Winter project!

hi all!

Well the time has come to garage the cat for winter, so what better time for a stip down, paint, rebuild and some mods!

This is my bike on the day i bought her,


since ive had her ive fitted longer mirrors with leds in, HID light kit (thanks Rosco) and an R6 shock.

With this being my first bike iv decided to really go to work on her, I decided to go for the R6 tail swap and have been collecting all the bits for the swap, so this morning i stripped her tail down got out my hacksaw and started cutting! scary knowing that after that first cut theres no going back! lol, So i spent 3 hours in the garage this morning and ended up with her looking like this!








The sub frame is fixed at the top, all i need to do now is cut a bit more of the main frame off, weld some plates on to it with some lugs for fixing the bottom arms of the subframe to, i haven't fitted the battery tray, under tray or rear light yet as ill be stipping her right down to the bare frame for powder coating.

So thats it for now, i will post as and when i progress with the work.

Cheers,
Simon.

Nice work mate, great to have another winter modification & repair thread on the go, a few of us this year it seems.

It looks like you are doing well but if you need any help there is a few r6 tail threads on the usa site.

Keep the pics coming.

Paul.

Thanks mate, long way to go yet! the USA site is where I got the idea from for the tail swap, there are a few guys over there with R6 rear ends on there cats, some really nice bikes,

Cheers,
Simon.

Hi all,

So a little more progress on the bike this morning, I cut off part of the frame that was not needed and welded some angle iron on each side, Ive shaped and drilled them ready to hold the bottom legs of the sub frame, I then bolted it all together and it was a perfect fit, hight and all in line, so thats me happy!













Cheers people, hope you enjoy reading this thread as much as im enjoying do the work!

Simon.

I hope that you chamfered that plate before welding it on .
you need to turn your amp up a bit.
the welds lookes as they are just sitting on top.
also I would add a bit more support.
the reason why I'm saying this is that we don't want the back end snapping off whilst your riding it.
please don't be offended , I'm just thinking of your own safety.

have a read of this. john


http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/mig.htm

Nice project. But as Johnakay has said that weld does not look like its penetrated and you have ground what was sitting on top away to make it look nice. What welder are you using (amp wise) and as said above we don't want what you are sitting on snapping :0)
keep up the good work though.
Dave.

Thanks for the advice guys, that weld was my first attempt at it using my dads welder which I'm not familiar with, its 130 amp with gas, I thought it was on full power but after that weld realised it wasn't, so cranked it up and it penetrated a lot better, I grinder that weld down put a grove in it and welded it again.

Also I don't think there would be much chance of it snapping off as most of my weight will be supported by what's left of the of the original frame, and any weight that's put on the bottom legs of the sub frame are pushing against the frame rather than downward force on bracket, if you know what I mean?

Simon.

Big sy wrote:Thanks for the advice guys, that weld was my first attempt at it using my dads welder which I'm not familiar with, its 130 amp with gas, I thought it was on full power but after that weld realised it wasn't, so cranked it up and it penetrated a lot better, I grinder that weld down put a grove in it and welded it again.

Also I don't think there would be much chance of it snapping off as most of my weight will be supported by what's left of the of the original frame, and any weight that's put on the bottom legs of the sub frame are pushing against the frame rather than downward force on bracket, if you know what I mean?

Simon.

Great news. Just don't want a refurb/rebuild/modify thread to turn into a fatality thread in 5 months time

Spent a few hours on the bike today, stripped her right down to the frame, i just cant seem to get the swing arm bearing out or the head bearing seat things, think ill nip down my loacal bike shop and get them to do it.

It was really easy to strip down with no problems, i took lots of photos and notes of where things went and what was conected to what ect, but im still bricking it about putting her back together, im worried ill forget where bits go and which way cables are routed, Iv got a haynes book so ill hope for the best!

Heres a few a pics of todays efforts!













Cheers,
Simon.

Moved the thread

SteveCat wrote:Moved the thread

cheers, wasnt sure if it was in the right place.

Simon.

BTW that Mig welder is well capable for what you need just up the power and use Argon/oxygen mix gas or better;0) Lookinggood and I know how that big pile of bike bits looks ;0)
Dave.

I THINK YOUR NUTS!!! , not somthing i would attempt , but enjoying the pics and watch the progress

wuuff!! my granny could weld better than that...
Well that's not entirely true..my granny canny weld at all...partly because she's no longer with us and partly because she was never a welder during her long and happy life..
My point is mate, if you wanna test how good the welding is get a local company to do an NDT (non destructive test) on the welds to see how strong/good they are..I aint gonna rip the piss about how good it looks or how strong it might be as it might be fine no matter how it looks or it might look good but be a crap weld structurally ( not sure i spelt that correct).. For your own piece of mind i would get any loadbearing welds checked properly..any local engineering company should be able to do that for a nominal fee..
For insurance purposes eg modifications it might be required, i'm not 100% on the legalities of all the shenanigans.. but for your own piece of mind it surely has to be worth it ..
I take my hat off to ya for having the balls to do it tho...thats what makes all this biking palaver such good fun..
It's always good to step out and do summit different!
looking forward to seeing the end result.

Haven't done much over the weekend, You'll be glad to know Ive re-welded the plates, Ive had them checked out by a friend who is a welder by trade and he's given me the ok

Ive freshened up the engine and taken the carbs off only to find the intake boots are perished, there not perished right through but id like to get some new ones if i can find them cheap enough, not sure where i can get some from at a good price, they seem to be expensive, as they have not split right through i might just settle with rubbing some silacone in the splits, also theres 4 pipes that come off each of the intake boots which are blocked off, im guessing there for carb balancing gauges? 1 was split in half and 1 was disconected, which might explain why she doesnt like to run smothly between 1-3k.

Im now waiting on the swing arm bearings to be pressed out at an enginering place, he's not sure weather he'll be able to press them out as you cant press the bearings right through from 1 side to the other, ill find at out 3 oclock, then once thats done off to the powder coaters and hopefully they'll be able to fit it in before xmas, then i can start slowly building her up

Simon.

if your replacing the bearings(to which it might be best)
put heat to it.
heat it up all around the outside of the bearing frame.
use a long drift bar(solid round bar preferably brass but steel will do if edges are rounded off) put it through the other end.
and tap around the outer bearing shell.
it should pop out.
then the same to the opposit end.
try not to heat the bearing to much as you just want the out bit to swell up etc.john

Thanks for the advice John, my friend did exactly that, heated one side then knocked it out with a drift and then used his press to get the other one out, he only charged me £10 with i thought was good, new ones should arive tomorrow.

So after that i took the frame, sub frame and swing arm to the powder coaters, its been done in satin black and all for £120 which i think is very reasonable, there stacked out with work but he's going to try his best to get it done before he shuts up shop for xmas.

I just need to know where to get some cheap carb boots from now, ive tryed fleebay, yambits and weemoto with no luck, main stealers are £35each! so can anyone please point me in the direction for some cheaper ones?

Also while the carbs are off im gonna take them apart and clean them, ive done this before a long time ago on an old DT carb, i think if i do one at a time and take my time i should be ok, any tips welcome, also while there apart is it worth me putting bigger jets in? dynojets or something else? im not to worried about loosing fuel economy, any advice would be great,

Cheers,
Simon.

I've used black silicon, on the carb boot of a GasGas trials bike before without any problems, not sure if it would have the same effect on a full on sports bike..

Gave them a good clean with carb cleaner first, let them dryout for a few hour's, then worked the silicon into the cracks..

Davie

furball wrote:I've used black silicon, on the carb boot of a GasGas trials bike before without any problems, not sure if it would have the same effect on a full on sports bike..

Gave them a good clean with carb cleaner first, let them dryout for a few hour's, then worked the silicon into the cracks..

Davie

Cheers Davie, i think that'll be the plan, they haven't split right through so i guess the silcone will prolong the life of them a bit more.

Simon.

Well spent last night cleaning the carbs, took me about 90 minutes to strip down clean and rebuild, I used a good carb cleaner and compressed air to clean the jets but I left the mixture screws alone as I didn't want to mess up the settings, it was surprising easy!

I also used some clear gasket sealant to sort out the perished/cracked intake boots, it worked a treat! :-)

Now I'm just waiting for the frame and swing arm to come back from the powder Coaters.

Simon.

Good on you, get the pics up when you get the fame and stuff back

: )

Hi all,
got the frame back end of last week also my Hagon fork springs arrived, so i spent a couple of hours monday and all tuesday morning doing a bit of work.





Im really happy with the satin black finsh.





Had a go at changing the fork springs, oil and seals, iv gotta say its a lot easier that i thought! piece of p1ss!





Iv also sprayed the clip ons and yoke satin black, they look awesome! and fitted the new head stock bearings.

well thats it for now, gonna have a couple of hours on it in the morning before work, not sure what im gonna do yet.

Cheers folks!

Simon.

Looking good there Si. Keep up the good work!! I'm just waitng for bits and then I'm almost done ;0)

Blimey when you guys put a bike away for the weekend you certainly go to work!!

Not even fitted my heated grips yet, let alone refurb the rear shock, better get my ass in gear

stevedj2000 wrote:Blimey when you guys put a bike away for the weekend you certainly go to work!!

Not even fitted my heated grips yet, let alone refurb the rear shock, better get my ass in gear