Biodiesel Sportster Land Speed Racer - Part 16 - Rebuilding The Nose Cone

The final countdown to Ohio has begun, so I wanted to post the rest of the build pictures beforehand. This nose cone has spent nearly a decade hanging from a hook in my garage, and it is finally being used for its intended purpose.

This fiberglass nose cone was homemade by myself and my friend Ben for my first land speed attempt. This early bike was not well-made, and I ultimately saved a few of the better pieces and scrapped the rest.

This post is also a memorial of sorts. Through a cosmic twist, I am posting these pictures precisely five years to the day that Ben was fatally injured in a motorcycle accident. He was one of my closest friends, and I still think of him often. I am grateful that I have one of his expertly-fabricated pieces of bodywork, and that I can honor his memory by using it on this bike.

RIP You Goofball

The donor was a heavily thrashed Suzuki dirtbike, and it was hilariously badly assembled by a high-school-age your truly, with zero build quality or safety features. Ultimately, the gas tank, foot pegs, nose cone, and some wiring were put into storage, and eventually recycled into the Biodiesel Sportster.

I made a large and heavy mold out of plywood, screen, and several gallons of Bondo that was then hand-sanded into the final shape. Ben was employed at a marine store at the time, and had become an expert at creating fiberglass parts, so he laid down the glass and made a strong and flexible cone. It was then cut and sanded into shape, given a thin coat of Bondo to smooth out the outer surface, and installed.

 

 The cone hung on my wall through college and various jobs and projects, before we decided to give it a second life on the Sportster. I sanded off the old peeling red paint, trimmed it down, repainted it Satin Black, and built a new mounting bracket to bolt it to the Sportster.