Dyna update

The MotoWriter Dyna 

As many of you know, last year, I crashed my Dyna Street Bob (affectionately known as the MotoWriter Dyna). 

For those new to the blog (or missed the original post)- basically, I was riding on a road that I knew had a dangerous intersection, where gravel from an intersecting road washes into a curve of the main road. While I wasn’t speeding, I should have slowed down more than I did, because I wound up encountering the gravel that was perfectly in line with my front tire. In what turned out to be a failed attempt to avoid it, I lost control, high-sided and won a busted bike, a gnarly cut across my back and some bruised internal organs as reward for my carelessness.

Once the insurance company and I settled up (I chose to keep the scoot and rebuild it), I set out to tearing it down and repairing it, piece by piece. Now, I’m not rich by any means, but I’m not poor, either. I chose to do the work myself because I enjoy it. Besides, if God gave me the confidence to try, and the ability to succeed, why on earth would I pay someone else to do it?

Tear down

The tear down involved taking the bike down, basically, to a unicycle. The forks, triple-trees, tank, seat, and a bunch of small, miscellaneous parts came off. From there, I inspected each piece, determined what was damaged and what wasn’t, and then made a list of what I needed. Fortunately, the frame was solid, straight and undamaged (which was my biggest fear), and the tank wasn’t dented, just scratched up on the low side. 

In removing the triple trees, I found that the neck bearings were worn out and unusable, but I’m not sure if that was a result of the crash or simply a previously unseen result of, prior to my ownership, neglect. Either way, those were replaced. I found a set of “new” take-off handlebars that I picked up at a pretty good price, and I found a nice set of “new” take-off fork sliders (these things couldn’t have had more than 100 miles on them when they were swapped out). I picked up a nice, used clutch perch, a new set of levers, a new pair of fork tubes and a couple of fork rebuild kits from my local Harley-Davidson shop. The front wheel and wheel bearings were good, as were the front and rear fenders. The exhaust survived, but the heat shield was tweaked and a clamp bracket was broken, so I repaired that and massaged the heat shield back into shape. 

After rebuilding the forks and installing the new neck bearings, I put the front end back together and then I rewarded myself with a nice cold Miller High Life… because let’s face it… making a motorcycle out of a unicycle is worthy of the reward of the “champagne of beers.”

Once the front end was back together, I set out to cleaning up the tank scratches. I had some paint left over from the quarter fairing that I installed before the crash (R.I.P. to the fairing, as it did not survive the crash, nor did it make the final cut of replacement parts). I tried painting a patch area, but that effort failed, so I put that on the back burner and decided to make sure the damn thing would run and ride again, instead. I’m glad I did, because I was seriously considering selling or trading the Dyna until I fired her up for the first time since the crash. The 96” Twin Cam came to life easily and it ran and rode great- so great, in fact, that I have ridden it several times over the last month… funky paint and all. Riding it reminded me how much I actually like this motorcycle.

After riding it a few times, I decided to dedicate a day (today) to repainting the tank. Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to decide if I should change the color, or maybe do a cool design, or maybe even swap the tank badges for decals. Ultimately, it was Mrs. MotoWriter that reminded me what one of the guys at the Harley-Davidson Museum said to me, when we were talking about the MotoWriter Dyna. He told me that, since Dynas are no longer made, and since so many of them have been hacked up and made into stunt bikes and racing machines, that a (mostly) stock Dyna Street Bob in Brilliant Silver paint, was likely to become a pretty valuable machine one day. Now, he may have just been telling me that to make me feel better about my relatively boring silver bike, but it did make me start looking for others like it. To my surprise, I didn’t find many silver Street Bobs out there. Like the guy said, most Dynas I’ve come across have been turned into wheelie and stunt machines (which is a trend that I can’t stand… maybe I’m just getting old, but public streets where my family drives just isn’t the place for f*@%ing around on a 600+ pound projectile that is precariously balanced on one wheel by a SQUID that doesn’t believe, or doesn’t care, that he could lose control and kill himself or someone else- rant over).

As of today

So that brings me to today. I took the tank off, prepped it for paint and have begun laying the metallic goodness down (I’m between color coats as I type this). After I finish the color coats, I’ll go over it with several coats of clear until I’m satisfied with the results, then I’ll let it set for a few days before I finish it up and get the badges back on, and get it mounted back on the bike.

Stay tuned for more photos once it’s back together and ready to hit the open road again. Until then, ride safe and avoid making the same mistakes I did!