Uhh, yeah, sorry about that,,, too bad it's not a video..

Jeff71 wrote on 03/16/15 at 10:17:00:


Not anymore..........

Just checking guys, just checking.  
Jeff

Jeff71 wrote on 03/17/15 at 13:20:16:


Are you sure you want to tear the bike down this time of year?

We are just now starting to warm up.....the riding season is almost here.  You might think that the RYCA thing only takes 40 hours - but I can tell that you won't just fly though the change in that length of time.  Ryan and Casey can build this quickly - all of us building our first one spend a lot of time looking at the instructions, watching the videos.....trying to figure out what to do next.  As RYCA noobs we spend a lot of time learning....and a bit less time actually doing.

We will all be out riding this summer....and you will be working on your bike for most of the riding season.

You haven't even ridden the bike stock bike long enough to have become comfortable with riding yet!  I don't know what the statistics are - but new riders have not yet honed their riding skills, and have a good chance of dropping a bike their first riding season (I would suspect).  It might be better to do that on a stock Cruiser that you are going to convert....then it is to do it on a Cafe' bike that you have already spent a lot of time and money converting.  Turn back...it is not too late...you can spend the warm summer months riding a Cruiser - it's not all that bad!  

There are three (maybe four) stages to the build process;

1) Strip and cut. The strip-down to the frame took me about 2 hours. As I removed parts I took photos, bagged and labeled. This made reassembly much easier. The cutting was done in about 2 to 3 hours. It's fairly straight forward. I used an pneumatic die grinder with a 3" 1/32 cutting wheel for cutting, a 4" angle grinder for shaping, and the angle grinder with a 1" Scotchbrite wheel for deburring.

2) Waiting. It's gonna take 6 weeks to get your parts from RYCA. During this time you can clean/polish parts and do any customization that you have planned (I did my fork conversion during the waiting period).

3) Building. I got most everything done in about six 8-hour work sessions. My garage was cold this winter so I was limited in the days I could work. When I found a warm (enough) day, I got stuff done. I would say that almost every work session was followed by a trip to ACE Hardware to buy nuts/bolts/screws/something. I identified changes/mods as I was building and was always in need of parts. I kept a running list on my iPhone (Notes) and there always seemed to be 5 to 10 items on the list. Heck...there's still a few items on the list.

So, even with the six week wait time, I think I could have gotten this done in two months. But things don't always cooperate...like the weather. That's why it took three months. Also, I'm an experienced builder of things. I've built airplanes, restored cars and motorcycles and even built two houses. So this project was pure joy for me as RYCA did all of the heavy lifting and hard work. If you are new to these types of projects, I could see this taking (easily) four to six months.

There is 4th stage. Painting and finishing. But after building and riding, I don't really see it as a big deal to tear it all down again for paint and powder coating.

dude! very nice!!!

As a side note, my wife says the bike actually looks better stripped down right now. She likes the look of the CS-1 MUCH better than the stock Savage.
Jeff

Mocked up.  

Jeff