30 July, 2012

El Guapo - More Mockup

Hodaka!!?!?!?? That's right, a Hodaka SL250 Thunderdog fuel tank. I found this bad boy on Ebay for a meager price, and it showed up today. As mentioned during the intro of El Guapo, I really wanted a beefy, blocky looking tank. And this bad boy does the job. It is substantially bigger than the original CL90 tank, and comes with plain sides. As in knee pads, no badges, no chrome pieces. Just a nice big area for some custom paint work.



Just a quick mock-up of a seat, trying to get an idea how long to make it, and what shape looks good:

I shortened the seat, then added a luggage rack from a Honda C100, and a little scrap piece of back fender from a Yamaha GT80, just to get a profile view:

Just an idea to see what a hard case looks like on the back:


These shots also give me an idea of what I want my rear ride height to be. It looks like my rear shock need to be around 15-16" from eye to eye. Unfortunately, I don't have any shocks that length, and most small bikes shocks are shorter by a couple inches. I've done a little research, and some XR250 twin shocks seems to be in that range. That would let me avoid spending $200 on new shocks.

And remember, the rear tire will be getting quite a bit bigger. Likely a 3.5x18, instead of the little 2.75x18 on there now.


No comments: