hello all, i am new to the forum and i am building a custom grifter, hopefully to be finished by the time i go to the chopper meet at billing next year. having taken my chopper to the last two meetings, there was alot of positive feedback for the custom that i put together. over the next few months i will post updates and fotos for the kawasaki style grifter that i am dreaming of.

the frame was a blue prismatic, bought as a whole bike from the local charity bike shop for the massive amount of......£5! she was a runner as i rode it to the LBS who i get on really well with, so i used their workshop to strip it down.
the forks were put to use on another project that belongs to a friend, but most of the other bits were lost in the scap metal pile and ended up in the local scrap metal yard!
anyway, being a welder/fabricator i couldnt help but make a couple of taseful modifications to the frame. the cable stop for the three speed on the chain stay was properly brazed on, and i added a chopper style chain guard mount so that i can put a better chain guard on later.
the frame went of to the local powdercoaters who, after three attempts got the finish i was looking for, a kawasaki green with a laquer over the top to make the paint really deep.
the forks are going to consist of a pair of manitou crowns, aquired at the billing the first year i attended, and a pair of fork legs that i got from a friend that were originally found on a modern nirve beach cruiser.
ok, some fotos to go on with, and i will update soon. matt

That's looking fantastic! 8)

hello all, big update today, i have definately got the bug! a quick fone call to the LBS led me to getting a bargain basement steel headset for less than a tenner, so i had no excuse not to start the build up.

the stem is from the 70's, found in a local shop with the oringinal price on it, so £2.95 was handed over and i was very happy! thing is tho that the shaft is 22.2 mm, not the bmx standard 21.1mm, so i could never fit it to a conventional bmx. it sat in a box of spares for a few years, even tried to sell it on ebay, glad it didnt go tho as i think it will look great on the kx.



all the bits were collected up from home and work, and work started on converting the manitou crowns. the top one was 1-1/4, so i heated the alloy crown a little with the blow torch, and used the fly-press to gently coax it out. no problem.



this left me with a crown that had a much bigger hole in it than the 25.4mm steerer on the lower crown, so needed to spin up a shim on the lathe to take up the space.



the headset was pressed in with the headset press i made a couple of years ago, a bit of a project in itself!



alas anther problem, the steerer was too short to go through the headset, frame, and the top crown! so quick trip home to get a pair of donor forks and mate the two to get a steerer that is 205mm long.





all good then, time for assembly, plenty of grease, and some gentle persuasion with a soft mallet and nearly done.





the seatpost is a raleigh burner upgrade, also found with its original price on, but i cant remember how much that was...

also here are a couple of pictures of the frame mods i did close up, the guide for the gear cable on the chain stay and the stay to mount a proper chain guard, chopper style.





bye for now!

thats excellent

would like a stem like that
thought it was an XL or Bomber one
but seems much better

would like all those machine tools you have access too

like the way youve done those forks, any chance of bigger pictures?

time lord 1, clicky to make biggy. they are 10.m-pixel fotos.

Quote :

kanerdog1x1 wrote : time lord 1, clicky to make biggy. they are 10.m-pixel fotos.

thanks  

  hi i think your doing a fatastic CUSTOM Grifter there dude, it just goes to show what can be built using new and old skooool parts.   what style decals are you gonna be using  but either way you can't beat a good custom build

not much of an update, but i found the headbadge the other day in the top of my toolbox, i stipped the apint and polished it up last year, so its about time i painted it now. have pulled together some more bits n pieces from the attic, so will do a proper post soon........
 

--Last edited by kanerdog1x1 on 2007-12-09 23:07:38 --

top job there mate, it's certainly different from the norm !