R100/7 build

[nella]

Originally Posted by Rob Farmer

Scott,

I think you will find you may have the mudguard bracket fitted back to front.

You might be right. I need to go take a closer look. I know I installed it and then reversed it because I thought I had it backwards.

Thanks,

Scott

[CraigC]

You must have bought Paul Hahn’s Lesters. Below are a couple pictures of his early '77 R100RS (40mm exhaust) with the widened rear Lester.

The bottom end on Paul’s engine failed a several years ago. It had ~220,000 miles on it including several seasons of racing (note the orange & white AMA tech inspection sticker on the upper fairing panel above the turn signal in the first picture below).

Those Bridgestone’s he had on the wheels when he was selling them had low miles, but they have to be 7 years old at this point in time - I would change the tires next season after you get the bike sorted out. The rim was widened offset to fit a larger tire in the swing arm, but if I remeber correctly only to 3”. The Battlax’s run small, so if you stick with them, the 140/80-18 is a good size. If you change manufactures, I would go with a 130/80-18 on a 3" rim. Measuring the 140/80-18 Battalax vs. an Avon 130/80-18, both mounted in 3” rims, the Battlax was only a bit wider. On 2 front tires that we measured, a 100/90-19 Battlax was the same width as an Avon 90/90-19. The comment someone made earlier about watching profiles is very important. You want to use a rear tire that has an overall diameter of at least 26” to keep the back end up. Your steering will be noticeably slowed going with a smaller diameter/profile tire in the rear (you are dropping your back end height).

[nella]

Originally Posted by CraigC

You must have bought Paul Hahn’s Lesters. Below are a couple pictures of his early '77 R100RS (40mm exhaust) with the widened rear Lester.

Thanks for the history of the wheels and suggestions on the rear tire. I knew they had some age on them.

Also, thanks for posting those pics, looks like he had that bike sorted out very nicely. I've been working this week on getting my RS cowl and rear light set up like that.

Scott

[gertiektn]

I just road to Hyder AK and mostly saw, HD's and ADV bikes, but mine captured the interested minds.
These are very cool bikes.

[sraber]

Really nice work on this bike Scott.

[nella]

Finally had some time to get back out in the garage tonight:






Went on a bit of a parts selling spree and no longer have the stock instrument cluster... I'm going with and electronic speedo. This little guy will plug the speedo cable hole at the back of the transmission.

Like so:







Scott

[nella]

I'm doing a fork swap to a set of late model GSXR inverted forks and worked today on adapting the Suzuki clutch lever to work with the BMW clutch cable. Fortunately, this involved nothing more than drilling the adjuster on the lever to accept the larger diameter BMW clutch cable ferrule.




I am thinking about how to use the Suzuki push-pull throttle with the double-pull BMW cables and that is going to be a bit more challenging.

Scott

[nella]

Today I finished the clutch lever modifications. I might have to add a bushing to extend the ferule out a bit, but I think it has enough adjustment to be able to adjust the clutch properly.




Next up is to tackle the throttle. The Suzuki has a push-pull throttle grip and that won't work on my 100/7 but it is easily adapted to a single pull but I need a double pull setup.

I decided to order a set of throttle cables for a mid-80's airhead that has an adapter that converts a single pull cable to a double pull:



I decided to go on and machine the parts to use the BMW single cables in the Suzuki throttle grip. These are rough right now but I don't want to spend more time on them until the cable set comes in to confirm I'm working with the right size cable and ferrule.



This week I hope to talk to a machine shop about making up an axle and spacers to use my Lester front wheel in these forks and to be able to bolt on these 310mm discs I have. I have drawn up the parts using Sketchup. This is one of those times I wish I owned something bigger than this mini lathe.

[nella]

The machine shop finished by disc spacers today.




The axle is still a work in progress, but I hope to have it tomorrow.


Scott

[word1]

Very interesting!

Slightly off topic, but how about a little bit on your mini-lathe?
I always seem to think of little parts which could be made on a small lathe, but I haven't been brave enough to pull the trigger on one.

_jay

[Rob Farmer]

That Mini Lathe looks just like mine. Fantastic piece of kit and very adictive once you start customising the machine and tooling. I've just bought swiss indexing tooling and a QD tool mount system . Nella's still in the dark ages with is carbide tipped tooling and old school toolmount

They handle 4" diameter work pieces witout any problem which just about covers most things you would want to do on a bike.

[nella]

Originally Posted by Rob Farmer

That Mini Lathe looks just like mine. Fantastic piece of kit and very adictive once you start customising the machine and tooling. I've just bought swiss indexing tooling and a QD tool mount system . Nella's still in the dark ages with is carbide tipped tooling and old school toolmount

They handle 4" diameter work pieces witout any problem which just about covers most things you would want to do on a bike.

Rob,

I'd love a quick change tool post and some of that indexed tooling but for what I do these tools work just fine. Sounds like you have a nice setup! I go over to littlemachineshop.com and salivate at some of the tooling available for these machines.

For something like a fork swap where you need various bushings, spacers and other mods it is doing what I want it to do and has paid for itself. I needed to farm out the spacers and axle to a machine shop for reasons related to the size of the machine. I regret not getting something like an 8"x12" or 8"x14" and for the price I'm paying for the machine work for those parts it would have paid for the difference in cost between this lathe and the next size up.

Best regards,

Scott

[nella]

Originally Posted by word1

Very interesting!

Slightly off topic, but how about a little bit on your mini-lathe?
I always seem to think of little parts which could be made on a small lathe, but I haven't been brave enough to pull the trigger on one.

_jay

Jay, It's a 7"x10" mini lathe. Chinese made and available at places like Harbor Freight. With some setup work they can be made very accurate and are good for smaller parts. It is addictive and fun to learn.

As I mentioned above, I wish that it was larger, especially in length, because it is very limiting on the length of part that one can bore and/or drill.

I see them on craigslist occasionally and if one has been taken care of I'd not hesitate to buy used, especially if it comes with tooling which can add up quickly if you buy new.

Best regards,

Scott

[Rob Farmer]

Scott,

With the quality of the work you're turning out I don't think you need anything else.

Mines a 7" X 12" The QD toolpost was fairly cheap and came in around $40 with 3 tool holders.

[Rapid Dog]

Those look great! Report on how they line up...and post the dimensions for the blocks.