Flats Movie – Build Diaries Part 2

6/2/2015 Woke up early today and opened up the garage, its Friday, the suns out and I have 15 minutes to repair the clutch arm on the Harley so I can ride something to work. I removed the exhausts, the clutch cover, found the issue, repaired the fork, reattached the cable and put everything back together. The bike fired right up after a few kicks, its running like a dream and the ride to work was flawless, the sun drenched bridge that looks over the bay was empty and I just throttled along in top gear (4th) all the way to work. I just wanted to keep going, all the more reason to look forward to our adventure.

afterlight

We took a trip to Melbourne last night and got the lights for the garage, I also wrote a list on my arm about all the things I need before the adventure, funds are low but I need to purchase 8 inch high leather boots, 1 piece leather suit, a back brace, still have to pay the entry fee and a heap of other things that aren’t associated with the bike. Speaking of the bike it looks like a lot of the filming will be done the day after the event, that way we can get the shots we need, the SA government and Aboriginal landowners will have the final say so we are hoping to get the go-ahead on that.

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So the bike MUST hold together for the week of competition and then be useable for the filming and then be able to ride home. It’s a lot to ask for a small capacity motor that’s living on the limit, buying a spare bike would be the smart thing to do right now, maybe I need to sort out some things and get something happening.
Looking forward to starting the build and the filming of the new bike tonight, in two weeks I want to be running down the road on this bike, also I have a new personal goal, to go 200kmh on this thing. Will it do it naturally aspirated? Will it do it un aided in the Aero department? Only time will tell.

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7/2/2015 Last night went well, it started with a trip up to Melbourne, I went to Reservoir and got measured up for my leather race suit, we came up with a pretty nice design that’s simple and well fitting, it will take 4 weeks to complete and costs $1600 but I made sure it was a two piece meaning the pants and top zip together and I would be able to use it on the road as well. Hopefully it’s a good investment. After that I took a drive to Airport Metals and picked up the three lengths of 1” x0.65 wall chromoly tube that will make the chassis, it’s fairly light tube but chromoly is nice to work with and with some triangulation will be stronger than what it needs to be, going straight on a flat surface shouldn’t stress it out too much.
After all that running around I drove home and picked up the prints for the wall that Dean had got printed, they looked amazing and will be a great backdrop on the garage feature wall. I also hung the lights that I picked up from Ikea Thursday night, they look great and the mood in the garage is certainly a lot different to that of Dream Build Drive, motorcycles are a lot easier to plan and build than cars are and its nice to focus on making the little things count, its set to be a fun night filming.

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Matt arrived just as I was wiring the last of the lights, I swept the garage and he set up all of his gear, we positioned the 350 ready for teardown and got underway about 7pm. It wasn’t until 3am that we finished the filming, with multiple takes the teardown was really simple but we spent the time making the shots as polished as they could be, Matts stepped things up since DreamBuildDrive and I can’t wait to show you what this one turns out like.
Saturday morning was pretty slow, I took the Hilux and the 180SX down to the local car show and sold some merch out of the Econoline, it was the first time I drove it in 2015 and the first time the 180SX fired up in over a year, everything went smoothly and we made some $ which was good, we finished around midnight and took the Econoline out for a late night snack while following Dean on his new 640 that I built, it’s a weapon of a bike and just looks/sounds amazing.
Sunday morning was a day to rearrange the property and organise everything again for filming Sunday night, Matt was set to come over at 6:30 so Dean and I decided to go for half an hour ride through the surrounding country roads, after I ran out of fuel and had to find a coffee cup on the roadside to syphon Deans bike out so I could get home we were running a little late.

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By the time we got home Matt was setup and ready to go, we got straight into filming and I set up the jig with the layout of the frame geometry. Matts off to America at the end of this month and needs the first ride sequence before he leaves, it’s a bit of pressure to have a bike built from nothing in just under a few weeks but I’ll try my best to do it.

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