side to side - Right side

Original design vs. my design:

video - 2nd ride

Here's the footage from my second ride. no major problems other than the coolant leak at the rear cylinder head gasket. I know that's major, but all other systems are functioning well.

http://www.vimeo.com/28638984

2nd ride on Project Suzuki VX800 from Stephen Freskos on Vimeo.

Problems at the finish line

Here's a couple of glamour shots I took prior to starting the head rebuild...

I'm distraught. I've got coolant leaking externally from the head gasket on the rear cylinder, just above the starter motor... Can't see any other possibility than pulling the engine and installing a new gasket and determining what went wrong. Everything was put together by the book, including torquing to spec. Ugh.

final hour

Put the tank, seat and rear on for this shot. I'll be fabbing the license plate and rear turn signal mount tomorrow and taking it on my first ride. She runs and runs good! Got the bike started last week with the help of Shai and Nathan.

Final paint turned out a bit different, but I feel this look suits the lines and style the best. No yellow on the top half after all!


I'd say I'm pleased at the end of the day. I never had a final image in my mind. I constantly changed details along the way, following the flow of the bike where it led me. I'd say I accomplished my original goal of drastically changing the look of the bike. Video from tomorrows ride will be posted tomorrow.

-Stephen

Final paint scheme

Finally decided on my paint scheme:



size and placement of that there yellow half circle is still being determined. but I like it, so I'm going with it, screw everybody else, this is for me. no, nathan, this isn't directed at you! :)

Cracking off glass bottles

I dug some old Jackson Napa Soda Springs, AETNA Mineral Water, and Borello Brothers bottles out of a creek up in Napa County a while back and just had the bottles displayed in my window. I happened across this creek whilst trespassing a bit (common theme here) at the abandoned Napa Soda Springs resort/spring water property. It seems that they threw the reject bottles down the hill and into the creek because there was a couple of hundred feet of creek bed where there was massive amounts of broken glass and pieces of bottles. I went wild. Forget the photography, I spent about 90 minutes digging through the creek and dirt pulling out the most whole bottles I could find. None of them had the necks and tops though. I had about 10 bottles collected and my GF at the time said "What are you going to do with all those?" I had no good answer at the time, but I sure couldn't leave them there. I picked 5 of the best ones, each with a different name or slightly different name variation and brought them home.
Well, years ago I heard about this kit in the 70's that allowed you to cut up glass bottles to make cups out of. Seeing that I have tree-hugger/picker/cheapo/salvage tendencies, I thought this was a right cool idea.
From time to time I'll research the techniques required for one of the hundreds of projects that are on my list and last night I happened to think of the old bottle cutting idea that I never followed up on. My research found many misguided folk with crazy kits, special tools and complicated techniques that didn't work very well. Finally I landed on this brilliant video by the Corning Museum of Glass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4yovEi7j7E

This was more up my alley and is clearly the real deal way to do this. Well, I tried it out and man is it easy. Since there was so much dis-information on the 'net, I decided to add my own video of this technique. Check it:
http://www.vimeo.com/22794636

I finished the sharp edges using my standard metal working tools and techniques.
Step 1: Course stone on a dremel at high speed, to round the inside and outside edge of the cup.
Step 2: Scotch-Brite Combi-Wheel on my Makita. (link)
Step 3: Fine grit worn out flap disc on my angle grinder to polish.
Step 4: Deburring non-woven abrasive wheel on my buffing machine.

The cups turned out real nice. The bottles are teal/aqua green, blob top, iron pontil, and "blowing in mold" (BIM) style manufacture. My bottle dating research indicates that these bottles are from 1845-1870 but my site research shows they are most likely between 1870 - 1900. I'm figuring mid 1890's which was the height of production at this site.

I decided to gift these to my sister instead of using them myself. Well, I'm actually going to go back and score more bottles from this creek since they turned out so well, and make another set for my own use. Giving 'em away just gives me the excuse to trek back up there and dig in that creek again!
-S

more paint schemes

This first one I'm calling chocolate covered. Not a fan, but ran through the scenario anyway.

Black bottom on the other hand, I'm quite fond of:
and a slight improvement and refinement of above:

Still trying to decide, so I can finish this dang thing.

my new KTM

I broke down and finally bought a thumper. 2001 KTM Duke 2 LC4 640. It's a 625cc single.
Rode 75 miles today through the Santa Cruz mountains on twisty little back roads. Wow is this bike scary fun. I almost laid it down when I was leaned over and got on the gas. The back tire hit some water, but I just throttled out. It felt like I was out of control, but on this bike it's hard to tell since it handles so good.

Mothball Fleet Revealed

100 posts and still working

Started fab'ing my brake light setup


New tail shape:
Got a little crazy painting things. Head light bezel and front fender:


Brake control arm got converted to black with Hot Rod Flatz black:Repainted my top triple clamp with the Hot Rod Flatz too:

RYERSON - Forming Aluminum Sheet and Plate

I found this nice booklet at an abandoned building I visited on Saturday in Stockton. Very good information for metal workers.

RYERSON-forming-aluminum

Alternate link:
http://www.scribd.com/full/51403070?access_key=key-1tzwniwqextfg9tplhx

right-side-exhaust

got all the little pieces figured out. It's a weird transition to make and I worked backwards from the merge collector, then had to work backwards the other way. I must have mounted and unmounted the right side exhaust about 15 times just to get this piece right.


This little bit took 2 nights plus some on Saturday and Sunday. Although I mostly slept this weekend and cruised out to Stockton to visit the old Colberg Boat Works.

2-1 pipe work

I worked this out this afternoon and evening.
I decided to shoot for the moon and at least give a nod towards equal length pipes and mount the muffler on the left side.

From underneath, on left side:With the merge collector on it:
The whole thing from the left side:
Had to pop out a little to make that turn back under the bike without rubbing on the frame.
Here's the view from the right side of the bike. Just need to make up that last couple of bends. Slightly down then about 70 degrees over.

This is pretty much the only way I could figure out how to get the merge collector in there without mounting on the side of the bike. That would put my muffler much farther back than I want it, probably going past the end of the rear tire.

I'm concerned about the hanging weight of the merge collector and am thinking about supporting it under the bike. The muffler hanger will probably address this though. Holding the muffler properly ought to take the pressure off the rest of the piping if I get it just right. I don't want this thing to shake apart and crack up near the engine.


I also took time to make the final curve cut on the right side of my tail.

Oh, and here's a shot of my muffler.

Right header - done

exhaust 3-14-11

Left side:



Right side:

I cut up 3 different 304 stainless .120 wall pipes to make my flange connection at the engine.
Did this with an angle grinder and file. Fits perfectly inside my engine.
Tools for making exhaust

status 3-9-11

I'm buggin' out over some details and got ADD tonight.

Lever height in relation to foot peg height has been a problem for a while. I've had to pick my toe WAY up to use the rear brake lever and shifter. I picked up a nice pair of Yoshimura rearsets at the swap meet Nathan and I went to. Almost intact, for $20. So I test fit those on the left side. I like the way they look better and the footpeg is bigger which feels better. I'll have to weld up the adjustable holes I drilled for the Harris set since the two don't match up of course. No prob there and a fairly low time / cost modification. I want to get the rearset brackets powdercoated since I just did a quickie paint job on them anyway.
So footpeg issues seem on the horizon of being solved and finalized. Maybe another 4 hours or so of tweaks then to the coaters.

Next was muffler hanger. I screwed around for way too long tweaking on modding the stock passenger peg brackets to see if I could make them work. The bottom line is, no I can't really, not the way I want to. The brackets are slightly too short and much to heavy for the new purpose. Another custom piece to fab, but at least I have a template to start from. I don't like the strappy muffler hanger things so I'll be welding the hanging tab onto the muffler. I need to fab that as well. Somehow rubber bushings need to find there way into the hanger somewhere but I think I have that solved.

Then I was diddling with the tail section which is currently annoying me. It looks too chubby and too stubby. I think I'll solve that by slightly elongating but this will require untold amount of sheet metal cutting bending and welding to make the curves match. I'll try and enjoy it. Certain things about this project I don't find very fun.

I've got the first bend on the right side exhaust just about dialed. I need to shave another wee bit to lessen the angle but the straight piece is cut and both are polished and ready for welding.

Of course then there's the painting which I'm actually looking forward to at this point, but just can't make up my mind on graphics. I've too much invested to slapdash design the graphics and not be happy with the look.

Ah, which way do shocks get mounted? I flipped my left rear shock so the reservoir is on top. Seems better for unsprung weight but looks wrong somehow...

Oh also, the whole back end of the bike looks low to me. Like I should have gotten longer shocks. My new shocks are actually the same size as stock or maybe a 1/2" longer but the way the bodywork is makes it look like it's leaning back somehow to me. This can be easily changed later.

Pics from tonight:

paint ideas

exhaust fab part 2

Here's a part of my step-by-step process I photo documented last night.

Put the piece up on the bike and figured out how much angle I needed, and marked with pen.
Since I already cut this piece I need to make sure I cut it on the 2.5" center line radius since that's what this bend radius is. If I don't cut on the CLR, then it won't be a circle. Even when I cut on the radius, it's a little tiny off, but fixable in the weld.
Here I'm measuring 2.5" to the center and checking the center with a machinist square.
Now that I've got it aligned, I'm checking to make sure that it's not rotated by checking the height at the clamp and at the end to make sure they're the same. Crude but effective.Now I setup the laser and make sure I shoot it through my little mark showing where the center of the bend is, and mark the line enough to cut by.
Well, I didn't shoot my self cutting it. I usually use a hacksaw. Now I'm just cleaning up the cut with the sander.
I realized I need to extend the straight part to make sure that my alignment is right when I go to tack it up. This straight piece will be about 18" long so a small deviation will really show at the other end. So I'm marking my cut on the straight pipe using a pipe cutter. The kind you spin around. My blade is not made for stainless, so I only mark it this way then cut with a angle grinder.
Cutting by eye with angle grinder.

Deburring:Deburring again with a deburring wheel:

Now I'm taking it from polished to "brushed" by creating my own brushed look. I'm using 120 grit. I then take it to the deburring wheel to smooth the 120 marks, then I take it to another cut and polish wheel to further finish it.You can see the change from polished to "brushed".
The bends have a fairly course surface finish from the bending process. The pipe I got was polished. So all the parts first get finished before welded. On the right is the finished product. Horizontal is the polished. on the left is the finish from the bender which takes lots of work to get rid of.Tack it up. I sharpened this image to show the final finish.Final product, ready to weld to the existing setup:
Kinda boring, but there it is. I've got two words: labor intensive