Cheeky!

A cheeky hold up/mock up was done to make Mackenzie happy. Luke's BSA B40 exhaust needed a small bit of welding and was put up to Mackenzie's bike for an idea.

 

It's pretty much exactly how he wants it!

 

 

It will look the nuts for sure!

 

 

Slowly but surely it is getting there!!

Mudguards

After a long wait for the mudguards to be delivered from Germany, they finally came! So Mackenzie got grinding and cut it into two, one for the front and one for the back. Mackenzie decided to tackle the front mudguard as it was easier (Slacker!!), and leave the rear for Luke.

 

It was once one round piece. The left has been untouched and left for the rear, the right has be narrowed but just over 2 and 1/2 inches.

 

 

Kept nice and low to the tire and kept bare metal for a raw and real made appeal. The back of the front mudguard has yet to be shaped and a secret, sick idea is to be revealed for the mounts!

 

 

Stay tuned!

Carburation

The carb orginaly bought for the bike was a stock GN250 one, yet it was quite big and bulky and didnt do much for power exhertion. To Mackenzie's great luck and fortune, Luke found in his Tardis of a shed an old Mikuni TMX38 flatside carb from a Husqvarna CR 250. This would not only look better, fit better, but also give a greater power output.

 

Much better looking

 

 

Once ultrasonic cleaned, new jets and a 2" thick round K&N air filter fitted, will look and run a treat!

Late Nights

The CC boys put all their work in at night. Like little bike elves. Yet you have to have fun some times!

 

Luke the pyromaniac

 

 

Late Nights

 

 

Felix doing a burnout on his cafe racer Triumph Bonneville

 

 

Mackenzie likes to have fun too!

A suprising rate of progress!

With Mackenzie back from university for christmas, some hard work could finally be done. Next to look at was the battery box. Again ideas were thrown about. It was initialy thought that a box for the battery and all other wires was to be made under the seat pan in a concealed box.

 

Yet as it was being mocked up, the battery fell from Luke's hand and accidently fell between the swing arm and the engine. It was perfect! The battery box shall be there? It was made sure that it didnt hit the swing arm through its travel. So Luke went away and make a box!

Good ole Luke!

 

 Nice
 

 

How perfectly is that hidden? With a black battery, it will go unseen, even if seen it will only be though to be cleverly hidden!

 

 

Good ole Luke!

 

Winter Progress

With the biggest mod being the bigger engine, a new top tube had to fabricated. This ment that the carb would have to "poke" out of th side of the bike on a bit of angle.

 

With some quick clever thinking an intake tube was fabbed ready for the carb. The carb will be fitted once the tank has been properly mounted to ensure a tighter fit to the bike.

 

 

It will be trimmed back about an inch or so. But it sure looks cool!

 

 

The boys threw a lot of ideas around for the tank. It was finally decided to have it bare metal (Mackenzie's favourite! Well it is hs bike!)

This is how it came out.

 

Nice right? Little view of the intake tubing too!

 

 

A visit to the Black Skulls

The CC boys took a trip to their friends in Hackney, the Black Skulls London. All bikers in the custom scene, they have a range of great and varied bikes.

 

(Black and white photography courtesy of a friend of CC, Felix)

 

Mackenzie and Luke in the BSL Lockup

 

Luke kicking the Shovelhead Bobber ready for a friend of the BSL

 

Felix's beaut Triumph Bonnie Cafe Racer

 

A friend of BSL, Ornamental Conifer, his lovely Yam SR500 Flat Tracker

 

Mackenzie's new/old ride

As Mackenzie's bike is still in bits (and probably will be for a while!), hes had to resort to his first bike and his first love. The beast that is the HONDA ZOOMER!!! When Luke and Mackenzie were 16 and 17 they owned London on these bad boys. Yet Luke unfortunately had to sell his, Mackenzie would never part with his. After public transport was beginning to get to Mac, he had to bring out the Zoomer.
 

 

With a staggering top speed of 40mph, Mackenzie and his limited edition Stussy Honda Zoomer ride together once more!

 

Some due progress

With Mackenzie being back at university the build will be slowed down to unforgiving pace unfortunately. This, as you can imagine makes a grumpy Mac! Get a grip Mac!

So progress made was the engine being treated to a colour make over! Matte black crinkle paint with polished cases and rocker covers. After the paint dried and wrinkled nicely the engine was then treated very nicely to a complete rebuild, full gaskets, valves, springs, colletes etc., cam chain and tensioner, 300cc barrel and piston.

For an extra bit of jazz, the starter motor got a polish and a treating of matte red wrinkle paint.

The engine was the placed back in the frame to mock up the top engine mount. This was simply made from a cut piece of the orginial GN top engine mount, welded to the underside of the top frame tube and a second piece was cut out to make part of the mount removebale.

After that was done Luke decided to put one of his beloved tanks (the guy has a tank fetish, no joke!) on the frame just to see what it looked like.

To much suprise the mini Sportster tank looks a treat. Although slightly smaller then the original custom GN tank, it fits alot better with no holding modification haviing to be really made and it now shows the polished rocker covers! What a result! The GN tank will now be put in the arsenal of future project resources so its a win win situation ofr the CC boys.

Next up is the dreaded carb mount, unfortunalty the wretched thing has to poke out the side! So stay tuned for the next update!

Back to work slackers!

After a great weekend the boys went back to work on Mackenzie's RV300. More stripping, grinding, painting, head scratching and engine mount fabrication was to be done but it has now all been done!

Proof that it fits!

So downtube was to be modified, swingarm bolt and bushes, and lots of other mind crushing work went into squeezing the 300 hog in the tiny little space. A big thanks to Zues Customs for the help! Heres a little sneak with bottom end engine in and the tank

 

 

Okay! Heres another little sneak of the engine half assemble!

 

Ok then, one more! Just beaucse Mackenzie likes to show it off! Dont want to give too much of it away do we now? The centre was treated with satin wrinkle paint. Just you wait till you see it assembled!

The Trip Out 12' Weekend

The boys today went to the first (and hopefully annual) Trip Out (thetripout.co.uk) Bike show weekend in Bedfordshire. The event hosted all kinds of custom and classic vehicles, ranging from the vintage car, truck and bike era, to the timely 70s and all through to the rats and modern customs. It was a greatly organsied event that allowed goers to camp up for the weekend with their bikes parked next to the tents. It was a great atmosphere with all different stalls, Krazy Horse Customs, Lebeef Kustom Metal works all had their own stalls showing what they can do, including many other well know makers. The Trip Out weekend experience was great to the young CC boys, it could even be called a business research outing? Or better "a bloody good weekend for a piss up!"

So it begins!

 

So Luke and Mackenzie went to the Black Skulls London (Follow them up on Facebook!) lock up in Hackney. Here they would be meeting up with the boys from BSL, Ornimental Connifer, Death Spray and lots of other friends. All had a bike, custom one way or another is a spectacular fashion. Notice the perfect 70's chop on the left? Or the beautiful Ford Capri holding a Rover V8! 

 

You can imagine the attention of 20+ custom bikes roaring through London!

A beautiful vintage Panther Bobber

 

Two of the funkiest/best ratted side cars in the world!

 

Some of the Trip Out goers mental cars.

 

Perfect

 

Mental pre unit ratted bobber

 

Mackenzie's dream bike. The Honda Dominater NX 650, stripped and bodged. Perfect!

 

It was impossible not to enjoy the Trip Out, regardless of who you were!

 

A nice sunset over the tents and bikes of hundreds.

 

Say Cheese!

 

 

The whole weekend was a great success, meeting lots of new people and bikes. We hope to go next year and report back!

It begins!

Mackenzie's project RV300 started today. It started by stripping the essentials ready for the bigger engine installing and fabrication for the nest day. The stripping was mostly done by Mackenzie himself (with a lot of stares/help from Luke and his boss Danny!), of course with his limited knowledge a lot of educated guess work was involved!

The seat, tank, side panels and battery box were removed first.

 

Next up to remove was the airbox, carb, exhaust and shock absorber.

 

Finally the wee power lump was removed.

Stay tuned for the next post, it gets real technical and interesting. Mackenzie brings the new engine in for fitting!

The start of Mackenzie's first custom

The summer was meant to be fruitful for the CC boys, what with the build of their first bike, they hoped to finish it and sell it to raise money for tools, parts and another bike. Yet unforeseen problems arose in the CC headquarters. Because of these unfortunate series of events, Luke decided to present Mackenzie with the opportunity to complete his project by putting aside the GT and getting him some time with his bike in Luke's workplace workshop.
    This projects consists of Mackenzie's Suzuki Van Van 125cc on which he passed his restricted licence on. Yet after becoming accustom to the teeny 12bhp, Mackenzie longed for more power and his first custom bike. While keeping costs low and sourcing and purchasing parts over the period of a year, he built his arsenal of parts up until the time would come.

Mackenzie's modifications hope to include the following:
- Top end rebuilt, 90' GN 250 engine with 300cc big bore kit
- Custom 92' GN 250 tank
- New custom Brat style (which would mean a rear frame hack)
- Air cone filters
- Clean handlebars and toggle switches (handlebars would only have indicators and starter button)
- Barrel grips
- Headlight switch and horn button would be on top of the headlamp unit (like and old BSA)
- All wiring to be simplified and hidden
- Idiot lights gone
- Possible ignition move to under seat
- Possible fat front
- Frame/handlebars/swing arm/forks/yokes/rims/hubs/spokes to be powder coated matte black
- Custom high wrapped exhaust
- Bullet indicators
- Possible inverted levers

Progress will start tomorrow, and it will all be shown step by step!

Absence In the Shed

At Cockney Customs HQ theyve had to admit a temparary absence due to a two reasons. Firstly with both Luke and Mackenzie working full time, the number of avaliable work hours at The Shed have been dropped to a sad amount. To add salt to the wound a vital peice of fabrication equipment has been plagued with brokenness. Rest In Peices two well-used welders.
   With these factors in place, the first patient to recive the CC treatment has been put on hold untill, like most projects, funds, resources and time are plentiful.

Bike Exif

The inspiration and ideas for builds has to come from somewhere, usually its from magazines such as Back Street Heroes and websites such as bikeexif.com and pipeburn.com. Bike Exif website features customs bikes from all over the world and every few days the site finds a new build and has an article about the bike and its builder. Thousands of people troll throught the website everyday admiring the new builds. Bike Exif also holds a facebook page where they post even more features on bikes and other bike related items. A few days ago the Bike Exif facebook page held a Project & Garage competition in which builders send a picture and a small article on themselves and bike. Well Character only came second!! After a day on whining, Mackenzie finally caved into Luke and posted a picture of the shed and Character to Bike Exif.

The boys were over the moon and told everyone and anyone. Not bad for first timers eh? Even got some likes, comments and shares!

Seat Pan

To much suprise, the CC boys accomplished what they actually planned to do, yet to be honest it was after much thought and fart arseing about.
Setting out to make a seat pan it was planned to attempt to make a lightweight fibre pan, but neither thought to act and order any material .. . So it was to be made out of thin steel, yet there was none left .. . Then walking past it every shed session Luke saw some seat pan material!!

Chequer Plating!! Good ol' ali chequer plating.

Lightweight, flexible and pretty cool looking it was perfect. It was measured, cut out then cut some more (never measure twice, cut once in the CC house) and angled to accomidate the rear frames stylish lip.

All to do now is to fit it with a hinge system and get it covered.

Handlebars

Today we got hold of some handlebars. The bars are originally from a KTM, unsure of the exact model. The bars are start at 28mm in the middle and fat out to 22mm giving it a more of a fat look. They are quite wide but it will hopefully give the bike better handleing, it will be a fun town bike that screams to be thrown around the London traffic after all! As the GT orginally had clipons, clamps were bought and drilled into the top yoke.

The bars give the bike the more heavy shouldered and meaty look.

It should give responsive handling too.

Next up the seat pan. Hopefully .. .