Yuku free message boards

The AEE frames were jigged to add approximately 1" of rake at the bottom of the neck, they were not measured by degrees. This is an old school measurement coined from building HD choppers. Basically cut a line from the bottom of the neck to nearly through the top on a HD big twin frame and then pull out the bottom of the neck approximately 1". T. McMullen the owner of AEE started with Harleys and used the same formula on all his frames. Early AEE advertising even listed the rake as 1". Chopper builders knew what this meant back then...way before we became concerned about rake/trail. A good example of this is the famous Captain America chopper, which had 1" rake with 15 over glide forks. AEE frames were meant for either 10" over glide forks or 15" over springers. Both glide and springer measurments were taken from stock HD forks....springers are shorter then glides. Usually a 10-12" over Honda 750 fork will make a good combination on a AEE Honda frame, but may sit too low for your use. I usually sit the frame with triple trees and rear wheel on blocks (sit them to the desired ride height with the rear wheel on the ground) and then I place a piece of emt electrical conduit in the trees and then measure from the top tree to the place where my front wheel axle intersects with the conduit....again not scientific and you will need some help holding the wheel and measuring. The take the measurement and subtract the length of a stock 750 fork to get my overall extension. Hope this little bit helps.
Hank

I ran a 10" over Honda glide fork on a AEE frame in the early 70s with the stock 19" front wheel. It sat really low and I made some scrambler style (two on each side) pipes to get some clearence. I ran my pegs mid style so they were way off the ground, but the alternator cover would grind during hard banking. Covers were cheap and easy to find then so I didn't care and usually cared a spare with gasket in an old army butt pack strapped to the sissy bar. These days, I try to keep the bottom of the frame rails about 4" and still occasionally grind the alternator cover...kind of a trade off between utility and looks, if we were very concerned about clearence we would all ride stock framed bikes.
Hank