Part 8: Into every life there must come some rain...

... but not just yet, eh?
I've got to say, this weather has been brilliant. Apart from the heavy shower on Saturday night, every day for the last fortnight has been like summer. Better than summer, in many ways! In fact the hottest day ever recorded in April was on Saturday, just down the A3 at Wisley - 27.7 degrees centigrade and that's 81.9 in old money! Sadly though, it's all a bit too much for my balding pate and I tended to spend the hotter hours watching telly in a nice cool room, or out and about with the nipper. Nor did I have all the parts I needed to make huge progress on the project but never mind, it's not a race.


I took the nipper and the front caliper mounts down to my mate's house on Friday. I never intended to get anything done with them just then, it was just to give him a taste of what needed doing and to see if he had any other ideas for accomplishing this task. Anyway, we had other jobs to do, like getting a couple of mini-bikes working for his Easter Sunday whole-lamb barbeque, a veritable institution down here as it's a great opportunity to meet people who may not have spoken all year! Pity I don't actually eat lamb because as usual, it was cooked to perfection by our genial Hellenic host. As it happened the bikes were great fun and hardly anyone got injured on them!
Actually it was very useful insomuch as I had a very interesting chat with another old acquaintance who is into rough shooting and has some very useful contacts. There could be some evenings hunting bunnies if things go well...
However there's another long weekend coming up and the wife will be able to babysit so we might well get the TIG fired up by then and have a crack at the caliper mounts....

I had more thoughts about the tail unit and having created a cardboard mockup, I set-to with a piece of 1mm mild steel sheet, tin-snips, angle grinder and the MIG. I was quite pleased with the result, though my plans to have the tail light mounted within it, have been thwarted as there just isn't the space. Back to plan A, then, with a small tail light mounted beneath the exhaust, on a new mudguard.
(I think purple to match the tank, with a faded silver lower edge, will look nice. The 6mm cap heads I've currently got installed, will be swapped for button-heads in due course.)
The seat met with a cursory attempt to clothe it in red vinyl this weekend but unfortunately I'm going to need to do a bit of stitching to get it to meet the contours at the front of the seat. Not ideal because unless I seal it (How? Some thought needed here...) the rain will get in and wet the foam. And probably rot the stitching in due course, too! At least the seat pan is polythene unlike earlier bikes, so the cover can be glued (spray-on Evo-Stik) and stapled. Hey ho, a job for one evening after work, methinks.
I'm still getting hot under the collar with the delays with the rear caliper, to the extent I've had to open a 'Case' with ebay. The seller just isn't responding to my mail. Grr.
However I decided that I'd go ahead and commit to fitting a torque arm for said brake unit, so I took the angle grinder to the spare swinging arm I had and cut off the lug so I could then graft it onto the tranny. The old swinger then went out for our local scrap man but not before I removed the suspension linkages. Just in case...
It all went surprisingly well, as it happens. Though some of the welding is a bit rough despite grinding down, it's never going to break off, which is the important criterion. I had to cut off the forked end from the torque arm and reweld it slightly offset but it turned out quite neat. In fact you'd probably never notice. A splash of grey primer and it's protected against the damp. I'll fling some silver onto it once the job's nearer completion. I had to drop the MIG back off at school this evening on the way back from visiting the Outlaws (!) so some careful planning will be required if it looks like I'll need it again next weekend...
Speaking of which, we're back at school for three days from tomorrow so I need to think about what little jobs need doing there during my breaks. The obvious task to complete is the two rear wheel spacers, so tomorrow night I'll measure them up and document them so I don't forget. I'm still not quite sure why I'm making them in steel when the caliper mount is ally... so why not make the spacers out of ally? All I can think is that they'd be more prone to compressing and going loose, though that's so unlikely I'd probably stand more chance of winning the lottery.

Part 7: Starting to make some progress. Honest!

It's another Sunday evening and I'm waiting for my six-year-old to finish her supper, then it's off to bed for her. In the meantime, though, I'll start recounting what I've been up to this week.

I'd like to say I've made great progress with the running gear but I'm getting poor communication from the guy who's supposed to have shipped me the rear caliper so it's been agitating me more than a little. But more on that later.

I suppose this week's biggest success has to be the exhaust system. Having chopped off all the metalwork up to the actual silencer, I cut-and-shut a piece of 1 3/4" stainless pipe and joined the original pipe connector to one end and the silencer to the other. Stainless steel seems a bit more difficult to weld than mild steel so I spent quite a bit of time tidying up afterwards with the grinding wheel. Because I'm not great at welding, my chosen 'style' with thin metals is to 'chain-weld' which is to say, lots of very close tack welds. Unfortunately there were the odd pin-holes in between welds which I had to go back over a second time. Once I started to get my eye in, though, I tried a few continuous welds and whilst they aren't as pretty as those already on the can, they aren't too bad. At least they haven't burnt-through, which is the main thing! Following this there are a few which will inevitably need a bit more grinding down but as it stands the system's perfectly functional. In fact with some rags temporarily sealing the connection to the header pipe (a proper gasket to be ordered!) the engine sounds really nice, not unlike when I had the Remus silencer on it a while back - if possibly a bit more subdued.

What I found interesting was that even after leaving it running at a fast tick-over for 5 minutes, the can was still barely warm. This makes me wonder whether I do really need to put heat insulating material between it and the mudguard, which I shall probably make out of ally sheet, above which will be the sheet steel tail fairing sprayed silver. I'm seriously considering at a pair of square 2" tail lights mounted in the tail fairing, above the exhaust. The number plate will mount below the exhaust and be illuminated at night by a nifty little white LED assembly which I've already ordered for £9, possibly a bit on the expensive side as I could have knocked one together myself for three or four quid... I'm a mug for ebay!

I even managed to weld a couple of mounts on the exhaust riser pipe, to which I screwed an abbreviated section of the original RR leg-guard. It doesn't look too bad either. The box itself is suspended by a pair of M6 cap heads, from the rear cross member on the brackets which extend the sub frame backwards. I still need to get a bit more steel strip to weld in the front cross piece then it will be bomb-proof. Anyway, it should be good for MOT when the time comes...

I have to admit I thought it had all gone pear-shaped midway through the welding of the pipe, though. The MIG started playing up by not arcing properly, then it blew the mains fuse. When I replaced the fuse it wouldn't arc at all and a continuity test between the torch and the main box suggested an open circuit on the main conductor. Closer investigation revealed that indeed the main cable providing current to the torch, had fractured over time and had parted company from its anchor! Not possessing the special crimp rings which were originally holding said cable in place, I made-do and mended with a jubilee clip. Better keep a close eye on that.. but at least it got me up and running again!

As you can see in the picture above, there's a rear brake caliper tentatively mounted-up. That's the one I got from Tony in Wisbech (he of the red wheels) but unfortunately it was missing the slider pins that connect it to the mount. I managed to 'borrow' one pin from the original Tranny rear caliper but the other one isn't a size I can match from my bits'n'pieces bucket. I still don't know (assuming I ever get it...) if the 600R caliper is the same as this so I daren't weld the stay for the torque arm just yet. Let's see what this week brings. (If Leyland Tony is following this, don't get rid of your rear caliper yet...!). The caliper mount is 'floating' on the wheel spindle at the moment. That is to say, it needs a couple of spacers making up to centre it properly on the disk. I'm going to hold out for a piece of 1" steel rod this time - it took bloody ages to turn down the 2" diameter stuff and I was pelted with very hot shards of metal most of the time I was doing it, despite using coolant.

Still on the issue of brakes, the front end has had some attention from me today, mainly trying to decide how best to mate the calipers to the fork legs. I took some measurements, triangulated several times to get the angles right, then used Techsoft's 2D Design program to create a cardboard template of the required bracket.

Original bracket in correct orientation and with template of required bracket overlayed. The black dots are the proposed M8 mounting holes.

Reverse of bracket showing where lugs need to be welded on (where you can see card, essentially!) 'Crosshairs' mark where the M8 threads need to be . The other threaded holes will be redundant.

Unfortunately I think machining a whole new mount from scratch (and certainly casting one from my own mold) is beyond my capabilities so I'm pretty much committed to welding lugs onto the existing brackets, in the positions marked by my template.

(Did I say I would be welding the lugs on? I meant I'd probably ask my mate Theodore to TIG weld them for me as I've never welded ally before and I'm out of argon for my own little TIG!).

After that, a bit of milling to square it all up then drill and tap a couple of M8 threads to complete the job. Will it work? I hope so!

A couple of posts back, I published an edited picture of how I thought the project would progress. Well, I've ordered the red vinyl for the saddle (!) so that should brighten things up a bit! The wife won't be so impressed but hey - whose bike is this anyway?

I finally removed the rear sprocket that came with the wheel - as I mentioned in an earlier post, it's for the wrong pitch chain - and I set-to finding out where I can get something to fit. I keep asking myself if it wouldn't have been easier to just get a new engine sprocket and chain to match the existing rear but that would have cost a lot more dosh. In the end I sent a query to JT Sprockets, asking them where I can get hold of a JTR1332-47 which is the model I need for this application. Originally this item was a spares replacement for the CBR400 1986/7, according to their web site. Armed with that revelation, a subsequent search on t'web didn't initially help me much in terms of finding a suitable retailer, hence the mail to JTS.

[UPDATE 15:35hrs Monday - Jim Irwin from JTS sent me contact details for a company that can do me a JTR1332-46 for £26.10 delivered, so I just ordered one over the phone from a very helpful guy at B&C Express (www.bandcexpress.co.uk) based near Lincoln. Tel. 01522 791369. There's another contact for your book.]

Remember the seized speedo cable that came from Wisbech with the wheels? Well I finally got it freed up without any damage! Unfortunately it's exactly the same length as the Tranny's cable so there's absolutely no benefit in swapping them over. Funny how it looked so much shorter when coiled up... At least I have a spare now!

I've spent a lot of the weekend just looking at the bike and tinkering with ideas. I do a lot of just-looking and thinking... I thought it might be neat to put the luggage carrier and grab handles back on but to be honest when I offered them up, they just didn't look right so they are now consigned to the scrap bin. Just as well really as its ally frame is absolutely shot and it would take hours to clean the crud off before I could even consider repainting it.

Of course, a cruddy carrier isn't the only area of the bike needing attention; This is an eleven-year-old work-horse so the rust is showing in a lot of places, especially around the nearside passenger footrest and regrettably, on and around under the rear suspension unit. The problem with the latter, just as with my Pan European, is a poor design of the mudguard which allows water to splash-on and congregate-around critical parts! Needless to say I'll be trying to minimise further deterioration before putting this baby back on the road. Customising this ride should have far reaching benefits to the bike as a whole. Who knows, I may even treat it to an oil change ;o)

Part 6: Here comes summer!

Well, that's another weekend flown by and wasn't it a nice one? The top of my head is suitably roasted, lacking in the hair which, in my younger days, would have adequately protected my scalp from the ferocious solar radiation we get here in Surrey. Right.

So, what have I been up to on the bike front?

Well, on Friday I turned a front wheel spacer. Unfortunately it was still about 2mm short of ideal so it's temporarily packed with a nice heavy washer as you can see on the left picture. At least the front wheel is now close to centre and in a position where I can now consider how to mount the calipers.

On the other side I still have a very long speedo cable exiting forward of the fork leg - not pretty but I'm not sure how I can avoid that, bearing in mind that the calipers will probably prevent a rear exit. The length of cable can be resolved, however - I have a rusted CBR item that I'm trying to free with penetrating oil. Another week should do it!!

Said brake calipers, as mentioned more than once, totally don't fit the fork leg mounts - hardly surprising really - so I'm going to have to be a bit innovative with what I've got.

This is going to involve drilling and tapping a new hole/thread near the top of each existing mount and extending the mount at the bottom with some aluminium welded on, drilled and tapped to match the bottom mount.

Obviously the scope for total destruction of the mounts is clear... This is a case of 'get it right first time or else...'

At the other end, the back wheel too looks more centralised on the frame rather than the swinging arm. This has had the added benefit that now the chain guard fits without hacking it about. Pleased I held off butchering it, that would have been a bummer...!

Still no sign of my rear caliper and mount, though. The person who received it by accident still hasn't forwarded it on to me. I still have the wayward filler cap, presumably because the intended recipient hasn't confirmed if he still wants it now the GPO have bent the key a bit... This is starting to bug me because it's holding up the job somewhat.

However the exhaust system duly turned up, all wrapped nicely. It's quite a heavy piece of plumbing, though I lightened it a fair bit by cutting off most of the pipe yesterday. When I say pipe, I mean press-formed and seam-welded steel conduit - it's probably a lot easier to manufacture difficult profiles that way than to bend a stiff old pipe!

Does this look like one slim bike or what?

Over the weekend I had a bit of a think about how to mount it and accepted that I wouldn't be able to use the existing tail unit.

Then today having popped down to school to borrow the requisite equipment, I MIG welded a couple of extensions to the subframe, with cross member, to support the silencer. Unfortunately I didn't have enough steel strip so could only do the rear cross brace :(

Supporting the can temporarily with a couple of welding rods gives a rough idea of how it will mount.

This leaves a section between the header pipe and the can, to fit into place. I've ordered up a length of 45mm stainless pipe and a roll of stainless MIG welding wire to fabricate the connection - both should be here tomorrow, with luck. Less useful is the rain that's forecast to accompany said items. I reckon I will need to put a very shallow dogleg into the pipe so I'll need to get hold of a pipe bender, the alternative being to cut-and-shut it. However the offset from centre is only a couple of inches so it shouldn't be too difficult a job. Said he...

Going back to the tail unit, I think a shaped piece of 1mm sheet steel or easier still, aluminium, could be the order of the day. At least it won't melt on the silencer! (Yes, I'm planning on using some heat-insulating material to protect the bodywork - probably a nice wad of folded glass fibre matting sandwiched between stiff wire mesh... or an original 600RR item if I can get one dirt cheap).

Originally the light unit, registration plate and reflector hung off a plastic mudguard with reinforcement tube running around it. The gap between the tube is too narrow to accommodate the silencer so I'm going to have to drop a couple of straps off the silencer mount, which is a bit of a worry as there's already quite a bit of leverage off the tail end stubs of the subrame... I may need to consider some fancy gusset work to provide a bit more support back there. Don't want the whole 'new' back end falling off in a year or two, do we!

Nor am I convinced that the original rear light is appropriate with the modification. Perhaps a smaller, rectangular unit off a little 125 or something, would be better. Less weight, less obtrusive. More money...

Part 5: Small steps

So I'm sitting on the computer, searching the interwebnet for front wheel bearings, among other things. I did have a fiddle with the bike when I came in from work but didn't do much with it at all. What narked more and more was the front wheel spindle size - how could I not spot that? What was worse was that the correct sized off-side spacer which I believe would have centred the wheel pretty much dead-on, has a 20mm bore so is too slack to leave there. So I still have to turn a lump of steel rod down to suit. Only problem there is that the only piece of steel rod I have available at the moment is 50mm diameter which means I need to turn it down a considerable amount(!), bore it to 17mm then part it off at the 32mm length I need.

Anyway, I knocked the original bearings out of the CBR wheels and measured them up. Turns out in order to maintain the TransAlp spindle and not have to adulterate the fork legs, I need to replace those bearings with items with a smaller inner diameter. So instead of the current 20x42x12 items, I need to get 17x42x12. And guess what? This is a very unusual size not normally associated with wheel bearings. You wouldn't believe how many customisers need this size bearing, for the same reason I do, though!!

Anyway, I ordered a pair online from OORacing ( http://www.ooracing.com/index.htm ) on the basis that they are being sold for wheels, (not gearboxes which would be the cheaper ones I can get elsewhere) and these people know what they are doing. I hope. For reference, the code is 6303x3. Only downside is that they don't have plastic grease seals so I'll need to keep a close eye on them and repack frequently. I'll also need to swap the central spacer but fortunately - one thing that's actually gone my way! - both the TransAlp and the CBR use the same length item as discovered when I drifted the Tranny bearings out.

This week I'd ideally like to collect together all the bits I need to get the bike mobile as the schools are closed for the next fortnight and this will be an ideal opportunity to put it all together!

Until I actually have parts in my hands, though, I have little idea exactly how much work I need to put in to get it all assembled.

Yesterday morning I had to collect a couple of parcels from the local GPO depot as I was out when they called. Sometimes they just leave things on the doorstep all day like a certain package from Lancashire today (no kidding, Christ knows how we've had nothing nicked yet... touch wood!) but if it needs a signature it at least goes back to the depot. Most times, anyway. One package was for my wife, the other was my rear brake caliper and mount. Except it wasn't - the seller had shipped someone else's filler cap to me, which means my brakes are somewhere else in the country. Said individual hasn't responded to two emails since yesterday morning but maybe he's just busy. I'm sure he'll get back to me in due course.

The good news today as I alluded-to in the last paragraph, is that I've just received my front brake calipers from Tony in Leyland, absolutely true to his word. I can't praise him highly enough really - he shipped them before he'd even received my cheque, let alone cashed it, so there's a man who deserves some special good luck to go his way. Thanks again, mate, you're a diamond! So I whipped off the old calipers and compared the mounting lugs on the brackets. Totally different. The master cylinder was much bigger to compensate for the larger pot size on the calipers, so that was quickly and easily fitted. I chucked the mirrors too, to further narrow the front profile of the bike. I couldn't do much else though as I need the new front wheel in and centred, which I can't do as it now has no bearings in it... I'm going to need to get some billet aircraft-grade aluminium to make special mounts, aren't I...

The CBR600RR3 stainless steel under-seat exhaust system should be winging its way from Birchington in Kent within the next couple of days, I hope. I'm quite looking forward to getting it to fit my bike - I've already taken the old system off (and revved it on open headers to annoy the neighbours, as you do!) in anticipation. I can't believe nobody else bid on it, to be honest - I won it for £20 plus another £20 postage. I do feel a bit guilty about it because I know it's worth a hell of a lot more but I guess the seller should have put a reserve on it if they were going to be that bothered.

Whatever, it's going to look sweet and, I reckon, unique! I think this project is also begging a close-mounted rear mudguard in purple to match the bike.... Or should that be red? And a lower windscreen (I have the original smaller one stashed away somewhere). See how this is escalating - it only started out as replacement wheels! Back to Ebay I go... My Marbles card is taking a beating.

Also going to need to get some heatproof cladding to protect the bodywork and stop my ass catching fire!..... I wonder if there's any spare I can nick from under our car?

No, stop!!!! (Walk away, look at it another day!)

Goodnight all!

Part 4: A whole weekend and nothing to do...

Wouldn't you know it. a whole day with the wife and nipper out and I don't have any bits that I can at least offer-up to my bike to plan next steps.

Postie turned up a couple of hours ago bearing the engine sprocket and speedo drive but I had a mixed reaction to that event; First, the sprocket is a 15T. The picture advertising on ebay is a 14T. I wanted the 14T so have had to mail the seller to raise issue. Great. Or Grate, depending on how irritated you think I am by that revelation. Actually I might just run with the bigger one - it'll mean quicker starts... or is that slower starts.... I keep getting confused! And I'm not so bothered about top end anyway. Essentially the final ratio will be 1:2.87 against the original 1:3.13, an 8% increase in fact. Mind you, having ordered and received the wrong rear sprocket yesterday, I still have to sort the back end out so there's still scope to resolve this little dilemma...

Second, the speedo drive. Well, it's the correct one but it will have to mount on the nearside of the wheel to avoid the clock winding miles off instead of on! That means at least I don't have to dick about reversing the tyre on the rim but I do have to design a little detent for it on the bottom of the fork leg.

To be fair, the tension on the spindle should stop it spinning but Honda put detents there for a reason so I'll figure something out. The cable didn't seem to fit into the spigot properly at first but a little gentle persuasion overcame its recalcitrance.

You can also see from the top picture that there is a substantial gap between the disk and the fork leg, probably more than I really want. However (lower picture) the other side looks about right. I thought I'd have to look at the speedo hub and investigate possibly abbreviating the inner spacer and outer surface to centre the wheel until I realised it was mainly because the wheel wasn't clamped in tightly that it was so badly offset! Anyway, I'd rather not have to bother skimming the disk mounts on the hub but that's all going to depend on the calipers when I eventually get them. I'll also need an extra 9 mills or so on a new wheel spacer for the offside, which should be a fairly easy job.

Whilst I'm up at the pointy end, I was hoping that if I welded some extensions on the fork brace and relocated the holes about 40mm higher, I should be able to get the guard nice and snug on the wheel without fouling or having to bend it about (too much!). However that's just not going to work - the tyre is still too wide to permit it so I've got to think of another solution.

Speaking of calipers earlier, one thing I did do this morning was have a chat with another ebayer up in Leyland in Lancashire (I'm half Lancashire, I suppose - my mum was born in Lytham St Annes). He's got a set which came off the same bike as my wheels so we've been negotiating potential delivery (his ad is for collection only) and I've made a bid. Thing about ebay is that anyone else could come and bid at last minute (that's often how I win stuff) so there's still a risk I could lose them, then it's back to square one. That's life, though - no point getting fractious about it - the bike's been off the road since autumn so a bit longer won't hurt.

Anyway, nice guy, this Tony - same name as the fella I got the wheels from last week as it happens, also a nice guy. (Are all Tony's great guys who ride CBR600? Or are all CBR600 riders nice guys called Tony? Just a thought). Tony's also got a mate up there who does exhaust systems and feed pipes (MTC Exhausts if you're interested) so I have a contact should I go down the under-seat route (which is growing on me by the hour...) and need any pipework doing.

And whilst I'm at the back end, my 600RR caliper and mount haven't arrived yet. However I did take a quick pic of the sprocket side for reference, new cush drive rubbers installed.

I'm fairly happy with the clearances with the current spacer - I could probably stretch to skimming it by a mill or two but that puts the mounting studs very close to the fork arm so I think I'll leave it. As mentioned, it's running pretty damn near to the centre line of the swing-arm so unless anyone tells me it's supposed to be offset and until I can borrow the straight-edge from work on 19th (when I have the car) so I can see where the tracks are, that's what I'm working with.

Well, I need to do some chores, possibly visit the tip, maybe clean up the fork legs - that would be a useful exercise - so I'd better have lunch and get on with it. Who knows, something might occur to me as I sit staring vacantly at the bike. (I know you do it too!)

Oh, one last thing. That seat. Split, torn, mossy and stuck together up with white duct tape. I've located an ebay seller (acornleisure) who does exterior (for outside furniture, so it should be fine for what I need) Lollipop-red vinyl covering so guess who's going to make a nice bright seat cover....? (I think nice red handlebar grips will balance it all out nicely...)

Will it look something like this.....?

Enjoy your weekend!