"Getting around" to it jobs

[gammaguy21]

Since I has a few days where I didn't have to think too hard the next morning, I figured that I would get some late night work done on the bikes. Finally get around to jobs I've been putting off.

Sorry for the bad camera phone pics, but it's what I have handy most of the time.

The mock up bike needs a front end so that I can get to the other bikes...



The stem on the rgv250 tripples are too short to work, so I tried a set from the Arpilia rs250 and they fit!
The mix match of bearings even seem to work.
The top tripple works great with the rgv forks, however the bottom tripples don't fit at all!
There is a gap between the forks and the tripples. So here's what I did.
Warning: backyard bodgery at it's best!

The raw tube


Cutting it down to size


My lathe chuck is too small to hold the tube on the outside, so the tube is held from the inside.
Needed to make this little tool with a bearing to make the tube run true.
Seems I spend more time trying to make stuff to adapt stuff.


Turning the outer diameter




Boring the inner diameter


Putting in a relief so that the sleeve will pinch the forks.
Should have done this with a slitting saw, but it's pretty late.


Ta da! Sitting in the bottom tripples




And here they are with the forks mounted :


With the rg500 front wheel


Looks beefier than the original rg250 forks, but still true to the gp250 look I'm hoping for.



Finnish can be alot better, but it's a start.

[Freestyle72]

AWESOME...


MOOOOOOOOOAR pics

[Rotten_Ronnie]

[frekeyguy]

Front end swaps are one of the most easily 'big' improvements you can do to a older bike.

If you know the dimension of parts you can mix/match OEM parts and have OEM fit/finish.

[gammaguy21]

Front end swaps are one of the most easily 'big' improvements you can do to a older bike.

If you know the dimension of parts you can mix/match OEM parts and have OEM fit/finish.

The stock front end is suprisingly good, I'm hoping that once spring rolls around I'll really be able to test the updated front end. Hopefully it will be an improvement.

The initial plan was to press the steering stem out of the old rg250 front end and press it into the rgv250 tripples. Plan changed when I figured that I may be able to use the rgv250 tripples in another project. Was pure luck that the Aprilia tripples and stem was a match. Boy did I get lucky that time. I usually spend hours trying to research parts compatability and/or see how other people adapt parts.

This is an earlier job, but thought that I'd throw it up as well.
I wanted to make the riding position a bit more aggressive as well as try the look of different rearsets. The ideal is to have a temporary rearset adaptor plate that will let me use the stock rearset in a more aggressive position at (1 inch up and 1 inch back) as well a other rearsets that I have lying around. Once I figure out which ones I want to use... make a permanent adaptor plate.

From extruded aluminum (cheaper than plate) :


Fisrt set of cuts and holes for basic fitting.


Putting some holes in and roughing out a better shape than just a triangle


In basic form (yup... still with the bad camera phone pics)


with RC51 rearsets


and with tzr250 rearsets


Jury is still out... but at least I can use the stock rearsets in a different riding position.

[gammaguy21]

bugger....







Swingarm bearing + heat + bearing puller =


Clumsy ninja strikes again.
I managed to botch this job before Christmas. The Aprilia swingarm had a few issues, so when a rgv swingarm came up locally, I snapped it up. I'll use the Aprilia swingarm on another project. The rgv swingarm still needs to have the width of the pivot point reduced so I needed to remove the bearings first. I manged to mangle the bearing and pull most of it out, but it left the outer cage. The outer cage of the needle bearing was stuck much like a race.
So after some research, seems I could use a dremel tool to try to cut a notch in the outer cage and then try to split the cage and pull it out. Hmmm, I'm pretty clumsy and not much room to work with like a head race, so...

Made this based on a blind bearing puller from some mystery Home Depot steel


Took a while to get it to fit exactly... but once the tool is in the swingarm, the allen screw screws in the bottom, splitting the top section so that it can hook the top part of the cage but not damage the inside of the swingarm


Once the tool was in place, decided to try the press instead of a BFH


K-CHOW! Worked like a charm.


Turned this from the Home Depot mystery metal for the other side


Back in the press


Now I need to figure something out to reduce the swingarm pivot area. Could pull out the angle grinder and a cut off wheel...

[gammaguy21]

Had a bit of time to think about it... got some aluminum plate and started making a tooling plate.

Wasn't really looking forward to tapping all the mounting holes, but then found this.

That worked like a charm and quick too!

So here's what the dry run looks like


Now I have to get the stock swingarm out of storage to get exact measurements.

[TheDirty]

I need to get a divorce and sell some children for more tools.

[AGAVE]

Awesome, i can always appreciate another skilled individual.

You even have more tools than i do.

[cola_fiend2003]

Nice craftmanship. Looking at the title, I just hadda post this pic.

[gammaguy21]

Thanks for the encouragement guys.

Nice craftmanship. Looking at the title, I just hadda post this pic.

That's perfect! Pretty much the basic ideal of this thread. Just need to get myself in gear and do the jobs that need to get done.

Most of my tools are cheap Princess Auto or Canadian Tire stuff that I got on sale. Both the mill and lathe I got for cheap at PA. I think they though they were going to stop carying the stuff so it went at bargain prices. I couldn't get used stuff cheaper!
Before these, I was pretty handy with an angle grinder and a file.

[Freestyle72]

How do you find the lathe and mill? are they the typical 7X10?

[gammaguy21]

How do you find the lathe and mill? are they the typical 7X10?

Hey Freestyle72, the lathe is a 7X12 and the mill is a Seige X2 I believe.
Both are great for what I'm doing, but with some work / modifications they could be even better. Fitting digital calipers helps with the backlash and to produce better tolerances.
They are small enough to fit in my workshop and I can carry them on my own. Both big plus in my books.
My only real comparison is when I took a local college intro machine course. There were some serious machinery there.
I'm more than happy with them. In fact, was pretty happy with just the lathe, but the mill came up for stoopid cheap. I'm sure that other more experienced machinest wouldn't touch these with a 10 foot pole, but I'm just starting out and having fun learning.

Here's a pic of my lathe with my small milling attachment



I wish I had a pic of my rotary table mounted on the mill attachment and then had my vice on it! The milling attachment is good for only light cuts, but did the job.

[gammaguy21]

Ok... next job. Breach the "wall of chambers" to get to the stock rg swingarm way in the back.
Man, and there's more of these in the shed!


Finally, now able to get some measurements on the rg swingarm so that I can reduce the pivot area on the donor swingarm.


Swingarm locked down, now to clock it so that I have it parallel in the z (up/down) and y (front/back) axis.


Finally, milling down the pivot area 1/4 inch on each side


Milling the other side. Repeat... turn swingarm over, lock the swingarm down, clock it and start cutting away.


Done. Have to put the dust caps back on and see how she fits. Another night.


Need to think about bushings / bearings and spacers now.

[Freestyle72]

MY favourite thread on GTAM by far. Keep it up!

[gammaguy21]

MY favourite thread on GTAM by far. Keep it up!

Thanks Freestyle72. That's quite the compliment, I've followed your fzr400 build from the beginning. Some big boots to fill.

[gammaguy21]

Another bit of work done.... slow and steady.

I left the pivot slightly wider so that I could shave it down a bit at a time and get the best fit possible with minimal slop.



Here's what the stock swingarm looked like... a bit spindley


With the new swingarm, looks way beefier.



Now to figure out dogbone lengths to make sure I don't mess with the stock rake and trail.
I figure if I use stock rg rocker linkage and shock, I can get a reference point of where the rear axle sits with the stock swingarm. If I just change the swingarm, move the rear axle to that reference point, I can then measure the distance of the dogbone mounting point on the swingarm to the rocker linkage mount point to get the distance of the dogbone?

Good thing this is only the mock up bike... and not my street bike!
Got these the other day from the local yamaha dealer as I've got a some leaky carbs on the tzr.


Early morning was cold enough that the ground wasn't muddy, so pulled the tzr out of storage. Now I gotta find some time to pull the carbs...