Just practicing TIG, made a dog for Tracy (hi Tracy!) out of a spark plug and some old bolts. I’ll be making a few more of these guys, it def could be a lot better.
Inspiration from Brown Dog Welding.
Category Archives: Banana Garage
Swap Meet
Found this bargain at a swap meet yesterday. Runs hard and smooth. Just needs a little fix on the light. The stand will work for my 1HP 8″ buffer, as well.
Andy’s Weather
Literally every time Andy has come over to work on his KZ440 he has brought horrid rain. Most recently he brought hail. A dark cloud follows the lark.
Exhaust
Berke… this is the end result of the welding two posts back. I popped a shorty glasspack onto the end of the stock 2-1 for my XS650 daily rider. Sounds much better. Pretty shitty welds, but I’m happy with it for my first-ever welding experience…
Making Three into Two
We have too many nice parts left over from the second KZ400 (last post), and parting out a bike sucks– too many boxes, haggling, and trips to the post office. Ended up buying a shitty KZ400 for the titled frame and motor onto which we will transfer the nice parts. The kid I bought it from proudly did all the mods himself, because he “only rides cafe bikes.” Nice work, indeed.
How not to make a "cafe racer": 1) Spray paint everything matte black without removing it from the bike or doing prep work, even chrome (note the gas cap, bars, shocks). 2) Crookedly mount a stock Honda seat on your Kawasaki. 3) Remove front brake. 4) Fit drag bars that smash your hands into the tank on every turn.
Making Two into One
Our internet presence has been quiet for a few weeks, but a lot has been going on in the Banana Garage. Justin has awoken his CB450 from its winter slumber; I got my motor back into my XS650, which is running as smooth as a 360 deg twin possibly can; all three of our CT70 Trails are put together and road worthy; Jeff’s hot-rodded C70 Passport has two straight rims and new tires… holy shit, are all the banana bikes actually in a working state? Yes! With the exception of my everlasting CB160 project… dammit.
I also got a deal on a pair of titled bikes, a KZ440 and KZ400, and donated them to my tiny little brother Andy. The end result will be his first bike. He has been working his ass off to turn two into one, learning as he goes.
Before - KZ400 and KZ440 sitting for ~15 years.
Much better! It has nice stance for a stock bike.
Kind of a goofy seat, lots of padding for Andy's lady passenger.
The closest he's ever been to riding a motorcycle.
With a grip of mechanical parts in the mail, we will hopefully be firing it up within a week.
And now that the Chicago summer has finally arrived, it’s time for me to get off the computer and out on two wheels.
