"Eight Ball" creation. Part 3. Beginning.

Year 2012 began straight with another one buying trip under snowfall. 

That time I planned to buy some XJ600 51J parts, including engine, carburetors, exhaust and electrical system in working condition. 

As result I have got  enough parts to compile something different from the original XJ400. And, according to the spirit of original Cafe Racer's creation, enhanced. There were: to use  better chassis, more powerful engine,  all  those improvements that guys done with their bikes in sixties and what I thought to do with my old XJ.

Practicality was another reason in my constructing. Clear triangle of frame and lack of front mudguard always looks good, but only before first ride under rain. I had thousands of miles under rain showers and hundreds   even under snow falls, and that’s exactly the point of my mind, that minimal weather protection of rider and pod air filters should be always available. And maybe it's very cool to ride motorbike  without front brakes, and get kicked by seat on every road pothole, but I prefer to have good working suspensions and brakes.

But back to the story. I did compilation of chassis, including front wheel recombination, as quickly as possible. 

  

I made that new sketch in April, and it was viable, as for me. But there were many unsolved questions, because I used too many different parts from different motorcycles of even different manufacturers.  And I needed more place for my works and expanded arsenal of tools, so in June 2012 I moved to my own garage.

There was a lot of time spent on initial clean-up and furniture rearrangement. It was hard work but it was worth it.  Since that time my garage became to me something like my own shelter. 

You can be a good mechanic but, it does not necessarily means, that you are a good metalworker. I tried to be a good one.  I hadn’t professional tools such like tube bender or sheet bender, but if you want to do something, you do it anyway. 

I invented metal template to made tail tube.

  And clip-ons were lower triple from another bike in a previous life. And so on. 

 

You find a way in which work may be done and you do it, and you can be easily hooked on this. 

Also there still were design questions. The gas tank looked attractive, when it was scraped red and a bit rusted. But in simple black it did become ugly:

 

And then, suddenly after much thoughts was a turning point of the project. That was like a lightning flash in the night, when design of bike became close to his current view.

Year 2012 was full of events. I have got my own garage and finally began to work with my first serious project. And there were friends whose opinions supported me in my work.