Headsteady, Twin Puck Design:

jaydee75 said:

As I said, I designed around what I had on hand.
Jaydee

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I like the simplicity. Invite hobot over and have him do a few wheelies with low pressure tires... while leaned over. That should be a sufficient test. :mrgreen:

Interesting creation. I look forward to hearing about the road test.
--be sure to post those pictures of Hobit as well!

Cheers,
Gatsby

jaydee75 said:

As I said, I designed around what I had on hand.
Jaydee

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For me it would be great if you share the drawings with us
Fritz

bad_friday said:

jaydee75 said:

As I said, I designed around what I had on hand.
Jaydee

Click to expand...

For me it would be great if you share the drawings with us
Fritz

Click to expand...

Uh, I doubt drawings were made. I think it's like three pieces...

I like your design JayD
The thing that I would look at is will it fit under your roadster tank. Check by removing the tank and see if it fits with good clearance in the tunnel. I found the Norvil head steady buzzed a hole in mine. There is not that much room in there.
You may need to remove some of the angle near the top or reposition these so it is narrower.
Carry on.
CNN

On first rendition of first top link 5.3" wide steady it gave a buzzing a hole in fiber glass tank so can tell ya the link may foul if it spans more than ~5" wide in tunnel space. There is not that much side force up that high away form iso pivots short lever length disadvantage and isolastic rubbers themselves stopping the power plant tip even w/o touching the useless small cushions. Try to get witness mark photo's for us please. I'd designed a super magnetic sway plate but found a simple weak supported rod link does it for me.

I asked Herb how he came up with this design, he said it was an evolution from earlier designs he created which were heavier, more complicated and cumbersome; he distilled it down into a mechanically simple version which is also very light. I can say from personal experience that it works excellent in high performance applications and one other thing it does is reduce vibration to the bars; when I switched from my first racer which had an identical motor but a Norvil headsteady, I felt less vibes from this bike which I attributed to the fact that this headsteady design is not bolted to the frame, it just floats and works by interference. It is carved out of a chunk of billet aluminum.

Nice picture Doug and thanks. If I recall correctly, adjustment is by the two pads which screw into the frame?

I suppose someone could weld and then finish machine a piece.

love the simplicity and functionality and I can attest to the abscence of vibration on Herb Becker's Commando road racers.

[quote="Doug MacRae It is carved out of a chunk of billet aluminum.
[/quote]

Nice stuff. Some serious bracing.

There is no built in adjustment to it; Herb made it to fit exactly. Over time I did feel it start to get a tiny bit sloppy- I just added a little donut shim held behind the teflon and all was tight again.

Nice looking Idea, If you added a threaded rod about half way up the angle iron stays with nuts on the insides as stops and nuts on the outsides to lock it down, it would be adjustable lower down (just flexing it in a little as the pucks wore) and you could make it narrower up on top to gain clearance for the tank. glad you kept the springs too, looks good though,jaydee75. thanks for posting

CJ/me,
That's a good idea. A threaded rod between the arms would act as a tie brace and also allow puck adjustment. I could just lock the pucks at a coarse position and use the cross rod for fine adjustment. Arms are very stiff, but will move a few thousandths or so. I may add that.

Yes, I kept the spring support, but notice I made the spring cylinder out of aluminum and drilled it to save weight. Ha Ha.

Others: As far as tank clearance goes, it does clear. I designed for that.

Jaydee

Delightful to see the simpleton weight and material saving design ludwig has. There just ain't that much side loading up that high form isolastics short levering against the long lever distance. I am most pleased to see lubwig has allowed for some compliance with the rubber spacer. Back in '01 no one knew if top rod link or swash plates would transmit vibration, so I made a quick one up for Peel to find it actually smoothed sensations. My other surprise was with such weak support [3" of spindly crooked 5/16" bolt stalk] it allowed frame flex to take up tire conflicts in traction and aim yet totally prevented rebound but to just return to neutral but not beyond > as does my non linked Combat at legal rates or my SV650 or the NInja at corner school at go to jail rates. This don't show up until about crashing into turn loads with tire noises in gusty and rough surfaces so don't expect many to be able to test what it takes to see other cycles as dangerous corner cripples.

A factor to keep in mind on limits of Cdo handing is its not the power plant tipping on the iso's to resist at top links, it the rear patch swing arm lever pivoting on the rear mount to slap the front mount slack and down tube twisting tabs - sideways silly till fork oscillates into tank slapper. There is pure magic lurking in isolastic weak light frames - if you can wind it up for a sling shot effect. Other bikes can't store up this energy -they just flex-spring like a diving board or so rigid they spill the oscillating energy directly and immediately into tire traction loads spikes the tires can't take. Similar to hard tail on rough road vs one with springs and dampers. If you are out wheeling with speed and power the elites, then you find that there ain't that much need of sideways compliance as the turning loads are mostly in same suspension line as full upright. I found it takes more on edge traction to reach this state than balloon tires can take so my tool of choise are narrow long ways tire patches rather than blunter sideways shape with less edge length grip resistance.

If mass of head steady is worth anything Peels is likely simpler and lighter than Ludwig's, just spindly long bolt to reach down to the Al plate on head and the rod ends + Al radius link. UGHLY as sin but sweet as can be. I want to discuss tire hysteria noise notes in public tights with someone anyone that's their ride to point its the main thing to pay attention to.

So Ludwig it looks as if you don't run with the spring?? I am putting my 850 back together and using the rod end type (Dave Taylor), It seems as some people use a spring and some don't. Do you feel that the spring is a good thing?

Actually I think ludwig uses the spring, from what I've seen in the past. Thanks for posting ludwig, could you send me pm with detail info too, I've got all the info you had on the BB page from years ago, but reticent to make it from lack of detail. I understand you weld it together in situ?

I always liked the simplicity of the ludwig design.

Dave
69S

Any form of engine weight support ,ie attempting to centralize the ios rubbers as got to be good. :?:

Hortons Norton said:

So Ludwig it looks as if you don't run with the spring?? I am putting my 850 back together and using the rod end type (Dave Taylor), It seems as some people use a spring and some don't. Do you feel that the spring is a good thing?

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I could be wrong here, but I thought the purpose of the headsteady or head stay springs was to "unload" the rubber Iso's and help keep the front lower mount centered.

I can report that adding the spring brought my front iso more into balance, but I also tightened it as much as it let me, but it still didn't center. It did get rid of a lot of vibration at idle. I can't say it did anything for on the road.

Dave
69S