In the early days of owning my chopper, I was always tinkering — always seeing some little improvement to make. I'd built and modified the stock springer using tapered tie rods off a 1939 Ford coupe, but it ended up heavy and a little clunky, so I replaced it with a custom springer of my own, machined from 4140 chrome-moly tubing. A custom spool, a front rim and tire off a Honda 50.
It looked great, and the bike rode well — but that little 2.25x18 front tire only lasted about fifty miles. I swapped in a much heavier Pirelli 3.25 that held up for a few hundred. Mounting the wheel to the forks meant having a custom spool built and laced to the little rim. None of the guys building custom parts back then were engineers — they just had a lathe, or a mill, and the ability to make parts. Not necessarily engineered ones.
I got the spool, laced it up, mounted everything. It looked great. The bike rode well.
A few hours later I was riding to work up Highway 39, around 65 in a 45 zone, when the front wheel suddenly stopped turning — and started hopping while still mounted in the springer. I have no idea how I kept that bike upright, but I did, and rode it to a stop.
Looking back, it was the springer itself that saved me — rolling to the max of its travel, letting the wheel skid and pop back up, over and over, until I finally came to rest.
Once stopped, I could roll the bike backward and free the wheel enough to turn again. I rode the rest of the way to work very slowly. Once there, I covered my section, then pulled the front wheel to have a look. The guy who'd built the spool had bored it the exact same size as the axle — the friction had made the axle expand and seize right to it.
Now I had to figure out some kind of repair before riding home at midnight. I brought the wheel into the machine shop and started poking at it. The shop lead was still there, asked what I was doing, and I showed him. In the next hour, I learned some of the most valuable things I'd use for the rest of my life — the basics of running a lathe, how to sharpen a drill, how to measure with a micrometer, how to set up ball bearings with proper spacers.
That knowledge has stuck with me ever since, and I still pass it on to anyone interested enough to learn. It took an hour or two, and I walked away with a properly bored spool, a proper bearing spacer, and a brand-new five-eighths-inch front axle machined from a grade-eight socket head bolt. I made a duplicate later and had it chromed. Never had that problem again.