Managed to get some garage time in during the Xmas period, not a lot, but anything is progress? Seemed to spend most of my time trawling the internet, ebay, breakers yards etc looking for bits I need, buying bits I think I need then selling the same bits I wont need !!!
Have been concentrating on the front end, trying to decide on what I want to do. I originally decided and bought a set of Aprilia forks, but then had a change of plan and decided to use some GSXR 600 forks with radial calipers as they came up at the right price, might be easier to fit into the headstock and bit less of a headache. Always liked the look of a radial front end with spoked wheels, but they tend to use custom hubs which can get a bit £££'s
Anyway few visits to the local breakers secured some wheels I thought I could use.............At one point I think I had more wheels than him. Fast forward a few weeks and I spot a set of discs which I like the look of, from a Ducati something.....they will look nice as well.
Cut a long story short I'm now back on the Aprilia forks, with the Ducati discs and some calipers I've used before, which are common on many Honda's. Bit of jiggery pokery with some spacers for the calipers and all should be fine. So I made a start cutting stuff and machining some bits.
Plan is to remove the rim from the rear original DR800 wheel and use that on the front. Then re-lace the the hub from one of the scrap wheels into that rim. Use the DR800 rear hub, and the new wider rim I've picked up......following me
During my quest to find a hub, I managed to locate a wheel off some random Japanese bike that had the right PCD for the disc along with correct register bore, but unfortunaetly the spoke count was wrong. The various wheels I tried had some key missing qualities I was looking for, so I eventually plumped for the "Japanese" wheel which looked meaty enough and could be modified to to the discs I want to use.
Some of the wheels in the breakers are so old, the model labels have long since dropped off, and trying to find a rare XS650 hub was like trying to find a needle in stack of haystacks. The XS650 hubs are commonly used for spoked front conversions, but since the invention of the phrase "barn find" they now sell for the same price as a small family hatchback.
Need to modify the discs by elongating the mounting holes a mm, to pick up the PCD off the, I think Suzuki GT hub???............Didn't want to re-drill 6 more holes in the hub or disc, and I also have to make spacers to register the discs for concentricty on the hub.
I've changed the hub bearings so I can upgrade from the puny 14mm shaft to a more substantial 20mm one I had lying around off a previous project. Its the old rear spindle off the Yam TR1 I built last year.
Knocked up a spacer for the hub and just found some old bearings to use just for mock-up.
The breakers I use is a bit old school and slightly disorganised, but he's good in the fact that he'll let you have a mooch around..........at your own risk Some of the areas are knee deep in parts and its like a walking on a boneyard of bike bits and ankle breaking stuff.
I was throwing the tank on and off for some ideas a few weeks back and noticed something in the tank..................anyone lost a sock??
Cut the old wheel spindle down, dusted off my Zeus book and cut some threads on it ready to take the alloy hub nuts I've machined. I've tried to keep the theme going with the Aprilia yoke clamp nut.
That's it for the time being, just back to trawling the web, and ebay for bits. I'm waiting on a new set of yokes as the ones I've got don't fit the forks I've got !!!...............This is going to be another headache as the spindle is nowhere near long enough so I'll have to make my one I think? In the meantime a few more random pics of the other bits I've dug out from the breakers....some nice original Tarozzi rearsets off an old Yamaha RD350..........they'll be going on....unless I change my mind
Looks amazing how do those hub nuts fit the spindle? I see the spindle hanging out the other side of the forks on one of the last pics? Are they internally threaded?
Looks amazing how do those hub nuts fit the spindle? I see the spindle hanging out the other side of the forks on one of the last pics? Are they internally threaded?
Great work Chris, i love big thumper singles. Its a pity i didn't see this project earlier,i had an xs front hub gathering dust on a shelf and sold it for very little.
The XV 1000 TR1 you did before was fantastic!
The Brembo bolt pattern and centre bore on those discs is the same as many Yamahas pre 2004 ish.
I managed to pick up one of those rocking horse poo XS 650 twin disc front hubs for my cafe after about a year of searching, it's the same disc fitment as most Italian bikes.
Are you needing to space the discs out a bit? I'd like see how you do it, I've seen disc spacers online but they don't have the register as you mentioned above for the hub and disc to mate probably they're just a flat spacer, I can't see how just the bolts can hold the disc in place correctly??
I've made a set with an internal and external lip to centre the discs I hope it works.
I'm not an engineer by any means!
The bolts aren't even a close fit on the original wheels or discs with plenty of slop but the original wheel does have an edge to register the disc too so I just tried to copy that....
I'll try and post a pic of what I've made later, maybe some advice will help me out.
Chris always a pleasure to read you posts mate. In fact I've just started re reading the old one.
Great work Chris, i love big thumper singles. Its a pity i didn't see this project earlier,i had an xs front hub gathering dust on a shelf and sold it for very little.
There were a few wheels I could have used, some had the same PCD and register bore, but the spoke count was different to the rim. Some were off lightweight bikes and looked a bit weedy.....I had a CB hub which was perfect, but again the spoke count was different from the rim off the rear wheel. I'd bought a decent Takasago rear rim to swap over and didn't want to shout for a new one with the 40spoke needed. Needed to take into account the clearance of the spokes as they leave the hub also, a factor which went against me using the radial setup. I did lots of research and as you've said some Yam discs would have fitted...........but I've always liked those Ducati discs on spoked wheels as they have a slightly retro look about them......
Yokes arrived today, so I'll post some pics of the other spacers and disc mounts when they are done.