How to Build a Chopper
Redline Chopper School Gallery
Our intensive and detailed workshops have been developed from the formal training and years of experience we have in bike building and teaching chopper building, engine building and TIG welding.
Workshop Gallery
A couple of guys learning the TIG welding skill needed for welding the bungs and brackets needed to attach fenders, gas tanks and oil tanks. After 6 hours they are usually able to weld vertical and overhead.
This guy rode in from I think it was Nebraska. Even got lost a few times. Long, long ride. Tough dude.
Chris & Me
Bobber with springer fork. Built for a customer at the old shop where we used to be located.
The geek squad! Oh man did these guys have the brains. Brian (left) ran one of the big 4 auto maker factories in Detroit. Michael (middle) software engineer. Tom (right) designs high speed cameras that can film an atom splitting….or something like that. Completely unreal. And what do they really dig? Take a guess! It’s why they are at these workshops.
Meshal flew in from the country of Kuwait in the Middle East for our October 2009 workshops. That’s about 15 hours spent on the airplane EACH WAY and 13,442 total miles of flying! The dude knew more about jockey shifters than I could imagine!
Second table of engine parts after tear-down. Normally we have 3 tables full of engine parts ready to be re-assembled. Parts will be re-assembled into an engine on day 2 of the engine building workshop.
Brad flew in from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for our September 2009 workshops. He is from Australia and works on 20,000 horsepower compressor engines that pump natural gas back into Middle East oil wells. Hey, what’s with all these guys flying in from the Middle East lately? He said a lot of the Shieks ride Harleys! That is 14,410 total miles of flying to the workshops. Woah!
Tim (left) commercial electrician on tugboats in drydock; Don (right back) builder from Fort Wayne, and how could we forget Jeff (lower right) one badass boilermaker from Alabama! …. all doing bike wiring.
Tom, Bob, Tom and Dan pursuading the flywheel nut to high torque spec. Tom – far left – is a fireman from Connecticut. He said that due to contract hassles with the mayor of New York City, the NYC Firefighters were not invited to the 10’th anniversary cerimonies for 9/11 in New York City. Can you believe that? Firefighters from coast to coast rode in on their motorcycles and flooded NYC on the 10’th anniversary despite the mayor.
Mike from England. Runs a shop called Custom Cruisers. Does a huge amount of riding in Europe. Had an engine blow on a trip to Germany recently.
Jeff from Chicago. Union carpenter foreman (iron worker). Worked to build the Trump Tower in Chicago and other crazy high sky scrapers. The scariest experience he had was disassembling a catwalk 1,400 feet high and swinging over the side on a beam at that height. You don’t even think about looking down at that height. I would have had a heart attack and fell off.
Engine building tips from Bruce Sauer (green jacket) who has built an endless string of drag bike racing engines. The dude knows his stuff.
Aligning the flywheels with dial indicators – part of engine building.
Left to right: Shane & Andrew – brothers from Chicago. Andrew runs a fishing boat in Hawaii. Tyler, college teacher. David, serving in the military in Kuwait…the hottest country in the world. Motorcycle riding in Kuwait in the summer is like riding in oven temperatures. Most guys don’t ride in the summer there.
Guys in the welding class taking a break.
Removing one case half.
Left to right: Barak from Illinois, Chris…pipeliner from Alabama, Scott…welder from PA, Ron from SC.
Middle guy is Baxter from Utah. Bad to the bone. Has ridden more miles than I could believe on a Fat Boy, Electra Glide, BMW, Ducati…with more war stories than we could believe. He climbed Mount Everest (honest… we saw the pics)! He also teaches base jumping ( go to You Tube if you want to know what that is all about), and the stories just go on and on. Man, this November class had the most intense dudes on the planet! From New Zealand to Mount Everest – these guys had the planet covered! It was like doing a class with a bunch of Navy Seals!
This is Barak. He owns Barak’s Truck Stop in Illinois. He was very skeptical about our workshops at first. His take is that most workshops “tell you what to do”..but they don’t ” SHOW YOU HOW TO DO IT !” By the end of the workshops he said he was satisfied with all we covered. ( Whew! That’s a big compliment from him. He’s a big dude and an ace mechanic. )
The home clubhouse is in Hell, Michigan. Yes, it really is the name of the town. Barak’s chapter is in Clinton, Iowa – just across the Mississippi River from his shop. I’ll say one thing, his Street Glide bagger accelerates like a rice rocket due to the 103 cu inch big bore kit that was installed. If you take the engine building workshop, you can easily install your own big bore kit.
Cylinder honing.
Measuring gear lash for pinion and cam gears. Too tight a mesh and they whine. Too loose and they make a ticking sound.
Shane (left) flew in from London, England. He is a commercial pilot and also originally hails from the Maori Indian Tribe in New Zealand. Check out his traditional Maori tribal tatoos. He’s covered head to toe! Jimmi (middle) is from NC and surprisingly has a huge background in Harley drag racing. Even has a drag strip tatooed on his left arm! Andrew (right) is working on getting his own shop going over time.
Brice is holding the engine while we take a pic. We were busting his chops a bit saying, “Can you wait a little bit longer till we get the camera focused? Turn a little to the left…now the right. Don’t drop the engine!” He got a workout.
Tom. Software engineer. Video producer. Owns 37 guitars. More tatoos than I can count. Definitely one of our wildest students!
Toms tatoos. One on the side says, “Chicks are a lot of trouble”. Makes sense! The big one on the back is an angel and inscribed below is Psalm 22 from the bible. He is a serious believer. After one bike wreak, 25 bone breaks in one leg and 12 operations, he has already been to “the other side” and ran into Jesus. Ya gotta respect this dude.
Phillip flew in from New Zealand for the workshops. Yes, I said NEW ZEALAND! That is 8,359 miles of flying ONE WAY! That is 16,718 miles round trip! He won the award for the student coming the furthest! He had a lot of stories about the Harley and custom bike scene in New Zealand. He is now the resident custom bike guru in New Zealand as custom bike knowledge there is hard to get. Amazing dude!
Torquing crank pin nut
Maryland guys doing wiring
Working on both bikes. One chopper with rigid frame, and one custom bike with softail frame.
Myself and Indian Larry at the Horse Magazine Annual Chopperfest about 15 years ago.
Taz From C&C Thunder In Cowpens, SC
C0059T01-2
C0062T01 2
C0064T01 2
Chopper Gallery
DSC_0554
DSC_0710
DSC00318
C-C-Thunder-Red 2
Registration, scheduling, and pricing details for our hands-on workshops.
Sitelinks
Our Workshops
Do you work better with "hands-on" training. Click here to learn more about how to build a chopper and Harley repair classes.
Contact
Redline Chopper School
233 Illinois Avenue
Westerville, Ohio 43081
614-882-5975
fox55@midohio.twcbc.com
Designed & Powered by SOCIALFIRM