21 Nov HELL ON (TWO) WHEELS 20- Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 300mm rear tire build
Custom fitting a Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 300mm rear tire isn’t easy. Here’s where the project stands this week!
With all the pieces out for paint and powdercoat, we’re trying to ensure that every base is covered by the time they return. As we await the return of boxes filled with freshly powdercoated parts, we’ve got a few small items left to tackle, so let’s get them up on the blog and out of the way, shall we? Good. Let’s start with the underseat area. Remember when we were creating brackets and mounts for just about everything under the sun (and also the seat)? Well, there was one piece left to create, which was a mount for the fuses. Now that’s been knocked out, thanks to a small bracket connected to the bike’s frame, above everything else. After all, it’s more likely that he’ll have to replace some fuses before replacing his ECU or his battery. We even included cutouts on the side of the bracket to accomodate the connection between the lid of the fuse box and the fuse box itself, so everything snaps into place without too much figuring out of what goes where.
Next, we started sandblasting some of the pieces that we’d be painting in house. This isn’t the full collection of pieces, but sandblasted parts always have a weird finish to them that photographs decently. It’s like somebody slathered the parts in diamond dust, which as we all know is like a million f’ing diamonds, Michael.
Next, we’ve got some shiny new parts to add to the front end of the bike while the calipers and other parts are still off the bike. A while back, we purchased stainless steel lines to replace the clutch, throttle and brake lines on the car. Now that we’ve taken the calipers off the bike once more, we’re able to remove all the old lines from the bike (and if you look at their rather droll black aesthetic, you’d see why we did this) and slap in the fresh new lines. The addition of the chrome hardware at either end of the stainless line really helps to compliment the bike’s chrome-and-black look.
Earlier, we mentioned that we took the calipers off the bike one more time. Going off that same vein, we finished milling the spacers for the front wheel’s brake rotors. Unlike the cylindrical axle spacers that are holding the wheel against the front forks, this spacer pushes the brake rotor ever so slightly away from the spoked wheel. You see, we could space the calipers off their OEM mounts on the suspension forks, but then the caliper would contact the wheel. This way, the rotor is spaced out so that it sits correctly against the brake caliper in its OEM location.
With those little bits completed, now it’s just a matter of time until we start putting everything back together. Until then, the bike sure looks pretty rough with over half of it missing.
Look forward to the next installment of Hell On (Two) Wheels, which will be the second to last HOTW ever. Until then, we’ll be off work tomorrow but will return on Friday morning. Have a very Happy Thanksgiving, and get ready for Christmas music to start in about 24 hours’ time.
No Comments