bikerMetric custom metric bobbers, choppers, and cafe racers by honda, yamaha, kawaski, and suzuki
PEN VS. SWORD
video and death defying resurrection of the FREEDOM or DEATH MACHINE.
okay. so they’re leaky. it’s only been 17 months. the bike has been stored in garages all that time. limey kept gas in her tanks for a few of those, but from march until july it was empty of all fluids and wasn’t refilled for rides until then.
it was then when eric and i had a serious conversation and i told him why the tank was bubbling and would soon be leaking. why the footpeg mounts were as off center as the original handlebars. why the front end wobbled. why i gave up so much because i believed in the builder. why now, i didn’t trust the frame to be straight…
we drank beer and stared at it. then we drank more beer and realized what an incredible undertaking it would be.
as outsider art from a retarded boy, these tanks are cool. as purpose-filled, gasoline leaking, measured-by-anti-psychotic-pill-width containers of combustible death rocket motor fuel, not so cool.
we searched for the o-rings. none were to be found.
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This is ****** up… Man. I feel your pain. Well it can only get better from here on.
Were they brazed? Brazing is too brittle, for an application like a motorcycle gas tank. Also the flux from brazing bubbles up under bondo. The tank should have been welded, and then brass applied, for cosmetic purposes only.
TOOLS
they were brazed, tools. supposedly after welding.
during much of the original “build” jeff told me many times, “trust me.” what i got was crooked and uneven in every way. look at the tanks laid side-by-side. in no dimension are they even. one is longer and wider. the steel is bent and warped.
considering he bought tanks that were already made (https://www.bikermetric.com/2010/05/freedom-or-death-machine-build-3.html) and only had to cut a bit to get the shape i wanted, it’s pretty unbelievable how they turned out. it’s no wonder there was ten pounds of bondo on them.
Holy ******* ****!
That’s jive….