The Last Sled

The Last Sled.

The general thinking is that a band’s third album is a bit of a slump compared to the second, in the case of the Last Sled, I believe this is more like Master of Puppets. Metallica took what they had, brought in outside help and made sure that their third album was tighter, louder, had more focused lyrics and delivered an hour of Thrash Metal bliss. This is how I have approached the Last Sled. While the previous Posh Sled had pushed out some new design ideas and made improvements over the first, this Sled has drawn the best from its earlier siblings and become the best of the three.
Although I had thought I could not push the Sled idea further after the second one, and I was largely correct, I was thinking about it incorrectly. There was no need to push the technical aspects any further, the suspension, brakes, controls, wheels etc. were exactly what they needed to be, what I needed to focus on were the design elements, the parts that were the best of both previous Sleds and work those into a bike I would be truly happy with.
This time I started with a W650 that was in a much better condition, it’s all well and good rescuing a bike and turning the ugly duckling into the swan, but it takes an enormous amount of time and to be honest, I’m a bit tired of battling problems that were invisible when I started! So, a full tear down, everything stripped back to the bare bones, anything that looked remotely manky was binned and everything that could be restored was kept. The frame was de-tabbed, chopped and double looped, then blasted, polished and given the beautiful nickel plating that we all love. As before, no luggage rack, although it was a fun talking piece on the first Sled, I prefer a cleaner, sleeker look, so a simple angled hoop was the way to go. At the same time, the kickstand was lengthened and plated to make the lean angle more civilized. One of my favourite parts on a W650 is the tank, it is such a classic shape and it baffles me why Kawasaki make it so ugly with giant knee pads and huge plastic badges. To really show off the curves of the tank, it was seam welded and had the brackets removed. The trick here is not to cut the seam and weld it as you go, but to fill the gap between the tank and seam with a long bead of weld and then smooth it down. This fills in the ugly area of the stamped seam without removing the nose to tail ‘line’ of the tank and seat as you’re not shortening the tank at the bottom by cutting. The fuel filler cap was moved to the right to mimic scramblers of old. To match the tank, I added a shortened leather seat in diamond stitching, converting the bike, as usual, to a single seater.
Everything made of Aluminium was removed and polished, including the rocker cover which was ceramic coated as this is an area that attracts crap on the bike, so a little extra protection wouldn’t hurt. The raised front and rear mudguards were also polished and ceramic coated. The kickstand was replaced with the last ever machined brass kicker from MotorRock in Japan, a bit of a shame but it was always a bit of a niche part.
Technically, the bike has been improved and modified to increase the handling aspects, the bike has been raised by one inch courtesy of some machined billet triple clamps in the front and with one inch longer Hagon shocks at the rear for better ground clearance. The suspension at the front has been drastically improved with the addition of some Andreani cartridges. These front fork cartridges are adjustable for pre-load, rebound and compression and are honestly one of the best things you can do to improve the handling. The wheels have been stripped, the hubs powder coated silver and re-spoked into fatter Morad rims, 19×3.00 in the front and 18×4.25 at the rear. I think this is the best size combination for the looks of the bike. Kawasaki did put 18-inch rims on some of the later W800s, but it always looked a bit odd and they have duly reverted to a 19-inch front again. For the tyres, I chose something a little different but still in keeping with the retro-modern style of the bike, the front has a Heidenau K67 which has a great throwback scrambler style and good road manners. The rear is a Mitas Terra Force which is an aggressive patterned retro-ish style, complimenting the front. The last part of the handling is the DDM big brake kit, this bike has the latest iteration of my 6-pot billet caliper and an EBC 320mm disk in silver paired with a K-Tech master cylinder for the best braking performance. All of the controls are in one inch sizing on a Western handlebar stolen from a Triumph catalogue, I really like these Western bars, they’re comfortable, fun and make it so easy to throw the bike around while feeling like you’re riding something from the 60s or 70s.
In addition to the billet triple clamps, I have added the usual machined swingarm, and a billet fuel cap and tail light from Motone. The sharp eyed will notice the tiny little Kellerman indicators sunk into the Triumph headlight mounts and tucked under the tail loop. For this Sled the design was going to be as slim as possible, no busy design elements as I wanted to emphasise two parts of the bike above everything else;
First, the exhaust is a stainless-steel marvel of straight lines and curves, snaking its way around the side of the bike. The sound is fantastic, with a deep and gentle lopey lope at idle which rises into a Spitfire-like howl at higher revs. My buddy Dave outdid himself here, definitely his best work yet and probably his last as retirement swiftly approaches!
Secondly, the paint, Arnie at Kustom Tech has laid down the most incredible layered and sparkly purple I’ve ever seen. My brief was to take the OEM Kawasaki purple from the 70s and make it 10x blinger, Arnie delivered and the photos speak for themselves. There isn’t a single angle where this bike doesn’t look incredible in the sunshine.
So why is this the Last Sled? Well, this is the kind of Sled that I would build for myself with no compromises or ‘safe’ design choices. There is nothing subtle about this bike, the style, the colours, the sound, everything is the epitome of Better, Faster, More. This is as good as it gets and I am not going to try and top it. More importantly, Dirty Dick’s Motos will shortly be closing down for the foreseeable future. There will be a swan song, but this will be the last Sled I build. It’s been an incredible decade; I have met some wonderful people and built some cracking bikes. I got to stretch my skills and ideas and put them into practise and will always be grateful for that. The time has come to move onto pastures new, so thank you all for the support and appreciation!
Rick.
@dirtydicksmotos
www.dirtydicksmotos.com