Custom Motorcycle Fabrication: Materials, Welding, Mill and Lathe 101, Chassis Assembly - Paperback

by Timothy Remus (Author), Steve Brewdude Garn (With), Paul Wideman (With)

Part fabrication book and part custom-bike-building book, Custom Motorcycle Fabrication is an essential guide for anyone with plans to build their own unique motorcycle out of their own unique parts.

To aid in fabricating those unique parts readers will find one chapter dedicated to Welding, and another to Machining. Well-known how-to author Steve Garn contributes three fabrication chapters: Materials, How to Make a Frame Jig, and Working with Tubing. Two additional fabrication sequences, How to Fabricate a set of Bars and How to Fabricate an Oil Tank, are contributed by Paul Wideman, owner of Bare Knuckle Choppers.

Additional fabrication sequences can be found in the bike assembly chapters contributed by three long standing and well-known shops: Shadley Bros, Donnie Smith Custom Cycles and Creative Metalwork. The bike assembly chapters include one late model Dyna, one rapid transit Bagger, and one Shovel-Glide.

There is nothing quite like a fine custom motorcycle. The vision of one person. A bike with nice lines and a strong motor. A bike unlike any other on the planet. It doesn't take fifty thousand dollars. It does take hard work and a tight focus on one goal - fabricating and assembling a very personal two-wheeled expression of the fire that burns in your soul.

Front Jacket

Start at the beginning with a discussion of the materials commonly used to fabricate custom motorcycle frames, fenders, brackets and all the rest. This discussion includes not only steel but also aluminum and stainless.

Joining metal - welding - is an essential part of building almost anything and the copy here includes, TIG and MIG welding, as well as Stick and Oxy/Acetylene welding. In each case, the author covers sub topics like penetration, strength, getting started and the relative size of the heat-affected-zone.

Most custom motorcycle frames, as well as many of the brackets that hold things together, are made from tubing. Thus the book includes an entire section on bending and notching tubing to achieve a precise fit between any two parts prior to welding.

The other skill a good fabricator needs is machining on both a mill and lathe. The author walks the reader through the basics for both types of machining: set up, cutting speed and tools, lubrication and cooling, and safety.

Some commonly fabricated parts like handle bars and exhaust systems are covered as separate topics, along with sections on building simple brackets and mounts.