A Maniacal Push!

That's what it's going to take to get this bike done on time. Keep in mind its mid July 2010 and there is only a month until the rig departs for Bonneville so lots to do. Craftsmanship and sweet fitment will quickly give way to the mantra, 'Moving Forward'. Next up is a test fitting and massaging of the nose, center seat section and tail. Once the parts are fitted over the frame we can figure out how to attach them to the frame and to each other and while i have a good idea how to do this i need some hard numbers to machine to.

Test fit with leathers, boots, and helmet so we can be sure everything fits. The front fairing seems a bit low and needs clearance for the helmet. I am perched a bit precariously with everything being propped up by 2 x 4's and some clamps but it got the job done and quickly. Moving forward!

As much as i curse wood and its dusty byproduct it does have its place even in a machine shop. The notes you see in black reading through the fiberglass were written on the fabric prior to layup so i could remember which pieces went where during the layup process. Easy to forget when there are ten pieces and three different shapes among them. Obviously you can go to you-tube and watch hundreds of videos on all of this, and i highly recommend doing that, but no videos as it relates to Land Speed Racing motorcycles. So maybe this is helpful especially as we are cheating like crazy to get to the finish line, meaning skipping lots of steps that would have easily added twice as much work while only yielding a product 20% finer and lighter.

This is the buck for the belly of the tail section. If you look closely at the first photo in this post you can see a wire form behind my boots, that is where this part will end up. I won't bore you with the same repetitive details already reviewed in the previous posts, but be sure this part was fiber glassed, bagged, demolded, trimmed, sanded , fitted and went out for paint with all of the other parts. Damn that was a lot of work!

Fast forward two weeks and we are back from paint and fitted with nifty stainless button head Dzus fasteners.Wayne Quick, father of flat-track pro #58 Jake Quick, handled the paint work and did a sweet job and managed not to critisize us too heavily for our ham fisted bodywork.

HANDSOME! Still lots to do, cut a windshield, foam blocking for the knee area, assemble air shifter, etc. Dan, Greg, and Marty are all chipping in big time here and in fact have taken off of work here and there to put in some daytime hours. Thanks again brothers.

BIG PICTURE! I probably sound like a broken record but thinking big picture without getting stifled by the minutia of bodywork details is how you get this shit done in three months instead of ten unless you have the luxury of working on this stuff during the day. Bike leaves for Bonneville in 24hours. But before that the next post will answer the question: "Why a 125?"