With all the other bullspit going down with the daily the chopper build has taken a bit of a back seat and it’s about time to do some more on that, so a quick recap, the frame is down to bare bones and I’ve chopped off the rear sub frame, unbolted the swing arm, chopped off the two ugly top tubes and started cleaning up the brackets and do dads that I don’t need any more, next steps are fitting the new single top tube that I have made, and hard tailing.
Now for anyone that has done this before I have a couple of options,

1. make one from scratch.
Buy in the tubing, measure cut, bend and weld the back end exactly to my specification
pro’s, it’s completely custom, 100% made to my spec and probably the cheapest option in terms of off the bat lay out.
con’s, it takes along time to do and is a very involved process

2. buy a ready made weld in back end
pro’s, a lot less work than above, it’s all ready complete and ready to rock
Con’s, your not going to get much change from £200, and it’s not easily customisable

3. buy a kit
You can get ready bent and cut lengths of tubing and rear mounts for under £100
pro’s, probably the most cost effect way of achieving the goal. it’s fairly customizable too
Con’s, it’s still someone’s else’s design and available in pretty much one style so if it’s your style then your quids in if not then well, back to square one.

For me in particular I think option 3 is going to be the way forward and I will be purchasing it on Friday, so I will let Y’all no when I get it and do a picture have of fitting it!

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I’ve decided that I definitely need to be doing a bike this year! So with that being said, I have laying around a rolling chassis for a 98 Yamaha xj600s that I bought to farm some parts from for my daily and I’ve decided that that is going to be the starting point, “why a divvy?” I hear you cry!, well, purely because I like that the wheels are 18’s! it will complement the look I’m going for well and it cost me £150 quid off ebay and, well hell I already have it! So all I know so far is that it will be a hard-tail and will be running a 1000cc Yamaha twin, other than that I’m not sure yet! I’ll get a rough sketch done with some measurements before I make any final commitments, measure twice and cut once and all that!

Reet after much staring, beard stroking and beers in the workshop I have finally decided the way I want to go with the frame,now I can weld and fabricate myself but I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself a welder or a fabricator, but, lucky for me I have some good friends who are and ply their trade for a living so after a chat with some of them, and double checking that what is in my head is do-able, not just do-able but ultimately safe and isn’t going to fall apart once my 14 stone behind is parked on it owing to me mixing up strength angles, I pretty much know what I want to do frame wise! As I mentioned in my last post the frame I’m using is a completely stock xj600s, now the obvious problems with this as to the styling of a chopper/bobber are:
Number 1 the seating position is too high, they have a subframe welded on so that you achieve the standard sit up and beg type position, that will being going in exchange for a lower seated position.

Number 2: It has twin top bars that sit flat and wide for the tank to sit on top of, which in theory there is nothing wrong with, I just personally think that it is ugly and would much prefer a single top tube.

Number 3 it is a soft tail and therefore has a swing arm, to achieve the old school bobber styling, I am going to hard tail the back end, talking to some of my non biker friends they think that I am mental for doing away with a creature comfort such as suspension but hey! I hope you lot get it!

Geometry wise, I’m looking to extend the wheel base by about 6 inches (I know incredibly precise but I haven’t definitely decided yet) and I intend to keep the rake angle the same. And that’s pretty much it for design of the frame. Stay tuned because the next instalment will be the fun bit, the grinder will come out and fabrication will start!

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