{"id":31374,"date":"2017-05-02T22:46:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-02T12:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pipeburn.com\/?p=31374"},"modified":"2017-05-02T23:02:25","modified_gmt":"2017-05-02T13:02:25","slug":"brake-royal-enfield-thunderbird-jd-custom-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/brake-royal-enfield-thunderbird-jd-custom-co\/","title":{"rendered":"BRAKE THROUGH. A Royal Enfield Thunderbird from J&D Custom Co."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by Jay Patel of J&D Custom Co.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Royal Enfield motorcycle has long occupied the imagination of millions of Indian motorcyclists, and\u00a0the company has earned a cult-like following around the world. The motorcycles earn their\u00a0popularity because of\u00a0their\u00a0old school designs, the thumping engine, and a real\u00a0hand built\u00a0feel. But more than anything, it’s the bike’s ability to be customised\u00a0that makes us love it so much. It has served as the chassis to build dream motorbikes for thousands of custom bike builders just like me. So here’s my<\/em> story.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

My name is Jay D. Patel. I am a custom motorcycle builder based in India. I established J&D Custom Co. after dropping out from my engineering studies. It was my passion to design & build custom motorcycles on my own that made me do it. So\u00a0I started working at my father\u2019s engineering workshop to learn some fabrication and technical skills and after few months of training, I bought a used 150cc Pulsar and built my first custom bobber.<\/p>\n

Actually, I still build custom motorcycles at my father\u2019s workshop, which is a proper setup with a lathe, drill machine\u00a0and\u00a0proper tools etc. I also built an English wheel for metal shaping which is helping me in a great way. I don\u2019t have any workers or helpers, as I do all my work on my own. So it\u2019s like a one man show: from designing the bike, to fabrication, to welding\u00a0– I do it all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is the first time I have attempted to build a custom bike on the Royal Enfield<\/a> platform. I built it\u00a0to pay homage to the motorbike which has fuelled the minds of thousands of custom bike builders worldwide. The bike is built with this thought in mind, which I\u00a0nodded to\u00a0by keeping the iconic tank and engine in focus and then blending it with other\u00a0elements of a classic bobber. The hardtail is representative of the commitment of custom bike builder, “No matter how hard the road gets, just\u00a0keeping thumping ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The build is\u00a0a great story to tell, as it\u2019s a mixture of old school aesthetics with modern parts. I always try to experiment new things in every build I do, but this build has many of them.\u00a0As mentioned, it’s\u00a0based on the Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350cc AVL block. Apart from the engine block, everything is handmade from scratch.\u00a0The fuel tank\u00a0was\u00a0inspired by\u00a0Royal Enfield\u2019s signature very own signature tanks, while the\u00a0dual fuel caps on it adds a great vintage appeal to the bike. The paintwork of the bike is also inspired by\u00a0legendary Royal Enfield pin-striping.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The front portion gets some\u00a0old school design touches, with a classic linkage suspension system and a\u00a04 inch aluminium headlamp, while the other half is a hardtail. The\u00a0carb equipped with a handmade velocity stack filter for fresh air while the exhaust is handcrafted from stainless steel bends which have colored welding joints, achieved by me after 1 solid week of TIG welding practice. All the professional welders in my town said that this\u00a0kind of weld\u00a0was\u00a0not possible.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The electrical system of the Royal Enfield<\/a>\u00a0is all hidden in the box under the seat. It took 4 days to shorten the wiring loom into something which would\u00a0fit into the box. It was a bit challenging, as a\u00a0new wiring loom was not available,\u00a0so if anything goes wrong then it\u00a0would have been\u00a0very hard to get the\u00a0bike started. Everything from the starter relay to the rectifier or anything else electrically related is kept in that box with the ignition key, push button starter switch, a toggle-type kill switch and a\u00a0light on\/off switch.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The handlebar grips and footrests are machined from raw steel bars, while the front brake lever is handcrafted. The most exciting feature of this bike is probably the suicide clutch and jockey shifter. The owner of the bike asked me if I could\u00a0build a jockey shifter like old Indians or BSAs as he wanted the old school feel which would really grab the attention of everyone.\u00a0The seat is made of pure leather in a two-tone combination with diamond stitching\u00a0and a matching\u00a0battery case.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Of course, the perimeter discs were very hard to realise. But I took the challenge and you can see the results. It took almost 3 months for the designing and\u00a0manufacturing. I made 4 or 5 different designs and after improvising, I finalised the 6th design.<\/p>\n

Welding mounts\u00a0onto the wheel rim to mount the discs was\u00a0also a very challenging task as all the brackets needed\u00a0to be perfect parallel to each other for the perfect fitment of the discs. After I finished this process successfully, it was time to design some calipers for a proper braking system. But instead of going with hydraulic calipers, I choose mechanical calipers as I wanted to give an old school look as well as some mechanical lever charm.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Its hard for me to choose any best parts of the Royal Enfield<\/a>, as it is the\u00a0combination of each and\u00a0every part which creates the\u00a0whole design. Basically, I designed all the\u00a0parts while keeping the other parts in mind so I could create a beautiful example of pure craftsmanship and art.\u00a0But the two things I admire the most in the build are the\u00a0vintage rubber tyres and the\u00a0perimeter discs. I think without these parts, the bike will be not as charming as it is now.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jay on the way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[\u00a0J&D Custom Co.<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – Instagram<\/a> | Photos by F.\u00a0Pandya<\/a> &\u00a0H.\u00a0Majmudar<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Royal Enfield motorcycle has long occupied the imagination of millions of Indian motorcyclists, and\u00a0the company has earned a cult-like following around the world. The motorcycles earn their\u00a0popularity because of\u00a0their\u00a0old school designs, the thumping engine, and a real\u00a0hand built\u00a0feel. But more than anything, it’s the bike’s ability to be customised\u00a0that makes us love it so much. It has served as the chassis to build dream motorbikes for thousands of custom bike builders just like me. So here’s my<\/em> story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,85],"tags":[1410,420,159],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31374"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31393,"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31374\/revisions\/31393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pipeburn.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}