The Baja Bandit

Fuckin nuts...


I like it...

Thanks, Wheedle!!


I made some progress. I like the look of the Ducati trellis frames and tried to put a little bit of that into the design without adding a bunch of weight. I might fill the triangles with some sheet so that I have a place to hide the electrics. I don't like the looks of the subframe from the CR500 and may change it when I get the plastics and tank back from paint...or not, it gets hidden when the number plates and seat are bolted up. Gotta come up with a battery box next. I'll spend the weekend making templates out of cardboard for all the gussets and stuff, it's easier to cut with the plasma at work.


Progress:




The odd looking bits at the tank mounts are just shims to hold things while I welded the tabs on.

It was mentioned earlier about stuffing the bigger engine into the CR500 chassis. I looked at that for about 1 minute...the CR500 frame is spindley compared to the Bandit...the CR was mostly 3/4" or less tubing and the Bandit is a perimeter frame in inch and a quarter...needed for the weight and the way I pound on bikes.

Graft.

Plain and simple.

Will it make it over Mengal Pass?

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Throw your hat over the wall. I like it.

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Yeah, it'll do it. My goal is to try the bike on the Sheetiron 300 in May. I'll have to see what kind of MPG's I can get out of it...it does hold 5 gallons of gas in the stock tank.

I've got some plating and tube work to do in that area yet, but I'm holding off until I figure out the jackshaft placement. Yeah, a graft was the easiest...I'm not an engineer, but I can glue metal together.

Personally Larry, i think yer nuckin futs:huh , but thats just my opinion Good stuff keep it coming

Good to see you are making progress. Call me sometime and I will stop by to kick the tires and drink beer. Thats me on the right.

This is awsome!

I'll keep an eye on this build. I have an FZR600 complete in the shed, and it needs a fork rebuild. I also just happen to have an XR650 front set of forks and triples in there too. Id love to do what your doing to make myself a 90Hp trail bike.

Pity i have no skills to combine the two.

Tire sponsor?

Is that an offer?





I've made a little more progress. I made pieces to fit into the triangles, but somehow I cut every single one the wrong size..I made some poster board patterns and I'll try it again.

I made some mounts to have a quick change on my Baja Designs light from bike to bike. They wanted $65 for these mounts, I made them for about $1.




I whipped up a battery box. I left it a little long in a couple spots so I can trim it to fit.





I've got some Warp9 rims on the way, blinkers, tail light w/plate mount and a speedometer. I went with the Electrosport basic model..tach, speedo, left/right, neutral and high beams..$170 to my door, comes with a mount..ends up quite a bit cheaper than the Vapor.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with these kind of frankenstien concepts coursing through my head, although I don't seem to be executing them. This is awesome, keep at it.

I think you'll have some trouble keeping the chain on with the vast distance between sprocket and SA pivot. But you say jackshaft? Is that going to be concentric with the pivot point?
I'm thinking it might have been easier to extend the Bandit SA and work out how to get some additional travel out of it. Or widen the CR SA and pivot it in the stock possition.
And lastly and I don't mean to piss on wonderfulness of it all, but I rode a 600 Katana once. And the Bandit may have a somewhat different powerband. The Katana was like O.K. heres a little , and a little more and then at 10 grand all hell breaks loose. Not my idea of dirt friendly.
So, I guess if you are a seven foot tall superman that could show Bubba the fast way around the superX track this will be perfect.
Watching with intrest and hoping for the best. Your humble servant.

I was working out the details on this today. The jackshaft will go where the old swingarm pivot was at. Lines up really good to feed the chain into the new swingarm.

The Bandit SA is painted a nice aluminum color, but is steel and weighs about 60 pounds. Widening the CR SA is a nice idea, but the hub would be too narrow. The main problem is swingarm angle when using the stock Bandit SA pivot. The anti-squat numbers go thru the roof when you get over about 22 degrees of SA angle.

I like the Bandit power traits, it'll lug down to idle and pull away clean in 6th. It's very managable under 6 grand and is easy to keep in the grunt of the powerband..no reason to ring it 10 grand on every shift.

The point of the project is to make people go WTF when they see it. I'll ride some gravel roads with it and ride it to work...all for fun...no real purpose except fun.

And I rode a 600 Katana for 50,000 miles - what you're saying just isn't true. The air/oil-cooled 600's have very linear, friendly power delivery (yes, you definitely get more as the revs rise), and they run forever.

I hadn't ridden a 600 four cylinder bike since about 1988 and was shocked at how good this motor is...it's a riding motor. Tugging the hack down the road it'd do 100 mph with ease. Short shift it and let it torque along or rev the heck out of it and it'll fly. I'm getting close to the end of the project and am getting really excited to take her out for a spin...I'll get some helmet cam video of the way it rides...good or bad...I'll post it.

Plus they have bulletproof electrical with that big car-type alternator on there, an incredibly understressed bottom-end, great oiling, and super-easy screw-type valve adjustment.

If Suzuki sold that motor in a bike that didn't weigh 500 lbs wet, I'd get another in a heartbeat.

Just get a 1200 Bandit. Weighs about 25lb more than the 600, and has 40 more hp.

And weighs 500lbs wet.

Great bikes, but there's no way. An SXV5.5 is more likely. :)