had some time to put up some pictures of this bike as it has changed over time.


first day - as I rode it home from the dealer. BTW this was the first brand new motorcycle I ever owned. Many other bikes but no virgins!



next incarnation - an atempt at 2 up - didn't last long



back to solo look



the 904 build - gutted


nikasil barrels



39MM FCRs

I do not have a recent dyno chart to post but perhaps if spring ever comes.

Nice ride. It's fun being the loner out in Sturgis, isn't it?

That is very cool! Thanks for posting what you have done. My '07 was my first brand new bike too.

~Brent

Thunderbird and a Speedmaster eh!

That is exactly what I am having in my stable - looking to find the right Speedy to work on.

Great pics on the development of the bike.

NICE!!!

I recently added a billet oil cooler from bonneville performance. It took a little customizing to fit it (new mounting brackets), but it looks pretty good. It seems to work about the same as the stock cooler but removes a lot of clutter from the front of the engine area.


come winter I may just build another (oil cooler) one but slightly larger in diameter and anodized black with the edges of the fins turned off to match the engine.

added some axle spikes to the front as well.

I don't need to tell you how much I like the oil coolers

Looks good Micah. Looks like the garage is coming along nicely as well!

Nice looking oil coolers, Micah. Bike looks even better now!

Your oil cooler looks cool...

in preparation for some work on the t-bird, the dual headlights had to come off. So figured they would look good on the speedmaster. A custom mounting bracket and some re-wiring and there it is.
I added some Ikon 7610 s to the rear. also a few other bits that I still need to get some pictures of.

I really like the way the headlights look on the speedy. So what do you have in mind for the t-bird?

thanks for noticing my jugs, stare all you want.

one of the other little bits I ginned up during hibernation months. a billet clutch cable mount. The stock one always looked bad. I painted it and polished it and black oxided it, but it never looked right. now this one looks right. and it weighs less than the OEM stamped steel part.

Nice piece of work there Micah, as usual.

got my custom oil cooler on last night. This cooler is bigger in diameter than the bonnevile performance one, 2 inches longer and is black anodized with the fins turned off. Inside is my own design 'turbulator' is seems to work pretty good.

Finally got the bike out for a spin today, first ride of the year. Tried out the pro com CDI as well. Runs great, tomorrow I am planning to try another timing profile.

I cleaned up the down tube area, the various brackets and welds are all gone.

oil cooler installed

Where did you get this new one? Looks great.

This was intended to be a winter project but I recently had to pull the carbs and while waiting on parts I decided to refit my old oil pressure gauge (since it could not work with the new oil cooler) It is not in the way and appears to actually work. The bracket is combined with the old cover up plate for the wiring (a 06 and older only problem) I used some old brake line and I had the gauge, so I only had to buy a double banjo bolt and a AN3 hose end. less than $15 investment (not counting my time of course)

Wow. Your work is awesome. Any plans to sell any of these parts to deserving BA members?

I like the bracket... A lot!

Really like your oil cooler. You have done good work on this bike.

Your new oil coolers look awesome. I can't remember but I thought I saw a posting somewhere on this forum on how you made them.

this winter I had planned to re-make the speedmaster into a bobber, however bitter cold and drifting snow conspired to keep me out of the shop. there was a brief respite last weekend so I got going.


freshly bobbed fender



fork brace to clear the 120/90 that is going on the front.



work so far

I have gotten some more done. The bike is back together and ridable. Going for new tires tomorrow. 170/80-15 on the back and 120/90-18 on the front, Avon Venoms. that should round out the look some.


front view - fork brace, LED run/turns.



new rear pegs, they are for my comfort as there is no pillion seat.


wrapped headers and finned exhaust collars.

Very nice work.

I just on the new skins on it today, much better. I was down to cords on the rear, and about half way to the dealer it started raining, FUN.
The fork brace will have to be a do over. The one I have now (which was repurposed anyway)is too close to the outside diameter of the tire. It took some vigorous work with a rat tail file to get it home. It looks like a billet fork brace will be the next project.

also I have this video clip, with sound, from the speedies first start up since last fall. hopefully this works (the video not the bike)

Love it!!! Looks and sounds great!!!

I had to make a new fork brace to address the clearance issues (thanks to a few rainy weekends had the time to do it). this one is started out as a 14.5 pound block of aluminum and now weighs 1 pound 12 ounces. Which is less than the original OEM steel fender support, and much stiffer.


I also added some gators from fast eddy to round out the look.

Looks great. Gonna paint it?

planning to paint it this winter. I am still kicking around some ideas on that. Right now I am leaning towards black pearl with black cherry flames. Or go completely the other direction with amaranth red and silver like a 40's speed twin.

I had some more time trapped in the shop due to rain and decided to finally do something about that hole in the frame behind the carbs. Ginned up an aluminum plug with an o-ring to hole it in place. It just pops right in the hole. Spot bored the face of it to fit a 1 1/4 diameter union jack that I cut out of some decals I got from fasteddy a while back.

The devil's in the detail----nice way to hide that hole

I am fairly certain that I posted something about breaking a con rod and shredding the 904 motor about 2 years ago, but I am not finding it and there has finally been some development on this bike. Like it is now semi road worthy and a long story to get there.

So back in the summer of 2018 while winding her out and shifting up, there was a big bang and lots of parts and oil scattered about. It had been a hot day and with crappy fuel, knocking pretty hard. The motor was a total loss except for the cams. I decided that I was going to be very busy with work stuff that winter and that I would just have a crate motor built with my cams. It was to be built and delivered by spring 2019, and it was. And that is when the adventure really started.
On Memorial weekend I put the motor in, after sorting some electrical bits, it started right up, ran for 5 minutes or so on the lift. I thought, great, time for a ride. Down off the lift into the driveway, started up and oil spraying all over. Shut it off, back on the lift. It did not take long to find the problem. It seems that the billet cylinder block was not properly machined and the top just cracked off. No compression anymore. Made a little video of the problem, sent it to the builder (who freaked out). We came up with an acceptable plan to fix it. And the first tear down began.

to be continued ...

Rather than pull the whole motor and ship it back I elected to just pull the top end and send the cylinders, pistons, rings back and a replacement set would be returned, with new gaskets and i would be back in business.
What actually happened was the root problem effected all of the lot of cylinders that had been made in a batch, so all were suspect. The fix was a redesign (which I had a hand in) and re-manufacture. This was in June of 2019.

Forward to mid November and the new parts arrived, unfortunately winter had arrived sooner and my shop was snowed in. I got a break in the weather right after thanksgiving and put the motor back together. However, it would not start, I attributed that to the cold weather and waited it out.

Now into March of 2020 and I am working from home and have time to sort out this bike. After some investigation of all the usual reasons, turns out to have no compression. So I tear it down, measure everything, check flatness on the head and the cylinders, call the builder compare specs, put it back together but with no cams, still no compression. It just bleeds away fast.

Back apart, but this time I notice that the cylinder liners are not flush with the deck, but are .005 below. It was not like that a couple days before. Delving into that showed the liners were loose in the cylinder block and moving around as the pistons traveled, not good. So back it went.

A month or so later I received the same cylinders back with a properly fitted set of liners, another set of gaskets as so on. Back together again and this time it fired up on the first turnover. I seems to run good, very strong. I am fine tuning the carbs and sorting thru a small oil weep from the starter as well as oil mist collection issues with the secondary breather. Going from 90 mm pistons to 101 mm pistons changes the case displacement as well!

So far a 100 plus miles on and keeping it under 5000 rpm for some break in. If work would stop interfering I would get the break in done quicker. I expect the breathing issue will reduce as the rings get seated.

I have managed to address the various oil leaks (my wife accused me of building a harley) and put some more miles on. Aside from getting caught out in some extreme rain fall that blocked the vent tube of the right hand carb and left me limping home (at least that is my theory), The motor seems to pull stronger with every ride. Definitely more power than the previous motor and I still haven't wound it out yet.

One side issue, with the crank balancing shafts removed there is more vibration throughout the bike. I am feeling the need to take all the bits I can apart and apply lok tite, before they fall off.

I remember the post when the rod went. Hard to type 1 handed, glad it's coming along for you. Not sure if will get to ride this summer with my broken wrist. we will see how long it takes to heal.

I finally got some pictures to go with all this over in the gallery area.

Here's a link to the SM pics: Mag 10 SM Pics

As I get more miles on this motor the buzz seems less (or I am just numb to it!) I think that getting the carbs really dialed in helped.

I was getting some slippage at higher rpms / higher speeds with roll on's. Changed the clutch springs from dark green to red, that seemed to do the trick. Now the tire spins instead.
I have decided to make a new top triple clamp with isolators so as to have rubber mounted handlebars. I really like that feature on my other bikes. So I got some thunderbird isolator rubbers and a block of aluminum, just need some time off to tear into it.
Maybe after the snow starts.

Soon to not be the wicked black speedmaster. The tank and one (remaining) fender are out for paint. After many years of saying 'I really need to paint that bike', it is finally happening.

What's the plan?

this is turning into a not so fun process. An unexpected amount of time has passed since dropping off the gas tank and the shortened rear fender. No dents or repairs needed. Dropped off on a Monday I was told done by the end of the week. Didn't happen, not really concerned. Then I was out of town a couple weeks, thinking it will be done by the time I get back. Not. Yesterday I called and the paint shop guy said tomorrow for sure, or maybe next Friday!

The plan is the tank and bobbed rear fender will be painted 1981 Fiat borduex red. The right side cover will stay the original black as will the (dart manta R3) flyscreen. The rest of the bike is decorated in bits of polished aluminum and a few remaining factory chrome bits.

someday....

http://bonnevilleamerica.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showgallery&Number=602922

Now the 'wicked red 1100'
a couple of pictures in the gallery area

Looks good!

Got a few more miles in and the carbs tweaked a bit more. Up a couple jets sizes. Running cooler now. Shifts are very smooth and neutral easy to find after some machine work on the shifter lever.
I also changed the front sprocket from a 17T to an 18T. It was way too jumpy at low speeds. Between the weight reductions (on the bike not rider) and the power increase (also the bike not rider), the bike really wants to go. Very fun. It is like having a new bike that is still the old one.