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.

Mounting the Swinging arm and getting the Bike Rolling.

Im sorry for the late post, but I have been hard at work and neglecting my camera. In the last week I have managed to source the bearings for the swinging arm and press them in using an M8 rod and some thick nylon spacers.
The suspension linkages were given one last clean and regreasing, then it was all bolted together. The new hagon rear shock bolted in a treat and looks really neat. The torsion bar for the rear caliper was a tight fit with all he new powdercoationg but eventually it slipped on and the rear caliper has also been mounted.

 I opted for new nylock nuts as well just to make it look even fresher.

 The powdercoating against the polished wheel slider looks great and its not even had a final buffing.

Im glad I painted the rear caliper centre it would of let down the rear end massively. Plus all the new stainless bolts set it off well.

Polishing the Aluminium Frame

Polishing the frame was always going to be a long hot and sweaty job.

The frame was rubbed down up to 1200 wet and dry but it was left for over a year so the first job was to rub it down with 1200 grit again and the crack on with the polishing. I set aside a whole day for this job and made sure I wore good goggles and ear muffs otherwise I would of got too annoyed and packed it in early.

The polishing process was identical I went from black, brown,white,green then blue polish soaps to get a finish that puts chrome to shame. Going from a hard to soft mops respectively.

 These photos really dont do justice to the depth of shine in the frame, they were taken on a phone at night too.

Im really happy with the finish and all the work was definitely worth it, plus its a really big milestone to get to in the project.

 Tomorrow I will be picking up some new swinging arm bearings then fitting the swinging arm and suspension, this means the rear wheel and brake can be fittied along with the foot pegs. So alot to do, cant wait to get the bike rolling so I can get some proper pictures of it in the sun!!!

Welding on Exhaust and Subframe Finished

The welding that was needed on the exhaust was no easy job the metals were dissimilar (stainless to mild carbon) and they were also very thin. The tabs that are needed for the exhaust springs had to be made from stainless plate instead of stainless wire because it was just blowing through the pipe!


 I sprayed the inside of the pipe with UHT along withthe sections of pipe that was carbon steel, the exposed steel is all stainless so it should last with out any protection.

The subframe was chopped down to be shorter but still accommodate the original mudguard that has mounts for the ECU and battery box.

The picture above shows the original seat locks that will be used on the finished seat unit to ensure the bike is still easily serviceable after all the chopping is done.

Alot of of prep work went into the weld to set up the TIG plant and cleaning the steel, the results show good even penetration. Lovely.

The end can is a tight fit and the springs hold everything where it should be.

 There is still work to be done on the sub-frame but first I need to moch up a frame for the seat hump and buy some stainless steel sheet to make the seat hump out of.