So spoiler alert this is finished but I thought it would be interesting sharing a build story.
To recap, this is how I bought the bike little worse for wear but ran good it had sat for sometime and just needed a bit of fuel and a push start to get it going. Just looking at the date stamp on the photo’s 2014 how time flies
Rode it for a season then decided to do a swing arm swap. There’s some more info coming later but here is a picture thread which is pretty self-explanatory.
Feel free to ask any questions
Anyhow I was pretty happy with the bike, I had rebuilt it to a nice level was looking pretty ok
The only thing I thought I would get done better is replace the exhaust. I had thrown this together using the Pre headers and the back half of a RF 900 pipe with a few extra bends thrown in.
It worked surprisingly well but was a little rough (my welding was not that great) and was only meant as a placeholder till I had some money to get it rebuilt in stainless.
Unfortunately, care of some well placed gravel on a twisty road it didn’t last. At least it was a relatively slow speed accident but curtesy of sliding down an embankment a couple of metres (yards) and a post taking out bit of the tail section plastics not good.
I got it back on the road for the rest of the season rebuilt the carbs and was going great.
Just…
I couldn’t bear the thought of redoing what I had just done so a plan was in the making.
Along with completely strip the entire bike down to bare frame, do all the bearings and bits, do a little tail chopping
I had a niggle the gearbox was playing up, don’t know if it was just me or whatever but rebuild the motor check all those selector forks thrust washers check second gear maybe even replace it with an undercut one all those sort of things.
Do a few wiring mod’s along the way.
This was just going to be a bit of a cheap-ass build / rattle can paint job and create or manufacture as much as I could etc etc.
First part done
Frame stripped
Putting the bike up on the paddock stands, which is going to be a repeatable height I built the trolley up to bolt onto the front and side engine mounting bolts. Then piece by piece can take off all the bits while still being able to push it around the garage. Once everything is off easy just to lift the frame off the motor and I can work on the motor (a bit) on the trolley until at least I need to turn it over.
At one stage I had the whole bike on the trolley, less wheels, pushed it outside just to wash it all down
Onto some fab work - start the tail mod
So I wanted to eliminate the shovel while I kept the little pocket and some serviceability with the subframe should remain helmet holders, luggage strap fixing points etc etc some of the plastics were broken so an idea was born.
As you can see I cut the back part of the subframe off and welded it up again.
Now some may find this strange but I actually love the look of this frame. So what better then the best way to make something even betterer is to make it stand out, make it a feature.
At this stage the idea is to go naked. From the initial rebuild I had a bit of the rh side fair top half left and had toyed around with a bikini fairing option. I do like the screen for wind water protection so that's where the idea is going.
Time to give it a look over, I took to it with an angle grinder and remove all the tabs I don’t think I’ll need anymore.
I was quite surprised there wasn’t any real rust on the frame just a little surface roughness around the big flat steering head gusset. Bit of sanding here and there some rust preventer undercoat and half a rattle can spray job later.
The completed frame ready for everything to go back on.
To recap, this is how I bought the bike little worse for wear but ran good it had sat for sometime and just needed a bit of fuel and a push start to get it going. Just looking at the date stamp on the photo’s 2014 how time flies
Rode it for a season then decided to do a swing arm swap. There’s some more info coming later but here is a picture thread which is pretty self-explanatory.
Feel free to ask any questions
Anyhow I was pretty happy with the bike, I had rebuilt it to a nice level was looking pretty ok
The only thing I thought I would get done better is replace the exhaust. I had thrown this together using the Pre headers and the back half of a RF 900 pipe with a few extra bends thrown in.
It worked surprisingly well but was a little rough (my welding was not that great) and was only meant as a placeholder till I had some money to get it rebuilt in stainless.
Unfortunately, care of some well placed gravel on a twisty road it didn’t last. At least it was a relatively slow speed accident but curtesy of sliding down an embankment a couple of metres (yards) and a post taking out bit of the tail section plastics not good.
I got it back on the road for the rest of the season rebuilt the carbs and was going great.
Just…
I couldn’t bear the thought of redoing what I had just done so a plan was in the making.
Along with completely strip the entire bike down to bare frame, do all the bearings and bits, do a little tail chopping
I had a niggle the gearbox was playing up, don’t know if it was just me or whatever but rebuild the motor check all those selector forks thrust washers check second gear maybe even replace it with an undercut one all those sort of things.
Do a few wiring mod’s along the way.
This was just going to be a bit of a cheap-ass build / rattle can paint job and create or manufacture as much as I could etc etc.
First part done
Frame stripped
Putting the bike up on the paddock stands, which is going to be a repeatable height I built the trolley up to bolt onto the front and side engine mounting bolts. Then piece by piece can take off all the bits while still being able to push it around the garage. Once everything is off easy just to lift the frame off the motor and I can work on the motor (a bit) on the trolley until at least I need to turn it over.
At one stage I had the whole bike on the trolley, less wheels, pushed it outside just to wash it all down
Onto some fab work - start the tail mod
So I wanted to eliminate the shovel while I kept the little pocket and some serviceability with the subframe should remain helmet holders, luggage strap fixing points etc etc some of the plastics were broken so an idea was born.
As you can see I cut the back part of the subframe off and welded it up again.
Now some may find this strange but I actually love the look of this frame. So what better then the best way to make something even betterer is to make it stand out, make it a feature.
At this stage the idea is to go naked. From the initial rebuild I had a bit of the rh side fair top half left and had toyed around with a bikini fairing option. I do like the screen for wind water protection so that's where the idea is going.
Time to give it a look over, I took to it with an angle grinder and remove all the tabs I don’t think I’ll need anymore.
I was quite surprised there wasn’t any real rust on the frame just a little surface roughness around the big flat steering head gusset. Bit of sanding here and there some rust preventer undercoat and half a rattle can spray job later.
The completed frame ready for everything to go back on.
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