Wednesday, January 18, 2012

The Wolf @ 100%

After being so busy over the months with my wedding, the house renovation christmas, the move, I have finally been able to take the time to sit down, grab my Bad Wolf from my friend Anson and get everything buttoned up. Bad Wolf has fangs, can bite, burn, chase you down and then some.

It has only been a week since I got it back, but so much has happened since then. Here is a short recap of what has been happening.

It all started when my pal Eelman told me there was going to be a bike show hosted by him and his crew. I thought this would be a good time more then ever to premier my Bad Wolf. So I took the Monday off to get my things done.

Anson had informed me that the seat frame is completed and it needs upholstering. He had also improved a lot of the wiring, giving a modern twist to the tube fuses and changing them with new pin fuses. He redid all the wiring on my bike as he claims “it was a sore sight”. At that point, he had already installed the twin tone horns on my bike and also the flame thrower kit.

Problems? We had found that the rectifier for my bike was dead and that the battery was dead too. Later on, we realized that the carb was giving us a lot of problems. I hated that carb anyway, so it didn’t matter, I had a spare Mikuni Flatside anyway.

I had spent half of Monday running up and down collecting the parts I needed to fix things. It was at least a 40km per way trip so I was driving like a lunatic. Finally getting the parts, I had gone to Ansons house again to get everything done. Only to realize that the carb I had brought was so unused it was clogged.

The next day, I had woken up early and had made a trip to a pal Joes shop. Joe is the proud owner of the chopper shop called Hungry Ghost Customs Inc. He was missing in action so he told his brother to help me clean the carb. I was charged a fair amount seeing how his brother slaved for hours cleaning the carb. I was very impressed with his work as he took the time to actually ensure everything was squeaky clean. In my opinion, that was money worth spending.

Day 3, before work, I woke up early and went to Ansons place again to see whats been going on. We installed the new carb, and more or less tuned it and the bike works much better then before although it still wasn’t properly set. The seat was not ready so I couldn’t ride my bike away yet. As such, we tested the flamer kit and I had to leave for work

Skipping Thursday, I had taken another day off on Friday. I quickly went to pick up the seat and headed to Ansons house. We installed everything and it was all great. I started my bike, the idle was crap, the tuning was chokey at best but the bike moved. Now, the idea was, ride like the wind to Joes shop in the other end of the city (approx 25-30KM from where I was.. if not more). When I reached there, I was greeted by Joes assistant, apparently Joe and his brother went missing. There was this guy who just came to look at the bike and said “your tribal would look better if it were pinstripped”. I went “I know, but I'm broke”. The guy (finding out his name later known as Zizi) stared at it and went.. “well, I'm free now, come over and we can get it done..” . again, I emphasized the fact I had no money, he just ignored me and rode off.
I trailed him to his shop and he pushed my bike into this nameless, tagless shophouse. I saw many bikes being restored there. It seemed he was a good painter. He started striping my bike. When he was done (and I was praying to god I could pay him and get my bike done by Joe), I asked him how much it was, he just coolly lit his smoke and said “aah.. its free man.. just say I did it if anyone asks”. And before that day, I never met him. I really appreciated what he did as he did it very well and he didn’t even have to do it. He doesn’t even know me.

Once the paint was done, I went back to Joes place and started getting my things done. We realized my bike had an attitude problem. Wolf didn’t want to start for ANYONE.. this includes me… we had troubleshot, removed afew melted fuses, arched some wires and was nowhere. There was even a time when the engine just jumped to life by just pressing the clutch. Pi; Joes brother, did a great job, he fixed it and we found my starter button was being a bitch.
When we had completed that mission, they continued to help me with making a rigid strut for my rear as the absorbers I had kept scraping off my expensive LED lights. Because of that, I decided to go rigid. And till now, I don’t regret it.

After all that, I had gone home at about 10pm, had dinner with my wife, went to Ansons house to take my car and came back. Got some rest and it was time to meet EelMan at the venue for the next days event. I decided to sleep over that day. EelMan and afew other people were great to me, they treated me as one of their own and I didn’t feel out of place at all. We had a great chat through the night and I fell asleep next to the Wolf.
The next day, things were going well, but in the afternoon, I had a false alarm scare and had to leave the event to check on my home. Just as I was reaching home, the bike sputtered on me. Upon finding out it was a false alarm, I was going to go back only to realize my bike wouldn’t start. After poking around, I found the positive terminal of the battery had snapped. I had to drive back to the event to take my things. Was quite disappointed because I wanted to meet my ol friend Brian, owner of Bees Knees Bobber to take some pics of the bike.

On Sunday, Joe and his crew helped fix the battery up and its currently working… for now. I was given a warning that it might die within a couple of months. Since then, I have been riding to work ever since. And I love the attention I'm getting. Except when some smartass comes up to me and goes “is that a cafĂ© racer?” UGH!!! I hate that…










References:
Lightings, Wirings, Flamer Kit, Fiberwork: Anson - 0129769067
Welding, Bike Fixing and Custom Work: Hungry Ghost Choppers Inc (Joe)- 0123569062
Sticker works: Eelman (Belut) From Sticker Master - 0196060767
Tyres of any size: Blackfire Tyres - 0127403365
Paintworks: Azizi Spray - 0176126195
Awesome Airbrush: Win Airbrush (Arwin) - 0193655379

By Vy