Can the Monster Chopper Hill Climb?

the monster Chopper is better Offroad

than we could have possibly imagined so

this week we're going to fix its major

downfalls install some headlights and

see if it can Hill Climb and maybe if

we're feeling it we're going to see if

it can

jump I can't believe it could do the

track that fast

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is this Ethan's chain yeah it looks like

it might

be I have to make some chain guides

because we can't

have that or you know the chain popping

off so I'm going to make a guide with

some of this here

uhmw plastic and you know do something

like that and then I'll do one on the

top section here too that one's more

just to protect the um swing arm from

the chain

slapping there's many tools that could

do this uh but you know what this is the

tool that's right here and it's very

satisfying check it out fany fany

looking chain guide now I'm just going

to design up a plate that goes

underneath it uh in CAD it'll weld right

to there and to there

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look at how many pieces are in this file

for the chopper and this isn't even

close to all of them cuz there's another

whole file called Chopper two that's a

lot of pieces a lot of custom

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parts two little bolt holes a bunch of

weight uction triangles

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mint time to cut out the second chain

tensioner and thanks to the Swindle

Brothers trying countless times to cut

out a wheel adapter that didn't work for

a project that will never see the light

of day I'm out an 8in plate that's not

painted so this is some fir truck metal

we'll get the cut started and then go

outside and not breathe it cuz that

stuff is

nasty nice look at that that came out

nice yeah so this one is going to be

bent into a u shape so this side here

will be bent up and that side will be

bent up

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and look at that a little loose but uh

should do the

trick getting it a little more snug a

dug that looks pretty nice yeah got to

sand off the rust and Tack it

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on you're just going to watch me

struggle yep that's the

plan here okay I can't take this

anymore

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thanks all right time to uh test out

these chain guides by doing another

burnout

well I think it's safe to say the chain

guides work yeah it seemed to do nice

yeah that was second gear burnouts and

didn't show any signs of throwing the

chain so I'll call that a win we

have these radiator fans right here and

uh those are the original KTM ones

they're very small but I imagine it

doesn't take much if these can cool that

engine on the bike that they came on I

could probably cool it on this

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I think I'm going to mount the fans

there um but before I get too carried

away with mounting them uh I'm going to

test and make sure that they work so I'm

just going to let it idle until it gets

warm and see if they kick on all the

temp sensors and stuff should still be

there but it's untested so you know got

to find

out if it's going to be running I might

as well be riding it right

a

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well I heard you revving it up did those

fans ever kick on no um they did

not and I tested I

mean I mean they very much work I don't

know I don't think I have the original

radiator anymore it may have had a

thermos switch on it for the

fans but then why do these wires go to

the ECU

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I've done a little testing and I've

determined that there's already power at

the white wires here and the green wires

just have to

be grounded to run so if I can find a

thermos switch that can I can plug into

the

radiator um the radiator should be

grounded wait why do you need a thermal

switch if well because it needs to be a

switched ground the power is off on the

bike right now in both ways and it still

has right yeah so the radiator is

grounded so I just need a thermos switch

here I'm not 100% sure if this is a

thermos switch or a temperature gauge I

heated it up and tested it with the

testers and it seemed to connect it was

disconnected completely at cold and then

it made a beep noise when it warmed up

so um I'll just plug that in does it fit

uh no it doesn't quite fit the threads

annoyingly it's a little too small

special find right there I'm just going

to take this random aend fitting drill

it out and then tap it to 8in pipe

thread which is threads on the thermos

switch and then the other side of it is

already the threads that are in the

radiator so it's just a little thermos

switch adapter

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look at

that like it was made for

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it no Ked on look at

that nice

yeah that's what we

W now I can hear the fans

yeah and the the they'll stay on until

the radiator cools

off which is a little Annoying it'd be

nice if they shut off when bike shut off

but oh

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well still thinking about some lighting

placements yeah these ones up here are

going to be purely aesthetic like I mean

they'll eliminate some things but like I

just think it'll look really cool with

them there the ones down on the swing

arm are the ones they're going to do the

actual eliminating but it really doesn't

matter cuz I don't anticipate driving

this thing at night very often that'll

look awesome though with the double up

here yeah that's what I'm thinking

something like that the front here has

always felt a little empty to me like

where the shock is looks really cool but

this kind of area is just kind of

missing cuz normally there is a

headlight on a bike there so even though

it doesn't make sense

for lighting purposes it'll make sense

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visually I have made an

aeroplane that's

cool so it looks really weird but in

theory if all my measurements are

correct but wings of the airplane here

will be

folded that way and those will bolt

straight to these

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lights I'm really bad at making airplane

noises but it really does look like an

airplane let's go see if I can bend it

up and uh make it

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work I mean it's a little bit tweaked

but I'll straighten it out sometime the

moment of the moment of truth if all of

my measurements line

up I mean so far it's looking pretty

good look at that oh yeah so this super

worked first try uh all the measurements

were good I just kind of guesstimated

how far forward I wanted the lower light

and ended up being farther forward than

like I just there's a lot of empty space

behind it so I'm going to design a new

version that's got this like an inch or

two back back from where it is so it's

closer to this one and then also I'm

going to add in a little bit of gusting

in between these so that it's stronger

and looks less empty time to redesign

the airplane

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bracket little airplane bracket Mark I

uh I think it's going to look a lot

better and be a little sturdier and uh

generally just improved because it has

hexagons this time I don't know what I

was thinking something just an insanity

came over me and I didn't put hexagons

in it so that's been

fixed I think the Swindle brothers are

scheming I hear you guys scheming what

are you scheming out there we don't want

to get in the way of your camera but

we're just saying that the chain is

going to go everywhere with four-wheel

drive we're talking about places we

could go don't you think it could go up

these rocks I don't know

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maybe I just had to take a little bit

off the back and a little bit off of the

front of the bolt so that it fits inside

there and then that goes

on

there mint

yeah that's more like it that looks

great nice and

solid it's going to illuminate the

ground in front of you when you're

turning when you're going straight it's

just going to illuminate your tire but

that's

okay the age-old game of will they

answer a random number from

Idaho you never know you never know you

never

know hi is this Nick

y this is Edwin Ethan and Will from

grindhard Plumbing

Co no way yes it is yeah you won the arc

Droid the welder and the drift

quad no

way yeah we just selected this morning

we just put everything in random and you

showed up

congratulations that's amazing oh he

bought a premium hat yep

ni that was a good deal kind of adoped

it into my uh vocabulary

here

nice it doesn't feel real how are you

guys' projects very cool Chang

Chang all right guys you made my mon

just turned 40 so happy birthday

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[Applause]

well I think that turned out both uh

functional and aesthetically pleasing I

think these kind of you know modern

squarish LED pods really kind of fit the

weird vibe of this

thing like it's got a lot of different

things going on but kind of a

cyber steampunk

Vibe halfway between cyber Punk and

steampunk that's a good way to describe

this yeah right I mean like the tank is

kind of Steampunk but then like the

tires and the the lights and stuff and

the engine are kind of more like cyber

Punky modery stuff and the wheels maybe

I don't know it's cool okay and I like

it and the headlights are

sweet some friends stopped by so we got

to show off the chopper real quick and

do a quick test drive once I get the

lights all wired up we're going to see

if we can do the hill climb and maybe

hit a

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jump see that tire hop dude yeah that

looks different look at the gaps between

it dude let's hop hop hop 3 ft hop 4

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feet making a little teeny tiny bracket

that I can weld on to hold the uh all

the cables onto the swing arms the like

brake lines and and light wires and

stuff like that

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you literally just blend in with the

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slag that's definitely the tiniest part

I've ever seen you make Oh by

far yeah these things are ity

[Applause]

bitty it's so small Target pH oh no I

hope that's not what she said

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[Applause]

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making myself a chain guard here out of

another chunk of this pipe I'm going to

just clean up the outside and then make

it a little bit thinner so there's a

little more clearance on the inside yeah

and obviously I'm going to cut it in

half so it's just half of a circle you

know I'll flatten it out and it'll so

it'll it'll wrap around the front here

and then come back a little ways on the

top and bottom I think it'll look cool

and then I'll cut like a little

tapered on that

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so it'll be flush with this side and

then this will sit on top of it and

that'll give it just the right amount of

space and I'll just do like three of

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[Applause]

those I found these little switches on

the little internet they're like 12s a

piece and they're nice little like

handlebar mount lighted power switches

so I'm use one for the bike power and

then one for the headlights and then

should be done with the

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wiring when you turn on this switch down

here secret switch it powers on this

switch the drls in the headlight and the

uh power to the radiator fan um so

that's that's effectively the ignition

switch it's a two-step process to start

the bike you turn on that switch and

this

switch and it'll start and then this

switch on the left bar here turns on all

four of the high

beams plenty of light I'm also finishing

up odds and ends here mounting this

brake fluid reservoir I cut out this

little tabby tab here we'll

go something like that

you going to let some air out of these

tires and see how it affects the ride

quality I had them at like 20 psi um

just kind of arbitrarily cuz I wanted

them to be nice and round but I'm going

to let out as much as I can I'm down

close to 10 psi right now I'm going to

go for like eight or something and as

long as they stay pretty round that's

all that matters because obviously if I

let too much out they'll get flat and

it'll be harder to Corner since I got

all the other stuff wrapped up I want to

you know do a little bit of testing

before I move on to the next bit

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oh

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w

yeaha oh no the chain oh it didn't break

it just came off I think so I should

have put a chain tensioner somewhere in

the system an actual tensioner cuz it

just it's just going to keep getting

looser and looser because it's taking

like four times the torque it should oh

I see because it's got the the Jack

shaft there and and it's just such a

long chain but if I if I roll onto the

throttle instead of you know whacking it

open it's not really a problem it's this

last drift that I did is what knocked it

off yeah definitely I mean as you can

guess it is way better the lower tire

pressure lower tire pressure yeah I

aired up this shock a little bit which

helped too so it doesn't bounce quite as

bad I can't believe it could do the

track that fast and I can't believe you

already have the confidence to jump it

it felt good you know I had to try

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well I the a lot of fun some more

revisions are required for chain

survival this time the chain just

actually gave up right at the

masterlink Airing down the tires made a

huge difference it's still a little

bouncy I might even go a little lower

pressure on the rear and also maybe swap

out the shock I have this one here cuz

it's a little softer but this one this

style has a little more damping and that

might help keep the bounce down a little

bit Yeah change up a few things do some

more testing

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I've been doing a little bit of thinking

and I'm going to do a couple of things

one with this size of sprocket there's

very minimal clearance for the chain

here and here so I have a 15 to sprocket

I'll just have to cut this one off the

Hub and weld this one on this is a 13 so

two teeth bigger there and this will

just make it so I can cruise at lower

RPM um it's really not about top speed

because I doubt I'll ever really mess

with that very much but um

well let's be honest that's a lie I'll

find out what the we got to get this to

the Salt Flat exactly I'm going to

probably delete this chain guide and

just add in a um adjustable roller down

here it's stretching out faster than I

expected the chain instead of this

plastic guide I'll just add this roller

and make it you know have a little bit

of adjustment to it and that will serve

the same purpose of keeping it from uh

derailing off this sprocket especially

if I put it f farther back here that's

the plan keep adjusting modifying fine

tuning and

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[Applause]

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testing unsurprisingly

the chain did not

clear the chain guard cuz I didn't plan

for it to have a bigger Sprocket in

there so uh I'm going to cut that off

and remount it

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buzzing I was just over here trying to

like figure out what I want to do about

chain tension and I was just kind of

looking at stuff trying to figure out

look at

this a twisted oh that shaft by like 10

15° oh my I don't know how wellow that's

showing up on camera but I can see it

that's an insane amount of torque oh my

yeah okay you can see it on camera yeah

wao it just Twisted it nothing's solid

too isn't it yeah inch and a quar solid

hexagon all those people who didn't

think this bike would have enough

power right twisting that solid

hexagonal shaft hexagonal hexagonal you

say that not with an o oh no I've been

spending a little bit too much time with

Ed will

ah

see I can't believe how twisted that is

that is just yeah wild actually

bananas bananas cuz it's bent like a

banana exactly so I think for my

tensioner here I'm going to start

designing it up in CAD I'm basically

going to do um a couple of tabs off the

bottom of this uh here with with a bolt

through it and then I'll design some

side

plates uh that'll bolt through with this

um sprocket

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looking pretty sweet huh yeah that looks

nice now I need to make a gusset for the

bottom of it

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[Applause]

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put a bolt through there with like a

little

adjustable thing there I'm making myself

a teeny tiny little turn buckle with

these little um himim joints and I don't

have a reverse thread tap but I do have

a couple extra reverse threaded nuts so

I'm just going to take this little piece

of solid drill it out so that these

threads can fit through it and then weld

the nut onto the end

sh

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now that is a better chain

tensioner look at that that's just

that's just tight with my finger on the

turn buckle here finger tight I'm going

to make a little delin spacer that goes

here cuz I need a spacer in between

there anyway so it doesn't crush and

then that way if the chain is a little

looser here it'll rub on that on this

side

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looking pretty crispy eh yeah that looks

nice looks like it's going to work

really nice

too all right we got some new chain

today and some half links so I'm going

to measure this out against the old one

and make sure I cut the right amount of

links and put a fresh chain on there

that's pretty wild it's stretched almost

half a link

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all right now that this uh new chain and

sprockets on there let's uh I'm not

going to drive it just yet I'm just

going to do a test on the stand here and

see how much smoother it looks with um

the new new situations

[Applause]

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just got to increase the uh diameter of

this a little

bit and now these also showed up look at

these bar risers that are nice and

orange um so I'm going to replace these

bar clamps with these they're just a

smidge and taller uh which will get the

bars up and help clear the tank and I

think they also move it forward a little

bit

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more dang those look very nice I've got

some new uh levers on the way cuz this

one's broken and this one's ugly and I

drilled holes in it back in the day so

I've got some new levers with another

accent of orange and we got this little

bit of orange here here just I think it

really makes it pop next up on my list

of uh things to fiddle with before I

drive drive this thing again is the rear

shock so I originally had one of these

uh Timber sled air shocks on there I

mean this is the same thing but it's an

older version without the damping

adjuster here and this one has a lot

more damping in it and it's adjustable

and the rear tends to bounce a bit so

I'm going to swap it back to this one

and see how it rides

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so I think it's about time for another

test drive to test my uh suspension

adjustments and uh all the other stuff I

let a little bit of air out of this

shock make the front a little softer uh

and I'm going to try it at the firmest

damping setting and then also I'm

letting even more air out of the tires

the gauge I was using the other day was

not very accurate the other gauge red

five this one's more like 10 psi so I'm

going to live them down to actually 5

PSI and see how that changes the

handling you know a lot of the things

that we've built I'll test it pretty

briefly and then tear it down and paint

it but this one given how much time I've

spent on everything else I want to do a

lot of testing and just really take the

time to finish everything before I tear

it down because it's really a bummer

when you get it all painted up and then

you find something you need to add or

modify and then you have to mess up the

paint yeah more testing which means more

riding and more

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jumping help sp's better overall it

looks better lower tire pressure is Good

Shocks feel better and uh gearing's a

little better too it's not meaningfully

faster this enough that first gear is a

little more usable

now I can't believe he's jumping this

thing I know he said he never would and

he already is

look he's in your Chang Lee territory I

know I was just Chang Le in there today

actually he's doing it a lot quicker

than me though I wouldn't want to go

lower with the tire pressure at this

pressure it's a little harder to lean

it's a little bit less responsive cuz

the tires are just a little flatter and

squishier but otherwise yeah it's a lot

better

yall

right yeah I'm going to need help

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all things considered it does okay in

the mud but I was stuck in a rut there

and it was impossible to get out and uh

now I am covered in mud and so is the

chopper it may have mud tires but I

don't really recommend it for riding in

mud it's not ideal that's okay though

that's not what it was built for the

fender works at really really low speeds

but once you get going even a little bit

then it just takes the mud here and

goes plop what AM my back oh yeah I may

have uh clipped a tree with this

headlight the light itself is fine it's

just the bracket that's all messed up oh

well easy fix chain tension system

worked great though way better than it

was and you know having it having the

primary sprocket not be all floppy

floppy helped a lot

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oh my God he just drifted that whole

Corner yeah it's pretty crazy isn't it

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