Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...More handebar pics 10/28
 

ill give you mspaint, simplified, but still enough to get the point across.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...l3x/blocks.jpg

i think you get what im saying

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...More handebar pics 10/28
 

OK, I gotcha now. Yeah that would work pretty well.

I'm going to simplify it a bit, and weld little triangular pieces on both ends of the tabs, to keep it from flexing.

Attachment 23022

Also, I tabulated some of the costs of this project so far:

Total spent on the bike so far: $1240.00

Total for new tooling (including bender) $565.00

Wooden table: $40.00 :P

and what I still have to purchase for the bike, with $200 thrown in there for misc stuff I'm not thinking of: $1950.00

That would bring the grand total of this bike to: $3,190.00 Not too bad if it turns out as well as I'm hoping it will.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...More handebar pics 10/28
 

Not really any new news on the bike just yet but........

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!! :D

I'm not going to lie, I was definitely wanting a boy, but still, you can't beat having a child. Ultrasound shows she's perfectly healthy right now, so that's awesome. Now I just have to wait another 4 months till she pops out! >:(

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...More handebar pics 10/28
 

Bike looks tits, congrats on the new baby.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Having a daughter!!!
 

Heh, your wife and my cousin are going to have their kids around the same time. Congrats bro, they're getting a girl too

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Having a daughter!!!
 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...h-redlight.jpg

not everything turns out as planned

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Having a daughter!!!
 

Worked a little more on the bike today. To this point the frame had just been tacked together. I welded it up solid today, and in the process I realize my TIG welding skills are sorely lacking in beauty. :) They're nice n' strong, but not as nice as I was hoping they would turn out. I had been debating using filler to mold the welded areas or just leave the bare welds to powdercoat over, I think this just made the decision for me. ::)

I also built and welded up the seat pedestal, this will have a square plate welded to it, with four holes, and the seat pan will have four holes in it, with nuts welded to the backside, so it will bolt right up.

Not a whole lot of looks progress, but stuff that needed to be done

Attachment 22948
Attachment 22949
Attachment 22950
Attachment 22951

thanks for looking!
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...New pics 11/3
 

lets see your welds!

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...New pics 11/3
 

I'm too embarrassed to post a close up....

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...New pics 11/3
 

Hahaah I know what you mean I suck it welding tig to.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...New pics 11/3
 

OK, so I should've had an update for you last weekend, but I really wasn't happy with the work that I did, so I took it apart again and worked on it more tonight. I'm much happier with how it looks now.

Mainly I worked on getting the swingarm mocked into place.

I've also decided to change my mounting point for the air cylinders. Initially they were going to be mounted with a bracket coming off of the backbone. But now I see that won't work with the way the forces are pushing while riding.
While it is by no means perfected, I'm now going to weld up a support bar going between the two upper bars that the cylinders will attach to.

I'm not going to lie and say this is all going to work out perfectly, but I'm having a great time building it and seeing what can and can't work, hey, you never know until you try right? :)

Attachment 22839
Attachment 22840
Attachment 22841

Somewhat close to riding position- this should be enough ground clearance for a cruiser. I guess I'll find out.

Attachment 22842
Attachment 22843
Attachment 22844

thanks guys, I appreciate you taking the time to check this out!
Sky

By the way, I consider it a minor miracle that no one on here commented about the shape of the seat pedestal. :S

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

its only cause you build nice ----. if you sucked at all we would.

have you checked into the laws of building your own bike. i think the state needs to inspect the frame and stuff. i have neveer done it but i looked into it once

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

I know all of jack ---- about bikes, but isn't the frame *TOO* low?

Nice work BTW ;)

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

what are you going to do about a chain tensioner?

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

that's the beauty of doing this the way I am. Because I'm using a Yamaha frame that already has a VIN, technically, the bike will be registered as a '78 Yamaha XS650- plus, Oregon DMV laws are pretty lax, they don't even want to inspect it, all they want is their money for registration and I'm good. O0


I have an idea what I want to do, but it depends entirely on where I end up placing the jackshaft. Once I get that far I'll fine tune it.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

How far can you lean the bike over before those frame rails (foot pegs? :l ) hit the ground?

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

So there's been plenty of people concerned about ground clearance on this bike. So I decided to take a couple of pictures at about the final riding height and took some leaning pictures.

It looks like it's going to be just fine to me.
This thing certainly is not giong to be a corner carver, and that's fine with me. this thing could be scary to ride :)
But it shouldn't drag if I'm smart. (riiiiiiiight)

Attachment 22792

and this last pic I happen to really like:

Attachment 22793

thanks for looking
Sky

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

You realize that at that ride height/ground clearance, you'll have the turning radius of a semi truck.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

The riding length of this bike is 7' 8"- so a poor turning radius was bound to happen

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

On a motorcycle, your maneuverabilty is your best safety feature. Once you get it to a rolling chassis, you should take it outside and see exactly how tight it can turn. My guess is that it's gonna be a pain in the dick to park/make slow maneuvers. Also, what happens if you're doing 65 mph and your airbag loses pressure? :l

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

Well I've been riding on the street for over five years now, so I'm pretty sure I can handle it.

I am going to take it out and test the turning radius, although, you have to understand what this bike was made for. It was made simply for afternoon and weekend rides, usually short jaunts around town, and for local shows.

as far as the air suspension goes, I'm going to install and manual safety lock that will have to be disabled for the bike to drop down. my skin meeting pavement at 55mph is not a scene I like to contemplate :)

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

i completely forgot about the yamaha front end. i have gone over this problem in my head a few times while looking through this thread and i alwayd figured out the yamaha fram section, but i wasnt thinking when i posted that

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

you need to raise that more. have fun fighting the bars at highway

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Swingarm pics 11/8
 

So I got my tank today!

I'm in love with the way this thing is turning out right now. Now I can begin to build the exocage for the tank.

Here's a few pics:

Attachment 22752
Attachment 22753
Attachment 22754

And my two favorites:

Attachment 22755
Attachment 22756

Hooray! :)

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tank pics 11/15
 

Good work, I predict this will be the instrument that carries you to Jehovah.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tank pics 11/15
 

Haha- you and my wife feel the same way :D

As for myself, I will reserve judgement until I ride it for the first time. If I deem it to be too dangerous I'll sell it off to someone who'll just stick it in their garage.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tank pics 11/15
 

Tiny update, Got the bars on the swingarm notched and tacked into place, also welded on my footpegs.....yep that's right, welded on. They're perfect, and I'm really happy with their placement.

pics:
Attachment 22456
Evil eyes in this pic
Attachment 22457
Attachment 22458

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

you might wanna brace those footpegs a little more? im not sure how youre doing brake/shifter on this though

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

Nah, they aren't fully welded just yet, but once they are, they'll be rock solid.

I'm not running a rear brake on this bike, so besides capping the end of the peg, there won't be anything else done to the right side peg. The left peg will have a bracket coming off of it to form a pivot point for the shifter arm. I'll whip up an MS paint later to show what I mean.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

dont you need f&r brakes for inspection?

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

Tis the beauty of this build :)

Because I'm using the front half of the frame of the Yamaha, complete with VIN, it will be titled and registered as an XS650. I talked with the DMV about it, and because Oregon is awesome, they don't need to inspect it. As long as they get their registration fees, they don't give a crap.

Now for the flip side of that. I don't want to run turn signals or a front fender or a rear brake. Oregon law states that whatever came with the bike as it was originally registered has to be on it. In my case, that means all that crap I don't want, wheras if I had made the frame from scratch and got a MSO from a local supplier, I could leave that stuff off legally, because it would be titled as an '08 bike. However, the seven different cops I talked with had no clue what the actual law was, they kept referring me to the code book. So I'm going to take my chances riding it around.

Chances are, if I do get pulled over it'll be because they want to take a look at the bike.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

I think you should ditch the air bag system and just go hard tail for the sake of the lines ;)

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

i would throw a sport bike shock on it and call it a day

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

"and that is why no one will remember your name"

E-cookie to anyone who can tell me who said that line, and what movie it's from.

I'm treating myself to a Witness Christmas :P just ordered a bunch of stuff for the bike, should be trickling in for a couple weeks. I'll post up the stuff as it comes in.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

Its from troy, i know who said it but i can't put a name to the face.

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

I'm impressed- it was the main character, Brad Pitt, right before he killed that 7' dude

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

I knew it was brad pitt, but for some reason i could only see his face in my head and no name.. lol

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

the most deserving sticky in the fab section

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

Thanks man, that means a lot to me.

I was thinking tonight that I haven't gotten the bike down on the real floor to see just how low it is, and I must say, I'm very happy- this bike is loooooow :)

Nothing you haven't seen, but it looks good on the floor:
Attachment 22229

For reference in this picture, I'm 6' 1"
Attachment 22230

Attachment 22231

You know you love my sweater :P

Re: Not FI but thought you might like my bike buildup...Tiny update 11/23
 

Looks great man... Im curious if youve thought about boxing the rear swing arm from the pivot brackets to the axle housings.... Itd look way clean........


Lovin it so far!