Jim's Speed Twin Build

Cut and tacked in the last few pieces....

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...... and cut it loose from the frame jig. no loud pops... didn't suck in anywhere... Cool. :)
Notice the resemblance to the softail swingarm Gary posted above?

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I left the axle plate tubes welded on the jig for now so I can reinstall it in the jig after I weld it up. Just in case....

So... senior moment confession time.... I still need to tack in a temporary tube to support the lower shock mount. Couldn't figure an easy way to do it without flipping the swingarm upside down. It was doable... but easier upside down, so I went ahead and cut it loose. No sooner did it pop loose.... and I glanced up at the rotisserie lock...... :er:
Yeah.... remember when ole dipstick here made the ROTISSERIE frame jig? You know..... the one I can unlock and rotate upside down any time I feel like it...? Dumbass... :doh:
Oh well... no harm no foul. Now.... where did I leave my coffee....
 
Got a little done today. I wanted a little room on the sprocket side of the swingarm to "play" with it a little. I cut the inside half of the tubes off, fabbed filler plates, welded 'em in and cleaned everything up.

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The lower monoshock mount uses a 24mm needle bearing. Scrap bucket fessed up some rod about an inch and a half in dia. for a bearing carrier. My HF boring bit sucks, and to be fair... my skills ain't much better.... but I can drill baby drill. :rolleyes: Don't ask me why I had the odd 24mm bit. :umm:

Bearing carrier.jpg

Hole came out to 24.03 which isn't an interference fit like I need. I figured that was gonna happen. but also figured that when I welded two mounts on it, it would shrink slightly... it did. To get a nice red hot burn, I built up one side of the mount. I wanted that buildup because the load is slightly off center from the mount.

Bearing carrier 2.jpg


Bearing carrier 3.jpg


Bearing carrier 4.jpg

Hole is down to 24.01mm. Need to weld on one more mount brace. Hopefully that'll shrink it a tad more. As it is, it's an interference fit so, good enough.
 
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After seeing Kawabunga's "softail" build, the light bulb went on.
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Sooo.... back to plan A. The Ninja shock he used is about an inch and a half shorter than the Suzuki... and without the big reservoir to boot. Picked one up on Ebay. Showed up yesterday. Now I can go back to my original plan of mounting it like the BMW concept bike I put a pic of back on page 2 of this thread. The swingarm is gonna need some more modding, but the overall look is flowing much better now.

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The wooden stick is the reference marker for the outside diameter of the tire. This will give me better clearance.

ninja shock2.jpg
 
Got a little done today. I wanted a little room on the sprocket side of the swingarm to "play" with it a little. I cut the inside half of the tubes off, fabbed filler plates, welded 'em in and cleaned everything up.
View attachment 151121
The lower monoshock mount uses a 24mm needle bearing. Scrap bucket fessed up some rod about an inch and a half in dia. for a bearing carrier. My HF boring bit sucks, and to be fair... my skills ain't much better.... but I can drill baby drill. :rolleyes: Don't ask me why I had the odd 24mm bit. :umm:
Hole is down to 24.01mm. Need to weld on one more mount brace. Hopefully that'll shrink it a tad more. As it is, it's an interference fit so, good enough.

Hi Jim,
back in the 1950s I had a junior part in BAC's landing gear development program. We accidentally found
(what genius bored this bearing pocket too big; there's a test scheduled?
Try sticking the bastard in with this fancy new thread locking compound.)
that bearings survived higher shock loads when they were a glued in slip fit than when pressed in.
And despite Loctite never paying us a dime, try their bearing retention compound to hold your bushings in..
 
Clever and nice job dishing the new cover.
Just throwing this out there:
Some people "solve" the "problem" of the Yamaha badging on the clutch cover by milling down the entire cover until the lettering is completely erased. I think that much thinning results in a cover that is a bit dicey. However, if you look at the back of the clutch cover, you will see that the casting thickness is increased right where the lettering goes.

s-l1600.jpg

My idea has always been to just mill right where the lettering is, and then extend it back, resulting in a racing stripe effect. Another one of those ideas that I will surely never get to...
 
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