Ok, how about a post that's NOT welding?

You asked, I listened.
I get thousands of emails every day asking for more motorcycle-progress pics.
I can see how the welding stuff may be a little boring for some of you...

One of my first "real" welding projects was to build an "engine cradle." -That's what I call it anyway...

I built this so I could position the engine exactly where it needs to be in relation to the frame. The sprockets are perfectly lined up, the engine is level, and centered. The 3 bolts are to make fine adjustments. I think it may have to move toward the front wheel slightly, but from side to side, it's right on.
All you sharp-eyed viewers will notice 2 things... One, that's a HUGE counter-shaft sprocket on that thing! Yes, and it's custom. PBI made it, and it's really 18 tooth. There is a matching 42 tooth on the rear that a company called "Rebel Gears" made me. I had to go custom on the sprockets because of the rear hub/wheel combo. I'm using dirt bike wheel parts, and dirt bikes use very large rear sprockets. Plus, the fact that the rear wheel is 21 inch (!!) that plays a part also. SO, in order for me to get back in the ball park with the final drive ratio, I had to come up with a front/rear sprocket combo that would do that. The SMALLEST rear sprocket I can get is a 42 tooth. (without machining away some of the bolt shoulders in the hub... and I didn't want to do that) So in order to be somewhat close to the stock gearing, I needed an 18 tooth front. -Rebel gears again. They hooked up the PBI.

The second thing to notice in the photo is the nice, shiny silver patch on the case below the sprocket. This is what raw aluminum looks like. I'm glad to know that the brown, "gas stained" clear coat will come off with a little paint stripper and elbow grease.

So, now we're looking like this:

The drawing on the wall behind the bike is new as well... It keeps morphing into more detail, but I think I'm set on the final design/measurements. I have the "plates" that will bolt the engine to the frame tubes drawn out and those will be made out of aluminum... .375" for the rear plates and .25" for the front/top. I may have a lead on a guy here in town with a laser cutting machine, but if he doesn't work out, there's a water-jet company in Cali with no minimum charge on cutting. Hopefully I can keep it all as local as I can.

So what's next? Probably ordering my frame tube steel, and I think ol' Santy may come a little early this year... One of the little elves mentioned something about a drill press with a cross-slide vise. That would be about as close to a milling machine as I'd ever get, and a VERY nice Christmas present.
As usual, if you can hang on, I'll have more...
I promise.

Dang...

It's been almost 3 months since I last posted anything. Sorry to the faithful few who sometimes check this blog.
Much has happened though... I was able to meet with "Jim" the technical counselor from the EAA and it went really well. We pretty much just talked for the first hour. He lives on an airport like some folks live on a golf course. He can literally roll an airplane out his hangar and it's about a 50 yard trip to the runway. I couldn't believe that he actually prepared for my visit by setting up some flat 4130 sheet for me to run a horizontal bead on, and some mitered (super-thin) tubing to tack and join too. I had never worked with .020 tubing before. That was hard. But by the end of my visit, I was told that I was doing just fine... I just needed some "seat-time." -Practice... that is.
Airplane guys are just cool.

Here are some of my awesome sculptures:

This thing was pretty crazy. It started off as a couple pieces, but then I couldn't think of anything creative to do with it so I just kept adding new strips. There wasn't too much thought into this thing, it's just taken a life of it's own. I'm sure all beginning welders have this kind of stuff littering their workbenches...

This was my first attempt at brazing. I was at AutoZone and I found some $4 brazing rod. I'm sure it's junk, and all they tell you is that it's "phosphor bronze" rod. Yes, I know I over-heated it, Yes, I know it boiled, Yes, it's ugly, but see those bends? I COULD NOT break this thing. I went back and forth in the vise with a hammer, and it's still holding. I can assure you that I have gotten a little better at my brazing and heat control since this little experiment...

I bought a box of 4130 cut-offs from a company called "Aircraft Spruce." They sell a welder's kit for about $27. It came with a bunch of different diameters/wall thickness/shapes of tubing. Some of it was just cool. I LOVE aero tubing.

So, I started in on this stuff. There was a 1 inch diameter .090 wall thickness tube that I drilled .5 inch holes in. Then I inserted small lengths of .5 inch .083 wall tubes thru the big tube and welded them in... like this:

This is one of the better examples:

And for the last one, I did a little "fillet braze" joint. Bicycle builders beware...

I've probably tried every welding tip and gas pressure combination I can think of and for most of the good welds (in my .060 tubing) I've decided that my #0 tip at 5psi works the best. With the 1 or 2 tip I'm not flowing enough gas and I get torch pop. With the #0, It's kinda hissy with the gas turned up to melt the .060 steel, but I seem to have much better results. Perhaps that will change with more experience, but for now I think I may be ready to start tackling some of my actual frame.
The plan is to start with the main frame tube that goes from the back of the engine up towards the seat. Then the top tube connecting to the head, then the down tube from the head to the front of the engine.
-But, I'm not rushing this. These are the important tubes!

Thanks for looking! More to come...

The learning curve begins...

Here we are. The beginning of Summer. As you all know by now, my goal this summer is to become a proficient welder (or Weldor as some of my books say...) So, I need an office. A little place to call my own where I can concentrate, study and learn. This is what I came up with...

This little beauty was assembled from scraps of wood found in my basement. It's a 24" square desk topped with ceramic tile... and a brick. Fancy, I know. At least I can sit and brace my elbows on the edge while I figure this all out.

I went to Lowes to get some steel to practice on. I bought a piece that was .125 inches thick by 36 inches long. I've been cutting that into small pieces as needed. I'm not sure why I bought .125 though... I probably should be focusing on some thinner material, but it's what I have now, and I'll certainly ruin it... or practice, I mean.

So here are my first "welds"...

The lower bead was just that... making a puddle and running it across the steel.  That was fun, so I grabbed another piece of steel, put it next to my first piece, tacked it at both ends, then went for it! Nothing like jumping right in! Purdy ain't it? I was so proud... until I put it in my vice and bashed it about 5 times with a hammer. Broke right off. Seems I only penetrated about a third into the steel. So I tried it again, same 2 pieces, re-welded. This time I made sure I had good penetration and when I did my destructo-test, I passed. Bent the steel in half about a half inch below the weld. I win!

So now you see how cocky I am! I tried various other joints... outside corner weld... (perfect)

and a (kind-of) "T-weld" (not so perfect... lots of undercutting and very "blobby")

So, as you can see, I need lots of practice. I've read about everything I can find on "gas welding" and watched a few DVD's, but there's nothing like doing it yourself... and seeing where you're deficient. I keep going back and referencing various things like torch settings, distance and angle of the flame to the steel, how clean the material is, etc. My issue now is that I don't want to develop any bad habits. So, why don't I enroll at the local community college and take a course? Because they don't offer oxy-acetylene welding. It's all electric... stick, arc, Mig, Tig. No gas or brazing/soldering. Bummer.

I just said to Deb last night "I need to find someone to look over my shoulder to make sure I'm not doing things really wrong... kind of like an instructor."

If I were Mig-ing or Tig-ing that is real easy... Gas welding, however is another story. It's like this "romantic" way of welding. It began in the early 1900's and leather-clad men would wield torches and wear heavy gloves and goggles to fuse steel together with fire! By WWII, they came up with Tig welding which was the same but used electricity and an arc instead of fire (which sped up production on the military assembly lines) Mig took over as a "low cost" alternative and the old romantic method of welding with fire has taken a back seat.
However...
The aircraft industry STILL gas welds. Even as late as 1990 some aircraft companies were still gas welding aluminum. Some still do today. Even the EAA (experimental aircraft assoc.) officially endorses gas welding and if you go to the Osh Kosh fly in you can attend a gas welding seminar.
So, in looking for my "instructor", I went to the EAA. Turns out there's a guy in the next town who is an EAA technical counselor. His job is to make sure that every home-builder has an airplane that passes it's technical certification. So we get in touch, and he's willing to teach this dude how to gas weld!
Pretty awesome.
I'm humbled, yet giddy as a little school girl at how all this motorcycle stuff seems to be coming together.

Thanks for reading, and I'll try to keep the posts up.

I'm Rollin'!

So, I told you I'd explain about the local shop lacing my front wheel...
I'm all for supporting local businesses, but it seems for me that I always have to go elsewhere to get good service.
I gave a hub, complete set of spokes and a rim to a local shop (who will remain nameless) just to put back together. After a week, he still couldn't figure it out so I went and picked it up. Only to see all the scratches he put in my freshly painted black rim. I was mad.
So, I boxed up and sent the parts off to Buchanan's again. They charged twice what the local place charged, but at least they did it. I have to say, I'd rather have my body riding on some quality wheel-smithing rather than something a shoddy local shop put together... or didn't. It was a blessing in disguise.
Anyway, the drama is over, and now we have...

Yep, mounted to the table, exactly the wheelbase I want ready to have some frame tubes connected.
Actually the next step is to build/weld an engine cradle that will hold the engine in the correct position, bolt that to the table, then really start bending/connecting frame tubes.

I just got 3 welding tips, so that journey begins now. I'm finally finished with goal #2. Goal #3 is the welding and I'm really excited!

How 'bout 1 more...

More updates to come...

Rear wheel is HERE!

I came home to a large box on my doorstep last week! It was the completed rear wheel that was made by Buchanan's. They did a great job on it. I can see where they re-angled the spoke bores in the rim to make the spokes pull straighter instead of being slightly bowed (due to the wider rear hub they're laced to...) and they also "kinked" the spokes slightly at the hub so they would sit in the hub bores straight. All in all, I'd say I'm extremely pleased by their work.

Now... if I could only get my local guy to figure out the front wheel I'd be in business... More on that later.

In the mean time, feast.

Rear 21" rim for the GN400 Boardtracker project

Stand by...

Well, I'm at a small waiting point.

The engine works well and is on my work bench waiting to get cleaned/stripped. (there's a clear coat on the engine cases that has been stained goldish-brown by a leaky carb and old chain lube)

 The rear hub and rim have been shipped off to Buchanan's Spoke and Wheel in Azusa CA to be built.

The front wheel is being re-assembled by Hagen's Cycle here in Asheville.

Front wheel (before. the final won't have the knobby tire...)

Mmmmmm. Tasty polished spokes ready for the new wheel assembly

 The front end has been assembled and fits perfectly.

So, I'm waiting for the wheels to come back.
Once they get here, I'll be mounting everything to my work table. This will be the "base" for the whole project. I'm going to bolt the rims to the table (through the air valve holes in the rims) along a centerline so they're perfectly in-line with each other. I've designed the bike to have a 1389mm wheelbase, 24 degree rake, and 95mm trail... (not so coincidentally the same as an '06 CBR600RR) After the wheels are fixed, the forks/triples/head tube will be installed and the rest of the frame will be fabricated from there.

That's when it'll be more exciting. It will actually start looking like a motorcycle.

So that's where I am. I think this is an excellent time to bust out the welding stuff. I'm excited to start that "learning curve." This blog may turn into a "look at this awesome weld!" blog for a while, but please stay tuned... I promise to get back to the bike.

Speaking of the bike, wanna see my favorite part so far? It's the fork caps. It's a combination of large stainless steel washers with small brass washers in between. Plus the spiked acorn nut on top. Probably nothing to you, but it's my favorite part so far. It started it's life 21 years ago as a Yamaha YZ250 fork cap that had a large hex head (for removal) and in the center was a brass needle valve assembly for adjusting the rebound dampening. Don't you just love lathes?

See ya!

Goal Number 1 met

My goal for the first summer (2010) was to get the engine running reliably. When I bought the bike, it "ran" but if you tried to ride it, it was a handful. It would cough, sputter, die right off idle, then the RPM's would surge once past half throttle... Needless to say, there were multiple things going wrong. So, I stripped off most of the "unbolt-ables" and was left with this.

I worked on the bike in this condition until the engine was behaving. I actually like the bike MORE stripped down like this than how it comes stock. The stock bike looks like every other early '80s motorcycle. Tall, top-heavy, and ugly. It could be anything... Suzuki, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda, etc. They were all the same back then (to me).

I remember the day that everything clicked. I had cleaned the carb about a hundred times, rejetted it due to my little pod filter (instead of an airbox) re-built the top end, new gaskets, cleaned years of carbon and crud out of the exhaust port, and replaced every little rubber o-ring and seal.

Kick #1... nuthin.
Kick #2... sputter, sputter, rummmmmmmmble... POP!
Kick #3... VRROOOOM!  putter putter putter putter...   like a kitten.

Success! So what do I do? Quick grab the seat while it's idling (perfectly, mind you) bolt it one, and point it towards the street. Here we go!

I probably only rode around for a couple minutes, but it felt so GOOD! I shut it off, went inside to tell Debbie (my wife) then went back outside to see if it would do it again.

It did, and it's been a 1-2 kick bike ever since.

 So now, the engine sits on my work bench and it's starting to get a bath. Years of chain lube, leaky gaskets and dripping gas has discolored the clear coat on the engine cases. I plan on taking it down to bare aluminum and leaving it. I just want it to be silver... not dirty brown.

The stripped-down bike is no more. I have the 2 pieces I needed to build my project bike... and that was the engine, and the head tube of the frame. See, the head tube has the serial number stamped into it. That tube, along with the bikes title is worth it's weight in gold. Now I can begin bending and welding steel to the head tube to fabricate the rest of the frame.

Blurry pic of where the head tube used to be...

The start of the new frame

Goal #1 = met.