Chris (Car99r) Robertson's 1996 Honda VLX600:
Beginning last year the TCU decided to host their own Backyard Build Off.
This year, site owner/operator Chris Robertson picked up this japper cheap and figured it would make the perfect platform for this year's BBO. A few weekends ago Chris invited a bunch of us locals over for some Italian Beef and beer....provided by his lovely wife Darla.
The intent for the afternoon was to hang out and b.s. a bit in the shop since we all hadn't seen each other since about October...but you know as well as I do when you get about 10-15 dudes together in a garage environment with some brews in their hand, something is gonna happen one way or the other!
Roger (aka Falldown) and I were staring at the BBO donor and started talking "well if he hacked that and if he ditched that"....which of course led to sawsall's and grinder's being plugged in and started up, removing some uneeded bulk. The seat and plastic was also removed. After a bit of that action we wheeled the bike up onto the lift and proceeded to remove fender mounts, wiring, and any other uneeded mumbo jumbo.
The bottom few pics show where we left it that day. We got the rear fender mounted and after deciding NOT to retain any of the seating area, we hacked that away with the sawsall. Chris decided that he is going to reinforce the area as needed and run a floating seat on a leaf spring.
The fender is attached to the swingarm so that it will travel with the tire and we got that sucker low...I think it was in the ballpark of about 1/2". We flipped the pullback style risers around 180 degrees to allow the Whiskey Bars, that Chris has been wanting to run on something for awhile now, to clear the gas tank. After we offed the bulky ass intake for the carbs and bounced some ideas around on the air cleaner/carb situation, it was also decided that a custom manifold be made to run a single carb out on the right side of the bike.
Chris still has plenty of work ahead of him, but we accomplished a lot that sunday afternoon, all on a whim. It was great breaking the winter blahs with bro's, bikes and brews.
Check out the BBO 2011 thread on http://www.thechopperunderground.com/ to see all the projects involved in this years build off!
Looks like everybody had a great time! I wished I lived closer so I could hang with ya'll!
ReplyDeleteIt was a hell of a day and had a blast! Thanks Barry for the photos and write-up bro! Can't wait till we get a chance to do it again.
ReplyDeletewhat kind of bike is that and what year?
ReplyDeleteUs too Sackman...
ReplyDeleteDavid, it was listed right under the post title, lol.....1996 Honda Shadow VLX600