A long, long project.

I have a lot of of time and effort invested in this project, If there was any chance of damaging the work I've done so far I wouldn't have taken that chance. Having said that, I also don't wrap myself in cotton wool as I go through life, and would you believe I've managed to get through seven decades, still have all my fingers, toes, arms, legs, never hurt myself at all. Tell you what, you continue panicking and wrapping yourself in cotton wool and spending big money on making yourself feel super safe and I'll do as I please. And you ride a bike, presumably. What a joke you are!

 

For those who maybe think spoking is beyond them, this is how accurate you can get. The deflection of the needle on the dial gauge is due partly to the join in the rim. The wheel is a 20" I spoked for a recumbent trike I made, but the process is the same. Have a shot, nothing ventured. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWVfV2cW3h0 when I spoke the XS650 wheels I'll post a video.

 

It's a long road, but I'm getting there, ever so slowly. I mocked up an exhaust to get the angles right, tomorrow I'll get the local muffler shop to replicate the top and bottom angles then weld them together. Looking at it now, it doesn't look too back with the squared bends. Bet you can't spot the tiny LED rear indicators! Very unobtrusive. Still a way to go: Mudguards, battery box, air filter, electrics, exhaust, upper engine mounts.

 

Couple of top end mounts made today, just have to polish them and turn up some spacers. Exhaust was a no go today, none of the exhaust shops I went to do mandrel bends. Got an address to try tomorrow. Crossed fingers, otherwise it's an ugly exhaust system!

 

Polished the upper engine brackets and spun up some spacers for them. Also shaped an exhaust clamp which I can't polish yet as I'm modifying the polisher stand. Waiting on the exhausts at the present time, probably another week or so.

 

No, I'll use an exhaust shop and their pipe bender for the exhaust, why mess around welding bits and pieces together. That's just silly!

 

They're brighter than the originals.

 

After making a few different style exhaust brackets, I've decided on these four bolt ally/steel exhaust brackets. A real job bending the 50/3mm steel to shape, ally was easy by comparison. Should get the pipes late thiS week then I can weld some mounting plates to the rear of the steel brackets, paint them and polish the ally.

 

This morning the exhaust guy said hopefully my exhaust may be ready next week, that'll be four weeks. Normally, I'd tell him to stick it in his ear, problem is, he's the only one in SA who does mandrel bends.

While I'm waiting I'll have a shot at making a single points cam, if I can get the lobes positioned exactly opposite each other, the backing plate I'll have to make will give me a bit of leeway in timing. From what I've read, the ones that were available a while ago weren't that accurate.

 

Picked up the exhausts yesterday, unfortunately, not a good job: Angles were out, left and right sides slightly different. Annoying considering it took him four weeks to bend them up. So, on to the bandsaw, cut the pipes into three pieces and welded them back together. Not much I can do about the angle not following the downtube angle, but I cut and welded the lower tube so it followed the ground, didn't like it so cut and welded again with just a slight upsweep. Lower section on the right is only tacked, should be able to finish them off tomorrow, then finish off the brackets, form the ally clamps and polish them up. Happy with the outcome.

 

Pipes, brackets and clamps all done. Slapped some paint on and bolted them up. An absolute nightmare grinding, filing and smoothing all the pipe bender marks off, these pipe benders make such a mess of the pipe. Then there was Cutting and then welding the sections together, round tube right? Nope, not very round at all, get one side lined up nice and flat and another section doesn't quite line up. Not far out, but enough to notice. Lots of bashing and grinding and filing.

The top bend was such that the downpipe was to match the angle of the frame downtubes, that didn't happen, exhaust shop got that wrong. Not much I could do about that, but probably not that noticeable unless you get on your hands and knees to line the tubes and pipes up. The lower bend was way out, pipe was meant to run parallel to the ground. So, I cut the pipe further along and angled it up so it was parallel, didn't like that, so cut and welded again with a slight upsweep. That then threw the lower bracket angle out, once again, cut and reweld. All good in the end. I got the angles absolutely spot on, so both brackets are identical.

The top clamps were turned on a lathe using a four jaw to get the large central hole lined up. Managed to get them spot on, just using a punch mark and a dead centre. The lower brackets have very tight bends to get the bolts as close to the pipe as possible. Ally was easy, but the 50x3mm steel was a little more difficult, first bending in the bar bender, then bashing them in a vice.

I'd like to know why, when forming circles, or half circles in this case, PI is always incorrect by a couple of mm. Pi says these half brackets needed to both be 65.155mm long, including the right angle bends at each end. Now that is for the two halves to meet. I ended up making them 67.5 long including bends and that left a gap of 1mm once clamped together, which is what I was after.

I've done a lot of these type clamps over the years, Pi is always out, but it does give a ballpark length.