A couple of years passed and I started slowly buying parts for a new drag bike when they were offered at a good price. It helped that I knew the owner of a local custom shop, so I got parts at wholesale prices. My intention was to build a full on drag frame, with no road bike compromises, long, low, light and rigid in chrome moly to take the engine and transmission I'd bought.
Then I saw a chop frame for sale at a very low price, so I bought that instead with the idea of cutting out the top tube and downtubes to lower and rake the headstock. When the frame arrived from the States, everyone said you cant cut that up, its too nice. I wasn't convinced, until the chop shop owner suggested we build a cool chop from the parts I had at his shop, which would then be sold, hopefully for a profit for us both. The chop was then slowly put together at his shop, and to be fair it looked pretty good, with its 80 spoke wheels and wide glide front end. Then the whole thing went south, as the shop owner fell ill, and eventually had to close his shop and retire.
The chop came home to me, where it languished unloved in the corner of my small workshop for a couple more years. I already owned an expensive, impractical big inch Evo, I didn't need or want another, but nor did I want to part out the chop for peanuts, as the components I already had (Engine, gearbox, primary etc) were all of good quality.
With my Norley finished (for now at least), I had two options for my next project. To continue with my Guzzi café racer, or do something with the chop. Well, I went with chop, as I already had most of the expensive parts needed to turn it into a drag bike. The plan is to get it done without spending too much cash, and take it racing next year. I doubt I'll win anything, but should be fun.
My first thought was to commission a one of frame in Chrome Moly, but that would blow my budget and take time. I returned to my original idea to modify the chop frame I had, just to get it out on the track asap. Then if it things went ok, I could build a new frame over the following winter.
I got my tape measure out and measured the chop frame, and drew it out on paper. Then I played around and came up with the changes I'd need to make.