Got a little carried away - time to customize

[frwinks]

I used a pipe bender to build a full cage out of HREW tubing on my rockcrawler, so I know a thing or two on using the wrong tool for the job All in all it worked out well, we customized the bender a little not to kink the tubing, but still can't do tight 180's. Since my cage design never called for any all worked out great.
For my seat/fender hoop, I went to Condraulic in Mississauga. Steve is a solid dude with a mandrel bender.
National 4wd in burlington is another option. Not sure if they bend their own tube still, they did when my buddy worked there a few years back...
The trick is to start the bend early on the tube and go in steps (10-20deg, move the tube an inch or two and do another 10-20deg,etc), putting the center of the hoop where you want it. Don't try to do the 90 or 180 in one shot or it'll kink, as I'm sure you've already found out.
There's a method on here using heat and some plywood form type thing to "form" the tube as you're heating it.. run a search.

 

[bentwrench]

Oddly, I just put my junky pipe in the bender and cranked on it - turned out perfect, if only 90 degrees.

Thanks for the references. I don't think of this board as a local board, but I suppose there are quite a few Canucks here...

 

[haga41cat]

More thread please!!

 

[bentwrench]

Ha! Took some time off for the Easter weekend. I meant to take that time off and work on the bike, but it seems my time was already pre-planned for me by my wife.

More to come, I promise.

 

[bentwrench]

It's been a while, and I'm sorry. See, I needed to learn how to weld.

So I found a MIG welder on kijiji for $100 - a nice old US built unit from a company that's gone under. It runs on my basic outlets, and it can take gas.

But then I started looking for gas for my "cheap" welder, and was quickly running almost $300 for a regulator, tank and argon. So while it's messier and more difficult, I decided I'd learn with flux core wire.

Let me tell you, it is much messier. And if I was welding anything load bearing, I wouldn't have cheaped out. But I'm welding a hoop, so it only needs to be so so.

Here's the hoop, carefully balanced on the frame, all ready for welding. It took some clever grinding to get contact all the way around on both sides, but I like the squared off shape.

I mean, it would have been nice to have a full 180 hoop, but the pipe bender I, uh, borrowed from Home Depot could only bend this much. I'm on a budget, all right!

Here we are after welding. No in between shots - too messy. I read somewhere years ago that it doesn't matter how good a welder you are, if you're good enough with a grinder.

Yep, I'm pretty good with a grinder, if I do say so myself. A little bit of body filler will finish smoothing those out, and you'll never be able to tell that a blind monkey did it. I hit it with a mallet a couple of times, and checked that it could take me jumping on it, and it's strong enough for me.

Next, back to the tank. When we last left it, it was blue. No more:

Had to use the brass wire wheel after my chemical stripper turned it into a gooey mess (maybe leftover wax on the tank messed up the stripper?)

And finally, a possible look for the bike when it's all done, if I want to go the Classified Moto route:

20 items left on the project plan for this bike. I'm technically half way through!

 

[bentwrench]

Oh, cleaned up the swingarm of rust and original paint too, all ready to paint black.

Yes, this photo is comment bait.

 

[bentwrench]

Now, I know that with clip ons, I'll need to tighten the steering so they don't bang into my lardy tank. Here's what I've done:

Here's the steering stops on the lower triple:

And here's my drill press, ready to make a hole:

And voila! Two holes:

The one on the left is not as dangerous as it looks. The angle just makes the hole look like it's too close to the inside. All of what you're seeing through that hole is reflected light from my open garage door.

From here, two machine screws and bolts will let me adjust the amount of reduced turning. I may have to bore the screws out a little bit (I used a 9/64 drill bit, but may take it to 5/32 for the machine screws I have in mind).

 

[bentwrench]

Time for repainting. Took care of the rear brake cover, the engine mounts, and the swingarm is started. All taken down to the metal (or at least, I got rid of the surface rust on the chrome engine mounts) and then painted a beautiful flat black.

Before:

And as we stand before I crash out for the night:

 

[Evan]

Lookin good.

 

[bentwrench]

Frame finally painted. Too much sanding, cleaning, scrubbing, etc. goes into this. And the DOHC frame has so many nooks and crannies that it simply takes a really long time.

But here's what we have. Should get paint either tonight or tomorrow!

 

[bentwrench]

Big weekend. Well, big weekend for my wife, who made a huge list of things to get done before I could work on the motorcycle. She figures (rightly) that she's making a baby, so the least I could do is work on making the back deck safe.

So, once the back deck was made safe, I had about an hour to work on the motorcycle. Besides sneaking off to put down coats of black paint on the frame that is.

I can now present the frame (with centre stand):

But then I figured it was time to get it into rolling chassis form. Which looks like this (with centre stand removed):

And here's my imagination getting away with me, thinking of the eventual tank and rider combo:

I am so totally making vroom noises in my head in that last one.

I still need to figure out signal solutions, as the headlight brackets don't have space for them. And I have the forks about an inch and a half lower in the triples, with the expectation that I'm eventually going to shorten them (need to check engine clearance and handling first.)

Also, I still need controls, electrics, a seat, fenders, and you know, an engine, but I'm quite pleased with how it's coming along.

 

[drewpy]

looking good BW! that frame looks light

 

[bentwrench]

I can almost lift the entire rolling chassis with one arm. And as you can see, my arms ain't that big...

 

[bentwrench]

You know that feeling you get when you're swimming, and you realize that you can't touch the bottom anymore?

Yeah, I'm getting that right now.

I need to shorten that wiring harness - it's just huge now with the clip ons (shortening at the front) and the removed tail (shortening at the back).

Time for some research...

 

[bentwrench]

No no! Wait wait!

I'm shortening, not lengthening!

Snip snip!

 

[bentwrench]

So, a bunch of bits and bobs are done. I've figured out how to mount the headlight mount and clip ons, which involved installing and removing about 17 times (granted, after the first 16, it was one more time because I preferred the bolt heads to be facing out, rather than the nuts, which is actually pretty anal for someone as disorganized as myself.)

Here's what's gone down:

I disassembled my Tomaseli knockoff headlight mounts because I didn't realize when I purchased them that there would be no place to mount the new turn signals. Time for a little bit of drill baby drill! (Please note, I'm Canadian. I know that drill baby drill meant something in the US, but I don't know what. I assume it had to do with modifying motorcycle parts.)

Taped them together to make sure the bike wouldn't end up looking cock-eyed:

And voila! I actually didn't clamp at first, and nearly took off my fingers when the drill bit grabbed the metal. Note to self - you're an idiot.

Once mounted (and unmounted, and remounted, etc.) I was able to check clearances, and put in the screws and bolts to tighten the steering stops.

I will eventually trim those screws, but I need to install the controls first, and see if this is really enough clearance (it probably isn't. I'm also waiting on some nifty grips, so as soon as those come in, I'll be able to confirm my suspicions.)

And here's what the signals look like installed (with all the headlight guts sticking out... how embarrassing!)

Oh yeah! Engine!

The engine looks filthy now compared to the rest of the bike. Maybe if I try installing a 6 speed next winter, I'll paint the engine up too. In the meantime, I think it looks pretty bad-ass with the bare metal tank.

I hid all the wires here for the shot, but some of them are really long. I'm going to go hunting for heat shrink next, and looks like I'm going to need to build some kind of electronics box for under my eventual seat.

And unfortunately, 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Any idea if this is fixable:

 

[petei]

Looks great!
can't wait to see her finished.
i take solice in the fact that you are not riding either.

 

[xs400neophite]

well at least your out there swimming! I am holding the pool coping and making my way slowly around the pool. Maybe one day I will venture into the deep end! Looks cool so far!

 

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

...I know that drill baby drill meant something in the US, but I don't know what.

Yeah, that didn't work out so well for us.

Any idea if this is fixable:

You can get a boot&terminal kit to replace that. Tractor supply co. or something like it aughtta have 'em. It may cost as much as a new wire though.

 

[bentwrench]

The boot seems to have simply slipped off. I'll do some research today, and see what I can find.