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Post by dusty350 on Dec 11, 2020 7:48:16 GMT 1
I'm going to reduce the length of the knurled foot pedal part. I bought the kickstart new (pattern) and dont want to fit a rough cast Lc kick lever to a chromed knuckle - it wouldn't look right. There is only a few mm to remove so should be fine Dusty
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Post by oldbritguy on Dec 11, 2020 8:12:15 GMT 1
Coming on leaps now Dusty. Looking absolutely superb though you have always set the bar very high. Very few bolt on parts, lots of fab work and fettling. This might just turn out to be your best one yet. Lovin’ it 😉 John
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Post by dusty350 on Dec 11, 2020 8:36:39 GMT 1
Hi John, Thanks for the kind words mate I'm enjoying building an aircooled again, and it's not far off being completed now. Paint is the last big job - sometime early next year now. I need to sort brake lines front and rear, and I have just ordered a mini Brembo for the Tyga carrier at the back. I've had to buy so many new parts for this build it's mad - not something I would choose to do again !! I really enjoy all my builds, and love each bike as I do it - you have to love them to do them right I think, and I've always thought the coffin tank Rd's look awesome in a very "70's" sort of way The Cafe Racer bike is my all time favourite build though. I put a lot of effort into that bike, and it's such a mix of parts, I'm so pleased with how it turned out. That still needs to get finished though, so hopefully next year for that one too I cant envisage selling that bike (although I've said that before !!), but the 400 may well make way for another project at some point - time will tell !! Regards Dusty
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Post by gazzatt2 on Dec 11, 2020 22:54:49 GMT 1
I'm going to reduce the length of the knurled foot pedal part. I bought the kickstart new (pattern) and dont want to fit a rough cast Lc kick lever to a chromed knuckle - it wouldn't look right. There is only a few mm to remove so should be fine Dusty I had the lc blade chromed came back smoothed
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Post by dusty350 on Dec 12, 2020 10:20:41 GMT 1
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Post by dusty350 on Dec 13, 2020 14:42:59 GMT 1
Tackled the issue of the kickstart not clearing the back brake pedal this morning. I still have the ability to tweak it further should I need to, by either filing an angled "flat" onto the knurled foot pedal, or reducing it's length slightly in the lathe, at the end that meets the lever itself, which would be the better option if needed. To gain the clearance so far, I reduced the height of the body of the rose joint; 20201213_113150 by dusty miller, on Flickr 20201213_113221 by dusty miller, on Flickr Dusty
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Post by Tobyjugs on Dec 13, 2020 15:42:44 GMT 1
Is it possible to alter the bush between the rear set and lever?
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Post by Tobyjugs on Dec 13, 2020 16:45:55 GMT 1
Tackled the issue of the kickstart not clearing the back brake pedal this morning. I still have the ability to tweak it further should I need to, by either filing an angled "flat" onto the knurled foot pedal, or reducing it's length slightly in the lathe, at the end that meets the lever itself, which would be the better option if needed. To gain the clearance so far, I reduced the height of the body of the rose joint; 20201213_113150 by dusty miller, on Flickr 20201213_113221 by dusty miller, on Flickr Dusty Hi Dusty look at what I'm about to say as a discussion point. After looking at that brake lever connection to the master cylinder I think it could be dangerous. Because of the length of the spacer between the rose joint and the lever. A lot more force will be generated to make it flex or bend giving a vague braking feeling. Hopefully that is an M8 bolt your using as it's only the tension produced by the tightened nut and bolt that's keeping it together. It might be ok in normal happy shopper use but in an emergency???
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Post by 4l04ever on Dec 13, 2020 16:50:28 GMT 1
Maybe the master cylinder could be moved to outside the mounting plate to shorten the spacer? Also, the spacer could be threaded to make it have a bigger contact area?
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Post by 4l04ever on Dec 13, 2020 16:51:24 GMT 1
As another discussion point....who uses the back brake?? (I do, but others don't)
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Post by stusco on Dec 13, 2020 17:25:40 GMT 1
I do
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Post by dusty350 on Dec 13, 2020 22:18:26 GMT 1
Once the line is sorted and the rear brake bled up, I will be able to test the back brake properly. I'm pretty confident it's going to work ok. I wanted to fit the cylinder on the outside of the plate with the bracket on the inside, using spacers to take up the difference, but the casting of the brake cylinder will not allow it, so went with this instead. Once operational, I will also find if I need to have to fit some kind of return spring for the lever - I'm expecting to do something for that Dusty
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Post by sidney81 on Dec 15, 2020 11:15:19 GMT 1
Hi dusty loving the foot hangers looking lovley
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Post by Tobyjugs on Dec 15, 2020 15:59:41 GMT 1
Once the line is sorted and the rear brake bled up, I will be able to test the back brake properly. I'm pretty confident it's going to work ok. I wanted to fit the cylinder on the outside of the plate with the bracket on the inside, using spacers to take up the difference, but the casting of the brake cylinder will not allow it, so went with this instead. Once operational, I will also find if I need to have to fit some kind of return spring for the lever - I'm expecting to do something for that Dusty Yes the return spring I also have to make for the Bakker bike
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Post by dusty350 on Dec 15, 2020 20:06:26 GMT 1
I've got an idea for the return spring, which will hopefully keep it partly hidden from view. A job I will revisit at some point. Cheers Chris I finalised the shape of the back plates today - ground off the lower front edge on both plates and made a softer, more rounded shape. Polished out the grinding marks, but didn't go too mad on the face of the plates - It's hard to keep a mint finish on polished alloy - especially on a footrest. 20201215_173713 by dusty miller, on Flickr Got to sort the gear change arm and rod next Dusty
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Post by gazzatt2 on Dec 15, 2020 22:39:37 GMT 1
fit a LC kick-start blade to the Rd400 knuckle it will clear the brake pedal I did it on one with rask rear sets Thats a great bit of info. Just gotta find some unworn rd400 knuckles now or can yo still get them OEM? still available new £88 xs 250 is the same I do have a spare here but needs plating or chrome
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Post by dusty350 on Dec 23, 2020 21:26:14 GMT 1
Had an hour today and thought I would fit the speedo drive to the front wheel. The original one had seized solid, and no amount of fiddling would get it to work, so I bought a nos item off ebay, listed for a Gsf600, which is the same part as the Rgv item; 20201223_122316 by dusty miller, on Flickr 20201223_122306 by dusty miller, on Flickr It was cheaper than most tatty, used Rgv drives ! Midlife put me onto that so cheers Steve I fitted a new Gsf600 speedo cable too, but cut off the outer protective plastic sleeve as it makes the cable look too chunky. I also fitted the new decal to the Shambits ignition barrel; 20201223_143402 by dusty miller, on Flickr The bushes arrived from Simply Bearings for the outer case. I ordered 2 different lengths so I can see which will work best. I'm pretty sure the longest bush will be fine and offer the greatest support for the gear shaft, The shorter one of the 3 is one I bought for a previous project, and is a tad shorter than the depth of the hole in the case, so you can see how much more support the longest bush will give; 20201223_143625 by dusty miller, on Flickr I also plan on giving the side panel a rub down and a quick spray over with some grey primer; 20201223_143832 by dusty miller, on Flickr Should find some time over the Xmas break to do that Dusty
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Post by dusty350 on Jan 6, 2021 19:59:41 GMT 1
I've gone backwards a bit with this build lately. Over the Xmas period I had some time to look at some parts of the bike more closely. I felt the back end sat a little bit too low. The YSS shocks were extended as far as safely possible, but I felt the seat rails still needed to sit slightly higher. I removed the YSS shocks and fitted the old shocks I had used for the initial build of the rolling chassis, as these had more adjustment for height. I added 20mm over the YSS settings and felt it looked much better, without being too arse end up at the back. The new engineers I found are going to make an extension for each YSS shock. A threaded socket will screw onto the existing thread, and will have a threaded post on top, allowing me to lengthen the shock beyond it's standard amount; 20210103_104357 by dusty miller, on Flickr Each one will be made from a solid piece of ali bar which I can either polish or get anodised - they have put me onto an anodising firm fairly local that do all sorts of metal finishes, so that's handy to know too. Next backward step was the rearset plates. I decided to make new plates, using some 12mm plate I had in the shed. The half moon shape on the bottom edge will allow the pipes to bolt directly to the plate, so I can do away with the extension plates I made between pipes and existing plates; 20210103_144104 by dusty miller, on Flickr They will be cut on the Plasma cutter this week hopefully. I also revisited the alloy plate for the rear master cylinder. Actuating the brake lever saw some movement in the plate. It's 4mm ali, and could do with being a bit beefier, so I found some 6mm ali in the shed, and transferred the shape across and cut it out; 20210106_180858 by dusty miller, on Flickr Still a bit to do to finish it. It's half a bracket, as I intend to get it ali welded to the top of the new footrest plate when I've got that ready. Dusty
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Post by dusty350 on Jan 6, 2021 20:08:44 GMT 1
Forgot to add, I took my side casing in as well and they are going to drill and press fit the bush in for me, so hopefully that will add support to the gear shaft. Dusty
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Post by dusty350 on Jan 9, 2021 22:16:31 GMT 1
Plates back from Plasma cutting; 20210108_124911 by dusty miller, on Flickr Some careful measuring and lining up and then I could drill the necessary holes. The pipes now mount directly to the back plates. Extending the length of the shocks created more work ! A longer shock means the frame moves upwards, and as the exhausts are indirectly mounted to the frame, they would contact the swingarm, so I had to make new, wider spacers to bring the backplates away from the frame and give the exhausts more room. First time I've really used the lathe I bought from Yamark last year - should have got one before, making spacers is an easy job now ! I have enough room now, that if I wanted to extend the shocks even more I could, and still have enough pipe clearance. The new extension blocks on the shocks will allow even greater length than I need, and can be removed completely should I wish to go back to a lower ride height. I was careful to make sure both the pipes sit at the same height, and are spaced away from the bike by the same amount; 20210109_205044 by dusty miller, on Flickr Not as simple as just copying the mounting holes from the left plate to the right, and the exhaust mounting hole was very slightly different on the right plate to get the pipes looking equal. With the bike upright, they both measure 48cm from the floor to the bottom edge of the baffle exit pipe. Hopefully the shock extensions and the bushed left casing will be back later next week, and I can move forward again. Dusty
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Post by donkeychomp on Jan 9, 2021 22:37:35 GMT 1
More nifty work!
Alex
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Post by mouse on Jan 10, 2021 9:18:43 GMT 1
A little more care and attention to detail wouldn't go amiss!
Looks fantastic
Mouse
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Post by dusty350 on Jan 10, 2021 9:23:02 GMT 1
Haha, cheers mate My ocd meant quite a few hours in the shed, and it was freezing down there yesterday !
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Post by sidney81 on Jan 10, 2021 9:28:55 GMT 1
Hi dusty great work !! Why did you feel it was sitting a bit low at the rear end ? 😊
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Post by dusty350 on Jan 10, 2021 9:51:07 GMT 1
Purely aesthetics Chris. I kept looking at it and had a niggle that it was slightly low. It's a 17" wheel at the back, and not the standard 18", so maybe that created an optical issue for me !! When I fitted the seat before I jacked it up, it felt fine, but I felt it needed a touch more. I couldn't extend the Yss shocks enough, hence getting the riser blocks made so they can safely lengthen the shocks and give more adjustability. Dusty
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Post by sidney81 on Jan 10, 2021 10:15:50 GMT 1
Yep cool I know what you mean ,!I can go up more with mine but it makes it a bit to tall for me do it's not to comfey to sit on . Thats a good Idea with your rear shocks looking forward to the next update 😊
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Post by dusty350 on Jan 10, 2021 11:14:58 GMT 1
Gonna have a measure later and see if the monoshock on the Cafe bike has the same dimensions for the adjustable part. If so, I might get the engineers to make an adjuster block for that too, so I've got more options in the future. That does have an 18" rear wheel fitted though so it sits "right" I think. Dusty
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Post by dusty350 on Jan 15, 2021 16:11:01 GMT 1
I got the shock extensions back from the engineers today 20210115_134537 by dusty miller, on Flickr When I first mocked up the rolling chassis at the start of the build, I bought some aftermarket XJR400 rear shocks off ebay. These had a bigger range of length adjustment than the YSS XJR400 shocks that I bought new. I couldn't extend the Yss shocks long enough for what I wanted , so got these extensions made up. As standard, the Yss shocks can safely go to 335mm eye to eye. These extensions now put the shocks at 360mm minimum, and I can go to 370mm if I needed to; 20210115_134516 by dusty miller, on Flickr 20210115_134745 by dusty miller, on Flickr I think they look great. I had a third extension made as it will fit the YSS monoshock on my Cafe racer bike - the adjustable "eye" on the monoshock is exactly the same as on the twin shock set up. Dusty
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Post by midlifecrisisrd on Jan 15, 2021 16:15:45 GMT 1
Bugger ☹
Wish I'd known you were getting those made, I've been thinking of getting similar made
If I'd have known you could have rounded it up to 4 😁
Steve
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Post by dusty350 on Jan 15, 2021 19:53:31 GMT 1
Do you need the same length Steve ? I can take the dimensions for you. Someone with a lathe, and know how to use it could knock them up for you🙂
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