It's been a long time coming, but my 2017 Build Off entry is finally done - better late than never! Here's how it looked at the start of the build:
The basic story behind this bike is that I had wanted a Trail Bronc (as my uncle had one), but this '72 VT7 appeared on eBay for 150 bucks and was only 5 miles away. Hopes were riding high at first, but I found that both of the lower tubes in the frame were rotted & the fork was a cobbled mess. After fixing the rot and patching various holes, I acquired a fork from Studeman68 (thanks again!), but it didn't quite have the right look:
Additionally, I experienced some of the "joys" which come with adding a larger engine. The 301cc was physically quite a bit bigger than what it originally had, so the jackshaft I had wasn't going to work. This required a custom one. Then there was no room for a brake. Try adding a caliper to the sprocket, failed that, then toyed around with doing a disc on the jackshaft. Then realized there was no room for a gas tank & originals are apparently gold now...and so on. The project stalled at that point.
Fast forward to this year- one of my brothers wanted to organize a trip up north and insisted we have my bike finished. So, we set about solving all the problems. Adapted an exhaust pipe, fabricated an intake manifold, changing the throttle to work in the new position, etc. Additionally, Chatten hooked me up with a complete VT7 front end. We decided to build this bike completely before painting it, so we have a lovely Roadkill-esque pic here:
This particular image was taken immediately after we had it running for the first time, shortly after I...um, crashed it. You really can't see it too well, but the fuel shut off broke off and the tank is dented in the pic. :blink:
Since it was now functional, we blew it apart for paint, finished fabricating covers for the chain and TAV, and here you have it, finished (other than the peg covers) and with its stablemates :
It's been a pretty big project (which would have been much easier with a smaller engine), but so far, I'm pleased with how it turned out. Looking forward to putting some miles on it!
-Rob
The basic story behind this bike is that I had wanted a Trail Bronc (as my uncle had one), but this '72 VT7 appeared on eBay for 150 bucks and was only 5 miles away. Hopes were riding high at first, but I found that both of the lower tubes in the frame were rotted & the fork was a cobbled mess. After fixing the rot and patching various holes, I acquired a fork from Studeman68 (thanks again!), but it didn't quite have the right look:
Additionally, I experienced some of the "joys" which come with adding a larger engine. The 301cc was physically quite a bit bigger than what it originally had, so the jackshaft I had wasn't going to work. This required a custom one. Then there was no room for a brake. Try adding a caliper to the sprocket, failed that, then toyed around with doing a disc on the jackshaft. Then realized there was no room for a gas tank & originals are apparently gold now...and so on. The project stalled at that point.
Fast forward to this year- one of my brothers wanted to organize a trip up north and insisted we have my bike finished. So, we set about solving all the problems. Adapted an exhaust pipe, fabricated an intake manifold, changing the throttle to work in the new position, etc. Additionally, Chatten hooked me up with a complete VT7 front end. We decided to build this bike completely before painting it, so we have a lovely Roadkill-esque pic here:
This particular image was taken immediately after we had it running for the first time, shortly after I...um, crashed it. You really can't see it too well, but the fuel shut off broke off and the tank is dented in the pic. :blink:
Since it was now functional, we blew it apart for paint, finished fabricating covers for the chain and TAV, and here you have it, finished (other than the peg covers) and with its stablemates :
It's been a pretty big project (which would have been much easier with a smaller engine), but so far, I'm pleased with how it turned out. Looking forward to putting some miles on it!
-Rob
