87 replies to this topic

[Coxylaad]

The advent of facebook groups has seen activity on traditional forums plummet, which is a shame as they are great information resource and easier to navigate, search and keep your thoughts in one place.

 

Forums are better for tracking project builds through time, which leads me to my question - does anyone on here have any projects that they are currently working on? 

Its good to read about people fabricating and modifying things to fit their lifestyles, purpose etc. 

 

Ive had a few projects on the go in the past, a couple still in progress:

 

TRX850 track bike

The TDM road bike

A one of build using a VFR1200 engine and swingarm. 

 

 

anyone got anything on the go? 

 

 

[dapleb]

It also doesn't help when one of those faceache groups is one that has stolen the forum name without permission for their own benefit!

The forum and tech info has also slowed since there just ain't as many peeps riding around on these old tings.

I have an enjun project that I started in 2012 ish to put 9er barrels and later mk grrr box in a 3VD enjun...but havent done oubt other than collect bits and some measuring. It will be a long time till oubt gets done with that. All other projects are much smaller loike tarting triggers vroom up with some licky bits.

[Favs]

Preping my '91 Saturno for sale and then the same with a '76 MotoGuzzi 750S3 is about it at the mo...most of the projects I get involved in have at least 6 wheels with lots of fab n weld etc.going on - trucks not for my use.

[Coxylaad]

This is the current state of the VFR project:

 

 

 

Edited by Coxylaad, 27 July 2022 - 03:24 pm.

[Snowbird]

Nice, is that a homemade frame?

[Favs]

Liking the plumbers nightmare exhaust

[LAURENCEAUX]

Coolio!

 

Looks fantastic and I admire you for your obvious skills.

 

My wife is a long term project on the go that I can't bring myself to finish off. 

Edited by LAURENCEAUX, 27 July 2022 - 08:38 pm.

[Coxylaad]

Nice, is that a homemade frame?

It is.  I extensively modified the frame on my TRX when i fitted the MT09 engine - so much so I thought it would be possible to build a frame from scratch. 

so i did

Liking the plumbers nightmare exhaust

Apart from the link pipe that I have welded to the end of it its pretty much stock VFR1200.  At some point in the future I am going to cut off all those ugly pressfit  compression welds and seam them up smooth, but thats quite low on the priorities at the moment. 

 

Once I have it running I am going to check to see how loud the thing is, and I may removed the cat. from it

[Snowbird]

That's a pretty impressive achievement.
Did you make a jig up for the frame between headstock and swingarm mounts?
What tube was used?

[Coxylaad]

Yes I did. I bought the full bike, and made an internal jig based on the original frame, then cut the original frame away. A little wasteful but it got me what I needed. 

Then I modified the jig and lowered the headstock 30mm to take into account the shorter overall length of the Ohlins forks. And then I added a degree to the steering head angle to make it a little more stable/slower steering. 

 

Then I just made the rest up as I went along!

 

I went over sized with the tubing, as I wanted it to be a feature on the bike. I wasnt to bothered about the weight, but finished it was still lighter than the original VFR frame. 

 

rear end is a Triumph speed triple.  Tank is the VFR 1200 tank, but modified

Edited by Coxylaad, 28 July 2022 - 11:14 am.

[fixitsan]

Looks a beast.

Nearest to a project I've done is fit a 640 engine into my 620 KTM because the original had started to weep oil a bit from here and there. Found a dirt cheap 640 (the clue should have been in that fact) with an oil leak 'probably from the cracked sight glass' was how it was described.

When it was delivered by courier I found the sight glass wasn't cracked and had to fit it in the bike to run it, and find oil leaks from the base gasket (constant slow dribble) output shaft oil seal, kinked copper washer under a banjo bolt and an internally damaged braided oil hose.

 

But yeah it was perfect apart from the cracked sight glass ! Replacing the base gasket revealed a broken oil ring at the bottom of the piston too.

 

It only really cost a gasket set, piston ring and cheap seal so still a bargain, and it has a high flow head so increases in throttle in 1st gear makes it want to flip over backwards . I can't wheelie , intentionally, very well, but I'm getting plenty of easy practice now !

[harvey krumpet]

Projects?

Ha! The list is long but not much with bikes.

 

Cleaning the headers on me TDM, plucking up the courage to file down some cheap spanners so I can strip and lube the rear suspension on the trials bike. Might be easier to get huge feeler gauges and cut a hex on the end..

 

Having said all that, my mate is cajoling me to hold the end and make tea while he "develops" his 72 CB125 twin. For some strange reason he wants to carry on the twin theme and put two turbas on it..  Be rude not to be at his side and mock his efforts.

[Coxylaad]

Looks a beast.

Nearest to a project I've done is fit a 640 engine into my 620 KTM because the original had started to weep oil a bit from here and there. Found a dirt cheap 640 (the clue should have been in that fact) with an oil leak 'probably from the cracked sight glass' was how it was described.

When it was delivered by courier I found the sight glass wasn't cracked and had to fit it in the bike to run it, and find oil leaks from the base gasket (constant slow dribble) output shaft oil seal, kinked copper washer under a banjo bolt and an internally damaged braided oil hose.

 

But yeah it was perfect apart from the cracked sight glass ! Replacing the base gasket revealed a broken oil ring at the bottom of the piston too.

 

It only really cost a gasket set, piston ring and cheap seal so still a bargain, and it has a high flow head so increases in throttle in 1st gear makes it want to flip over backwards . I can't wheelie , intentionally, very well, but I'm getting plenty of easy practice now !

 

was the 640 engine a big jump in performance over the 620?

At one point I had in my position an insurance write off 690 duke that was seriously considering turning into a supermono for the track, that was shortly before I sold it and set about building the MT09 TRX. I hardly rode the thing the jump of the throttle was tremendous and borderline scary!

 

 

Projects?

Ha! The list is long but not much with bikes.

 

Cleaning the headers on me TDM, plucking up the courage to file down some cheap spanners so I can strip and lube the rear suspension on the trials bike. Might be easier to get huge feeler gauges and cut a hex on the end..

 

funny Ive been doing a bit of that. I have discovered if your headers are really dirty and stained, a powerfile with an old worn out sanding belt on it makes short work of the outer crud, without touching the metalwork:

 

 

Having said all that, my mate is cajoling me to hold the end and make tea while he "develops" his 72 CB125 twin. For some strange reason he wants to carry on the twin theme and put two turbas on it..  Be rude not to be at his side and mock his efforts.

 

CB125 TWIN turbo??? did I read that right?

Edited by Coxylaad, 29 July 2022 - 07:49 am.

[JohnnyW]

I like the end can on the vfr, we had our annual Tomintoul Motorcycle Gathering 3 weeks ago and there was a TDM900 with a pair of those fitted. Got chatting to the owner and he told me he got them on eBay for £25. He started it to give me a listen and it sounded really good, deeper tone but not loud. He was complaining because the link pipes cost more than the cans.😀

[fixitsan]

 

was the 640 engine a big jump in performance over the 620?

At one point I had in my position an insurance write off 690 duke that was seriously considering turning into a supermono for the track, that was shortly before I sold it and set about building the MT09 TRX. I hardly rode the thing the jump of the throttle was tremendous and borderline scary!

 

 

 

It's not a huge difference but noticeable, as the revs rise the midrange pull is harder than on the 620, and it pulls strongly to higher revs after that. I fitted the pumper version of the standard carb (which used to be on Harley or Moto Guzzi) so it instantly squirts petrol on the turn of the throttle, without a digital brain calculating if it is dangerous to do it first of all  or not

The vibes can be draining after a couple of hours though, that would be my main reason for changing it, I might have one last go with getting the seat gelled up for more comfort though.

It's the mere 142kg of weight which really makes it something fun to ride.

The fact the oil tank is in the frame and having two oil filters just makes it more interesting to bleed the oil after an oil/filter change

 

The 690 is on my radar, I would probably only ditch this 640 for a 690, I keep looking at the mk1 2008 model, and just lost out on ebay on one for £2250 in fact, I'll try again on the next one that comes along.

 

Basically the 690 has significantly more power, torque and a much needed 6th gear, together with a second balancer shaft to smooth it all out, at the expense of not much more weight at all.

A supermoto 690 on sticky tyres beats almost anything on the twisties around here, apart from another supermoto.

 

It's a class of bike I never thought would suit me, and the 620 was just a mad experiment to to see if it lived up to the description I read about it on a website - "DO NOT BUY THIS MOTORCYCLE "  ( https://www.motorcyc...620_duke 97.htm). They were right, it's one of the cheapest entry points into hooliganism there is, I should have left it alone...

Edited by fixitsan, 29 July 2022 - 09:52 am.

[Coxylaad]

I like the end can on the vfr, we had our annual Tomintoul Motorcycle Gathering 3 weeks ago and there was a TDM900 with a pair of those fitted. Got chatting to the owner and he told me he got them on eBay for £25. He started it to give me a listen and it sounded really good, deeper tone but not loud. He was complaining because the link pipes cost more than the cans.

I suspect those cans were the Danmoto chinese jobbies. the one on the vfr is a Mivv ghibli, they are about 400 quid new. very well made bit of kit

[JohnnyW]

I suspect those cans were the Danmoto chinese jobbies. the one on the vfr is a Mivv ghibli, they are about 400 quid new. very well made bit of kit

They were the Chinese ones but they did sound nice. I asked him if he had had any fueling issues with the cans but he said the bike ran absolutely fine. If I can work out how to upload a photo from my phone I'll stick on the site.

[drewpy]

I've been trying to get back into my xs400 tracker project.
Got an Aisan blower and Fi for the fuelling.

Its been on hold since lock down started and other things have taken over.

One day I'll get my juices flowing again 

[waynedear]

I have project xj, not that far from MOT worthy, just a few electrics to sort, charge battery, clean carb, set carbs, check everything  put fresh fuel in and cross fingers.

 0B000AB0-0B1A-481C-844F-FF33DDE06994.jpeg   144.78KB   2 downloads

 25E63B66-8748-4B70-8753-63681BB2AF20.jpeg   283.22KB   0 downloads

Also have a Volvo t5 nearing completion.

Out of projects with an engineI have a few acting projects on the go.

 

[fixitsan]

I have project xj, not that far from MOT worthy, just a few electrics to sort, charge battery, clean carb, set carbs, check everything  put fresh fuel in and cross fingers.

0B000AB0-0B1A-481C-844F-FF33DDE06994.jpeg

25E63B66-8748-4B70-8753-63681BB2AF20.jpeg

Also have a Volvo t5 nearing completion.

Out of projects with an engineI have a few acting projects on the go.

 

 

That's a tidy XJ. I couriered mine for 60,000 miles with hardly any bother. Haven't seen a front fairing like that before, but it looks like the headlights are an improvement on standard !