Thread: We Have Skills Too !!

They're dang handsome, Cuda. 'Glad its you that hones & shaves w/ them. My face would never forgive me.

For all my dislike of the Sheffields, they are terribly handsome & seem very well made. I drove myself nuts cleaning up and honing a few (3dz+), only to find my face just doesn't like them. I'm the oddball again.

'Hope you face loves 'em & they give you years of smiles.

My buddy Ski's youngest boy gave me an old fake black leather bag for my Harley. It was filthy and the hold down straps were shot. I told the kid that I'd see what I could do with it and every time he sees me he asks if I'd worked on it.

So yesterday I I got the bag all cleaned up and today I'm making the new straps. $10 got me 24 YRDS of the new strapping so I'm all set for quite awhile.

Here's the before pic of one of the straps.



I used an old putty knife and heated the tip red hot then cut the material to length. I used BARGE Contact cement to join the overlap (since it was textured I applied two coats).

Also since I don't have access to a heavy duty sewing machine to stitch the two pieces for extra insurance against the joint letting loose I heated a 16 penny nail and used that to melt holes for some shortened down leather rivets.



Now to make the second strap.

Well the second strap went well so here's the finished product:





And on the bike/I figure it can hold lightweight things like the micro fiber cloths for washing the windshield spray bottle of bike wash and or other misc.



Thanks for looking!

Great save Roy!
Looks nice on the bike.
The boy will be pleased.

Pete <:-}

Originally Posted by petercp4e

Great save Roy!
Looks nice on the bike.
The boy will be pleased.

Pete <:-}

Thanks Pete, since it'll be a while before it's warm and safe enough to ride my bike to Ski's place (15 miles away via the highway), I'll be emailing Ski the pics to show his son Brian. Whenever I get to Ski's and Brian's around I always say "Hey Kid! How you doing Brian"?

I don't know why I still call him 'kid' as he's got a teenage son. I guess old habits are hard to break!

Rite on and great job :this

I bet the "kid" will be happy

Nice work! I had a fork bag that I kept my non-goggle glasses (IN A HARD DURABLE CASE! Bikes will vibrate some serious scratches into lenses, ask me how I know!), some tools and anything else I didn't want in my pockets/didn't want to dig through my bag and remove all the bungee cords.

I did a repair on a cornice last year. You can see on the first and second picture on the left side, that someone made a poor attempt to restore the cornice. I removed it. I just love cornice's they look so beautiful and add some character to the building.

Well Roy that bag was used for tools, easy to access, nowadays we carry to many to put in a small bag like that without it breaking the straps! In the early 70,s I had enough tools in my fork bag to tear my motor down on the side of the highway in Arizona, but these bikes are not the same anymore, looks great, after I get my front forks blacked out I have a nice old fork bag I'm installing on the sled. Tc

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

Well Roy that bag was used for tools, easy to access, nowadays we carry to many to put in a small bag like that without it breaking the straps! In the early 70,s I had enough tools in my fork bag to tear my motor down on the side of the highway in Arizona, but these bikes are not the same anymore, looks great, after I get my front forks blacked out I have a nice old fork bag I'm installing on the sled. Tc

I wonder why Harley riders need a bag of tools within easy reach.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

In the early 70,s I had enough tools in my fork bag to tear my motor down on the side of the highway in Arizona, but these bikes are not the same anymore.... Tc

That ain't no S#!T. While I wasn't riding in the 'early 70's, I was riding a late '70's, in the middle '80's ((read that again, and it'll make sense...lol)). My 1st HD, a '78 shovel, all that was needed to completely tear the whole thing down was: Wrenches from 3/8" to 7/8", Flat head & Phillips screw driver, a few allen wrenches, a pair of pliers and maybe a pair of vise grips.

Even on my '90...back in the day, I LITERALLY torn my engine completely down ((in a hotel room in St. Joe, Mo.)) with only a set of (standard) allen keys, a few standard wrenches and a couple pair of pliers, to replace the rear piston (which burnt a hole in it, due to a leaking head gasket.) AND, the same tools were used to replace the main shaft and counter shaft on the same trans a couple yrs later, after I smoked it a few miles outside of Custer, S.D., one year.

Now-a-days, on my '09, I need damn near a full set of metric AND SAE wrenches, full range of pliers, metric hex heads, not to mention a laptop computer...just to change the air/fuel mixture!!!