About 77 kg.Out of curiosity has anyone ever weighed,or know the weight of the assembled engine,give or take a couple of kilo's??
About 77 kg.Out of curiosity has anyone ever weighed,or know the weight of the assembled engine,give or take a couple of kilo's??
Thanks guys,
Ok,I will try not to drivvle on lol...
Yes I am a welder although not as professional as some like you see on Instagram but I get by What you see is seamless cro-moly tubing for the all but the swingarm which is plain carbon steel TIG welded with appropriate wire and then capped with bronze just for asthetics as I plan to clear laquer the frame.
The rear mono shock uses a Yamaha R6 shock.The spring rate may be a head scratcher when it comes to it but as long as I give a supplier the approriate details they should be able to fix me up with a workable solution.I did think about twin shocks initially but I wanted to do something not necessarily more complex but more outside of the box.I purchased a YZ400F alloy swingarm with plans to use that but the more I saw it in the tubular frame the more I thought it would look out of place.I ended up fabricating a steel tube arm.Then the suspension.This came in the form of a monoshock either mounted as you see it or under the engine like a Buell,afterall if I was going to build something from the ground up then go all out...Then it dawned on me that the extent of the Buell idea would require some very clever engineering to make it look neat and still work efficiently and I got cold feet.Keep It Simple Stupid was in the back of my mind and while I could have mono shocked it from the swingarm straight to the frames backbone,cantilever style, I thought this idea a bit of a cop-out so I ended up with what you see.
The R6 shock is compressed with a linkage just as it is on the Superbike all be it with slightly different dimensions.I do have a short video I took somewhere of the shock (spring removed) being compressed by the linkage and in theory it should work fine.I still have room for adjustment with multiple mounting points for the linkage rods and other alloy linkage plates with differing hole spacings to change the ratio of lift etc...To be honest I spent hours on the net looking at animated shock linkage diagrams to get my head around how they work before I fabricated anything.I always like to do homework as I hate wasting money.The drawback this brings is the squeeze to get it all in there without extending the wheelbase too much.In fact I have gained about 50mm in length if I have my calculations right!!!
Lastly,you are correct in thinking MaxPete that I am using the engine as a stressed member.I am using all the engines mounts to hang it.One of the big conditions was to make the lovely looking engine a focal point....
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Hi Jan P ..
When you say 'brown' strut are you referring to the top mount??...if so I know what you mean.The mount has been welded since this photo including a plate over the top tying both sides together...There is always the option of placing a vertical gusset on top to increase stiffness perhaps?
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Oh ok...the threaded bar connecting the linkage to the swingarm.In the UK we sometimes refer to them as 'dog bones' due to there shape.
Yeh those are just used for mock up and I now have some solid stainless steel bars turned up to suit the rose joint bearings.These are slightly bigger than the ones in the pic but I will take your advice into consideration.I may make some beefier ones,after all,I wouldn't want those to fail
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Well,that's xmas over and done with for another year..I hope you all had a good one and stayed safe
Today I popped to my workplace to do some more to the bike.We are all off for a week so it's nice and quiet and I have the place to myself.
My new tyres arrived a few days ago so yesterday I fitted them to the new rims,very carefully I might add and fitted them to the frame.This is the first time the frame has been out of the jig properly and standing on its own two feet,or wheels in this case...
I had already made some spacers to take up the gap between the supplied bearing spacers and the fork leg and swingarm ends.It turns out the wheels do not sit central in the frame so I will have to re-measure and make new.
Before fitting the wheels I had to redesign the lower bearing tube which supports the suspension linkage as my original concept was a bronze bush but after giving it some thought I changed to a needle roller/bush set-up to match how the lower shock eye is designed.It will work much better but just requires more accurate fabrication.I machined a temporary alloy 'bush' while I am working on the bike so I do not commit to fitting the new needle bearings before getting the frame lacquered/painted.
Once the suspension was fitted,along with beefier link bars,I put the wheels in with the new spindles/axles.These new stainless spindles were made by a local firm as I wasn't confident in doing it myself on my little lathe and they could do a better job of the threads too.The rear spindle has threads both ends held on by two stainless steel nuts which I turned down a little and drilled them to give them a different look and applied a little heat to turn them a nice dull gold.Both spindles fitted the bearings a treat which was good as they cost me a lot more than I had planned,I am trying to build this bike on a budget afterall....
I also took a pic of the yokes after getting them blasted and to be fair I am happy with the coarse finish giving them a sandcast look.
I took some pics of the rolling chassis before the seat and tank were fitted and I am happy how it's going.The tank seems to suit it even more now which has always been in the back of my mind as to whether to use it or not but I think its going to stay now.
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