Nick Johnston | An Atomic Mind

Nick is one in many, and yet one in his own. Very awesome guitar player, and hopefully providing the soundtrack to a younger generations life.

1969 Fender Mustang

This mustang has been in the family for some time. It was given to my uncle as a "box of parts". The body was terribly routed out. The neck is straight but the wood is dis colored under the clear. Anyway for a long time it sat with a red acrylic finish, a custom white pick guard, and two tele thin line pickups. My uncle had chandler guitars make a custom pearloid pick guard and he wired in 3 Kramer dual rail pickups with 3 mustang switches that make them single, off, or humbucker. The pick guard was made to standard size and it didn't quite cover the routing. So fast-forward 10 years, strip the body, burn everything with a torch, and have custompickguards.com cut out my design pick guard, now it's a smoking little guitar. No pun. 

1980 cm400a finishing touches

Well, I have to say... I know its a little bike, but I am impressed with its overall maneuverability and power. Its not by any means "slow" for a 1980 400cc motorcycle that hasn't really been put on a diet. Its so comfortable to ride, and being from NJ a.k.a. the New Los Angeles, the automatic is super helpful in heavy traffic. I took it on the NJ Turnpike the other day and it easily cruised at time-travel speed. Btw, anything that can do "Time-Travel" speed is acceptable to me.

Now, like most older Honda Motorcycles the factory coil had the terribly rotten spark-plug wires molded into the coil. A lot of people use a GM coil from 90's V6 vehicles, but I had other options laying around. After testing resistance, I made a super neat mount and utilized a "Big Twin" Coil from a mid 90s Harley-Davidson. The wires are from SteadFast Cycles. I've used them before as they have very nice parts.

Cm400a (Almost done.)

I did a really cool looking distressed tank paint. It's cool because it shines so nice but has some pitted metal showing in the sanded area. 

1977 CB550 Stingray "Apes".

The ever evolving 77, what can I say? This bike has clearly become my "trip" bike. It's very comfortable, cruises well, and gets decent mileage. I set it up as a cafe, so aside from having to adjust the pre-load, it handles quite well in its current state. I got some el cheap-o crap-o bars for the cm project and I really liked how they felt, but because the 77 is my Tourer I wanted something heavier but about the same size and style. Nothing could be found. This is when I started to read about people using Schwinn Stingray bars from the 70's. Anything more recent is thinner, but the original Stingray bars are quite robust. I found a set NOS, never installed and with shipping I had them for $25. First problem I ran into was that my bike with factory switches and controls would find them a tad short. For a chopper with minimal controls, they would work well.  I had a bent set of factory cb bars and they had 5" slugs welded in the ends for vibration dampening. I decided to use the slugs and about 4 inches of the bent bars to lengthen the SR bars by about 2" on either side. It worked out really well and now I just need to order a longer clutch and throttle cable. The factory throttle reaches but its a bit snug. The factory wiring almost didn't fit. Its good now, but it was a stretch. Now I have a bike that a 1970's era Clint Eastwood would approve of. The bars go well with the sissy bar.

Custom Drum Rack.

I decided that $150 a pair was way too much for two v-bars and legs. I am also unsatisfied with Gibraltar's materials. Their tubing is extremely thin, and dents very easily. Every clamp leaves a permanent impression in the metal. Having quite a lot of experience in the automotive exhaust industry, I decided to make my own rack tubes.

The tubing itself is extremely thick. I welded the legs (Gibraltar legs are bolted) in hope for increased rigidity, which I got. The weight of the tubes also counter balances the weight of the cymbals. Its a 100% difference. The rack barely moves now, even fully loaded.  I went with a black mini-texture powder-coat finish which shouldn't damage much if at all when clamped. It also matches the set well. Obviously the whole thing can be done in any color and the bends can be altered however needed. I kept my setup close to the Gibraltar specs. I will be adding another 12" rack tom to the right of the set when I get the GTS mount for it. I also have a splash that needs to be put somewhere. My son photo-bombed the crap out of me here, hes really happy with the finished result.

Bobbing a fender. (Shortening)

I cut exactly 6.25 inches from this 75 CB550 rear fender. I wanted it to just pass the frame a bit. While I want this bike to be minimal, I was trying to keep the frame as unmodified as possible.

1975 CB550 minimal turbo *Updates*

 Yesterday I laced a rear wheel.

 Started to wire things.

 Checked Tank fitment.

 Stared a bit.

 Checked my Tapered steering bearing tightness.

.....and stared some more.

Super Tyrko Collection and Aging Cymbals.

 

Here are my Sonor Super Tyrkos. Also a set of zbt 13" hats that I aged in an electrolytic bath. To the right between the Paiste 802 thin crash and Tyrko ride is a 12" Wuhan China with a very shitty (no name) splash cymbal stacked on top. Both have been "aged"  then re-lathed by me. It sounds perfectly trashy. The trick to speeding up the aging process is reverse electrolysis with a battery charger, salt, and vinegar solution. I came up with the idea after seeing the anode from a system i used to remove rust from one of my Cb550 projects.

 I machined the splash to fit perfectly in the Wuhan China.

75 Cb550k Spoke cleaning and blasting.

 I soaked them in parts washer for 24 hours. Then used a can of brake clean on the whole bunch. Finally its off to the blast cabinet where it will take me forever to blast each one.

20 of the 80 spokes being powdercoated. This is the definition of hand cramps. Seriously a lot of work to come out nice.

75 CB550k Project. (Fork, Frame Grinding, Caliper Piston)

 For some unknown reason this 75 came with the very rare option of having two different sized dampening rods. Which made one fork significantly longer than the other. Other than length, they were identical so I cut it down and welded it where it needed to be.

 The frame needed to have the rear splash shield and side cover tabs removed for what I am using it as.

 Powdercoating the parts OXBLOOD red.

 My Machinist made me a stainless caliper piston identical to the one he made for my 77.