Project WR350X has begun!

bigg wrote:

that was my dose of daily porn right there.

damn, you gotta love that Britten!! Sweet pictures!

Got more for ya!

Motorcycles were made to be ridden. That there is motorcycle abuse!

Is that RZ up for sale

Heoz wrote:

Motorcycles were made to be ridden. That there is motorcycle abuse!

Is that RZ up for sale

Supposedly all the motorcycles in the Barber museum are in running condition.

Go ahead, rub it in. I was happily at the first set of pics. I didn't need to see that RZ - I feel a case of RZ/RD fever coming on. Guess I'll jump on the fireblade and ride until the fever breaks.

Great pictures! Thanks for posting them!

Holy mother of all that is wet and tingly, that white Vincent is the cat's pajamas!

It's actually not a real Gery Ghost. Placard said it was so rare they had to do a reproduction. Must be a rare bike when the barber museum cant get an original for their collection.

As a Buell guy I need to post some more Buell stuff.

In 2007 Buell brought two semi loads of 1125s out to Miller and said "here, give it a go for the day"! They also served up a knockout lunch buffet and threw in some free kneepucks.

Pretty nice ride! I'd like to see EB get backing, develop a full line of bikes and grow bigger than HD. That would be the ultimate payback.

No, I don't wear an eye patch. Just a weird reflection.

I was going to go to the very last inside pass day at Vegas when I was in college. I had it all planned out, just had to reschedule a math test. Professor said no way, miss the test and he gives me a zero!

I wasn't too happy.

Motorcycles > Math


Cool pics, I love MMP. Nice facility.

Why do you wear an eye patch? JK, I might be able to ease that out with photoshop. I'm not the best or even that good, but I'll give it a try.

Getting moved into to the new shop! The CB360s were the first to go.


CB360 x2

I bought this killer new chain to lock my Buell to my R1. So if they want to steal a bike they will have to take both of them! ... Wait that seems worse?


Kryptonite Forgetaboutit

Steel for the cradle and the gas tank should be here tomorrow. I found a WR450 rolling chassis in Virginia that I am going to pick up on Saturday. I am going to use it's radiators, handguards, and possibly something with its triple trees. I'm going to part out the rest. It will be cool to say I have four Yamahas now.

Finally a bit of real progress!

Cut and punched the plates for the top mounts of my "measurement" cradle.











Met some Ducati guys for dinner


Ducati dinner

Came back to the shop and started to set up "Yamaha Corner" (With a Buell) eventually.


Yamaha Corner


I'm going to pick up the WR450 tomorrow. That will be for the radiators, triple trees, and hand guards. I'll just part out the rest. So let me know if you need some parts from a 2003 WR450.

Started on the measurement cradle. Despite not having my welder sorted out I thought for sure I could get the plates and pipe tacked well enough to hold the cradle and motor in place to measure up my nice cradle. Turns out, I was wrong. I just couldn't get my friend's little 110 buzz box to get penetration I was comfortable with. I really need to bite the bullet and just buy another V350 even though the one I have hasn't sold yet.




Found some lightly used GYTR titanium footpegs on ebay for a real good price so I threw those one there. Amazing how much lighter they are than stock for such a small part. Nice piece.




Here is one of how the shop is coming. Got my brothers beetle in there as well. Cool little car. Similar to the rug in The Big Lebowski, it really ties the room together.

You need a big overstuffed couch in there and a coffee table so I can put my feet up.

Found some freebie couches on Cragslist. I'll get some pics once we get them and make sure they aren't infested with crabs. If they pass the test you are more than welcome to stop by and sit on them. We even have beer in the mini fridge!


Got the cross member of the "measurement" cradle tacked enough to feel comfortable with it supporting a little bit of weight.







Now I am going to drill straight down through the pipe and insert some threaded rod. That way I will have lots of adjust ability in my cradle to get that motor sitting in perfect alignment with the sprocket, swingarm, etc. So once its lined up my "pretty" cradle can be started on and measured in confidence for the tightest fit.




Deegan Bend Metal Mulisha Pro Tapers came in today as well. A little busy but once the grips are on, frame is powdercoated, and the plastics polished they will look good and not out of place.




And here are the remnants of the WR450 I picked up. Anything blue in the pic is for sale. Red, white, and yellow things are strictly off limits!

Can't believe I forgot this pic!

My friend let me ride his RD400 over to the shop for an inspiration ride. I think I might feign a lack of interest in the project more often if it means I get to ride his killer RD400 more often!


RD400

Still out riding it?

Check this out: RD400 still in its crate - click me

Nice build ! Maybe you should consider making a couple extra cradles to sell ?

Finally moved the beloved old Buell over.





Hey what was that in the WR?




Yep, sat the motor in there. I remain optimistic. I think the under engine part of the cradle will have to be more intricate than I initially planned. After looking at it I think the engine needs to be higher than I initially planned. If I snake the cradle up in the case it will give a lot more room for the pipes. The engine does need to be tilted back some from where it sits now, so the head won't be hanging so far out.


I really wish this little guy wasn't there.




If it wasn't there the motor would slide back in the chassis by a decent amount.




So I'll just be playing with this alignment for a little while. Starting to get suspicious of the guy shipping my tank. Was supposed to be in on the 11th and all of a sudden a formerly good USPS tracking number is invalid. Not sure what is going on there. Also you can't be in the middle of an automated tracking call with USPS and then hit 0 to speak with an operator. It literally says go to hell, and hangs up on you.

Been lurking this thread for a bit, but felt I'd check in and say, lookin' good!

TurbStLCards wrote:

That countersprocket location only looks mildly dangerous!

TurbStLCards wrote:

Starting to get suspicious of the guy shipping my tank. Was supposed to be in on the 11th and all of a sudden a formerly good USPS tracking number is invalid. Not sure what is going on there. Also you can't be in the middle of an automated tracking call with USPS and then hit 0 to speak with an operator. It literally says go to hell, and hangs up on you.

USPS tracking numbers are basically worthless. Fortunately I've never had trouble with "lost" packages from them, but a coworker of mine has had a number of bad experiences, including a package that was delivered opened with no merchandise inside. No wonder they're going bankrupt. I hope that everything gets sorted with them.

Anyway, keep up the good work!

Carbombo - That there be a kick starter shaft. I'm sure TurboCardomon is going to run an encased gear drive to an electric starter. Or not...

Just Bob wrote:

Carbombo - That there be a kick starter shaft. I'm sure TurboCardomon is going to run an encased gear drive to an electric starter. Or not...

TurboCardomon has a nice ring to it. Lol

Turbo is what the crew I used to ride mountain bikes with called me. Then they shortened it to Turbs. Also I'm originally from St. Louis and a huge Cardinals fan. 

I'm not going to run electric start, just a kicker. Light, simple, and they look cool. I will be running a 4 cell lithium battery to supplement the stator and power dual 4" HID Baja Designs Fuego lights. You are correct though, that's the kicker shaft.

TurbStLCards wrote:

Just Bob wrote:

Carbombo - That there be a kick starter shaft. I'm sure TurboCardomon is going to run an encased gear drive to an electric starter. Or not...

TurboCardomon has a nice ring to it. Lol

Turbo is what the crew I used to ride mountain bikes with called me. Then they shortened it to Turbs. Also I'm originally from St. Louis and a huge Cardinals fan. 

I'm not going to run electric start, just a kicker. Light, simple, and they look cool. I will be running a 4 cell lithium battery to supplement the stator and power dual 4" HID Baja Designs Fuego lights. You are correct though, that's the kicker shaft.

Hah whoops! Bad observation on my part. I agree. The kickstart would look very cool, and the weight savings are always nice.

Sprocket, yes I know it's missing four bolts. No need to crank down and torque all the bolts just to tear it all down.


Sprocket

Gas tank, looks like short trips are going to be the name of the game.


Gas Tank




Plate to aluminum to plug the fuel pump hole and mount the petcock to.






I ordered a Pingel single petcock with reserve and a single in, dual out high flow vacuum assist fuel pump. I still need to order the mikuni 32mm carbs. I also talked to these guys at wicked atv. They are sending a set of these pipes without the brackets welded on. Some very very rough measurements make me think these might possibly work with minimal modification if the stars align just right. At least the chambers are optimized for a 4mm stroker motor that has been bored like mine. So that's a plus. We'll see how it goes.

http://www.wickedatv.com/DUportal30/home/detail.asp?iData=12248&iCat=306&iChannel=20&nChannel=Products

I also have a fuel pump bracket on its way and once it arrives I'll use it as a template and cut out my aluminum plate from earlier. I have the stock fuel pump just sitting there. No fuel has ever been through it. It is an 08 but I have seen a few threads pop up where the pump may be an issue so if anyone here wants it send a message. I'll give my forum friends a good price.

The rear wheel is still being a pain in the ass. I sent the dude with Marchesini wheels here a PM but he hasn't responded to it. Does anyone know him in person and could check his set up out? QTMI is still hard to get on the phone consistently. Does anyone else besides them sell Marchesini carriers and spacers? Not much can progress until I get the rear wheel where it needs to be. I thought it was fine and the front was the problem. Well I got the front wheel sorted out, and when I start measuring things more precisely I see that my rear wheel is off center by about 3/16''.

Yamaha naming two totally different bikes the WR250 (F and the R/X) is wreaking minor havoc with my plans. Besides the wheels (which I am working on a fix for) the fork guards took three phone calls and two tries of shipping to get X guards and not F guards sent. but they finally came and I put my day glo Yamaha stickers on. Should give you a feel of the color scheme.




With the motor sitting up in my "measurement cradle" I took some measurements and have decided to move in a different direction for fabbing up my cradle. I am going to weld the two pieces of angle to sliding door wheels facing the front of the bike. Then drill a big hole in the 2x2 square tubing and weld a nut in place. Then have a piece of flat bar mounted to the torsion mounts under the motor. That way I can hold bike stationary, move the motor front to back, twist the bolt up and down to adjust the overall height of the motor, and then finally adjust the left to right balance of the motor with the flat bar mounting plate. The reason for this is that I am hoping to use one piece of pipe and continually bend it from the rear lower mount, over the cylinders, and down back to the opposite lower rear mount. At most I want two pieces of tubing that meet up at the bottom of the chassis. This will require a lot of test fitting, bending, and repeat. It just wouldn't be feasible with the intial cradle in place. So now the bike stays in place, the motor is easily adjusted, and I still have plenty of access to the bottom and sides of the motor to bend the cradle.




In other shop news, my brother and I picked up an IRS pan for his beetle. We will start cleaning it up and building the 2.0L bus motor he has and plumbing up a low boost turbocharger for it. Then once the pan/motor is done we will take his body, paint it and put it on the new chassis to make one hell of a little roadracer.




And I customized the shit out of the Zuma rear fender.

Sorry for the lack of updates. Nothing too exciting has gone on. Just trying to sell the welder mistake and get a new one up and running. I haven't bit the bullet on the right one as I can't stand having all the money tied up in two welders, one of which I can't even use. The good news is my brothers friend and final shop tenant is starting to move in and he will be bringing his small Miller machine over. So at least for small stuff it will be fine, which is what I need, so hopefully I can get back on the ball! The damn wheels, damn them all to hell. If only I had a pile of aluminum axle spacers I'd be ok but I don't. Whatever, they are close but not perfect (they will be) and I think they were meant for the F bike not the R or the X and I don't care what QTMI says, they aren't bolting up as is. After this wheel PITA and the fork guards having to be sent back I am going to petition Yamaha to rename the R and the X something other than WR, as aftermarket parts reps don't seem to realize how different the R and X are from the F.

I got a little sidetracked by the Buell as well. Third gear is broken and has been for about a year. I have been lollygagging on fixing it since I have the R1 for the backroads and the Zuma for in town. A few weekends ago a friend told me that I was slow and couldn't keep up with the group on the Buell back in the day. That is false, yes I get dropped on the highway going to the twistys when they do 165, but once we get on the twisties, the Buell has never been a liability and I had no problem keeping up with my friends on it. So I bought some transmission gears and started fixing her up. I need to get back to riding it anyway as the R1 is getting dangerous on the street. I only enjoy riding it when I am really pushing it and with as fast as the bike is it's too much for the street. So I need to get the Buell going again so I can prove my friend wrong and not be riding so hard all the time.

So I've just been listing all the extra parts and other moto crap I don't need on ebay. Hopefully I will be able to finish purchasing parts with the proceeds from stuff I already have and won't have to break into my piggy bank any more.

The Pingel fuel petcock came today and it is nice!





I'm going to Nashville this weekend for my first NFL game and I will be picking up a 4x5' welding table while I am there. So I hope to have some real progress again in the near future.