I always wonder what it would be like to build a bike with all the parts laid out in front of you. I myself have never been able to afford that luxury. Travis's panhead was the closest I've ever been to that dream. So like most of us, I usually just start with one part. I have always dug Brandon's stuff at Mullins Chain Drive. So that is where I started, with a set of his 39mm super narrow trees. Simple and well made.
The next step was to fabricate bars. I decided to use integral risers with 1" stainless tubing for the bars. I proceeded to turn down a couple of 1" SS bolts to for the risers.
The trees are designed for 1/2" Allen cap screws. I don't like the way they look on some parts of the bike. So I decided to turn the hex heads down and tapped the heads for a 5/16" bolt. This allows the 1/2 bolt to work with a 5/16" head in the counter bored hole on the trees. now I can use a traditional looking bolt without altering the trees.
More on the bars later.
I am dying to know how you tapped the head (turned down) of a stainless bolt. I am trying to get this done for a marine application. An aquaintance tried and said a machine shop said it couldn't be done. What's the secret. I need a 3/8 tap UNF into a 5/8 bolt.
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