The outlook
A typical Bobber which doesn’t lose the stock factory parts, appreciating the beauty of stock parts and their functionality. But saying that I need to have my Bobber, so the motorcycle has to sit lower than the stock stands, and height has to be dropped proportionally, both at the front, and back, without losing the handling and balance. Riding a motorcycle is key and not kept as a show piece. You can always add a peanut tank, remove the stock headlight add a handle T, Chop the frame, make it a hardtail. But you got to have what is sufficient for you and not just budget restrains.
Riding position
The motorcycle has rightly placed in-house handmade seat in such an angle which is comfortable without that extra cushion and puts you in an aggressive position whenever you would want to go Cafe racer mode. Also the handlebars are picked from the old 80s Enfield CI models so that the rider leans a bit forward to reach out the bars. Ride it to believe it !
The Ratrod
Its all started with a customer throwing away their rusted tank in my shop, and asked me to replace theirs with a brand new. I was so happy to get that spare tank, threw in some acid paint remover from the top, and I got three beautiful layers of metal, starting from the top,dripping to the bottom of the tank and the Royal Enfield Monogram shadow on the Metal without actually having a physical monogram. The rust inside the tank has been cleaned and bike runs well.
Some body parts where the paint job had scratches and mistakes on it has been a little exaggerated with sand paper, so that it gradually Ratrods with time.
The Bend pipe, Silencer, and Handlebars have been intentionally baked in a Muddy fire furnace, to get the rust look, and helped losing actual rusts on the parts. I apply wd40 occasionally to keep away rusting on edges. So its a moving custom project and goes through updation and preservation.
The unwanted clustered chunky switches from the factory on the handlebar has been removed, and distributed all over the bike to operate and most of them look like old car pull push switches and buttons. We want our handlebars to be clean and less clustered.
The fancy things bought for this motorcycle is a ‘STOP’ tail light from LOWBROW customs and vintage tire rear 16″ from Shinko and front 18″ from Timsun. The stock tires were a 19″ front and back. The handlebar gets Coke-grips maroon brown colored.
The motorcycle has our in house extended broad swing-arms, to accommodate the chunky tires and dropped height. The front forks have been chopped to drop height. The rear gets gas-less suspension retro style from Gabriel Armstrong, used in stock older Enfields, which are sturdy enough, Legends have made world touring, on a pair of them, and is a decent secret to reduce riding height without hampering anything on the bike. Old things are more cooler than modern items you get in the market.
The custom house has a special feature shifted from its original position for old Enfields. We have a habit of losing the Decompressor lever and cable from the handlebar and this should happen to our own bike too. The Decompressor is operated directly off the tappet cover with a little cable-replete with a hoop to slip your finger in to in order to tug at it- A fantastic little detail that is easy to miss if you are not observant enough.
We didn’t get rid of the Stock Tiger-headlamps which is Royal Enfield’s Identity and has no repplacement to match it. Anything else would be just a change but not a replacement.
If you can retro start it, you can just slide and ride it.