CBR gets the Sailah treatment...

[dentvet]

Originally Posted by sailah

Yo dent,

The new welder is very nice. It's not light years ahead of the old one, but more subtle features. First, it doesn't feel like a chicom machine. It has pulse, which my old one didn't. The biggest thing is that my my old one had 100% of the amps available at the pedal at all times. In other words, the Lincoln you set the amps at say 100. Well the pedal now goes from 0-100, instead of 0-200 like the old one. Allows a little more finesse as you are sneaking up on the end of a weld and need to back off the heat.

Don't be scared about chopping stuff off. The benefit is that now you are committed!! Plus it opens up so many options in terms of redoing suspension etc like on the fizzer. The front ends on our bikes are easy, it's ridding the bikes of the low travel swingarms and putting on dirt bike shocks that really make it complete. Although if you do a subframe chop, you are limited to straight tubes, unless you cut apart the old tubing and splice in bends. That's why I bought a tubing bender, works awesome.

For aluminum, I haven't gone to my buddies in awhile, although I need to raid it. I've been paying full pop at the aluminum distributer here. First I have plenty of little ends here and there and what I need are 20' sticks of 1" tube to build something out of and he's not scrapping that I think I paid $27 for that stick which seems reasonable to me. Plus they have a offcut bin that you can root through at $1.50/lb. That's where I got my aluminum for my bags, they had 4x4 sheets in there of all thicknesses. Check to see if your town has an aluminum warehouse or make friends with a sheet metal shop guy. End of the day, we really don't use very much tubing in our builds so even if you pay full price it's not too bad. The dumpster diving is nice to score that perforated stuff though.

Lemme know if you want a piece of that for a rad guard and I'll send you a chunk.

PS- get the fireblade

Pete

Wow nice work with the yz stem. i just made spacers and used the yz nuts.

It might be easier to just hack the top off one of your ktm stems and weld it on top of your yz stem. however, that would deprive you of having to learn internal threading.

PS, you are a bad influence

[sailah]

Haha nice. That should be interesting with the aluminum frame. Does the swingarm go through the engine? Are you using that swingarm or going dirt bike gear?

I had welded the stem so many times it wasnt turning down well so I made another. It's beefier and uses the yz nut. Much better and more secure.



I have a metric ton of parts I'm not using. If you need something I probably have it. Ten times over

Send me a pm if you want anything.

Looking forward to what you come up with, our uilds should be very similar

Peter

[sailah]

Got a few things done today. Finished the stem, got it pressed into the triple and added seals and bearings. Fits great, very smooth action no wobble. Happy to put that behind me. I need to get the bolts that attach the bar risers to the top and can have that mounted. You can see that I used the stock nut from the YZ to clamp down the top triple. So much easier when you can utilize what you have.





Waste not, want not. I used the old KTM stem to make a spacer for the middle of the swingarm. The swingarm bolt is 17mm, closest I had was 43/64" (It's nice to have every single drill bit...) so I drilled it out on the lathe and cut it to length.



I also made a couple for the outside of the swingarm to "space" it. I will probably make these from steel and weld them to the frame, but only after I make sure thats exactly where it needs to be.

Drilled the rivets out of the can, cut it down, relocated the tin and bob's yer uncle. I will repack it and obviously have to make a custom exhaust but I like how it looks. It will prob be really loud being that short. I might be able to make the other longer. This one was damaged and the carbon had split so that's where I cut it. I can go a little longer on the finished one.

[sailah]

Also worked on the chain and drive today. Since the CBR is much wider than dirt bikes, the counter shaft sprocket is way too (3/4"??) far left. Being the swingarm needs to be centered, the only options are to move the countershaft sprocket in, or move the rear sprocket outboard. I am going to do both.

I chucked up the new counter sprocket I bought for a 520 conversion. It has a shoulder on both sides to space it off the motor and to accept a bolt. I machined off one of the shoulders and remounted it. I gained maybe 3/16". Which is just that much less I need to space out the rear sprocket. BTW, that bastard must be really hard steel. Even with a rock solid tool holder and carbide insert it was a struggle to take just that little bit. I guess that's good for durability though.

I don't have my rear wheel yet I'll see what options I am looking at once I secure one. Have some different options but def leaning towards the cush drive from a 625/640/525 in either stock or aftermarket flavors.

[larryboy]

I need to pick up one of those conversion CS sprockets for my Bandit project, maybe I can get back to work on that bike in January.

Nice work on the stem!!

[sailah]

I got impatient waiting for the ktm forks to arrive so I put the yz forks in to get some inspiration. im pumped, this is going to be fun

[Roadracer_Al]

Hahahaaaa, yes, you're ahead of me when I first started building crap. I tried to cut a front sprocket with a standard lathe tool (High Speed Steel) and basically rediscovered making fire via friction. The HSS just wouldn't touch it! Carbide and grinding are the only way to cut those bastids, and carbide, only barely works. I wish I knew the exact alloy and hardening process -- something that tough would come in handy for other stuff, too.

The build is looking good!

Regarding making female threads, it's pretty much just like making male threads, but the real key technology is to make a gauge -- a short threaded plug which you can use to determine if the female threads are to size. Make a cut, check the fit, repeat until you get nice tidy, slop-free threads, then quit cutting.

a

[sailah]

Originally Posted by Roadracer_Al

Hahahaaaa, yes, you're ahead of me when I first started building crap. I tried to cut a front sprocket with a standard lathe tool (High Speed Steel) and basically rediscovered making fire via friction. The HSS just wouldn't touch it! Carbide and grinding are the only way to cut those bastids, and carbide, only barely works. I wish I knew the exact alloy and hardening process -- something that tough would come in handy for other stuff, too.

The build is looking good!

Regarding making female threads, it's pretty much just like making male threads, but the real key technology is to make a gauge -- a short threaded plug which you can use to determine if the female threads are to size. Make a cut, check the fit, repeat until you get nice tidy, slop-free threads, then quit cutting.

a

Yeah, I had a couple molten chips land dangerously close to my OSHA approved flip flops last night. I was doing the "lathe dance" You're right, even with a carbide bit I must have taken 20 passe. Oh well, got it. Once you got away from the surface, it cut okay, the hardening must not be all the way through for strength issues

I thought about trying to learn the inside threading but didn't have a tool ground and was really in the mood for progress not frustration. Plus the stems I was cutting were getting rather sparse having just effed another. I think at last count I have 13 sets of triples

I'm very pleased with the bike so far, I hope I can keep it looking that way. I know by the time I mount the tank, radiator and header it will have bulked up again but the tail section and minimal front end should keep it pretty light. If I get to 350, I'll be thrilled, hell a KLR weighs what 400ish?

[sanjoh]

Looking good. Wow 350 would be amazing. How's your steering throw, lock to lock?


I'm putting my rat on a diet, just weighed it at 412 a bit over half a tank of fuel.

[larryboy]

Originally Posted by sailah

If I get to 350, I'll be thrilled, hell a KLR weighs what 400ish?

420ish on my 2005 I had, the new one is more.

[sailah]

Originally Posted by sanjoh

Looking good. Wow 350 would be amazing. How's your steering throw, lock to lock?


I'm putting my rat on a diet, just weighed it at 412 a bit over half a tank of fuel.

Right now steering is 360° I need to weld some stops on the frame and same with the triple.

I think 350# might be a little ambitious but attainable. Ive saved quite a bit so far, it just comes down to discipline. I'm not going to sacrifice protection though to hit it and I plan on beefing up the frame too.

I bet it weighs 300 as you see it. I need to add controls, rad, battery, subframe, underseat tank, header, rear sets, protection. Plus a bunch of little add ons. I hope by using carbon fiber and aluminum where possible plus a li ion battery, maybe custom head er I can get there. I really should weigh it now.

[sailah]

okay so i bolted up the ktm forks. I also adapted the YZ wheel but may not use it right now its just in there so I can get to the suspension setup.

I'm going to drop this off the table soon so I can get some measurements under the weight of the bike. I don't have anywhere near the right springs yet.

I have everything on full droop. I figure the front end has about 12" of travel and the rear should be close to that. With this angle on the shock, I am getting the right travel. I need to get the right springs so I can set the bike on its own weight and get the rake set before I finally burn in the rear.





Now that's how I did the last bike with some advice from a suspension tuner, not saying it's the right way. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears.

I compressed the shock all the way and got another reading





I also made an adjustable shock mount so I can vary the travel/angle. Its really hard to hold that shock solid so I just tacked that tube in place.

I cut out the original shock mount as I plan on welding in some 1.25" heavy DOM tubing with laser cut tabs for the shock. I also plan to brace the hell out of the tabs back to the frame as there is quite a bit of force on it.



rather than my crappy handmade gussets and tabs, I went overboard at AA manufacturing and bought a ton of triangle gussets, tabs, shock mounts of all sizes and thicknesses. Should be able to get a bomber mount out of it. My new TIG is a dream on steel, I'm going to really shoot for some clean and pretty welds on this bike.

If there are any suspension guys out there who have any advice about how it looks from 2000 miles away lemme have it...

Couple questions: Anyone know if a 950 shock spring will fit on a 450 shock? I need a really heavy spring and I don't know if they make one heavy enough?

[LukasM]

I can see that your experience from the last build is paying off, everything going smoother this time.

How close is the front tire going to come to the engine and the headers at full compression of the forks?

Originally Posted by sailah

Couple questions: Anyone know if a 950 shock spring will fit on a 450 shock? I need a really heavy spring and I don't know if they make one heavy enough?

For one thing I think the 950 uses a 225 length spring and the 450 a 250mm. And with the thick coils it might be tight on the remote reservoir... Maybe you could solve both by making a tapered spacer to take up the slack at the top end of the shock?

I have one of each at home so I can trial fit it for you if it would help.

Cheers,
Lukas

[sailah]

Great idea on the spacer, I may be able to run a regular heavy pds spring instead of the 950. If you can take measurements inside the coils that would be great.

Peter

Ps what do you think of my international build idea??

[larryboy]

Enduro Eng shows a 9.6kg 260mm spring for that shock. If you cut a coil off to get down to 250mm it might be stiff enough.