1963 BSA | Oil Tank Mount

This is the oil tank that came in on the bike. Its pretty cool. There was no real reason to change to mounting position. However it was only secured at the rear of the tank, and the front was just resting on the crossmember thats in front of it even though the tank has a mounting point for the front. Also the front of the tank was rubbing on the frame. So I set out to get it done proper.

I cut out the old rear mounts, I needed more room to slide the tank back to get it away from the frame. I also cut out a notch in the frame, for the front mount of the oil tank to secure to. Using a 1″ solid stock for the front mount, I drilled it out for the hardware to pass through. Using “L” brackets for the rear mounts, I notch them slightly to accommodate for the width of the frame. I tapped the oil tank rear mounts so I could bolt the “L” brackets to.

With all the brackets bolted to the tank I placed the in position. I held the tank in place with a bottle jack. This allowed me to still maneuver the tank in to place while freeing my hands to weld. Once the tank looked good and was in place I burned it in. Now the tank is mounted properly in the front and rear, and is no longer rubbing on the frame.

1963 BSA | Handle Bar

After converting the front end to a Harley sportster set up, I made some bars. The bars that were perviously on the bike hit the tank, leaving it looking rough. So I bent up some simple nineties out of one inch tube. I tied them together at the bottom with 1/8″ plate. Then I welded in a 3/4″ bolt in the ends of the tubes to mount to the triple tree. And they don’t hit the tank anymore.

1963 BSA | exhaust

Well the time came to get the exhaust done. I found some really cool 12″ mufflers at Dime City Cycles online as well as a TC Bros DIY builder kit. The builder kit came with an assortment of bends and straights to get the job done right. And the high flow short mufflers look great and will sound amazing too.

I started by mounting the mufflers. If you don’t know where you want to end up how can you get there, I always say. I cut a 7/8″ hole in the frame. Then I cut down a 1.5″ length of 7/8″ solid round stock and drilled and tapped it. Each muffler came with it’s own mounting bracket. Since I wanted both mufflers on the same side I used one of the brackets to mount both mufflers. This allowed me to offset the mufflers with ease. After drilling a hole in the bracket between the mufflers I mounted my slug to the mufflers. Then I inserted the slug into the frame. This allowed me to make sure the mufflers were where I needed them to be. I tack welded the slug to the frame, then I removed the mufflers and final welded it in.

Now that I knew where I wanted to end up time to cut the bends in order to get there. I decided to set the mufflers on the right side of the bike because Joe, the customer, had mentioned he wanted to put a leather saddle bag on one side of the bike. So I thought I’d make some room for him. The exhaust kit from TC Bros came with everything I needed. I ran the left exhaust pipe under the frame just before the rear tire. I chose to go under the frame to avoid running into the chain. The left pipe used two 90 degree bends to get to the muffler. The right side pipe used a “U” bend cut in half and spun 180 degrees, which gives it a cool “S” look. Joe was having problems with the old exhaust scraping on turns. Well that problem is gone and the new exhaust makes room for a saddle bag, as well as has a custom clean look.

YZF600 | Banshee

Well Elijah came to me with a cool idea, “my Banshee needs more power”. So he had already started roughing the motor into the frame. He needed me to make it solid and functional.

So stated out by making the lower frame rail giving me a solid base. The oil pan needed to have more room than the original motor, so that was pretty straight forward to make happen. Then I started making the engine mounts. Starting with the rear lower mount. The engine needed to be suspended in order for proper chain alignment. This was tricky. I left one of the motor mounts Elijah made in place, he had the alignment pretty close. While lifting the motor from below and suspending it from above, I managed to make the right side motor mount which also needed to be removable so the engine could be taken in and out. It was quite the balancing act. Once that was done it was on to the left side mount which could be stationary. My chain alignment was good and the rear lower mounts were done.

For the rear top mount I was able to line it up with the upper frame. I drilled a 7/8″ hole in the frame and used 7/8″ tubing to fill it and make the motor mounts. I had to sleeve the 7/8″ tube with 7/16″ tube in order to have a snug fit with the engine hardware. This also helped fine tune the alignment. I drilled holes in the 7/8″ tube and plug welded the 7/16″ tube inside of it. So at this point I have top and bottom mounts done.

I then switched over to the top of the frame. I needed to connect the front and back halves while still having room for the larger engine and room to remove and install the motor. I attached the new tubing using slugs to create a lap joint and placed gussets and cross-members in oder to strengthen the new geometry.

Finally I needed the side motor mounts. The left side was to be stationary, because to engine comes out the right side of the bike. I started with the left side making motor connecting points out of the 1″ tubing I was using for the frame. I bolted those the the motor. Once they were on it was simply connecting the points together and to the frame. On the right side of the bike the side mount needed to be, you guessed it, removable. So I made mounts out of 3/4″ solid stock and drilled and tapped them. These got welded to the frame. Then from there it was just like the left side, time to connect the dots.

1963 BSA | tail light

The BSA came with a microphone as a tail light. It was mounted on the side of the bike near the rear axle. It is a ’50’s area mic from what I can tell, I do know it looks sweet! I mounted it so that the actual mount is shaped like the base of the mic, which locks it into place. Since it is on a ridged frame there is going to be plenty of bumps tying to shake it loose. I think it looks cool as is but once it’s lit it will really shine! 😉