The "Today I did something to my bike" thread

On my own front operation DRastic took another tiny step forward last night. My barrel and head were rattle canned at some point by a PO.
So I bought this Draper 3/4" sand blasting kit. Drapers fairly meh imo, but at about 80 yoyos it's in the upper to middle range of the more hobbyist/amateur set ups. Like you can buy a kit like this for as little as 15 quid.
So from this


To this in a couple mins

I'm not looking fir bare alloy here, just the sh1tty aerosol off and a decent key thereafter.


It certainly has its limitations, with my compressor I empty the media container in about 60 seconds but Deffo a handy yoke to have kicking about.

What is it with Italian bikes and shyte sidestands? Do Dukes still have the suicide stands?

Doesn't the reduced lean angle make it more likely to tip over?

Can't crow too much though as the sidestand on the SV is the worst on any bike I've owned, push the bike forward 2cm and it's at risk of toppling. Needs to be angled further forward as well as a bit longer.

Nice job on the blasting H, how did you keep the sand out of where it shouldn't go?

My younfla now thinks I'm a mechanical genius, cause I took his older sister's former pushbike apart, spray painted it to de-girlyfy it, and managed to get it all back together and it's now his and I now have an idea of how to assemble head bearings :pac:

Fûck makers of genderified toys, wànkers trying to make us buy twice, three €3.99 Lidl rattle cans in white, light and dark grey gave it an urban camo paint job

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

What is it with Italian bikes and shyte sidestands? Do Dukes still have the suicide stands?

Doesn't the reduced lean angle make it more likely to tip over?

Can't crow too much though as the sidestand on the SV is the worst on any bike I've owned, push the bike forward 2cm and it's at risk of toppling. Needs to be angled further forward as well as a bit longer.

Nice job on the blasting H, how did you keep the sand out of where it shouldn't go?

My younfla now thinks I'm a mechanical genius, cause I took his older sister's former pushbike apart, spray painted it to de-girlyfy it, and managed to get it all back together and it's now his and I now have an idea of how to assemble head bearings :pac:

Fûck makers of genderified toys, wànkers trying to make us buy twice, three €3.99 Lidl rattle cans in white, light and dark grey gave it an urban camo paint job

The only thing I did was mask off the gasket surfaces. It's about the only internal engine part I would feel safe blasting as is. There's just the cylinder sleeve and the cam chain tunnel, all open and smooth castings internally without blind passageways or places grit can hide.
It got a couple tanks of compressed air and then..


If you eat at my place the dishes taste of 1040:pac:.

blade1 wrote: »

No it's solid as a rock now.
I don't think there is any difference in the lean angle.
I think the original stand is too straight that's the problem.
Where the stand rests on the ground was too near the bike resulting in the bike being on a tiny balance point.
It is then also short so the bike wouldn't be standing too straight.
Just to be clear the bike was wanting to fall over on the side with the stand,yeah?

It's perfect now.
Stand cost £30.
Surprised how happy I'm now with something that shouldn't even have to cross anyone's mind.

Thats the main problem. The apex of the triangle is too close to the centre of mass. My falco was the same and my etv had stand problems too that I had to reweld. I also had to fix the stand on the Dr big too, stand frenzy! My blackbirds stand however is great:)
If you want a wee line of weld where that Jb is Whip it off the bike and pm me.

Pulled a late one and engine is back together at last. She's had upgraded cct and spring, rehone, decoke and skim, clutch release bearing, plates, valves reground with oil stem seals.
Just the valve clearances to do then seal her up and blast/paint and back in she goes. Once that happens operation DRastic will hopefully be ready for summer if the plague doesn't wipe us out.

Koyo mmmm fook no name "Japanese quality" shyte from weewee moto.


Bolting shyte on for a change lol


Factory brass rivets be tidy.

Fixed a very very notchy accelerator.

Having dropped the radiator to check an indicator electrical fault the main loom to the ignition had gone under the accelerator cable behind the radiator pushing it up about 10mm enough to put a slight bend in the cable housing and cause the accelerator to not snap back when let go.

Moved the loom out of the way and the accelerator was snapping as usual.

Bit of a mind feck after putting the bike together to a stuck accelerator but sure located the fault.

Fox Mulder wrote: »

I have been working on a Honda CB550 cafe racer project and I recently did a hydraulic clutch conversion. The standard clutch is push actuated so I have been able to fit a Triumph Tiger 1200 slave cylinder to the clutch cover that acts through a bearing onto a ball ended shaft onto the clutch.


I have connected an old master cylinder to test it


The cover is too thin to directly mount the slave cylinder to without it cracking or deflecting under the pressure of the clutch springs. So I have made a plate that is glued with metal epoxy to the inside of the cover.


I have machined a flat pocket on the cover for the slave cylinder to seat into. It is bolted on.


Im going to try and just use a paper style gasket and if it leaks I will have to machine a groove around the slave cylinder to accept a rubber o-ring.


The slave cylinder has a hardened ball on it that a shaft with a cup on one end normally seats against. Instead of this arrangement I have a bearing that fits inside the slave cylinder. The stock Honda shaft with the ball ends sits inside a steel top hat which sits in the bearing.

Cool project!
Have to ask why the push for hydraulics? Is the cable clutch very heavy?
Either way I love it lol, tell me more about yer end mill? This is something I'm trying to save for at the moment. What advice can give someone starting out with one.

More pics of everything please ha:)

That looks awesome, I have a small lathe but lack the skill to fully utilise it, however I am learning slowly, I really need to get a book on how to do lathework.

H_Lime wrote: »

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still as anal as ever. Bet you only brought it in to give it a clean....

I wouldn't mind doing a service.

Can you pick up oil, filters, plugs from anywhere these days?

If you are ordering online, who are you using?

Bike is a MT09 Tracer

Explosive_Cornflake wrote: »

I wouldn't mind doing a service.

Can you pick up oil, filters, plugs from anywhere these days?

If you are ordering online, who are you using?

Bike is a MT09 Tracer

http://motorcycleshop.ie/

Fox Mulder wrote: »

The hydraulic conversion is just to have something a bit different on the bike.

Below is the mill I have. Its a small unit that I converted to CNC. Its really only good for aluminium which is fine for the motorbike stuff I do but if you want to do steel it struggles. I know if I was going to get another mill I would buy the something much larger and used but you have to live within your budget and the amount of space you have. I would definitely recommend getting a mill and converting it to CNC although it is expensive it is very versatile. I have some pictures below of less obvious things its really good for.



Its not just metal, you can do a lot of things in carbon fibre and plastic. Things like heal guards


The below is a combustion chamber for a two stroke head. If you have small bikes you can skim your heads if you want to increase compression ratio.

Its very good for engraving. The letters done on the plastic radius gauge above are also done on the machine.

Random stuff around the house

Its very useful for making your own tools when you dont have access to the speciality tools

Ah here that's class!
The potential for bespoke parts and tools is huge. Love the bits you're making for the bike.
In this project I'm currently doing theres been a need for something like this at least four times. I needed to make two exhaust hangers, skim the head, and a brake caliper relocation bracket. I was using an end mll bit in my pillar drill which to my ignorance is a very effective way to kill yourself lol. Had to stop that and picked up the hand files and angle grinder again.

So as I understand it....you bought the mill as a stand alone unit and then upgraded it with a motorised 3 axis bed hooked up to cad or likely solid works yeah? I'm guessing the cnc conversion was more expensive than the mill?
No doubt a big investment but what you have there opens up so many doors I've been peeping through the keyholes of. Tbh a small mill and a manual bed would have me over the moon, do you know anyone selling this? Been watching AvE on YouTube years and it's always something I wanted.

And now for the cheeky question....are you taking comissions?
I have the aforementioned rather unispring exhaust hanger which I'd love to redesign, have t6 6082 stock for it that I bought and can give you a good ol fashioned plan elevation and end view that should represent something that's capable of existing in this universe;)

As to the project you're doing be great to see more pics and details. Are you rebuilding the wheels? Have you considered a home brew powder coating set up? Largeish old domestic ovens on done deal free to a good home occasionally and a powder gun rig is cheap.
Recently bought a media blaster there and the above seems a next logical step.
How re the carbs and are you making any other bespoke bits?

sonic85 wrote: »

That's brilliant. Are you an engineer - or how did you learn?

I work as a design engineer but its mostly office based work with very little hands on stuff so I really enjoy working on things in the garage. Im not that experienced but I find you gradually pick things up from friends and just having a go yourself.

H_Lime wrote: »

Ah here that's class!
The potential for bespoke parts and tools is huge. Love the bits you're making for the bike.
In this project I'm currently doing theres been a need for something like this at least four times. I needed to make two exhaust hangers, skim the head, and a brake caliper relocation bracket. I was using an end mll bit in my pillar drill which to my ignorance is a very effective way to kill yourself lol. Had to stop that and picked up the hand files and angle grinder again.

So as I understand it....you bought the mill as a stand alone unit and then upgraded it with a motorised 3 axis bed hooked up to cad or likely solid works yeah? I'm guessing the cnc conversion was more expensive than the mill?
No doubt a big investment but what you have there opens up so many doors I've been peeping through the keyholes of. Tbh a small mill and a manual bed would have me over the moon, do you know anyone selling this? Been watching AvE on YouTube years and it's always something I wanted.

And now for the cheeky question....are you taking comissions?
I have the aforementioned rather unispring exhaust hanger which I'd love to redesign, have t6 6082 stock for it that I bought and can give you a good ol fashioned plan elevation and end view that should represent something that's capable of existing in this universe;)

As to the project you're doing be great to see more pics and details. Are you rebuilding the wheels? Have you considered a home brew powder coating set up? Largeish old domestic ovens on done deal free to a good home occasionally and a powder gun rig is cheap.
Recently bought a media blaster there and the above seems a next logical step.
How re the carbs and are you making any other bespoke bits?

All in the CNC conversion probably cost 2/3 the cost of the mill. I use Creo (pro/engineer) to design the parts and then Mastercam to create the G code the mill uses to cut the parts. Anyone can learn over maybe a weekend.

Im afraid I dont do requests sorry :-) but I cant wait to see your project up and running. It looks great so far.

The Honda CB550 is the first cafe racer project I have done and I have done it kinda backwards in that I started on the engine first. I like your sand blaster, and I would love to do my own powder coating. Im currently living in the UK and getting stuff powder coated here is very cheap. A KTM frame I had done only cost me £60 and that included being blasted. For the Honda I had a new wider rim powder coated and laced onto the original hub which I had vapour blasted.



Apart from the sprag clutch having some minor damage due to some screws working there way out and the cam having some pitting the engine was in good condition. After the engine was stripped I sent it out to get vapour blasted. I painted it afterwards as the raw castings had a lot of defects in them. Unfortunately I dont think the paint has keyed very well. I think when the bike is finished if the paint doesn't hold up very well on the road I might strip it off and try again. I have subsequently learned that it is advised to vapour blast with a dry medium if your painting to get a better key. A local shop rebored and honed the barrels for me to accept the new oversized pistons.

Engine back together with new gearbox bearings/seals, mains shells, new pistons, cam chain, stainless fixings, rehone and valves lapped in.


pitting on cam

valves and pistons had a lot of carbon build up


I had to scrap the carbs and buy refurbished ones, they were completely corroded inside. All that white is corroded aluminium off the casting.


I have started work on the chassis now. I have ground off the excess brackets and pillion hangers off the frame and replaced the rear section with a hoop. The next job is to make the upper and lower yokes to suit the showa upside down forks I have. There is a bit on an issue in that forks and brakes I have require the fork legs to be 218mm apart in order for the brakes to clear the spokes on the wheel. This is wider than any bike I know of only by a few mm but Im nervous it will look a bit weird. A friend has offered to 3d print the parts so I can bolt the forks to the frame to get an idea of how it looks before I commit to machining the yokes.