Blank canvas

This is what the area later known as Bombus Speedshop MkII looks like today.
A blank canvas, 4 meters wide and 8 meters deep.
And behind the left wall another 12+4m² that's gonna be part of the garage as well

Lots of work, but damn so fun!

Shoptruck vision

I`m blessed with many awesome friends, and one of them is a wiz with the pencil.
He have helped me many times over the years to visualize my twisted ideas, always with super result.
This time he took my beloved shoptruck, the Bombus Beater to the next level with this vision.

Thanks Kristian !

If I´m gonna fulfill this vision is kind of a catch-22.
My life will from now on be heavily focused on renovating our house and the build of Bombus Speedshop MkII with the Berlingo as a steady companion.
And when I´m "done" with my building projects more likely the Berlingo will be replaced with a more appropriate vehicle.

Swapmeet

This past weekend it was time for swapmeet again.
Me and two friends arrange this every year in November
This year held for the sixth time.

Our annual motorcycle (Harley) Swapmeet at the classic venue Rotundan in Hindås, Sweden.

Rubber side down

The mighty Beater needed some more appropriate shoes to conquer it´s new destiny.

Found myself a nice set of  used 15" studless winter tyres which is not only quite handy in the winter in Sweden, it´s also legal requirement.

The 15" for the winter

The OEM 14" steelies will be replaced by a hefty 17" wheel set, also bought used, when the upcoming winter let go of it´s grip, but this set need two new tyres because the were very worn.

17" for the summer

Shoptruck

Living downtown in a flat doesn't make car owning an easy task
and two cars doesn't make it more easy.
But with the upcoming move to our newly bought house and the non motorcycle season
quickly approaching the need for a second car became apparent.
I managed with the almost impossible task to get a second parking space in our
building's multi-storey car park. So suddenly the hunt for a candidate was full on.
I've wanted a small panel van for a while so finally I got to live out that dream.
But I had some requirements, black, petrol engine and glass in the rear doors.
Not a easy task in a world that almost just contains white, diesel ones.

But I found my little gem about 4 hours drive away.
A black, petrol with glass rear doors, Citroën Berlingo a.k.a. Bombus Beater with both
reasonable state, milage and price.
A little beat and some DIY, but nothing I can't handle myself or with help of friends.
Gonna be the perfect companion for both simple A->B drives, commuting and all the future,
often rough, transportations associated with the new house.

The black beauty that gonna offer both smiles and gray hairs years to come.

New beginnings

December 2017 a new era begins not only for my family, but also for the now temporary snoozing Bombus Speedshop.

We will move to a house again and leave our beloved downtown apartment.
Our new place to call home from 1965 is a one owner!! two-story, Earth-sheltered brick house.
Total area is about. 266m²/2 863 square feet wich gives 133m²/1 430 square feet per floor.

Second floor is our everyday living space.
Ground floor is a big entrance, laundry room, future Speedshop MkII and an extra 29m²/312 square feet under ground living room with a fireplace......with HUGE mancave possibilities.....in the future.

Speedshop MkII gonna be about 42m²/452 square feet and that's gonna be the main project after the living area upstairs is "done" and we have moved in.

The Speedshop gonna be a full up build, it's basically just empty area now.
And you can follow it all here during 2018....and further.

In here the Speedshop magic will happen....in a year or so.

Substitute

The lack of wrenchin' led me to be creative in other ways.
I'm a huge hamburger fan and this led me to try it out myself.
Except for the insane back pain working in a kitchen made for midgets,
the burger creating process worked out great.
So, here is the original Bombus Burger.
Aaaamazing, sooooo much flavors.
150 gram beef patty, two slices of butter roasted toast, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and mayo.
To this I made my own fries in the oven.

The original Bombus Burger.

The pause continues

The Speedshop absence remains for a a while.
Much things have affected this decision, but it's for real to say the least.
Have no timeplan for this pause and life in the shop will never go back to the beloved retreat and energy boost place it have been for so long.
For example, I had NEVER managed to recovered so well after my stroke without the all the good things there.
But now it's decided to shatter the life down there as I know it and that's something that have affected me and my world more than anyone understand.
But I'm raising my head and look for other lights in the distance.
Until then I will pause all things related to wrenchin' bikes.

On hold...

Have now made the decision to postpone the Zündapp project.
Will it never be done now ?!?
Of course, but the spark for this is so far away now and the Zündapp...and myself deserves a better final result than what I´m able to give it now if I tried.
But the status is actually not as bad as it looks, mainly paint, wiring and assembly left, but that's quite crucial steps of the build that I don't have the energy or spark for now.

The status for the Zündapp build now in august 2017.

Now I will have some weeks of in the shop, at least for wrenchin´.
I will clean up and prepare for the BMW K75 buid that I´m so exited about now.
Planning and hoarding stuff.
I´ve already bought a Harley V-Rod headlight and the supercool rear Cuts and aluminium sheetmetal for the  for the flyscreen and various small parts.

Some parts for the K75 so far.

And when the darkness hit Sweden for real in about a month or so I hope the spark and joy will be back for me.
But for now I will focus on filling up energy and just hang out with family and friends for a while.

Regarding the Zündapp build I will probably start with that when the BMW is ready, or at least almost ready.
So if everything goes well I will have TWO awesome Caferacers to ride next summer.

Temporary deflated

Rideouts are always great with the Motobrick.
Took a nice ride with my Triumph riding friend Bengt this weekend.
He told me it looked like I was low on air in the rear tire.
A while later when we passed Lasse at Deep Valley Workshop I stopped and borrowed some well needed air to my now way to deflated rear tire.
I also checked if I could se something causing this...and I did.
Of course there was a screw that had penetrated the tire.
But Lasse who always have a solution up his sleeve brought out a Emergency Puncture Repair Tire Strip.
Pulled the screw, cleaned the hole, in with the tire strip, new air in and the day went from bad to good again in matter of seconds !

Thanks Lasse !

The little bastard causing it.

In matter of seconds Lasse had fixed the leak.

Fixed !

After this we not only got a really nice day in the seat but also amazing scenic views at Marstrand and the annual floating boatshow there.

The always beautiful Marstrand

The awakening

My new love, the BMW K75.
This bike have given me a total new view of motorcycles this summer.
I've discovered that riding actually is fun, after spending the majority of my motorcycle time last decade wrenchin' in the shop this is really something different.
Last decade my riding have been minimal, if none at all, but with this piece of awesome engineering I just keep on driving and smiling.

But now when the dark cold part of the year is approaching fast of course the old me, the shop rat, awakens.
The plan is to keep all the BMW awesomeness, the flawless engineering and replace some of the outdated design.
The front and rear will have some massage but the center part stays stock.
Think this mod gonna take this gem from awesome to AWESOME.
Stay tuned..

But now there is still some warm, dry weather left here in Sweden so I will ride on until the florescent light is more appealing then the pale autumn sun...

Exhaust mock up

After a couple of months with a never ending stream of other activities in the garage
I´m finally back to square one.
Now can the work with the Zündapp Caferacer build continue.
But during this ridiculously time i´ve got time to order and recieve a custom, handbuilt expansion chamber. In stainless on top of all.
I also bought me a new bike lift and yesterday I paired them both.
Up with the Zündapp on the lift and very temporary attached the exhaust to the bike.
Its just a mock up engine but you can still get a idea of how it will turn out.

Reduced power output

A small step for man, a giant leap for the Bombus  K75.

Passed easy both reg inspection for 35kW and annual tech inspection without any issues.

The Official Power reduction to 35kW my friend Thomas helped me with as a authorized dyno operator for this certificate .
But before we started to fiddle with the power reduction we tested the full power output.

About 59 hp on the rear wheel correlates quite good with the stated 75hp on the crank back in 1992.

Just put a 5mm spacer between the airbox and the throttle linkage to achieve the 35kW.

So now it have 35kW on the crank and will be legal to drive even for younger generations.

So I think now I have worlds only K75 with 35kW.

In Sweden there are three levels of motorcycle licence.
A1, 16 years: max 125cc and 11kW
A2, 18 years: max 35kW
A, 24 years: unlimited
(You can also get the A licence two years after passing the lower A2 level.)

Next up, much ridin´and some wrenchin.
Wrenchin´gonna result in a small flyscreen of alu over the headlight.

Kaferacer

A new era has begun for Bombus Speedshop, the BMW era.
Finally I have K75 that I've wanted for so long.

Feast your eyes on this ridiculously over dressed but immaculate thing from the nineties in "Classic Black Metallic" Color Scheme. But it´s not really black, more like very, very dark green metallic
But feast on it NOW, because very soon this new project gonna be stripped and agile like never before.
Originally a K75S  from 1992 with Pichler fairing and BMW bags, Peltor intercom, Panasonic cassette player and Secar alarm system.
It have just 32000km/19900 miles on the clock, almost not broken in if you talk BMW language.
Those machines are normally +150000km/100000 miles at this age.

First up, stripping bags, fairing and electronics.
Next up, 7" headlamp and general maintenance.

The very big second thing that made me bought this, my son wants to take his motorcycle licence.
And because his young age the power limit is 35kW so a decrease in power must be taken care of and then to be certified by the technical inspection.
35kW might sound like little but its almost 50hp in a 200 kg bike.
That's just a little less then what i have in the Sportster build and that one roars like hell.

Icing on the cake, The Monza fuel cap

When the build turned out so good other things becomes not so appealing.
The worse bit was the fuel cap.
The ugly red plastic one I've used before just because it was so ugly now turned from funny ugly to a disgrace.
So I took a deep breath and bought the expensive but so classic and beautiful 2,5" Monza fuel cap and a threaded aluminum filler neck.

The Monza cap and filler neck together and the neck is way to long. 

Up in the lathe to shorten it and enlarge the inside to fit over OEM Zündapp filler neck.

 Nice fit, just to thread on the Monza fuelcap.

 Mounted and open.

Mounted and closed

Out in the wild

Finally the little nugget got some sunlight and fresh air.
Rolled it outside to get some real look at it.
And I'm as pleased with it outside as I was inside.
Some minor stuff left like front fender, registration plate holder and kickstand and then deconstruction.
Final welds, some shiny paint on it add a tiny but crucial wire harness and then it's done.

 Left side

Right side

The limited instrument panel

Seat

Rearset

Front wheel

Italjet Dragster, my unicorn

FINALLY I'VE LANDED MY UNICORN!
After almost two decades I've got it !!!!
The 180cc, 19 hp, two-stroke Italjet Dragster.
The coolest scooters of all time,
Hubsteering and spaceframe construction.
All this crowned by the last of the two-stroke generation of big scooter engines.
So now a new chapter opens up at Bombus Speedshop, two-stroke bigblock.
First up bring it back from the neglect done by the previous owner.
Then some basic maintenance like belt, weights and general overall checking.
And then? tuning........?

If this is wrong I don't want to be right.

Controlpanel

One thing​ I've never had before was a instrument cluster.
Not so much a cluster with​ just a tacho, but still.
So first a paper template took form and then transferred to aluminum.
Some cutting, grinding, drilling and letter stamping later I had, in my opinion a super cool dashboard.
The vintage German D Mark coin bought on eBay is from 1967 like my Zündapp.
I also put an ignition lock in the right headlight bracket.
But after this I feel really satisfied with "cockpit" and ignition key installation.

 First a paper template

Then transfer to aluminium

Mounted. D-Mark and warning lights added and text stamped

And finally, the ignition switch in the right headligt bracket

Torque brace

When the definite transition to drumbrake was done a torque brace was needed.
First a temporary template to find angles and hole pattern.
Transfer that to 3mm stainless and voila, a torque brace for the front drum brake converted Kaferacer is Zündapp born.

 Angle and hole positions found with this simple template. 

 Next up designing, more cutting, polishing and mounting but most of all braking. 

The brace done. 

Now just some cosmetic shaping left and maybe some shine. 

Tires

Tires was one of the hardest decisions​.
Amazing how such simple thing can be such hard thing.
In the end the decision fell on the very classic ME77 from Metzler.
I ordered them online and then took them to my friend Lasse at Deep Valley Workshop who mounted them super quick.
Big thanks to Lasse.

 Tires and rims ready to be paired

 The rubber specs

 Make rim strips out of vulcanizing tape

 Lasse at Deep Valley Workshop solved the mounting quick and easy

Finally I had a pair of rubber crowned gems. 

Seat

Next up, the seat.
When the cuts was done I could measure the seat pan.
First a cardboard template that I transferred to sheetmetal.
Some bending to get the same shape like the cuts and then I drilled 8 !!! holes to mount it.
Eight? Yes, to get a snug fit I used eight.
Then welded nuts on it before I covered it with foam.
First one layer of Sleeping Pad and then one layer of Rebond Foam.
Shaped it to a nice appearance and then off to Paul at Bullit Leather to get it upholstered with black Leather which again was kindly donated by my friend Viking Choppers.
This time I went for a classic "diamond stitch" pattern.
But I also got an idea to challenge Paul a bit, stich the Zündapp logo in the leather.
A challenge he passed easy with the highest grade.
Then home and making a testfit and it turned out awesome.
Upholstery is one of the few things I don't do.
The end result when true craftsmen do their trade are unbeatable.

 Template and some cutting

 Cut, bent and nuts welded

 First layer, Sleping Pad

 Second layer, Rebond Foam

 A sneak peak in the making I got from Paul

 Done and mounted

Will be a nice pair with the "tank cuts"