Project WR350X has begun!

Wheel spacers... Note to vendor; How hard could it be?

Fast bikes belong on tracks where you can use them to their potential. Riding them on the street is just beating off.

Just Bob wrote:

Wheel spacers... Note to vendor; How hard could it be?

Fast bikes belong on tracks where you can use them to their potential. Riding them on the street is just beating off.

It's not just the wheels spacers, it's the brake mount on the swingarm holding the caliper in one spot but then the rotor carrier is way off and so on.

Trackdays are too expensive anymore. You can't do one for less than $500 a weekend on a literbike. That's way too much for me especially when I want to ride all day Saturday and all day Sunday all summer long. Like anything the street has is pluses and minuses but I do enjoy not seeing the same turn twice all day long. That and I don't have to deal with anyone. That's what I love about riding. I get on, I ride, I fill up, and I ride some more. Trackdays have the safety meeting, and coaches, and pit snobs and all that other social stuff you have to deal with, which does away with the theraputic aspect of riding for me. It just brings out all the characteristics of people that I try to escape in the first place. I don't ride the R1 around town and I don't have the passenger pegs on so no one else is directly in my hands.

I don't enjoy anything outside of motorcycles these days and even they are starting to not do the trick unless the pace is up. But that's a different issue outside the realm of motorcycle forums so I'll leave it at that.

There is no perfect answer. The street has some good things, as does the track. They both have some downsides.

TurbStLCards wrote:

I don't enjoy anything outside of motorcycles these days

Me too.

The money - why I quite the track.

I have a KTM950SM sitting in the garage but lately I've been having more fun thrashing the WR. If this keeps up I may end up with a pimped Vespa.

I ride this more than anything


IMG_1997 by TurbStLCards, on Flickr



Pimped Vespa? Check this out! scroll down just a bit.

http://www.2strokeworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=16399.0

The pipes came in from Wicked ATV today. They are made for RZ350s with up to a 421cc engine so the math behind the expansion chambers is done. This is just one of them but there are actually two. They were great to work with. They left the mounting brackets off for me. I'll be cutting off the head pipe and re-angling it, but overall they will save a lot of time.




And I replaced the chock on the stand. This will be a lot more stable. Like my stickers and art work? lol. Also note the plumb bob on the back of the WR. Finally got somewhere on spacing out the wheels. Man I'm slacking.




I haven't been totally wasting time though. I've been doing a little wheeler dealing on ebay and craigslist to build up my paypal account for the final parts push. A scratched up Triumph Speed Triple fly screen is on its way to get a fresh coat of Yamaha blue!

Carbs arrived. Keihin PWK 28s if you care. I also found a used kickstarter for cheap and put a rebuild kit on it. Feels great. It will be powdercoated later.







Got a little work done on the tank. I'm not going to drill out the petcock hole until I get the motor up in the frame and move it to where it has the most room. It will most likely need to go close to the front like you see in the pic.




I got a scratched up Triumph Speed Triple flyscreen off ebay. It will be painted blue to match everything else. The baja designs lights are supposed to be here early next week.







And I found this on the side of the road the other night! As you can see it still works. Score!

Wicked cool neato.

Just a quick update. I think I will be changing the flyscreen location so it sticks out a bit farther forward and lower. I think the lights will be a little lower when done but I thought it looked too cool not to update.

Annoying set back #371 resolved.


Welder

Subscribed! This is exciting!

Coming along! Definitely in for more.

Yeah some girl recently decided it would be a good idea to waste all my time. I told her I just wanted to work on the bike, then she's like "but I take my clothes off", and I was like "ok fine". I'm working on it though. I think her motives are just to steal the completed bike from me anyway, so i guess that motivates me to drag my feet.

TurbStLCards wrote:

I told her I just wanted to work on the bike, then she's like "but I take my clothes off", and I was like "ok fine".

PROGRESS!!!!

Finally have some good news to report on the project. I finished the motor mount that I needed to fab up my cradle.

The motor mount has full adjust ability to ensure the motor is as close to perfectly aligned with the rear sprocket as possible. I can move it forward and back on the lift. It can move side to side with the angle over angle slide. I can adjust the pitch of the motor in any direction by using the four pieces of all thread. Finally, I can twist the motor using the 5/8 bolt and jam nut.

The next step is to build a bracket that holds the chassis of the bike securely to the lift for adjustment purposes. Then I align the motor. Then the fun stuff! At that point I will have to bend up a new cradle. As you can see, the engine is longer than a stock 250 so the cradle will be going along the sides of the cylinders to make sure there is plenty of room for the front wheel when fully compressed.

The kickstarter appears to have no clearance issues. I will have to make extension brackets to move the footpegs out and up to maintain foot room and cornering clearance. That is the only real issue that I can see at the moment. I am sure there will be more but right now it is actually progressing in a smooth manner.

Here are some pics. Sorry for the orange ratchet strap in the pics. It is acting as a safety wire in case something fails on my stand i would like the motor to emerge without damage! It's not holding any weight. It's just for a worst case scenario.

Looking great!

Watch for wheel clearance at full compression when the exhaust is on, otherwise I'm amazed at how well that motor fits.

Awesome!

I just finished the mount to hold my laser beam. The laser line shines across the rear sprocket, up the swingarm, over the chain guide, and into the engine. The bracket is bolted to the sprocket and rear wheel and has a piece of 1x1x1/8" angle going back to maintain strength. This assures me the laser is always in proper alignment with the rear wheel and allows me to preperly align the front sprocket. I will still use an old fashioned straight edge to double check everything once the engine is in the proper ballpark.

SO! I'm now officially ready to start aligning the motor using my motor mount adjustments. Once it's lined up and locked down I get to go to the fun stuff. Bending the cradle!

This project is going to be a like a bike that I've long lusted after, a Yamaha TRD 250. Banshee moters are available, new and used, relatively cheap.
If you need help with a motor, call roger at Wicked Motersports in Garden Grove, CA
I'll be watching this build, very interested in the outcomes.

Getting closer!

The motor is damn close to its final resting spot




I cut apart the stock cradle last night. I hope to be able to reuse the mounting brackets so that it will look as "stock" as possible. Just a rough cut here to get it bolted on and see what we are working with. Nothing precise.




It going to be a close fit with that front wheel. Should work but it will be close. Maybe I'll get to scrape some rubber on the cylinder head at full compression under braking. That would be cool. Also the chain might just rub the underside of the shock reservoir at full compression. It should clear it but you never know what they chain will do with a bit of slack in it. The output shaft of the motor is farther forward than stock. I have a few ideas to counteract some of that difference, but the rear might not act like the stock 250. We shall see. Looks cool nonetheless.




Well, I'm up early. If I get what I want done today, I should have some pics of a few welded up items for you to take peruse. :thumbup:

Here is what I have done so far today. I cut the factory brackets off the cradle and notched the DOM tubing to accept them. I also got them welded to the tubing. I think I am going to make new upper cradle brackets from scratch today, instead of using the cut up factory piece. It will be obvious why when I finish the cradle.

You, sir, are a wild man. We'll be watching!

I also got the brackets to hold the upper portion of the cradle done yesterday.




And here is a bit with the shrouds and fender on to get a better idea of the overall look. I dig it!

You planning on putting the stock tail on it or are you going to bob it a lot shorter like the XR folks seem to do a lot?

Should look mean with a short rear end.

I am going to run the stock subframe. I was thinking about trimming down the rear fender so that is only an inch or so longer than the subframe. I wouldn't go any more drastic than that. The headlight and flyscreen will be very different and I am considering running one sidemount radiator in the subframe. I want subtle looks modifications so that at a glance it still looks like a stock sumo.

The short look does look pretty mean though.

Wow this project is very interesting, this 2 stroker is gonna be dangerous