One of the first projects we will share with you guys in the next few months is the build of a Hardtail Oldschool bike along the likes of Indian Larry (see picture of White Devil). All business, no bullshit. We have a lot of parts lying around that are desperately asking to be used……. so we should be able to hit the ground running on this one.

The rough idea:

– Bling Cycles hardtail frame made by Chassis Design Company
– S&S Flathead 95”
– Baker 5 speed with a PR-Brute IV clutch
– frontend with shaved sportster lowers, except for the mounting location of the brake caliper (DMV.MOT.RDW requirement)
– spokes, black rims
– Indian Larry risers and handelbar, with Exile internal throttle
– modified Indian Larry gastank
– Lucky Design leather saddle
– Spitfire Midcontrols
– Rebuffine 2-1 Exhaust
– some nice extra’s like an auxiliary gastank, Crime Scene Choppers headlight, sissybar

It should be a nice build, combining some basic fabrication (fenders, modifying gastank, sissybar, etc), some bold on stuff (Crime Scene Choppers headlight for instance) and of course the inevitable wrenching. Keep checking our site and blog, tell us what you think, and when we fuck up ;-).

Step 1. Shaving the Legs.

Women and lowers should be shaved to perfection, hahahaha. The only problem is that no bike will pass MOT-RDW inspection without a front brake …… so we have to leave the mounting tabs for the brake caliper in place. Because a picture is better than a 1000 words, we made a small video explaining what we did. The basics are simple though. Take an angle grinder to remove the bulk and a fly-disk to smooth it all out a little more. Finally, a lathe is very handy to finish the whole process and blend it all in. Our lathe was just long enough to fit a lower, lucky us. The lowers will eventually go for powder coat.

Step 2. Gas Tank Modification.

For our project bike we picked up this classic Indian Larry gas tank on one of our trips to Brooklyn. However, the tabs are but-ugly. Thank God for the angle grinder! We took the channel out.
To our disbelieve the thickness of this tank is a little anorexic. Not like those Jesse James Villain tanks, which are indestructible. So we will have to weld some reinforced bungs into the channel, but also strong bungs to go through the backbone to hold the gastank in place. A set of bungs were fabricated and turned on the lathe. We also want a fuel line indicator on this tank, as this safes from unscrewing the cap while riding to peek into the tank to see how desperately we need to look for a gasstation. More bungs turned on the lathe. The whole thing took us an hour and cost us (including all the other bits and bobs you see on the picture) less than 5 bucks.

Where would we be with the expertise of true craft-masters? After a mad rush to the finish, parts were taken to Jorgen Post (a master TiG welder in Drachten) to make sure the welds are up to par. After this, Jan Wielinga (Marum) took possession of all of these parts to do his thing. You want your bike to go from nice to awsome, go to this guy. Outstanding guy.