Café Commando build thread
- Thread starter Jeandr
- Start date
neilt said:
I think you have just re-invented the isolastics :wink: What a few people have done and what I did is remove the teflon washers and shims and their associated hardware used to restric engine/transmission movement in a vertical plane while restricting side to side movement. Some claims of better handling are made, I think it should work well and look different which is one of the goals.
Jean
davamb said:
Not yet, I will post pictures as soon as I get it and thanks for the comments.
Took me a while to get these working, for one thing, I started to bicycle again because the weather was nice enough to do so.
Here are my handlebars with the switches I will be using. I made the stubby handlebars from 7/8" stock drilled to let the wires from the bar end flashers go through. I bought a nice set of Oberon bar end flashers, they are really bright and can be seen from both the front and the back.
These are my foot controls, the brake was somewhat easy to do since it didn't have to cross over. I tried the folding kick start lever I had made for my featherbad café racer, but it didn't leave any room for the brake lever and it was just too close to the exhaust pipe. By fitting the stock kick start like that, everything cleared and I can get a good swing once the footpeg is folded. I played around with materials and came up with this design using ¼" rod, I think it looks airy. I will get every steel piece I make cad plated to make sure they don't rust and paint them if they look too weird.
As can be seen on the pictures, the controls have been swapped, shift on the left and brake on the right. The shift pattern will be reversed from standard practice so I may have to reverse the camplate to get it bog standard like nearly all bikes out there.
Jean
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2010
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- 1,275
Have you tried sitting on the bike with the rests up that high? May not be that comfortable, and is well worth checking out before powder coating.
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Carbonfibre said:
I think Jean is 7 ft tall (2m) so I don't think that will be a problem. :mrgreen:
Carbonfibre said:
Actually, the rests are only a bit higher than the stock pegs and contrary to what you may think, I do make sure I fit before welding things on.
I am not 7ft tall, I started out at 5'11" and some and I am shrinking as time goes on :wink:
Jean
Received my seat today, I am quite pleased with the quality it fits my café quite well, I am sure it would fit a regular bike too, but not with a fastback tank. The foam is a LOT more forgiving than a Corbin, that is for sure.
As can be seen in the following pictures, the rear loop will need to be modified, I will cut it and tuck it inside the bottom of the seat, then weld the brackets for the tail light and the license plate holder.
Looking at the seat pan, it is obvious it was completely done by hand, not stamped with a humongous press, but then, who looks at the underside of a seat :?:
As Ebert and Roper would say, two thumbs up
Jean
As can be seen in the following pictures, the rear loop will need to be modified, I will cut it and tuck it inside the bottom of the seat, then weld the brackets for the tail light and the license plate holder.
Looking at the seat pan, it is obvious it was completely done by hand, not stamped with a humongous press, but then, who looks at the underside of a seat :?:
As Ebert and Roper would say, two thumbs up
Jean
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2011
- Messages
- 893
Hey Jean, Your work really interests me, can't wait to see your opinion of the Jap rear hub. Since you've gone for a solid rod rear brake a'la Yammy, how have you mounted the hub. Is it solid to the swinging arm or floating to the frame.?...AC.
AussieCombat said:
I think you mean the brake torque arm don't you :?: If that is the case, I will mount it to the swing arm. I know it would be better to attach the brake torque arm to the frame, but the exhaust pipe brackets are very close by, in short, to keep the area less "busy"
As to the brake itself, it is probably better than the Norton brake it is replacing, mainly because is operated by a rod which is more positive in action. The Yamaha hub also has a good size cush drive, much better than the little rubber biscuits Norton put in as an afterthought. The solid axle is also better than the two part Norton original altough having the hub in two parts is easier for tire repairs. The weight of the two hubs is also on a different scale.
Jean
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- Aug 6, 2005
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- 1,211
Jean, There doesn't appear to be much clearance between the rear wheel and the underside of the seat. I only mention it because I have a 64 duc 250 with similar clearance that causes the tire to hit the under side of my seat when I hit even smaller bumps in the road. Granted I have out dated shocks but it is annoying.
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- Jan 23, 2011
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- 263
shrugger said:
Probably some 8 yr old girl in Vietnam making a buck a week. In that case they look pretty good!
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- Jul 30, 2009
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- 188
Muffler Bracket
Jean
Your machine will be a really nice one. I can see you have done quite a few of the things that I later wished I had done, on the Cafe 850 I built last year.
What I want to warn you about though is the muffler brackets you have made. I have a similar set up on my 850. Mine mounted on the center stand holes. It works great. It is way better than the original set up. The first version though in this picture was not stiff enough horizontally on the chain side of the bike. This led to cracking of the exhaust on that side in the first week of riding. I added a bit more metal and since then it has been fine over about 3000 miles so far covered.
The lack of stiffness was only a problem on the chain side. On that side the diagonal brace I had installed could not go back as close to the muffler mounting point (because the chain was in the way). This flexing led to the problem. In the picture you can´t really see that the diagonal brace on the right side that was made from .375" round bar is longer and thus stiffens the bracket more.
It looks to me as though your bracket will not be stiff enough on either side. You could just weld on some 1/4¨ X 1" flat bar to make the braket into an L or T section. This is what I did on the left side to make it even stiffer than the right.
The other thing you could do is attach the header pipe to the front iso plate to eliminate the horizontal flexing at the head joint.
Hopefully this advise will save you from cracked pipes.
Nigel
http://s901.photobucket.com/albums/ac21 ... y10008.jpg
Jean
Your machine will be a really nice one. I can see you have done quite a few of the things that I later wished I had done, on the Cafe 850 I built last year.
What I want to warn you about though is the muffler brackets you have made. I have a similar set up on my 850. Mine mounted on the center stand holes. It works great. It is way better than the original set up. The first version though in this picture was not stiff enough horizontally on the chain side of the bike. This led to cracking of the exhaust on that side in the first week of riding. I added a bit more metal and since then it has been fine over about 3000 miles so far covered.
The lack of stiffness was only a problem on the chain side. On that side the diagonal brace I had installed could not go back as close to the muffler mounting point (because the chain was in the way). This flexing led to the problem. In the picture you can´t really see that the diagonal brace on the right side that was made from .375" round bar is longer and thus stiffens the bracket more.
It looks to me as though your bracket will not be stiff enough on either side. You could just weld on some 1/4¨ X 1" flat bar to make the braket into an L or T section. This is what I did on the left side to make it even stiffer than the right.
The other thing you could do is attach the header pipe to the front iso plate to eliminate the horizontal flexing at the head joint.
Hopefully this advise will save you from cracked pipes.
Nigel
http://s901.photobucket.com/albums/ac21 ... y10008.jpg
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