A Harley Build... What?

Oh, I fully understand the desire to get the wheel centered.

badfrogg wrote: I think harley made a design and then when they wanted to make changes to the design, like a wider tire, they just slapped it on there with out to much concerns about the engineering.

Sadly, I think you're right.

Since this is a must have for you I think you're idea to use a chain drive conversion would get you most of the way there. A machine shop might also be able to help with any shims or whatever you'll need.

Maybe some inspiration for you?

I'll tell you what, if you are getting overwhelmed, let me be the first to offer to buy this basket case off of you for the same $500

Brian wrote: I'll tell you what, if you are getting overwhelmed, let me be the first to offer to buy this basket case off of you for the same $500

Pfft! come on man... This is fun for me. I'v played around with bikes and cars pretty much my whole life. This is the first one that I've really ripped apart to build something new out of though. I'm pretty excited about it.

I went to the ol fleaBay and picked up some good deals on a few parts. I found a front sprocket with a 1/2" offset and i found a 40 spoke rear hub with a regular bolt on pulley or sprocket. No China stuff, OEM and some good name brand surplus stuff that look like new old stock. Love finding good deals.

Anyways when that comes in I'll mock it up and see where i stand. As far as spacers and custom stuff, I am lucky to have access to a machine shop and operator that will mill and lathe up small parts in the evening for cold beer and a little company.

So, chain drive was the answer to the offset rear wheel dilemma. The hard part was not the chain stuff, those just bolt right on, are cheap and can give probably as much as 1-1/4" of extra clearance compared to the belt if you choose the maximum amount of offset. No, the hard part was swapping the hub in the wheel that I wanted to use to get rid of the crush drive.

I discovered that lacing wheels is quite easy but you have to have the right spokes. Not an easy thing when your Fankenstein'ing! There is such little information on the web about modifying Harleys. It seems that most folks just fork out huge wads of cash and buy pre-packaged mods for there bikes. That or pay even more for a custom shop to do it.

Thats just not the GRM way...

Here i just put the minimum of 8 spokes in so that i can continue to mock stuff up. The end goal for the wheels is to have the rim and hub painted black and the spokes chrome with whitewall tires.

Tokico to the rescue. Looks like i will need to get some beers and head over to my buddies machine shop to fab up a caliper bracket, unless i find something simpler on the ol interweb.

This thread is giving me weird thoughts of wanting to buy a Harley project bike...

Don't do it unless you fine a ridiculous deal like i did! I am having the a worst time now just building some spoke wheels. Whenever you go and try to just buy a simple thing you get lead down the path of HD. (High Dollar not Harley Davidson).

badfrogg wrote: Whenever you go and try to just buy a simple thing you get lead down the path of HD. (High Dollar not Harley Davidson).

Don't tell anyone that the parts are for a Harley. The price will be at least 50% less.

How is it coming along?

HD is not for "High Dollar." It is for "Hundred Dollar." You need to keep your acronyms right.

having the wheels aligned is not as important to having them parallel. I suspect that Harley has the offset on purpose since the bike is not evenly balanced side to side. that primary has to add some weight to the right side.

Even modern BMW motorcycles have a 4.5mm offset on the rear wheel from the front and a tolerance of +/- 9mm

.

Don't worry, you'll have the wheels unparallel every time you turn.

Any update?

I'm still here!

Some life turmoil has put my two GRM project on hold for the past year. This project is exactly where I left off all that time ago. Now that the force is flowing again I will pull off the cover and we will see...

foxtrapper wrote: Don't worry, you'll have the wheels unparallel every time you turn.

Harleys don't turn. Ever.

Appleseed wrote:

foxtrapper wrote: Don't worry, you'll have the wheels unparallel every time you turn.

Harleys don't turn. Ever.

I dunno, I took this 1965 Harley around a race track and mixed it up with the minibikes

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