike is on the tarmac and you are ripping through the gears.

 

I was going to simply enjoy this bike for a while and get as many miles on the thing as I could as I tell ya, it’s a hoot to ride, plenty of linear Power and turned heads all over the place, but then I get an email from Jay LaRossa to be invited as a Custom Builder for their up and coming show on the 23rd of March, so as I had almost 2 months I took the challenge, then the California weather took a huge dump for a month and has had me side railed for ever.

I managed to strip the bike down to the frame as you lot may know as I have blogged all of it on here, but so many hurdles still to overcome and now I have 9 days to completely rebuild this bike, I still do not have the frame back from the paint shop as its been to cool and damp to spray clear coat on the old metal-flake, so here I sit and have been doing little jobs like designing and making a New Stainless Steel exhaust system, and then set about stripping old parts and re-chroming them etc.

The Rims now have the old tires off and a quick repaint, cant go crazy as time constraints have kicked me in the plums, so just Black and will fit Road tires this time as Diamond tread tires I wanted are on the East Coast and will not get here in time for the show.  So I am giving it a go to get as many small things done as i can to try and see if I have a shot at getting this together in time, but I cant build anything until I get the frame back from the paint shop, then i can add the forks and swing arm and wheel and then fit engine and rewire etc, a daunting task thats for sure.

But, if I cannot get it completed in time, well- I tried and tried hard and do not want to show a bike half finished, that would be awful, so with a few days still left, I am hoping to have the frame back tonight and if its dry enough, i can start bolting parts back on the bike- I love that part as you see a completely different looking machine starting to come together, it is so satisfying to sit back and look at the completed machine and think to your self- jeez, I created that, its an awesome feeling that I know many of you get too.

Worked on rebuilding the Vesco Bike front Forks today

Posted on by Steve Carpenter
20 Feb

Well, pushed hard today as Rain is forecast for later on this afternoon and needed to start and b rebuild the old front forks for the Vesco bike, as they had seen better days over the last 40 years and it is now time to make them stand out in the crowd as I am trying to get this bike done in time for the OG show in march.

I am super stoked to have got these done and, as I put these away in the garage, the rain started to fall, so great timing on my behalf and feel pretty accomplished today.

Had to fit New Fork seals, and lucky for me I had a spare New set that I could use for these Machines fork lowers and I always fit with the Numbers facing up on Honda’s.

 

I also use a piece of UPVC tube to act as a drift and tap the seal in bit by bit, its an easy way of fitting seals and many people do this if they do not have a press handy.

I fitted the New Rubber fork Caps onto the top of the Lower fork leg and then slid down my Custom Chrome outer cover over the top of that, just to finish it off a little more Classic.

Now its all dressed up and I am really happy with the end result, these forks now look so different now that they are machines and polished to a Chrome finish.

I love the look and the finish and its the devil in the Detail that I am into and these certainly have a really cool look to them, rather than just stock ones.

I have always machines these fins into the forks so that the whole bike flows from the front to the rear and I get many comments on my fork set ups, which is great to hear from other builders.

Still more to do to the bike but other than adding about 7 ounces of Automatic Transmission Fluid into each tube, but another tick off the long list of things that I must try and complete.

A seriously cool bit of kit for the bike and glad that I took today and spent some time getting these right on the money, they sure look great and finished just in time before the Rain arrived.

So, these will now be bagged up and put away until I start on the rebuild of the frame, the frame is now at the paint shop and getting ready for some serious Metalflake Silver.

 

Time to head inside now but wanted to share how much I have managed to get completed today and hope that you enjoyed what I have created for the Vesco Honda Brat Bike.

 

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