While December 21st is officially the start of the Winter Solstice, I think many of the readers will agree with me that winter has already began in MOST of the good ole U S of A. I mean, you know it’s winter when it’s raining in California! At my humble abode deep in the heart of the Bluegrass State we’ve already had our first major snow of the year and as my travel for work comes to a close for the year, I am chest deep in moto projects. I have a feeling I’m not the only one.

While Winter may be beautiful, it’s also time to freshen your steed(s) up.

Currently I have 5 projects. This is more than I have EVER undertaken at once but the great thing is, if I am bored or fed up with one, I can move on to another. My biggest project has been going on for 9 years. Before I was old enough to rent a car or even legally purchase alcohol, I “invested” in a Datsun 620 King Cab pickup. While I won’t bore you with photos of it here on a motorcycle news site, I will say that the mechanicals are done, the wiring is not. Transplanting an OBD-II modern powerplant into a economy pickup truck from the 70’s leaves a lot of wiring left to complete. Luckily for me, I don’t have a garage, so unless the weather is great, that project is growing moldy until the weather turns around.

However, my other 4 all involve two wheels. In fact, I only own two motorcycles that currently don’t need any TLC and one of those is for sale (on eBay by the way, buy it, love the dents, and help me with my project budget!) The last bike that is going to get some love is my beloved ’76 RD400. This is actually the easiest to complete, but I want to get other things tackled before I take care of the easy stuff.

The easiest project gets love last!

The RD400 was passed down to me from the family and was the first street bike I ever owned. Up until 2012 it was my daily commuter bike! I have incredible love for this little two stroke screamer and this is HOPEFULLY the last update I make to it. Thanks to my good two stroke loving friends at HVC Cycle in Lincoln Nebraska (www.hvccyle.net) I purchased the PROPER intake to use on it. All the bike needs is the intake, some jetting, a gearing change, a rear set adjustment and 2 new exhaust brackets. That’s pretty much a Saturday afternoon in my books. However, because I need to jet it, I figure I should wait until I’m at a good average temperature that I actually ride it at. Plus, it just looks cool sitting in my living room. Years of thinking I was a two stroke expert led me to believe the proper intake set up was a couple of Uni-Pods hanging off the back of the stock carburetors. I always wondered why my bike didn’t have the power that every original RD owner raved about! The gearing change is paramount also. I was using it for commuting, so I figured dropping a bunch of teeth off the rear was the hot ticket. This bike has 6 gears, what it did was make the bike miserable to ride. Now that I don’t ride it on a daily basis, I’m going 2 teeth bigger than stock, I’m hoping I have a two stroke wheelie machine on my hands. Fellow contributor Chris Theis would be proud!

The next project is another that I also don’t have any photos of. It’s my Rotax powered flattrack bike that has been blown up since 2008. The previous owner had some sort of Frankenstein cam in it that would break rockers every time I rode it, essentially making the 4 valve motor a 3 valve. Let me tell you, a Rotax is a rocket ship when tuned right. However, when it is only opening 3 valves, it’s a lot like a Honda XR250…with the spark arrester in place. With a new 600cc cylinder, piston, cam and rockers the engine will be all ready to go for my first season in the VET class. However, it’s getting a full bare frame tear down so it can be as pretty as my other race bike, a Kawasaki KX450.

The KX450 has been my bad luck bike. You have all known about Lemons in the automotive world, well, this is my lemon. Purchased off of eBay for an insanely cheap price in 2009, this bike has been unhappy from the get go. On one of the first rides on it after its metamorphosis into a flattrack weapon I locked up the transmission. How does that even happen? The previous owner used super nuclear engine sealant, and a lot of it that clogged the oil galleys. Great work diesel mechanic. After that rebuild it was time to start my pro racing “career” and after leaving Daytona dejected in my first attempt to qualify for a Grand National program on a stock bike, my good friend and mentor told me that you just can’t go pro racing on a stock bike. Instead of ponying up the coin to have it done right, I scraped together what I could get cheap and asked for “favors” from engine builders. Folks, learn from me. NEVER run a motor that was assembled on a “favor”. The first builder inserted used parts from other model year bikes and did about as much porting to the head as I do dusting to my ceiling fans. These are all things that are hard to prove except for the model number on the piston that was clearly wrong. Being the smart racer that I was, I drained my IRA account, racked up my credit cards and bought new parts and looked for another engine builder.

This bike is pure evil, but we also have a connection, so in the stable it stays.

Motor builder number two did a phenomenal job. Custom cams were made and for the first time ever, I had a legit rocket ship. While the lastest GNC bikes are routinely pumping out over 60 horsepower now, when I had this one built I was at 59.5 on a very stingy dyno and it was a blast to ride. The problem? I decided to save money again. I thought I could assemble it myself. See the trend here? Unless you are an expert, DON’T SAVE MONEY ON MOTORS! This motor went boom as I was slicing my way through the pack coming off the start at my home town half-mile. When you are shifting to 4th and are at full boil and the bike locks the rear tire completely, that is not a cheap fix. Luckily I hadn’t learned my cheap motor lesson yet and it went back to the same engine builder, though this time I was going to leave the assembly to him. Though I insisted we build it the same way as before, he insisted he had a few more tricks up his sleeve. What I got back was a 53 horsepower turd of a motorcycle. It worked well on tiny tracks that were slick but in getting it ready for a pre-race oil change it once again decided it hated the welds on the cam gears and to wrap up my pro “career” I was left with a lot of trash in the upper part of my cylinder head. Thank God for friends and race teams for letting me ride some of the fastest bikes in the sport. I always got to ride something really cool!

Sure, it’s a long hard road with this poor beast but now that I’m moving to the VET class where I can ride any bike I want, and I’m going to have a quick big-bore Rotax, I don’t need my Kawasaki 450 to be a rocket. I just need it to run. Thanks to help from my friends at Wiseco, Hotcams, Kibblewhite, JMP Kawasaki and Cometic I am finally going to have a nice, reliable and still powerful-enough-to-get-the-job-done race bike to have fun racing my friends with. Oh, and the motor builder? A close friend of mine who has built I believe 6 Grand National race winning motors, and also my vintage racing “teammate”….the same guy that I should have had building my stuff in the first place. I’m really looking forward to having a bike I can trust and enjoy.

The last bike I’ll write about is the scariest bike I’ve ever built. My Harley Davidson “Bobber”. Well, we call it the CaBobbler because it’s part cafe racer, part bobber, part chopper. This was a project I started as a promotional bike during my time with Memphis Shades, but since switching jobs, it’s going to be a promotional bike for the many people who have helped me out. I thought I knew all their was about bike building. I restored an RD400, I built numerous race bikes, heck, I rebuilt my first engine when I was 13 years old. I didn’t even have google back then to learn from! What I have found out is that I knew NOTHING about building a bike from scratch. Heck, I didn’t even build it from scratch. I bought the frame, and most of the other components. If you have watched these “biker build” TV Shows and thought it looked fun and like something you can do, let my story be a serious warning. It isn’t easy. For me, really it isn’t that fun. I found out quickly that I like riding them more than building them. If you enjoy building them, more power to you.

The CaBobbler

I’m now at the point of no return. Thanks to my cousin being an amateur machinist and retired, I have all the spacers and such to make it a rolling chassis. I have a custom built oil tank, I purchased a non-running shovelhead motor for what I thought was way too much money, and currently I am a few motor parts, a primary, wiring and paint away from having it finished. I’m incredibly fortunate with my projects that I do work in the industry and a lot of people help me out, especially with this Harley build. More than the discounts though is all of the knowledge that I’m fortunate to surround myself with. I have a network of experts. While the project scares me a little, I am so happy that I jumped into the deep end because I’ve learned so much not only about custom motorcycles but also about myself. Life is a lot like a motorcycle project. If you look at is as a whole, it can become overwhelming in a hurry, but if you focus on one thing at a time, ask advice every step of the way and take it slowly, it can be one of the most rewarding experiences in all of nature.

Don’t worry, this Shovel will live another day.

So dig in. We have comments below. What are you working on? What was the hardest project you had? What was the most rewarding? I want to hear it. Stack up the fire wood, fill up the kerosene heaters and open up the toolbox. Forecasters say we are in for another long winter. Keep busy during the non-riding months so that your riding months are the most enjoyable. Oh, and if you get to ride year round…*edited*

Maybe your “project” only needs a new sticker to be finished…