I am sure you will all agree that when barreling through a project of any sort it is possible to focus so hard on the task in hand that you actually miss the easiest solution (wood for the trees, I think they call it). As you may have noticed I have had an issue with getting a standard rear wheel of the right proportions to fit the ever so narrow CRF swingarm, I was considering machining the wheel hub, machining the swingarm, bolting a CNC hub to a narrow 125 wheel....
Well, the fact is after giving my brain a couple of days to recover I suddenly had a "EUREKA" moment, I will just get a sprocket carrier made, that's it! easy as pie. I will update with photo's as soon as my race engineer has time to make the item, he agreed that this will be the most straight forward and simple solution, so fingers crossed! my bike could be sporting the Honda 6 spokes after all. TTFN
Monday, 3 March 2008
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
Body work, Exhaust
Here we go again! The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, but here are the latest modifications.
1, Number panel from white to black
2, Oil dam in the belly pan
3, Seat unit modified to take exhaust
4, Exhaust shortend and mounted
Told you not to blink.
1, Number panel from white to black
2, Oil dam in the belly pan
3, Seat unit modified to take exhaust
4, Exhaust shortend and mounted
Told you not to blink.
Wheels!
After much deliberation, looking and worrying I have finally found wheels for the front end that will do the job. Woohooo.
I originally opted for Suzuki RG125 wolf wheels which by all accounts would be the same size as Honda RS125 wheels, well nearly, however upon further study I found that the rear is in fact too narrow at 2.75" when the RS rear is 3.5", add this to the worry I had that the RG wheels dont appear to have much meat on them at the hub, I have now shelved the RG wheels, they would have also been a nightmare to space correctly and fit the spindles into, ie. not enough material to start with in order to machine the hubs to suit. Now no laughing at my decision, I am now the proud owner of.....wait for it!......Honda CB500s wheels, but just the fronts as the rears are too wide at the hub to fit the CRF swingarm. The advantage of the CB500 wheel is that the bearing seats are big enough to accept a larger bore size bearing to accept my spindle and to top all that thay are the racey looking 6 spoke design that will suit the bike down to a tee. Fingers crossed to find a matching rear with correct-ish hub width.
The spec. has always been to try and keep the build to just Honda parts, and so far so good.
It is all moving along at quite a nice pace at the moment, dont blink you may miss something!
I originally opted for Suzuki RG125 wolf wheels which by all accounts would be the same size as Honda RS125 wheels, well nearly, however upon further study I found that the rear is in fact too narrow at 2.75" when the RS rear is 3.5", add this to the worry I had that the RG wheels dont appear to have much meat on them at the hub, I have now shelved the RG wheels, they would have also been a nightmare to space correctly and fit the spindles into, ie. not enough material to start with in order to machine the hubs to suit. Now no laughing at my decision, I am now the proud owner of.....wait for it!......Honda CB500s wheels, but just the fronts as the rears are too wide at the hub to fit the CRF swingarm. The advantage of the CB500 wheel is that the bearing seats are big enough to accept a larger bore size bearing to accept my spindle and to top all that thay are the racey looking 6 spoke design that will suit the bike down to a tee. Fingers crossed to find a matching rear with correct-ish hub width.
The spec. has always been to try and keep the build to just Honda parts, and so far so good.
It is all moving along at quite a nice pace at the moment, dont blink you may miss something!
Monday, 25 February 2008
Tuning.
Right, I have done it! I have spent a wedge of cash on some rather flash looking tuning mods for the CRF 450 motor.
This includes the following.
1 stage 2 hot cam
1 heavy duty conrod
1 high compression piston kit 12.5:1
1 race ignition 750rpm higher limiter + 2-3 bhp
1 stm slipper clutch (ohh suits you sir)
Now I know you are all thinking, lottery win?, robbed a bank?, rich relative? ha ha.
In fact none of the above I owe all this to the great GBP to USD exchange rate, all these items came in at £753 delivered. Good deal, would'nt you say?.
Keep watching this space, you won't be dissapointed.
Monday, 18 February 2008
Insight
Right, here is an idea that has come from America and it sounds like a good one to me.The basic thought was to produce a road race motorcycle from a four stroke moto-x bike, Sounds like a big project! I hear you say, but acctualy it is looking to be going quite smooth (at the moment). There is going to be running this year a uk series just for this type of machine and in America it is already running so I know that the theory works already, however, not one to follow the "norm" I have set about making my machine different in many ways so as to make it, hopefully, competitive in the "Buff British Supermono Championship". The restrictions within the supermono's are less, the bike must be single cylinder four stroke with a min weight of 95kg unless you have a 250cc then its 75kg, cc limit is 1300 and NO turbo's or superchargers. My aim is to get my machine as close to 90kg as possible and with tuning kept to a stage 2 cam, stainless valves, heavy duty conrod, port and polish and a slipper clutch I am hoping to make it very reliable.
One of the biggest differences between my build and those already done is that I will use 125cc size wheels and tyres, thus reducing rolling mass, giroscopic effect and drag?, there will be more benefits I expect but those are the ones I am aiming for at the moment.
One of the biggest differences between my build and those already done is that I will use 125cc size wheels and tyres, thus reducing rolling mass, giroscopic effect and drag?, there will be more benefits I expect but those are the ones I am aiming for at the moment.
Cost.
I am obviously trying to build on a budget here so this is the plan to save those valuable pounds.
Firstly stripping the bike of all the moto-x bits that I will have no use for and to list them all on Ebay to make back some of the £1450 that the CRF cost. Things are selling, slowly but they are going, I have sold pegs, covers, wheels but there is still more to go. So far I have recouped about £250 and I hope that when all the other bits go I will have in total around £550 in my fund to start the task of buying good quality parts at the best prices ( I love a challenge). All in with carefull planning I hope to bring the project in on a budget of no more than £2500 total, not including consumables like oil, filters, brake pads etc. So far so good, keep checking this space for more updates.
Firstly stripping the bike of all the moto-x bits that I will have no use for and to list them all on Ebay to make back some of the £1450 that the CRF cost. Things are selling, slowly but they are going, I have sold pegs, covers, wheels but there is still more to go. So far I have recouped about £250 and I hope that when all the other bits go I will have in total around £550 in my fund to start the task of buying good quality parts at the best prices ( I love a challenge). All in with carefull planning I hope to bring the project in on a budget of no more than £2500 total, not including consumables like oil, filters, brake pads etc. So far so good, keep checking this space for more updates.
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