Ryan's A.M.C.A. Giveaway bike build!

[rbenash]

Wow Ryan that bike is shaping up so nice! Been watching progress with great interest. What an opportunity. Hey - are you guys going to post a video of the first start and test ride? I know I would shure like to here it crank up.

[Ryan Mackey]

Here is how she sits now.

[Ryan Mackey]

Hi Ryan,

Nice build, and I am interested in seeing it completed.

Now, If the shop there is as dusty/gritty as is most shops that do machining......

I would put a plug on the engine crakcase vent.....and everywhere else that has open holes.

Would be a shame to let a preventable piece of junk to enter the engine unnoticed and ruin your engine later on.

Keep up the good work.

George Greer

Thanks I put tape over all the holes yesterday.

Thanks for letting me be a part of the build Ryan. It was great working with you, the bike is a true and amazing piece of art and is the coolest 45 I have ever seen!

Thanks Kevin, means a lot. I appreciate all the help and all the stuff you taught me. See you in a week!

I thought about the cable roller a bit more. Will the load stress on the roller fatigue the case half and eventually pull the case material from the case ? A chunk out of the case half would be disasterous. An alternative to stressing the case may be to fab up a bracket that fastens to the cylinder mounting and turns on down to the area the roller was intended for. Just a thought. Paps

Thanks for the ideas, I will be sure to keep an eye on it as I start riding it.

We have been working like crazy the last few days trying to get everything done before the paint was finished today so we could start doing final assembly. A couple more of Carl and Matt's friends stopped by to give us a hand. Dave Monahan came from Minnesota for a few days, and Ross from Florida rode up on his panhead. He has had the same bike for over 30 years and has put over 600,000 miles on it!!


Yesterday Dave and I checked the carb out to make sure it was good and then mounted it. It was new old stock so it was all good. Then I had to drill some holes on the air cleaner backing plate that we made in the winter in order to mount it on the carb.


Here is the cut down air cleaner


While I was setting up the mill to drill the holes...I found this in the cabinet...my grandpa worked at Cleveland Twist Drill his hole career after the war so he actually helped me build my bike and many of Matt and Carl's!


Next I put together the headlight


Last night we did all the parkerizing but since we have been putting in such long hours and it was going to take a while for the solution to heat up...I decided to take a quick nap


These are all the parts parkerized.


This afternoon we got all the powdercoating back! Here they are hanging up fresh out of the oven.


The front end all put together for good.


Here I am standing on one foot while carrying the motor for the last time

[Paps]

I thought about the cable roller a bit more. Will the load stress on the roller fatigue the case half and eventually pull the case material from the case ? A chunk out of the case half would be disasterous. An alternative to stressing the case may be to fab up a bracket that fastens to the cylinder mounting and turns on down to the area the roller was intended for. Just a thought. Paps

[TEACH]

Thanks for letting me be a part of the build Ryan. It was great working with you, the bike is a true and amazing piece of art and is the coolest 45 I have ever seen!

[George Greer]

Hi Ryan,

Nice build, and I am interested in seeing it completed.

Now, If the shop there is as dusty/gritty as is most shops that do machining......

I would put a plug on the engine crakcase vent.....and everywhere else that has open holes.

Would be a shame to let a preventable piece of junk to enter the engine unnoticed and ruin your engine later on.

Keep up the good work.

George Greer

[Ryan Mackey]

That is a very cool idea Ryan ! May I suggest you drill a small grease fitting hole into the roller shaft and intersect that hole horizonally under the roller ? Also....may I also suggest you add an L shaped brace over the roller to prevent the cable from jumping off of the roller ? Paps

Thanks for the ideas, I am definitely considering them but will work on it more probably in a few days. I did end of having to make another piece with a bigger back spacing because the cable ended up sitting out a little farther than I had first thought. It works good now though!

Kevin and I worked on the exhaust yesterday and got most of it done. I decided to make a wr style tip on the end. To do this I cut down the middle of the tube on either side as parallel as possible with each other.


Then heated the tube up at the end of the cuts and bent it up.


After that cooled I cut out 2 triangle pieces to fit in the gap and Kevin welded it up for me. It still needs mounted but we will do that later.


Kevin brought his knucklehead up to put on a side car that he bought for his kids. Before we started working on it, he let me take it for a spin.

I saw it in a magazine a while ago before I won this bike and always thought it was the coolest bike...who would of thought a year later I would get to ride it!

Here is Matt and Kevin getting ready to go test the side car.


And here is Carl and I testing it...


Once we were done having fun we got back to work on my bike. When I rolled it off the lift I realized that the kick stand let the bike lean over way too far. After a lot of brain storming we decided it was best to move it under the primary so I was up til about 3 this morning grinding it off and then had to get up early to weld it back on in a better spot so that we could send the frame off to get powder coated by noon. It should be done by tomorrow afternoon so we can start putting everything together for good!

[Paps]

That is a very cool idea Ryan ! May I suggest you drill a small grease fitting hole into the roller shaft and intersect that hole horizonally under the roller ? Also....may I also suggest you add an L shaped brace over the roller to prevent the cable from jumping off of the roller ? Paps

[Ryan Mackey]

Today a master fabricator and industry giant came up from Minnesota to help Matt move along on his Sears. Kevin Baas is a high school teacher that started a class that teaches kids how to build motorcycles. How cool is that! He is going to spend a couple days here working with us.
While Kevin and Matt worked on Matt's Sears I got my primary all set up and then mounted my outer primary cover. I ended up having to shave about 1/4" out of the bottom of the inner primary to get the outer primary to fit nice. Once that was done, I started messing with the clutch cable when I realized I had a problem. When I would push the clutch pedal down, the cable hits the primary cover. After thinking about, talking it over with Carl, and digging through some old parts we came up with a solution. I decided to make a roller for the cable to sit on the would keep it off the primary.
First I drew a picture and started taking measurements trying to figure out exactly how I was going to make it. I started with a piece of 3/4" hex stock and machined it in the lathe.


Here I am cutting some threads!


The final product...


And here it is all mounted up




After that was done I worked on the kickstand mount.


The shop was full of people working...even Matt's mom came out and got her hands dirty!!

[Ryan Mackey]

More and more is getting marked off the list everyday. Today I worked almost the whole day on making blocks for the cables and wires to run through. Nobody donated any so I made some similar to the one's that are on Matt's Sears. I started with 3/4" square stock and milled it down on 2 sides to get it to the right dimensions I needed.


Once it was the right size, I cut them to the right length and then drilled the holes. After the holes were drilled, I took them to the belt sander and shaped each one individually. 3 of the blocks had to also have a set screw in them to tighten the cables down.


It was extremely time consuming but in the end it was totally worth it.


I also fit the inner primary tonight.


You can see that it was touching on the transmission which is not good.


But its nothing that a little sanding won't take care of.

[Ryan Mackey]

Looking really good Ryan ! I thought I saw you scrolling around at Wauseon. I was unable to catch up with your quick legs though.

Thanks! Sorry I missed you, I will be at Davenport so if you are there be sure to chase me down.

I got a few things checked off the list today. The ride control is finally all welded up, it still needs a little work but it is basically done. It took a lot of machining and trial and error but I think it looks awesome!


I got the front hub all put together then decided to throw the wheel rings on the rear wheel. Check that out!


There was no time for having a nice candle lit dinner so I had to make do and eat standing up in the shop.


I also made up the ends for the clutch cable. I used an original wr cable to copy.

[Paps]

Looking really good Ryan ! I thought I saw you scrolling around at Wauseon. I was unable to catch up with your quick legs though.

[sludge]

yer on the right track - using some late model parts - now mix in at least one car part. old car tail lights are a nice addition to any bobber.

[Ryan Mackey]

Ryan
It was my pleasure meeting you at Wauseon Ohio this past weekend. Happy to see you back in the saddle. Now get back to work.
Joe

It was nice meeting you too.

Yesterday I worked most of the day on the ride control. Its going to be so cool when it is done. I did get to shorten the foot pegs though last night. I had to section a piece out of the middle since the ball on the end helps keep the rubber on the peg.


Here is the difference, I shortened them by 3/4".


I already got some spacers for the ride control machined up this morning. Hopefully we will be finishing it up today.

Here is how the bike looks right now. We had to take some pictures for the magazine.

[Slojo]

Ryan
It was my pleasure meeting you at Wauseon Ohio this past weekend. Happy to see you back in the saddle. Now get back to work.
Joe