Project #5 from Hooda- Springer front fork restore

[hooda]

So, I have a Custom springer front fork that came with a basket-case bike that I bought a few years back, and it's getting time to get back focused on working on it.



When I got the bike, shown below, It was a bare frame sitting in a guy's garage, and the forks were hanging on the wall, and the rest of the parts were in 5 gallon buckets, in literally every corner of the garage. After a couple hours of sorting, I managed to pick out what was good, and put it together into what you see below.



After about a dozen phone calls and 20 hours of sitting on hold, I was fortunate enough to meet up with a lady at the DMV who was kind enough to guide me through the titling process, but that story is LONG, so, we'll stick with the problem at hand. The fork looks to me to be non-road-worthy, as one of the main tubes going down has been welded, poorly. To compound matters, I have no idea what else has been done to this tube, like if there's a solid piece inside the tube, or another tube inside a tube, or worst of all, if the only thing holding it together is the ugly weld that looks like it was put in with one of those big-box wirefeeders.

[67cudafb]

I guess that explains why it was hanging on the wall. Sounds like someone stuffed it and bent the tube then tried to repair it. I think the forks are junk, sure don't want tube to fold at 70 mph.

[sportbike]

No offense, but that thing looks like a death trap to me.

[hooda]

I did a little history search on it during the title process. There's a chopper shop in town called "Donnie Smith Customs" and Donnie does a show each year at the St. Paul River Center that's the biggest show in the upper midwest. He's also one of the old timers that has been building noteworthy choppers since the 1970's. Kind of in the same group as Dave Perewitz, David Mann, Bourget, and WAY before the TV show chopper builders were on the scene. Anyway, I had the whole bike in the back of my truck, and stopped by Donnie's to see if he had any idea what the origins of the fork was. Frist, he pointed out the stamp on the frame, which has no serial numbers. There's a stamp that says "D & D Choppers, Hollywood, CA". As I stood there, mystified, he set to giving me the whole history of D & D, and it turns out these were the same guys that started "Easyriders" magazine back in the '70s, And they also evolved D & D into a company called Jammer products, which is still in business today, although now Jammer's main business is importing chinese-made chopper parts, mainly forks for choppers, to sell here (sound familiar?) But I digress. He put the vintage of the frame as about 1968, and on the springer, he says "that's one that I built in the early '70s, and if I had to put a year on it I would say '71 or '72. So here, before my eyes, I have a true piece of history. He told me that the construction is 4130 DOM chrome-moly tubing, which, from what I'm led to believe, is the strongest stuff available. and what they would do back in the day to fix a problem like this was to put a solid slug in the tube that extended 1/2 vay down or better, and to machine or grind a taper along the last 6 or 8 inches of the tube, that way, as the tube flexes during use, it isn't flexing against a sharp edge, which would just cause it to kink at that point, and eventually break again. I think it's worth noting that HD made springer front ends for many decades, until 1949, and they used 1020 mild steel, but the stock units weren't extended 6-12 inches, so the lateral loads weren't even close to what this unit would experience. The more I think about it, the more I'm thinking that removing both of those main tubes and replacing them with new sounds like the sane idea here. Here's some better pictures of the afflicted area.

[67cudafb]

Chopper never known for handling and cornering just look cool riding in straight line probably why it damaged.

[hooda]

No offense, but that thing looks like a death trap to me.

HAHAHAAH! No offense taken, and you're not the first to say that, but from the looks of it, it's had more than a few miles logged on it. One of the other options I have considered is using only the twisted front legs, and redesigning and rebuilding the whole assembly, thereby keeping in the spirit of it, looks wise, but with stronger, more modern materials,and a more robust construction. Like using larger diameter tubing, with a thicker wall profile. That would make it a much bigger project, and take me a month or so to accomplish, but may be the best option.