Seat Fabrication

So with the pipes bent into shape and slotted onto the existing box section of the subframe, it was time to weld them in place and then go about skinning it with 0.9mm stainless steel.

 A qiuck prerp with a polishing wheel ensured a solid weld.

 Action Shots.

 The stainless sheet was roughly cut to shape them tacked on at the bottom. I used a hammer to roll the edges over the pipe to make the gap between the sheet and pipe as minimal as possible.

 To reduce heat concentration the tacs were spaced out at first and then repeated on the other side then we went over the original tacs to improve the all round strength. Note in the inage above there has been a stainless bar welded across this will be the mudguard mount once the mudguard has had some further butchering.

Shiny stainless underside looks pretty cool.

Fabrication wise there is still alto to do:

Tabs for the four relays.
Mounts for indicators brake light and license plate.
Finish off the mudguard mount.
Then fabricate the top of the seat unit and complete a frame work and skin it with more stainless steel.

Once the welding is complete it will be filled and rubbed down ready for paint.

Definitely worth a look

A good friend of mine has been designing a bamboo framed bike to eventually build a business out of it. Unfortunately he has just stumbled across the website below which has beaten him to it. Bamboo has some incredible properties you couldn't engineer into a material and its as sustainable as a banana skin.

http://greenstarbikes.com/ecoforce-1/

I will be looking to keep this blog alive with websites and ideas that are related to my projects. The bike that comes in white has the ideal wheels and crank set for our but parts like that normally come with a hefty price tag!

Road Bike Assembly Crank and Headstock

New cartridge bearings have  been fitted into our frame by Le Bicycle a local bike shop. I have cleaned and degreased the ball bearings and guides for the headstock and started putting the frame back together.

 Before the work was started.

 Headstock threads were cleaned up with a wire whell and it made reassembly much easier.

 Chrome bearings and locking nut were given a little clean and look really cool with the white paint.

 

A key way in the headstock thread work in conjunction with a spacer inbetween the locking nut and the beaing slack adjuster. really nice design that I haven't come across before. The washer doesnt spin when the locking nut is tightened. This in turn doesnt tighten up the bearing and effects the performance and life span of the bearings.

New shiny cartridge bearings look really neat fab job by Le Bicycle no scratches or marks and they had it done within the hour!

We are undecided on what cranks to fit on the bike. The original are in perfect working condition however they are silver and boring.

All the bearings were given a coat of brake cleaner and I rubbed off all the old gunk, then liberally filled them with lithuim grease.

Ally mudguard for the EXUP and the Seat Fabrication

We have a parfectly useable mudguard for the EXUP but here at PRM Motors we like to give ourselves more work every day, so the decision has been made to fabricate an ally front mudguard for the exup to tie into the muscle cafe racer look that the bike seems to be leaning towards.

 The original mounting holes will be used however two new mounting bars will need to be fabricated.

The piece of ally we currently have will need to be chopped and rolled transversely in an english wheel to then be opened out and reduce radius of curvature to fit a 17" front wheel.

The seat unit of the EXUP has stared to come together today with help from a new hydraulic pipe bender.

 I employ duck tape to hold my ideas in place when im away from the bike.

All the pipe and sheet metal will be made from stainless steel.

The original mudguard is still in use although it has been drastically cut down to improve the look of the rear end. This is used because it fits perfectly with the seat and battery plus it mounts the CDI unit. I like to keep parts like this on my bikes because they perform well in the wet and make a build just a bit easier.

 The seat will be filled out with foam to fit flush with the new seat unit then covered, im not sure what material of finish we will end up with.

Finally the bike now has its radiator back on and all the plumbing is done so I added 2 and a bit litres of new blue coolant and the bike now has all the fluids it needs to be started, however I am still looking for a new overflow thank that doesnt look too silly.

I also have some de ionised water too top it up should it need it.

New Clocks leave me with too much choice!

A pair of clock have recently arrived from Hong kong for the EXUP. unfortunatly the speedo is in km/h but I do have another yamaha speedo unit lying around that could work well with a smaller clock next to it.

 The revs go up to 13,000rpm which is the same as the standard tacho.

 No wiring diagrams with the tacho should make it more interesting to install.

 The speedo drive cable fits the upper sprredo however the speedo below which is the mph unit has a larger thread so an adapter must be made for it to be compatable to this bike. Which means more time in the machine shop in Swanley.

Painting the new Bike!

The colour scheme was chosen by my brother, he has gone for a glossy white finish on both the frame and forks. This was achieved by using alot of layers of white to ensure a deep and even finish.

The lacquer was left in the sun before being applied to ensure good adhesion. The frame was flatted with 1200 grit inbetween layers of paint but not layers of lacquer. Three days later and with paint all over the garage we are pleased to say we are finished.

 We are going to convert this bike to a single speed and therefore we have delugged the frame and chopped off all the now unnecessary cable holders and mounts. This leaves a much cleaner and simpler looking frame.

 Dont worry it isn't yellow on one side thats just a lamp.

The forks had two mounting holes chopped off at the bottoms, we will still be running the original front brake.

 The bearing runners were masked off with great care.

Crank Pulling Tool

We decided to buy this crank removal tool off of ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bike-Bicycle-Cycle-Crank-Wheel-Puller-Remover-Repair-Extractor-Mountain-Tool-/380767832120?pt=UK_SportsLeisure_Cycling_BikeLocks_SR&hash=item58a7880838

When it turned up just two days later I put it to good use and it worked perfectly. I made sure the threads were clear of any gunk to make screwing the large threads in just a tad easier.

I can image it would be very easy to strip a thread here so once I though I had screws it in one thread I spun the axle to see if  the tool was off centre at all. That was the best preventative method I found.

The two cranks slipped off easily enough. Then the main bearing were srewed out. They were english or so I was told by the mechainic in our local bike shop Le Bicycle. This means that the drive side 36mm nut has a reverse thread. If the Bike is french or italian it has a conventional thread.

I forgot to bring my camera to the shop so I only have and after shot. The grand total of labour and a new 127mm cartridge axle was £25. I could not recommend Le Bicycle in West Wickham more the appreciation for older bikes you get in there is unlike anything I have experienced in any other bike shop.

http://www.lebicycle.co.uk/

Pit Bike Breathes Again!

Whilst experimenting on my pit bike I had and idea that could actually work and its is as follows:

With the carb on the pit bike currently facing forward acting as a ram air, a bell mouth would work perfectly and seriously increase the desired ram air effect.

There are no current bell mouths for pit bike carbs online, with some heat and the right size sockets I managed to chop up a funnel and melt it over a socket with the sam OD as the pit bike carb. It bolted straight on and with a gauze to keep small wildlife out of the intake the bike fire up and sounded rarther healthy.

This is still in the prototype stage and has a few niggles (hits the forks when I turn right) other than that the bike should work fine. I may adjust the throttle needle to richen the mixture as the air will be travelling through at a lower pressure and higher velocity.

My next alterations will be the grind down the inside of the carb to get rid of any unwanted outer lips and the file down the choke as much as possible so when the bike is running off of choke it has the smallest possible loss factor and therefore indiuces the least amough of pumping loss or pressure difference. Any way fluid dymnamics aside I think this looks cool as it resembles something from a cartoon.

My next post will let you know how it performs.

Finishing Engine mounts and Mounting Radiator

With the frame all polisehed its time to tackle the engine mounts which were rubbed down prior to polishing and needed a coat of paint to finish them off.

Masking the frame off was surprisingly easy, I decided to use newspaper to cover the engine so the mounts could be painted with the engine in situ.

The paint used is silver caliper paint this has high temperature qualities however its also has a glossier finish than UHT or VHT paint which is always matt and never lasts.

 Radiator mounts were given a few coats of gloss black to freshen them up. Plus new allen bolts of course!

I have used silver caliper paint and matt black paint for my PRM stencil work on the cover seen above. Im not over the moon with the finish so im looking for alternative methods of stencilling.
The choke bolted back on gives me the feeling im past half way on this project.

I will need to find and after market expansion tank for this over flow pipe to feed to. The original unit had to hold and average of 330ml of coolant. I may improvise with a bottle or canister if nothing turns up.

The false air intake and radiator cap were given a lick of paint to add a bit of colour.

Battery supprot mount was given the same lick of paint. it was the only thing letting the rear of the
bike down. The newly powder coated swinging arm and shock still look divine.

This is the overall state of the bike, we are now toying with the idea of introducuing an alloy front mudguard to the bike, this will bode well with the frame and other polisehed ally parts. How it will be fabricated and fitted will be posted soon!

New Summer = New Bike Project

Today we picked up an absolute steal from Gumtree! £15 got us this beauty..

It was in perfect working order, straight frame and wheels. Also, it came apart very easily with no hidden skeletons which was a relief!

The theme of this project will be White! All White! Today we began with the prepping of the frame for painting and also began procuring parts from ebay. On that, we bought several parts from the same seller, so we will let you know how we get on with that and give our verdict.

This project will dramatically transform this road bike and we look forward to bringing that to you!

Getting the Controls assembled and Brakes bled!

I started by mounting the controls on the bars, i realised fitting the new renthal grips on the left hand side was a bad idea. I had to unscrew the controls fully and bolt them on instead of loosening them and sliding them down the bars. No great lose.

 I took out the red anodised handle bar support beacuse I think it made the bars too cluttered.

 The new headlight mounts arrived and they fit well, i had to employ some rubber grease just to slide them down the forks. The forks are 52mm diameter and the clamps were specified for 50-53mm forks. They are off of ebay. I used a longer allen bolt in the top clamp just to start clamping them together the bolts that came with it wouldnt of worked.

 Time to start wiring and so far its been easy, each plug is unique and so they can only go in one place really nice work form yamaha. I only have the dial and headlight to wire in.

 Slotting the wires through the frame was very tight, plus i riveted on the frame badge.

The twin sumitomo six pot calipers were off of a V-max and the master cylinder is off of a Hayabusa I am still breaking. They blead very well the syringe I boughtr wworked a treat and they pumped up withing 10mins. They arent perfect yet they still need time to harden up. But the lever doesnt come back to the handle bar and with a zip tie left on over night I should do the job.

 The rear caliper has a seperate reservior which I have remounted to clear some room on the subframe. The mount is billet aluminium and it is rubber mounted to the frame. For bleeding it had to be remounted to ensure there where no bubbles in the line.

Over all i Think it looks very neat and tidy, plus it allows for a much more slender subframe.

 

This is the final shape of the subframe the original mudguard still bolts straight on which was the whole idea. However it has been chopped down to fit and still look minimal.

I have started fabricating the rear seat hump and I will post picture when welding begins but for now Im enjoying the progress I've made with a beer in the sun.