Born Free 5

Epic event at an epic time in history. I can only hope those that made it out can appreciate what they were a part of. Years from now books will be written and movies made about the unprecedented level of creativity and motorcycle goodness that went down on this single 8 hour period. I'm proud to have brought my brand there and been a small piece of the massive transformation in our market that Born Free epitomizes. 

Hard to even explain the palpable buzz that was in the air (or maybe that was the SoCal heat), but I'm guessing 20,000 souls tolerated high temps and in some cases a two hour wait to get in. 

This is where the really cool kids hung out. The invited builder section corralled some of the most amazing two wheeled machines ever built. I'm really not much of a vintage Harley fan, but the craftsmanship and detail in these bikes is a sigh to behold.

Fun twist this year was a massive corporate Harley rig. They seemed to do an excellent job blending in and in addition to the showroom fresh hardware it appeared they raided their museum for some of the old stuff. Probably time to lose the skulls, though.

In a sea of bearded, tatt'd freaks it takes a lot to look really out of place (I lost track of the number of women with purple hair), but these folks managed to rise above with their own version of fruit loop. Apparently derived from something called a color run? 

Saw this in the vendor parking lot. Would love to hear the story.

This my friends is how to do apehangers wrong. Nearly lost my lunch.

Our little corner of the show and thankfully under a bunch of shade trees. Burly's Sean D. killed this show. Would not have been able to do it without him. 

We all have them

Really a fraction of the show. 

Alessandra helped us out with hero cards as well as starring in past photo shoots. Even cooler is she rode to the event on her Sportster!  Love her.

The bike parking area is my favorite part of the show. Level of garage built creativity was insane.

Nice touch.

Love seeing our stuff out there. Not sure about the massive sprocket, but great to see another set of Slammer shocks in the wild.

This was by far my favorite bike of the event. True Japanese brat style down to the last detail. Hoping to see more of it. 

Yamaha Brat Bolt - it's all about the tank

Focal point of the bike, so a ton of effort is being focused on it. Here size comparison to the Sportster peanut tank I've been using for mockup

Big in Italy

Blown away by this! Bikers Life in Italy ran my Scrambler on the cover! 

Yamaha Bolt Build - The good, bad and ugly...

This is all last weekends efforts. Sorting though the excess plumbing and maybe a bar build!

 

Coil and Speedo relocation was first order of the day.  Built a bracket across cylinders and using pieces of the OEM coil and Speedometer brackets created my own piece. Tidy little operation if I do say so myself. Trimmed down the upper motor mount, but not loving the look.

 

Close up of the Speedo and coil trickery. 

 

Rider perspective. Everything in view and no interference with my knee. Calling that a success. 

 

Gave it a quick rattle can. This along with a ton of other parts will hit the powder coater in a few weeks. 

Next is a bar build. Little bit of rise and a tracker style bar. Metric bikes typically run a 100mm C2C on their clamps to HD stuff is a no go making a custom bar a necessity.

 

 

View from the front. May need a bit more narrowing. 

 

Little Bates style headlight from Lowbrow replaces the larger stock unit. Will run high beam indicator and switch in the headlight to minimize wires traversing the backbone.

 

This could work! Set of Biltwell exhaust tips. 

 

 

Cleaning up the harness and ran across two of these. Appear to be test ports, but no schematics available for the bike yet. Kind of spooked by this outcome. Worst case is they have to stay and I'll need to hide them, but was hoping to really simplify the harness. 

That'd be it for now. Handing the bike back to Eric to wrap the tank and heading to Born Free this Saturday. It'll be back in my hands on Monday and the mad dash to finish by end of July begins!

Yamaha Bolt Build - Tank construction

 Eric is kicking ass on the tank. Narrowed and high on the backbone. So cool!

Two halves going back together. It'll get a steel backbone as well to give the thin OEM steel back the strength we lost by cutting off the pinch welds. 

 

 

On Yeh, that's nice! 

This is probably lower than I'll run it, but the shape is everything I was hoping for. Tease shots from Eric are killing me. 

 

   

Yamaha Bolt Build - Brat Style? Really?

Brat is a style of build I've never attempted and on a bike I've never touched. What could possibly go wrong?

 

Basic strippage happeing here. 

 

 

Oh yikes, there's all that plumbing again. Working on a plan to move/eliminate/hide a bunch of it. 

 

 Had a little Sporty tank to mock up with Calm down Yamaha purists, I'll refrain from using Harley parts in any fashion. Already had a few tuning fork hard cores get their panties in a wad over this topic. I'm just as much a Yamaha fan as anyone (slept with MX80 brochures under my pillow for a year as a kid!).

 

Exhaust is next on the to do list. Using a set of Cocktail Shaker mufflers from J&P Cycles to mock up with and I'm thinking I'll keep them. Should look and sound wicked!  This is my first exhaust build, so I'm stoked on how it's coming out. Pulled the rear fender and struts off, too. Really opens up the and simplifies the rear of the bike.

Sideview and beginning of front pipe.  May need a steeper upswing.

Now we're taking and yes that is the factory guard! 

 

Really starting to feel this style Mocked up another tank and a little fender I had laying around. It's feeling pretty bratty. Air cleaner now looking very wrong.

Bolt Build - The cutting starts

 

Look at that, Yamaha already has accessories out for the bike! 

 

 

So the plan is to do a Brat Style build. The iron of an American building a Brat out of a Japanese bike while the Japanese build them out of American bikes was just too much to pass up. With that in mind, it need a killer gas tank. Scored this from Yamaha to get us started. Super complex tank has a semi external fuel pump, a separate fuel level sender, a fuel return and a breather. Not an easy project, but Eric from Burly Brand has offered up his services to help make it happen.

 

His plan is to section out the center and then adjust the floor so it'll sit comfortable on the backbone. 

 

Meanwhile, this was hiding under the tank. Spooky amount of stuff.

 

 

This is pic of tank I got last night. He trimmed off the entire pinch weld! Insanely cool. 

 

 

It'll sit roughly here. High bars will add some proportion. 

 

Oh man all the plumbing and electrical look grim. 

While Eric is working on the tank I'll be building an exhaust and designing a new bar. Stay tuned for another action packed episode of Unbolting the Bolt. 

Yamaha Bolt - Intro Video

Yamaha Bolt Build - Project Intro video from Davez Garage on Vimeo.

I have a plan!

Yamaha Bolt Build - Intro

"Hey Dave, would you be interested in being part of a group of talented builders we've selected to be the first to customize our new Bolt?"

That was the phone call I got a few weeks back and the answer was a resounding YES. I'm not a famous or even full time builder, so to be asked by an OEM to be involved at this level is an incredible compliment that I do not take lightly.

A few emails and some paperwork later and I was at Yamaha corporate picking up a fresh Bolt.

 

Thank Nice Yamaha guy, can I get a token to get out of the parking lot now? 

 

 

Initial trip back to the mothership. Bike is compact and clean looking, but otherwise I know very little about it. 

 

Brought it home that night. It made friends with the rest of the crew. 

 

Spent the new week getting to know the machine. Commuted a bunch (Bike is fun as hell to ride) and did a ton of research on the drivetrain. Much of which is derived from the Star 950, meaning fuel controllers and other peripherals may already exist. That'll make things a bit easier as Yamaha has set a deadline of July 31 for completion. I've only built a few things that quickly and all of them were platforms I was very familiar with. Let the fun begin! 

 

Did a Home Depot run right before I took it apart. I need to buy another one to use as a commuter! 

 

Time to get to work.  Not sure what the plan is, but the bike is already speaking to me. Really low slung rear end is saying it really does not want to be a Cafe or Scrambler (the latter of which was my initial choice).

 

Two part tool kit. Would never see even one of these on a Harley! 

 

Underneath that is ECM and battery. No pesky oil tank to deal with. I'm liking that. Rear fender end right where it looks like it ends. 

 

 

What? A two barrel? Both good and bad. Cool as hell looking, but means existing air cleaners will not likely span the twin orifices. File that one under future challenge. 

 

 

Got under the tank and pulled a fender strut as well. Now thinking something bobberish might be in order. Going to ruminate on it this weekend. 

More to come.