No, I'm not dead
Go ahead and skip this paragraph if all you want to see is the bike stuff:
Man, what a series of events! I got a job back in Central Oregon, moved my family over there, and it fell apart almost immediately. I was completely floored and definitely depressed about it all. I stayed in Bend for another month trying to find some suitable work over there but it just wasn't happening.
So now I'm back over here on the coast again. Probably for awhile now. Anyway the good news is that the bike project was here all along, and now I'm able to work on it again. Yay!
Bike Content.....
So now that I'm back on the bike figured I'd update you guys on what I'm working on now. Still haven't finished the swingarm, although I am further along on it. I'm hoping to be done with that by the end of this weekend.
Also, i'm going to get started on skinning up the subframe with sheetmetal, and to that end I got a couple new tools:
Shears:
and a bead roller:
These are both harbor freight items, but the bead roller has been shown to be very productive if you beef up the frame a bit. The shears should work fine for the thin sheetmetal work I plan on doing.
Also, April 1st was my five year anniversary, here is my present!
What could it be you ask? Why only the coolest thing in the world! Megasquirt engine management. Full stand alone, This is going to be amazing!
and what's this with it?
Why that's electronic boost control! :banana
If you can't tell, I'm beyond thrilled to get this. It was definitely one of the more expensive things I needed for this bike, so that's nice to get it out of the way. Also, custom engine management is my thing, I'm geeky like that. I'll be playing with this thing for probably over a year after I get it running trying to tune it just perfectly.
Now for some actual work:
I was doing some research on wide band sensors, and found out that my original placement of the sensor in the turbo manifold would be a very bad idea. Apparently wideband sensors are not like narrowband sensors in that they do not like excessive heat. The documentation on the wideband that I want says that the sensor should be located at least 12" back of the turbine outlet. Obviously with my old exhaust setup there was only about 8" of exhaust after the turbine total. So it had to be redone.
I'm kind of glad that it turned out that way anyway though because I love making exhaust and intercooler piping stuff. I think it looks much cooler this way.
The reducers I made by taking the 2.5" pipe and v-cutting a section out to neck one side down to 1.75" The main body of the "muffler" was done that way as well. Overall I'm really pleased with the look and can't wait to hear how this thing is going to sound! :banana
On with the pictures:
As you can see I've got a lot of welding left to do here
nfloor
The swingarm clears the exhaust perfectly throughout its stroke, and I made a nice little exhaust brace that unbolts from the subrame.
Take a look, let me know whatcha think?
Also, I don't have it yet, but this is the headlight unit that's going on this thing:
Mine will be black not blue, but I might modify it a bit yet, we'll see.
I know a bunch of people won't like this headlight. Mainly because I don't like any of the other headlight options out there. I've literally tried about 100 different setups in my head, and none of them looked right. Maybe if I could get my hands on a brand new Ducati Streetfighter headlight it'd be different. But I can't.
Anyway, thanks again for sticking with me, and hopefully things will move forward at a better pace now.
Sky
Sounds like a rubber grommet in the hole would have helped.
