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Well today has turned out to be a good day mostly. The big brown truck showed up and dropped off my frame, GSXR parts, and headlight. Bonus was the frame had some parts on it that I needed and didn't realize when I placed my Bike Bandit order. The not so good news was when I unpacked the GSXR parts. As soon as I unwrapped the swingarm I realized my original plan was not going to work. A quick spark test confirmed that this swingarm was aluminum. For some stupid reason I didn't think about metal compatibility. I had originally planned to chop the rear off the GSXR swing and weld it to my Katana's. Then widen it to fit a 180 tire.
It was 2:30 then and my local machine shop closed at 3 today. So, I threw both swingarms in the truck and headed up there. My next idea was to butt weld some new rectangular tubing to my Kat arm and put new slots in about 2" closer to the rear. Strike 2. Kat arm uses metric tube and nobody anywhere close, stocks it. Only option would be to use standard tubing that would either overlap or slide in the Kat arm. That would make a very strong joint with almost no chance of failure, but would look like complete a** in my opinion. I don't like doing work that looks cobbled together and unplanned.
Wile I'm standing there looking at both swingarms, another idea hits me. Very simular to the first plan, just modified slightly. What I am thinking is to have the machine shop mill some new ends out of cold rolled steel plate that would mimic the design of the GSXR's swing exactly. But it would be 4" longer allowing that extra 4" to slide into the ends of my Kat arm. I would have enough steel inside the arm to use the original slots as a weld point to secure the new ends ( kinda like a plug weld ). And it would have tight enough tolerances that the whole assembly would act as 1 part instead of 2 welded together. I asked for a quote and was supprised to hear $150.00 and it could be done within 1 day.
I would like to hear your input (especially you Kreylyn ) as to how well it would work or what improvements you would do. I won't make any final decisions till monday morning when the machine shop opens. I know that the part I'm talking about can be had aftermarket but I only know of aluminum ones with a price tag of about $300.00. If anybody knows of someone that makes steel ones, please let me know who?
Here is 2 more pictures. First is some of todays parts. A 5 3/4" side mount headlight, new frame, swingarms, and also a 44 tooth sprocket. GSXR rim has a 47 tooth on it right now. Second picture is a quick placement of my new rim behind the bike. Thats not it's final placement, just wanted to see how the wider tire looked.
It was 2:30 then and my local machine shop closed at 3 today. So, I threw both swingarms in the truck and headed up there. My next idea was to butt weld some new rectangular tubing to my Kat arm and put new slots in about 2" closer to the rear. Strike 2. Kat arm uses metric tube and nobody anywhere close, stocks it. Only option would be to use standard tubing that would either overlap or slide in the Kat arm. That would make a very strong joint with almost no chance of failure, but would look like complete a** in my opinion. I don't like doing work that looks cobbled together and unplanned.
Wile I'm standing there looking at both swingarms, another idea hits me. Very simular to the first plan, just modified slightly. What I am thinking is to have the machine shop mill some new ends out of cold rolled steel plate that would mimic the design of the GSXR's swing exactly. But it would be 4" longer allowing that extra 4" to slide into the ends of my Kat arm. I would have enough steel inside the arm to use the original slots as a weld point to secure the new ends ( kinda like a plug weld ). And it would have tight enough tolerances that the whole assembly would act as 1 part instead of 2 welded together. I asked for a quote and was supprised to hear $150.00 and it could be done within 1 day.
I would like to hear your input (especially you Kreylyn ) as to how well it would work or what improvements you would do. I won't make any final decisions till monday morning when the machine shop opens. I know that the part I'm talking about can be had aftermarket but I only know of aluminum ones with a price tag of about $300.00. If anybody knows of someone that makes steel ones, please let me know who?
Here is 2 more pictures. First is some of todays parts. A 5 3/4" side mount headlight, new frame, swingarms, and also a 44 tooth sprocket. GSXR rim has a 47 tooth on it right now. Second picture is a quick placement of my new rim behind the bike. Thats not it's final placement, just wanted to see how the wider tire looked.
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