custom bike building in india

hi to all

i am an ordinary mech. engg. and an employee of a MNC before we created my first dream bike from an thunderbird.

i was planning to build custom bikes from last 3 years ( since i have passed my SSC exams).

i want to get plenty of knowledge for building a custom bike so i have searched a lot about it and foung many usefull things on google. i don't want to make mistakes in my first bike bcoz i was running dry (lack of money).In this all process and seeing so called dream, my brother Nipun was always with me and encouraging me for making bike fast and best in look.since he lives at mumbai, he also always looking for some good accessories and usefull ideas for a spacial rear tyre and all other complicated things. he hasn't got tired for going twice or thrice times in bazzar for the same thing.

Then after one and half year of my first job in Indianoil Tanking, i have got good sum of money to create Achilles.

We got a 2004 year thunderbird from a agent named amul.The bike was holding some problem in gear box. so i have to get it repaired. one local mechanic (mahesh) has done his job best. After some heavy repairing in gear box, i have to ride my bull for atleast 1000 KMs for testing of engine and gear box condition.

When i was enjoying ride of Tbird, nipun was in search for a perfact rear tyre and rim. He already found a good looking tyre and a rim. But main problem was come out after that. He is having a tyre and a rim but no one can put tyre on rim.He has done tarrific job for finding this size of tyre and a suitable allow wheel. He was mentally broken since he is trying to get it done from last two months. Finally i got a leave from my Job and i reached mumbai on a superb sunday morning. Nipun is still sleeping bcoz i reached mumbai at 0500 hrs. We take neighbour's bike and got ready for one of the biggest chellenges for us. We were wondering here and there with tyre and rim. Finally one nyre (Who is doing tyre fitting and alignment jobs) has done the job for us. We was so happy after that and thinking that we have no hurdles ahead for building our dream (that was truely false).

We returned to vadodara for making a custom build bike. We make whole bike in vadodara bcoz we have a factory of Office Furniture here. So we got all the M/C s like welding, cutting , grinding.

Building the dream

Without wasting time we stuck on my comp for atleast 3 days for making the hub for rear wheel. I and Nipun had made the primery design for the hub. We then got raw material for hub and got fabricated it on lathe. By healing all difficulties (i.e. for bearing, wheel alignment, etc), we finally got a good looking and light weight hub.

Now we have to make a steady and good looking swing arm for fitting the tyre on original chessy. We easily done it with some Stainless steel pipes, welding and alignment tools. At that time we was dreaming that a bike can build within 15 days. but we were false that time too.

We have changed neck angle of chessy to extend overall length.

Our bike's Petrol Tank is different from others. We have crafted two individual tanks (ofcourse for one bike). It seems easy but to get same designed tank from a metal sheet is very hard job. We rejected 3 tanks and finally got it in 4 th time.The other time consuming work was to fit a rear disc break assembly. It is very difficult to fit it by an custom made clamp with so much accuracy.

Many other sheet metal work and other fittings like rear mono shockup done so easily that we can remember when we fitted them and it is very surprising that it works and looks great.After this much of time consuming work, now our bike is ready to roar on road. We have taken test drive of Achilles @ 20:00 on a very lucky day. it runs like hell on wheels.

After a succsesfull test drive, we complete all minor but must to do work to enhance bike's look.

We have chrome plated our whole chessy. It is actually a Nickle chrome. Chessy is firstly gone through a stone blasting prossess so life of chrome plateing will be very long.Our colour is dupont made and done 5 coats of colour before lacquering.

After colour and chrome, bike is ready to vroooom.

I am heartfully thanking mr. Alistair Hearly for giving me such guidence for building custom bikes.
and thanks to my family & friend.