Jedd's Shovelhead .
This is my son's bike. He is 3 years old.
I got this bike for him when he was born,I swapped it for a late model Sporty with a mate of mine ,Porno John.I rode the bike around for a couple of years just like it is,made a few little changes on the way, but nothing too drastic. Just dumped the points for some electronic ignition , modified an Evo 2 into 1 pipe and sorted some forward controls out of a box of Streetbob and Softail bits. The bike is a good un, the motor is strong,the transmission is a bit odd.It prefers to go into 2nd before you put it in 1st from a standstill, but I'm sort of used to it now And its pretty easy to start,usually on the 2nd kick.
I don't do period (or political )correctness, so it is what it is,a lovely old Shovel, found for my son ,so that he would grow up knowing that, one day h'll be riding this bike.As he gets older he can help more,choose the colour, ride about on the back and share some quality dad and Jedd time in the workshop.
I ordered a Paughco wishbone frame a little while after we got the bike,but never made the time to do anything with it.A little while later a set of nearly new springers came up for nearly no money,so I nearly didn't not get them.
I'm in the fortunate position in that I have a loft full of old wheels,tanks and stuff I've blagged or won over the last 20 odd years so late last year I put a little rigid roller together.
So the plan is ,to build a rough and ready Shovel head chop,using the Motor,Trans,Primary out of the donor bike and this roller. Then use what's left of the donor bike to build a bit of a scruffy long distance mile muncher.I had a 113 cubic inch S&S motor in the workshop that was part of a deal I did a few years back,so i figured it'd be a cool thing to drop that motor,along with a 5 speed softail trans and primary into the 4 speed Shovel frame.
I'd not seen a big Evo motor in a Shovel frame before ,so got all excited .I mean how hard could it be ?
Well, to be fair , it turned out to be a bit trickier than I'd originally anticipated. But, as Roy says, "A faint heart never fucked a fair lady". So we got on with it.
There were clearance issues all over the place.The motor was far too tall,the front rocker box hit the frame .
The rear rocker box was too tall and hit the frame .
The 5 speed Softail transmission wouldn't fit because the swing arm was in the way
A little notchiness in the seat post.
Lift the seat rails up an inch or so
Chop a lug off the back of
the inner primary
Take a little lump out of the back of the transmission case to get clearance on the swingarm pivot.
And then the F*%£&ng starter motor hit the swingarm too !
Needed a new trans plate .so Roy made one !
New neck strut.
I said I was lucky earlier,well I have one of the finest metal workers in the country working at the shop and he just smiled,picked up his grinder and got on with it..
More Photos soon
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