Parts Swap

Jason came around on Sunday night to return my chain guard he borrowed to take his XS Chop for RWC.  Unfortunately it didn't fit due to the rear shocks having been modified.  It has been konged at the back and the shock are really short and at quite an angle.  It has also been raked out at the front.

When he arrive it was on the back of the truck for me to see.

It's had a color change I saw it in burgundy paint. Above is the original blue. The frame has been this way for some 20-30yrs and had no problems. Here is what mist RWC inspector had to say

took it for roadworthy today, they hit it hard.
1. nuts on sides of headlight to be smooth?
2.front upper brake line loose. (fair enough)
3.lower brake hose dont meet standards. (fair enough)
4.slight movement in handlebars (rubber mounted if i tighten anymore ill snap a bolt)
5.left hand hand grip loose. (fair enough)
6.positive cable insurcure. (fair enough)
7.indicator tell tail light missing. (easy fix)
8.vass engineers report for rake, rear guard mods, and mounting of fuel tank, vass engineers report is a one from a certified vic roads engineer, for those that dont live in vic.

Here's the part that confuses me, ring one of there certified engineers explained the situation he said is rake under 550 i said yes, is rear modifyed behind the shocks I said yes, he tells me dont bother just take it to another rw tester.
So I rang another engineer from there list he said it does need one. (paint cleaned of welds inspected etc,etc depending on which one you take it to) makes it hard when you get different answers from engineers of there own list. Well at least they didnt get me for the split pin I forgot to put back in the front axle.

So I referred him to my RWC guy and he has done a heap of XS that I know of and is familiar with older bikes. May be better, may not.

I also pulled out the old seat I had with the custom made base off Blacky.

We chucked it on and it fit almost perfect. The line of the seat matched the line of the konged frame. Only it sat 40mm high as the back was sitting on the fender. However if you cut a radius out of the back 40mm deep it would sit flush all around. This    A. looks much more stock   B. Makes the mods less attention focusing   C. Hides the wiring under the seat, & seals the elec box.  D, Hopefully makes it easier to RWC.
Didn't really want to get rid of it as I plan to keep Blacky's stock frame and only have the original seat to Goldy, The Naked Lady didn't come with one it had a solo seat fitted.

Anyway Jason offered to trade the seat for a set of ⅞ Bars he had bought around for me to look at.
He had brought four sets around two that he wanted for his project and two he was willing to trade a set of.   One was a set of 6 bends. Not your normal ones as they were in two pieces and had a cross brace, the end of each bar becoming it's own riser. The cross brace was a clamp on and allowed you to rotate the bars around on the tree to different widths.  Real 70s man!! I don't like the look of these, but i was certainly surprised at how comfy they were when mocked up on my bike!! Gave a nice riding position kinda layed back and the arm/wrist position was very natural.  If I didn't find the look so wierd I'd have a set tomorrow.

Original six bend pull backs

Second set were square welded mini apes. These had an engraved spiral along the entire bars and looked funky. On my bike these looked good and fit me well.

I ended up holding on to the next two to choose one for the trade.

Not sure what the differance between 'Z' bars and 'W' bars are I think it has to do with the angles of the upright section being 90Deg or less????

Looking for someone to give me a period correct answer on this one.  They seem to use 'Z' bars universally now for all of them.

According to Prof.

Z & W bars...  Getting apes in the early years was not always easy or cheap and they often only came in one size.  Solution?  Get some tube and your welder and make your own.  Much easier than trying to bend tube.  W Bars bring your hand grips to a nice comfortable angle (back and down) and release pressure on your wrists .  Drag bars, T bars and Z bars being flatter are less comfortable than a good set of W's.

This would make the one above W bars but I found the opposite the put pressure on the wrist, and the engraved ones Z bars as they were flatter and more comfortable for me.

The ones above have a nicer shape than the engraved ones aesthetically but the sharp downward angle of the pull back, has a drawback in the wrist position.  It either need to be on 20' risers, or the bars need to lean way forward.

Having done some net surfing that is how they seem to be run on bikes.  Although these are still much flatter.

Here you can see the awkward angle (as on this sweet shovel), which puts a serious kink in your wrists.

The others are window bars and would need 1"risers, not a bad feel but quite narrow, I'm not 100% on the lane splitter look or on how it would handle.  The other bar in the shot is a 1 bend prison bar I made that feels real nice but don't think it would suit this bike really.
Anyway even those these bars are in little less than average condition, ⅞, and not exactly what I am looking for. I wanted to help out a brother and agreed to trade my seat for a set.   At least it gives me options and a reference point for making some up out of the 1" & ⅞" Stainless I have.