Monster Project: Phase 18

So, last I left off in Monster Project blog updates… I couldn’t find all the important bits for the rear wheel and attaching it to the bike. Axle, spacers, etc. I ripped apart my garage and stayed up until 5a putting it back together and just couldn’t find them.

I called everyone who’s shop the bike had been at to double check I hadn’t left it somewhere, and finally caved and replaced the rear axle and spacer bits. I stopped by Cheshire Motorsports on Division in Portland and they had the parts I needed… used! Cost me $40 and I was back in business.

Prepping the bits… cleaning ‘em up real good.

Attached the rotor and caliper to the rear wheel.

At this point I realize I was also missing the sprocket carrier and rear sprocket… I was pretty annoyed and left for the day to go get to the bottom of where the hell all that stuff went.

One day I got a text from Sage with this photo attached saying, “Better hurry.” Nobi, like me, was very excited to see this thing rolling more or less, and decided to throw the wheels (and handlebars, and brakes, and cables, and wiring harness…) on the bike while I was gone. On one hand, it made me sad I didn’t do it, on the other hand… thanks Nobi!

Completely unable to find my sprocket carrier or sprocket, Anders Karlsson had an extra one he offered to send me… all the way from Sweden! It arrived a short while later and I went straight to cleaning it.

Here you can see what some good scrubbing in a parts washer did for the grime.

All clean and ready for mounting! Still no sprocket but I can handle that later.

Below, Nobi holds the sprocket carrier and wheel with cush drive rubbers inserted so you can see how they fit together.

At this point I ghetto-mounted the headlight with some zip ties, made notes of all the things left to do, missing bolts, etc…

And had a little sit on her for the first time in a year.

After all this, I headed over to Bridge City Cycles to say hi to Anthony (owner) and talk shop. I wanted to discuss the minor powdercoating and painting details I’d be needing in the coming months, plus just shoot the shit for a minute.

As I’m showing him pictures of Monster progress, a lightbulb goes off in his head and BOOM… he runs off and pulls this beauty out of a parts bin. As it turns out, I brought the wheels in (back when he was helping me try to get the cush drive rubbers out of the wheel for powdercoating) and left all this shit in it. Not only stupid on my part, but honestly I can’t believe I didn’t remember that they were there. I didn’t even call. But hey, I didn’t replace all of it so… yay. There’s my sprocket!

Next time I saw the Monster, Heath and I went to load it up and bring it home while I took my trip to Maryland and he moved shops. Heath is doing the custom exhaust fabrication, so he had to finish moving all his equipment to the new space.