Well, ever since the Bad Wolf came out, BDC had been closed down to make way for my new home. its been some time now and we have happily moved in and are slowly settling down.
BUT, by no means does this mean that BDC will no longer be making bikes. In reality, far from it.
I have barely been riding the Bad Wolf and already im getting all sorts of ideas.. before I can even begin chopping the Bad Wolf again, we are in the process of planning and saving up for a new yet to be named bike. This time, it will be bigger and badder then ever. And in more ways then one.
The capacity will be much larger and the frame too. However, the design will be a true chopper. No fancy stuff like flamer kits and undercarriage lights. It will only have all the essentials the bike will need like headlamps, tail lamps, horn and indicator.
Anyway, lately I had taken a part time job at a friends place to learn basic welding techniques and wiring as well. Although he is using a MIG, still I am sure i can learn a thing or two.
Last weekend, the LadyBoss had agreed to get an ARC welder so I can do my own welding. before this, we were looking around and wondering what welder to buy and if I should even bother getting one.
We ended up deciding on an ARC welder because then I wouldn't have to buy the inert gas (which isnt easy to find). We were down to 2 types of ARC welders, the AC and Inverter types. Here is what I found out:
Inverter Type (DC) Pros: - easy to move around if you have to move all over the place - very light
Cons: - very expensive - heats up very quickly - not good for long term welding (like for big projects)
AC Arc Welder (oil cooled) Pros: - oil cooled for long usage - able to use AC and DC rods - quite cheap
Cons: - Heavy as hell and not easy to move around - Your're screwed if it leaks.
After talking to Eelman, Joe and afew other friends, I had decided to go for the AC ARC welder. just bought it but I haven't had the time to test it out yet. I was too busy making a skateboard for it so I can move it around. Plus, I bought a longer cable so I can get to tight spots easier.
As usual, no one really posts useful information about frames.
Doing my research, I found abit about it.
I am stealing this information from Chopperweb. so please click on it to see more info and to support them
Figure 1 illustrates the primary chassis components of a typical V-Twin rigid frame that consists of the following primary elements:
1. Steering head. Also called the stem head, steering neck or headstock. 2. Frame Backbone. Sometimes called the Top-tube. 3. Seat post. 4. Backbone or Top Tube brace. 5. Wishbones. One left and one right. Also called the upper rear wishbones. 6. Wishbone cross member. Also called the upper fender mount. 7. Side tubes. Sometimes called the side rails, bottom rails or lower tubes. 8. Seat post cross member. 9. Rear transmission mount/cross member. 10. Axle plates or side plates. 11. Front tubes or Down tubes which extend into the bottom rails. 12. Front transmission mount. 13. Rear motor mount. 14. Front motor mount. 15. Motor top mount.
It is very hard to find the correct terms for many things.. google doesnt help especially if you dont know what you are looking for. after looking around, i thought i might help abit in this area for exhausts.
note that although the sounds are about the same, they really are not in real life, this is because the camera mics cant pick up what we can hear
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 café 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
In Malaysia, exhaust pipes that angle skyward are called "Tembak Bulan" exhausts, literally translated in English, that means Moon Shooting Exhausts. In general they are just like those old school shotgun exhausts you see in those 70's movies.
I initially had no intention of having these pipes look the way they do, I always wanted side exiting pipes on both sides of the bike. Unfortunately for me, that doesn't work due to the chain. So we redesigned it and made them the way they look now.
Now what you see in these pictures are actually just the beginning, the pictures were taken the day after the Bad Wolf was released from BDC and the following day, he was shipped to my good friend Anson for "Fang insertion". Generally, what we are doing now is making the seat, and making the exhaust just a tad more "interesting". Will update more when I see it. I haven’t seen my Bad Wolf for 2 months now.
Now that everything has been done properly, one would need to think about sprockets.
Messing around with the sprockets can do many things for ones bike. For example, if you want your bike to be just a drag strip bike and cover the 400meters in a blink of an eye, you would want mad acceleration. Back in the day, my mechanic used to tell me, there is no such thing as HIGH acceleration and HIGH top speeds, unless you turbocharge your bike.
Most people would just give you the right sprocket size as the manual says, but, you can always tweak this. If you want to save fuel while cruising at a higher speed down the highway, or you need to have the acceleration of speedy Gonzalez, this is one way of doing it.
Once your bike is set and your carbs are tuned, try this:
Higher acceleration: look at the number on your rear sprocket, and tell your mechanic to get the sprockets with 2-4 numbers higher.
More top speed:look at the sprocket number, and go 2-4 sprockets lower.
Imagine your old bicycle, be it a mountain bike or any race bike, there are gears. Same concept.
For some, having a large sprocket in the rear may look nice, but what happens to your bike? It accelerates like a bat on fire but I guarantee your bike will be guzzling fuel and probably not going very fast on the highway. What do you do? You need to adjust the ratio of your sprocket by doing something about the front sprocket too.
Now, as far as charts go, I have seen some strange settings, but hey, who am I to judge right?
Ok, the general idea is this, the bigger the number on the chart, the faster the acceleration. The smaller it is, the higher the top speed. Now, on a standard bike, the ratio is usually 2.7-2.8. this will give you more acceleration and less top speed, but, in our case, a larger carb and some mods to the exhaust and intakes have fueled the acceleration. So, the best option would be to have a good balance more or less. If you are one who weaves through traffic more, please maintain the 2.7 ratio, but if you spend more of your time on the highway, you can always have better top speed by going around 2.5 to 2.4.
Now, in my case, I want my sprocket to look big so its nice and looks cool. Thus I bought a 46 rear sprocket. I need my ratio to be 2.5 so I had purchased a 18 key front sprocket. Look at the attachments I had added in and just send me a comment if you need more help with this
Was packing up my stuff to prepare to move and I found my little book of notes for plans when we were building the Bad Wolf. I hope this helps you guys out if you want to tune
Find the air jet
Tighten it all the way in
Turn air jet 1.5 turns out (usually default settings)
Warm Up Engine
Tighten idle control screw slightly (maybe 1-2 turns)
Turn the air jet out ¼ of a turn.
Wait to see if idle increases (give the throttle a slight blip to help)
Repeat until idle cant go any higher (if you have to turn over 3 turns for it to max out, change to a smaller air jet.)
Loosen the idle control screw till its all the way down. If idle is too low, perform step 6-7 until idle is low enough but does not die off.
Blip throttle to see if there is a lag when it revs, if yes, perform steps 6-9 until you get it right.
Note: if you can't get it right (i.e. lags when blip, revs not low enough), you may need a smaller main jet.
