Rear Hot Mockup - Make sure all the parts fit, make custom parts and adjustments as needed

Swing Arm: Once we have the bearings pressed into the new swing arm. Attach it to the frame, don't forget the belt. Check the clearance at both the top and bottom. Make sure the swing arm can move up and down freely. Grind were necessary.

Air Shocks: Install the new shocks from Legend-Air. We had clearance problems with the new swing arm, it lowered the rear shock mount about 1/4 in. This is OK, if your installing stock shocks. But the shafts on the Legend-Air are larger than stock, thus we hit the transmission mount...grind/weld time.

Swing Arm Modification: After the shocks were installed, we noted that the swing arm travel was limited and the shocks we not parallel to the bottom frame rail. To increase the travel and improve the appearance, we need to remove about 1/2 in of the swing to shock mount and reattach it. Mitch Hamilton was in for the weekend and was ready to lend a hand.

Swing Arm Weld: Here is the final weld after it has been installed.

Transmission Mount: The transmission will be mounted 1 1/2 in off center, so the mounts will need to be moved. A new mounting plate takes care of 4 main bolts( with a small modification ). But a special bracket will be needed for the 5th mount.

The new transmission mount has a 1 in offset, so we cut mount and weld it back with a the target 1 1/2 offset.

Primary Drive: The primary drive is installed before the 5th mount is welded to the frame. A 1 1/2 in spacer is installed before the primary drive is bolted to the engine.

This insures proper alignment of transmission with the new 1 1/2 in offset.

Transmission Mount: The transmission is then installed and connected to the engine with the primary drive before we weld one the new 5th mount. This will insure proper alignment.

A tack weld is applied to the extension plate (this is the plate that we cut above)

The 5th mount is now welded to the frame with transmission bolted to the primary cover

Rear Wheel Preparation: Before we install the rear wheel, we cover all the polished edges with duct tape to prevent scratches. The rear pulley and break rotor is installed with lock-tight.

To save a much room as we could, the left rear hub was machined 4mm were the pulley bolts onto. This places the belt as close to the wheel as possible. The right hub was machined 5mm on the break side. The caliper mount was also milled 3mm.

Rear Wheel Mount: We mounted the rear wheel and centered it with the frame. With the wheel centered, 4mm inset on the pulley and 8mm additional offset on the transmission, the wheel pulley and transmission pulley should line up. We used masking tape and angle iron for centering up the wheel.

The swing arm frame mount will need to be removed and extended 10mm for the belt to clear the stock frame.

Frame Modification: Remove the wheel and swing arm for the 10mm offset. Cut off the swing arm frame mount.

After a tack weld was applied, the swing and wheel were remounted to check the alignment. Here is the finished bracket.

Frame Modification: Before we can mount the rear fender and for wheel clearance, we need to remove the stock fender struts.

Rear Brake Installation: With the drive side aligned, mount the rear wheel with the caliper bracket. Earlier, we had 5 mm removed from the brake side wheel hub and 3mm from the caliper bracket.

Rear Fender Installation: A Wernimont rear fender was mounted using the old fender struts holes and connected under the seat new pan. Using cardboard as a template, sheet metal plates were cut and welded to the fender. Ribbing was added just below the seat for addiction support.

Rear Fender Customization: We laid out a pattern on the back end of the fender with masking tape, after trying a couple different patterns, we cut the 'tail' out. Using masking tape on the tire, we made sure the tail remained in the center.

Seat Pan Installation: The seat pan was modified for a custom fit onto the new super wide fender. The seat cover and foam pad were removed and the pan was cut and welded to fit. We were able to push the seat backwards about 1.5in and lowered an additional 1in. Some pop-rivits were used to place the seat cover back on.

A custom seat logo was also added (thanks mom)

Rear Fender Customization: To complete the rear fender, additional sheet metal was added to each side near the swing arm for a clean line with the frame. Then tubing was added to the tail for additional support and to complete the final look.

Completion of Rear Hot Mockup Phase: After several months, the rear hot mockup phase is now completed. The swing arm, wheel, tire, drive system, brakes, fender and seat have all been custom fit to our chopper. There is still some final body work needed on the fender and swing arm, this will be completed during the paint preparation phase.

The pictures are article on this page were kindly provided by www.jhchoppers.com

If you have written an article and would like it to be published, please contact us; webmaster@motorbike-search-engine.co.uk