1-1-08

I have always had a fondness for "rats"... Rats of all shapes and sizes, starting with a '65 Rambler Classic and progressing through a ratted out 3/4 ton Chevy truck, affectionately known as "Punkin' Head" thanks to the gallon of OSHA Orange paint my pop was able to "liberate" from his work... I have had several just plain old junky cars, trucks, and Jap motorcycles, and all of the "ridin' rice" jokes aside, could not be more pleased with how any of them performed or held up over the miles of abuse I put them through... I cultivated a true taste for rat bikes, though, as my old '81 Goldwing, which I owned for 18 years, aged from a shiny fiberglas beauty to a ratted out, yet dependable, rat in her own right...

Devil's Tower; 1993 (Back when she was still shiny)

If it were not for the stupidity of her owner, she would probably still be kickin'. Alas, 245,000 miles of trouble-free riding (without EVER having the carbs off) ended one day with a spun bearing, thanks to not checking the oil enough...

Today's rat is an '80 GL 1100 which was pieced back together, ala Frankenstein style, from pieces of my old rat, a wrecked wing, and a parts wing. I was able to buy the wrecked and parts wing, both, for $200.00! The wrecked wing had been squashed into the back of a dumptruck, killing her owner, and had major cosmetic damage throughout, but a good engine... My old rat had a spun bearing but had lots of good parts, and what I didn't have came from the el cheapo parts bike which came with the wrecked wing... The wing is currently running a Holley 2110 double downdraft carburetor which is sittin' on a home-made intake. The carb and intake have been in place since 2005 and seem to be holding up well. I noticed a small air leak in the bottom of the manifold yesterday and plan on draggin' the whole she-bang out soon for a good look. Check out my "Plastic Intake" page for more information about the set up.

I kept the twin Ford headlamps from my old rat as well as the crash guards. The front end and tank are also grafted on from my old wing. I've been taking a chance by running without the cam belt covers in place, but folks LOVE watching the moving parts in action when the bike is running. I replaced the right side head in 2005 after a valve seized and stuck open. The valve made a nice little crescent moon on the top of the piston when the piston smacked it. Instead of poking a hole through the piston, I got lucky and the valve base in the head cracked off... The head was shot, but thanks to being a stingy ol' bastard I still have a couple of old heads laying around...Instead of popping some fifty bux for a new head gasket, I slapped some Indian Head gasket shellac on the used head gasket and have been riding the wheels off of it since. (That Indian Head gasket shellac is outstanding!..And damn cheap, too!) =)

Anything deemed unnecessary was scrapped, including the bags, side covers, turn signals, etc. I wanted to try and make a 1950s style bobber, but with a Goldwing instead. You see more "naked" wings on the roads these days, so I wanted to come up with something just a little different...

The bike came stock with air shocks on the back, but I wanted a more "traditional" appearance and took some coil-over shocks off of a '79 Honda CX 500 as a replacement. The bike sits lower and the ride is actually better than with the airs. The seat is salvaged from a Harley chopper and the funky rear tail light and "enduro" handlebars were scavenged from a 1970 Yamaha 90 HT-1. I was thinking about drag bars, but the BMX bars have a couple of more inches of height while still giving it a neat and new appearance ( I have since come across some nice ape-hangers and am toying with poppin' those critters into place... Another FREE item,. so what the heck.) Since this last set of pix was taken the front fender has taken a powder (gettin' closer to the "bobber" look) while the back fender came from a '81 'Zuki and the bullet lights came off of a 70's full-dress Harley and are wired to come on with the brake light. The pipes in the pix are stock Goldwing, but I have since replaced them with some fishtail pipes from another Harley (Harleys are good for somethin'!) (Wink)... I didn't have any muffler hangers so I took a couple of spanners (wrenches to we Americanized folks) and welded them up into muffler hangers... What the hell...They seems to work well and ya' just can't beat FREE! My latest addition to the wing is a converted 30 caliber ammo box bolted in front of the license plate. I had a bicycle bag hangin' in front of the battery to hold some goodies, but it pretty much fell apart and I like being able to carry MUCH more without resorting to full-blown saddle bags.

Ain't modern technology grand? I'm sure the guys in Milwaukee don't like it, but I figured my rat should have the proper badges and what more fitting badges than "Hardly Rideable" to go onto the tank?

Yet another tribute to modern technology is the cool "rabid rat" I printed off of a German rat bike website. I am thinking of putting my new "Bad Rat" logo on the bike in lieu of the original rat... AHHHH, decisions, decisions.....

Copyright © 1998-2008 by Tom "Squirts" Clark. All rights reserved. Excerpts from this document may be quoted with proper reference to the URL, the author, and the modification date listed below.

01/1/08