Taps & Switches

I got some new Ruko cutters which means its time to cut some holes. First off was test fit the pet cock that I have, its from a Yamaha XS650, but the main thing is it fits the tank.

It looks massive but it will do the job, only thing I will need to do is convert it from vacuum to manual, thats in the future tho.

Time to cut some holes, I wanted to fit the starter button and the ignition under the seat, I cut the hole and mounted the starter button first.

It's in an easy access point and near all the electrics.
Next was to mount the ignition switch.

All I have to do now is wire them up. Yeah cos it's that easy isn't it.

Are we sitting comfortably?

So I had a day off work on friday as we had to have a new boiler fitted, so I took the opportunity to be in the shed.

1st order of business was to reshape the rearset mounts.

Next was the under tray, I'd already purchased a piece of metal, 450mm x 170mm x 3mm, made a card template and cut the metal to shape.
I wanted it to follow the curve of the hoop so I heated the metal up to aid bending.

The other end was heated to enable the fold.

All thats needed now is a nice run of weld all round.

Next was to sort out the mounting of all the electrics, obviously the key is to hide as much as possible.

I mounted the fuse box and the starter solenoid, the grey box is the battery template. 

Next I mounted the reg/rec, but under the tray so as to allow maximum airflow

I then realised that the CDI needed to be mounted, so this is at the back under the battery, I will make a bracket that holds the battery just off the CDI

I will sort the cable mounting out when the engine is in and I can work out what needs to go where.

Everything fits under the hump.

still lots to do, next job its to look at the wiring loom and see if it's all complete and work out what I need and what I don't.

A little update.

Needless to say I have been busy, finding the time to get stuff done is a tad difficult, life gets in the way of fun.

I started to thing about rear sets, as I am not using the original Honda ones it was time to look for something cooler.

I can use one of the original mounts but as you can see there's nothing about to mount to so…

Brackets have been fabricated from 5mm steel, I drilled the hole and tapped it then welded a nut to the back.

Tacked in place for now, the will be fully welded later.

Just need to shape them so as they aren't so square.

Upgraded the air compressor too, no more waiting for the tank to fill. Aldi bargain.

Next on the list is to sort the "under tray" out for the seat so i have somewhere to mount all the electrics.

Shocking…

It's been some time, I've had the frame on the bench for a while sorting out the seat hoop and getting the tank mounted whilst I've been tinkering I have been pondering the shock mounts, I'd mocked some up but wash't happy, spent some time on the net looking for inspiration and finally had some.

So after some card mock ups I made these.

So the next step was to fit them, I realised that in order to mount them and get the positioning right I had to swap everything over from the old frame to the new one, I fitted the new shock to the swing arm and worked out the position of the mount.

After some tacking in place, I finally had the mounts where they needed to be.

Once the shocks were in place I then needed to adjust the seat hoop and the tank mounts to get them in the right alignment.

So thats how it will look, I cut the top yoke to remove parts that I don't need, this now needs shaping and smoothing. I need to sort out the position of the key and starter button and work out where to run the wiring.

I still need to weld all the parts that I've tack welded properly.

The engine is now on the bench and I can start to look at that and see what state its in, I took the rocker cover off and I have tappets, I'll get into it properly and work out the condition, I need to get it running but do I do it on the bench or put it in the bike?

Theres still lots to do but I'm getting there slowly.

Slowly Slowly Catchy Monkey…

After having the trouble of trying to find out the reg of the original bike, I managed to obtain a frame with an existing V5 via a gentleman of the Honda Superdream Forum, I took a trip up to Brigg and shoved it in the back of the car.

Once home I set about with the grinder, from this…

To this…

After removing the original seat parts and smoothing off all the bits I don't need on the frame it was time to think about the new seat frame.

First off was to get the frame on the bench and at the same angle that it is on the bike, this took a bit of time and a lot of measuring but it ended up looking fine.

I then needed to get everything level and ready for welding

I'm now happy with the alignment, time to start welding

Now that its tacked in place I can start the support struts, once in place I can finish the welds and clean it all up, then it time to sort out the tank mounts. The seat unit will need a trim to sit right but thats another blog another time.

Cutting & Grinding

I bit the bullet and got the angle grinder out, chopped the lugs off the tank so it fitted over the frame better, turns out after removing the lugs I now don't have to chop the rear frame so much.

I moved the shock mount down but I may make some new mounts for these later on when I have finished the rear frame, from the picture above i think it all need to tip up at the front a bit and down at the rear, the line along the tank and seat are right.

I placed a riser piece under the seat just top get the height but i'll make a new subframe for it.

I could remodel the shock mount here but to keep it clean I may cut it all off and re weld new ones on.

Metal for the new subframe, just needs a bit of a weld.

Once I've welded the new seat frame in place I can then start on the rest.

More to come, onwards and upwards.