Late in 2012 I decided it was time for a make over for my little chopper. I wanted to add a second seat so I could take a special passenger for a ride (look in my portfolio for Marie Leveaux). As it turns out 2013 was an exceptionally busy year; I started design school as a full-time student, and I still had to work to make ends meet. Whew! With my tiny garage full of projects and remnants of projects tossed in at the end of many busy days, there was no room to take my chopper apart when the battery suddenly exploded in the spring of 2013, and no money to buy parts if I had taken it apart. So it sat there collecting dust until the holiday break of 2013. I finally made time and threw down the credit card to buy a new battery. Now that Marie is running again, and I have some time to work on her I decided to make a new set of handlebars.
The last set was a compromise as I kept screwing up on the set I was going to build when I did the first transformation, but with the new body modifications the old handlebars looked out of place. I first started to make a set of “clip-on” style bars. I started by cutting down a two sections of 2″ pipe and filing the inside out to slide snugly over the fork tubes. The next step would be to weld two separate bars, one on each fork tube to accommodate the handlebar grips. After removing the existing bars I came up with another plan. I would make a set of low-rise drag bars with a downward slant. This seemed to be he best feel to me as a rider and had what I feel like is the best overall look for Marie.
Check out these pictures of the process, and I’ll keep updating as they are finished (hopefully by the end of January 2014).
Alan Shelton Design 