Lucinda
Poppin' that cherry

If any of you have built a bike you know the trials and tribulations you go through during the process, But do you remember that first time?

Do you remember spending all of that time on the wiring, double checking and making sure? Going blind staring at a wiring diagram, trying to makes all those lines on paper make sense in that rainbow spaghetti that is the real world. Do you remember that sinking feeling when you finally finish, put power to the system, press the button, and nothing happens? Do you remember that triumphant swelling the first time the starter finally turned by just the press of a button? I do.

A little over a year ago I trashed the transmission on my VL800 Bobber affectionately know as Lolita. Tens of thousands of miles and a lot of those "speed shifting" what was engineered as a cruiser will do that (who woulda thunk it?) I started looking around and found a replacement motor for $700 and when I factored in repair costs on my old motor I decided to just replace the entire shooting match. Well a few hours of garage time and Lolita was back on the road. After getting a taste of some actual motorcycle repair I started to wonder. I called the salvage company that I got my replacement motor from and inquired about the remainder of the bike it came from. As it turned out it had been a low speed front end collision and the front end was toast. I just so happened to have an extra front end lying in the garage and decided what the hell, I will build a chopper. After all it should be just bolt on the front end and drop a motor in..... Right?

$700 more dollars later I had a frame and title heading my way on a truck. When it arrived I learned I had made quite a deal after all. Included on the pallet was not just a bare frame, but a rear wheel, a final drive unit ($800 from Suzuki) an igniter ($300) and a full wiring harness along with a box of misc. parts. Quite the deal after all.

Quickly the build plan began to change. Originally I was going to go with more of a Board track design with a single down tube, rigid frame, and spring seat. Inspired by this picture I had seen on the chopper underground forums a couple years ago. The realities of a water cooled bike took over and the plan evolved to more of a mild raked chopper. I talked to one of my friends that is a welder by trade, and he agreed to rake the bike for me and do the frame work. The work should only take a couple of evenings in the garage and I would supply the beer and help to learn about the process along the way. A couple weeks later we finally got our schedules worked out and got some garage time. It was a sickening feeling when he cut completely through the neck and I stood there holding the handlebars connected only to a neck tube, and forks and a wheel.

The plan was to just cut through 7/8 of the way and leave the neck connected just using weight to add the rake and then weld in bracing. Of course his plan changed when he pulled out the torch (and he didn't bother to tell me). I was sick to my stomach thinking I had pretty much just thrown 700 bucks away as I stood there looking at the back half of the frame while I held the front end in my hands. A few nights later we were back in the garage and got the neck lined up to the frame. Once it was tacked in place I was a little more relieved but still wary of this project. And then life took over. Over the course of the next six months or so my life turned into a living hell I had a very short lived and costly marriage fall apart. My friend had problems with his wife, and our schedules never quite synced up to finish the build.

Increasingly I grew more and more antsy needing a project to take my mind of the problems that I was going through. Finally after much begging I got the phone call he had finished the neck and rear fender work and Lucinda came home.

Since the frame work had taken so long I opted not to have the same friend do the gas tank. Luckily my best friend was in the process of having a triumph rebuilt and knew a guy who would be perfect for the tank. Now at this time of my life the finance situation was horrible (luckily I had purchased a motor for the project before the marriage went south) but I somehow scrapped up $250 for the tank work. While the tank was being reworked (scalloped on the sides and the dash panel indention's removed) I got to work fitting the motor which turned out to be more of a [bitch] than anticipated because when the wreck had occurred the down tubes had been pushed a ½ inch or so making motor clearances an issue. The neck had been squared to the rest of the frame so she would track straight, but getting the motor in was an act of congress. I got the motor in and figured out how to do fiberglass enough to make a seat pan, then turned my lack of abilities on upholstery. Then end result is not perfect, but it is a good seat and a good first attempt. Eventually down the road I will redo it.

Then the saga of the wiring began. I had a friend lined up to help with the wiring in exchange for me performing his wedding (I am an ordained reverend through the internet and can legally do weddings; an ordained agnostic.. Now that's something you don't see everyday) but after his fiancé bailed that deal fell through. I tried to touch base with him, but in the end never could get together. The plan was to cut back a stock wiring harness, relocating the ignition switch from on the neck to under the seat. That cant be that hard right? So for the next two months I spent as much spare time as I could in my sweat lode of a garage working on wiring. I finally got the tank back and was ready for a mock up.

I had a long way to go, but it seemed that things were finally coming together. I finished the wiring and had to save up for a battery. Once I finally had the battery, I put everything together, plugged everything up, turned the key, and was met with nothing. Not a single click, the motor didn't turn, nothing. Dejected and feeling quite defeated I took a couple days off from the build. It just so happened that my clubs meeting night was coming and the president of one of our chapters attended our meeting. He asked me about the build and I regaled him with the tale of the bad wiring. He just so happened to be an electrician and he offered to bring it over to his house and redo the wiring. We made a plan and agreed to meet up the next day. Well, the next day came and went without hearing from him. And so began another month of phone tag and broken offers.

Finally frustrated with trying to get help from someone else I decided to just give up and redo everything myself. The next week was spent with a lot of time in the garage as I yanked out all the previous wiring and started from scratch. Finally I had the ignition circuit complete and decided to try again. This time the starter turned when I hit the button. The next day or so was spent with a smile on my face as I had at least got the starter to try and start. The next garage time was spent adding on all the extras like headlight and taillight. Finally I was officially done.

I hooked everything up and checked all of my connections. Finally it was time to take Lucinda on her first ride. I cranked her up and she purred along ready for whatever. I was shaking as I threw a leg over her and settled into the seat I had made all by hand. As I eased out the clutch I almost felt sick to my stomach from the nerves. Had my welder been on his game? Had I gotten everything right? How would it all be when I got her on the road????

I will fill you in next month on how that ride turned out!

-Goon.