My Project and a few questions

I love this great project. I just removed the stock shift setup on my XR1200 which is very much like what you are building. As you say, your footpeg is way back from the lever. The stock XR setup has a lot of slop in it and I made my own bracket and converted to a Buell setup. I think it is the kinks in the rod that adds to the slop. The Buell way has a reversed lever and short linkage and the shifting is much improved.





Russ

The XR1200 style is very neat, its the way most of the aftermarket rearset kits work too. To use that method with my resarsets would mean having a reverse gearchange, which I didnt want, as I have a few bikes and having one diffeent would only confuse my ageing brain. The gear linkage on mine is an experiment,if it works, thats great, but I'm assuming it may not in use, so a Mark2 version may be required.

Next I decided to make a new head steady, nothing much wrong with the steel Norley one, except I had to modify it slightly to clear the underside of the tank, and I wasnt happy with how it looked.my fault. So I liberated a piece of alloy plate from Jeff's scrap pile, and used the steel head steady as a template to mark out the shape I needed, and drill the mounting holes. Then I used a piller drill to chain drill the shape out...



It wouldve taken me ages to hand file the edges, but thankfully Jeff took pity on me and we used his miller to clear up the straight edges, which left me to smooth the corners by hand, drill some big holes (its a Cafe racer after all) and give it a quick polish..

I bought these digital instruments, they're quite small in stainless cases and mean I wont need to run a speedo cable to the front wheel.. they even give peak revs and speed when needed.. should be interesting :mrgreen:



They came with stainless mounting plates, which didnt quite work with the billet yokes, so I copied them in alloy instead, then drilled and tapped the underside of the yokes to mount them. While the yokes were out, I also drilled them for fork stops which we made in stainless. I had to guess where to place the fork stops, as the frame has no tabs. It works ok, but the fork stops currently fit the frame tubes which I need to do something about.







I then decided the clocks were too far out from the yokes, so I changed the mounts, it means there is no room for the idiot lights now, but I'll find a new home for them somewhere else..

The next big expense was the hubs.. I bought a pair of new harley hubs (the front is chromed alloy twin disc) as an early xmas present to myself.. which were to cause me a few problems..

lcrken said:

Very nice. Should be fun bike when finished. Ken

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+1....... I've enjoyed reading your progress, I'm not much of a Harley guy but that engine really looks the part. If I might be so bold as to ask you..... how much did the frame cost??
Cj

cjandme said:

lcrken said:

Very nice. Should be fun bike when finished. Ken

Click to expand...

+1....... I've enjoyed reading your progress, I'm not much of a Harley guy but that engine really looks the part. If I might be so bold as to ask you..... how much did the frame cost??
Cj

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I got the frame, swingarm, alloy oil tank and fuel tank for £2300 (UK pounds). I've seen the fuel tanks alone being sold for over £600 so I think its a fair price for such a nice frame kit. Its build out of brazed T45 tubing which is the modern equivalent of the famous Reynolds 531 tubing.

Coming up to date, the hubs caused a lot of problems, trying to use HD imperial sizes with a Metric spindle was always going to be tricky. In the end we had to modify the orginal 3/4 inch HD wheel spindle to fit the 20mm Honda forks.. took 5 hours of machining.

We had to convert the top HD spindle to work with forks made to fit the 20mm Honda spindle (below)




Then when I could afford the Morad alloy hubs and stainless spokes, I laced the wheels, first time I'd done that. The back wheel went ok, but i got into a mess with the front. In the end, I went to see my neighbour Bill, who restores flat tanker bikes from the 1920s, and he soon pointed out my beginner mistakes. Bill helped me true the wheels too, as I hadnt finsihed making a wheel stand yet for myself. That done at last, I fitted EBC discs which required spacers and Avon AM26 tyres and the bike was at last on its wheels.







On its wheels..


I've been pondering the right locatiion for the oil tank, it needs to clear the rear tyre but I dont want it too close to the motor, as the oil outlet comes close to where the resr exhaust header will be. I made a couple of crude brackets with a few different holes, so I could experiment.

I still have a big issue with the rubber mounts at the bottom of the oil tank. In the photos of Tritons, the 'rubber bands' go around the rear engine mount/swingarm axle, so they are pulling down on the oil tank. This seems odd to me, as that leaves only the mounts at the top of the tank providing any support. I did have a close look at a couple of Tritons at the Stafford Show, and they seemed to have their oil tanks resting on a frame cross member, using a rubber pad to protect from the vibes. I cant do that with my bike as that would place the tank far too low.

Any suggestions? BTW the 'elastic bands' I used are just O rings as I had nothing else to hand for now..

Another job I've made for myself is to make a one off Hydraulic clutch for the bike. I want to lose the original hand controls which are heavy, chromed and generally awful. What I need is a matched pair of modern-ish brake and clutch levers/master cylinders, while Hydraulic clutch conversions are available for Evo Sportsters (at a price), there is only one place I've found that makes one for Ironheads. At $300 just for the slave master cylinder, I thought we could do better.

I swapped a roll of old roofing felt for a secondhand Brembo clutch slave cylinder from a Ducati 916, my orignal idea was to combine the clutch adjustment inspection cover with this slave cylinder.. something like this..

Combine these two somehow..






That idea didnt last long, so now I'm making a new slave cylinder from alloy, uisng the piston and seal from the Brembo. I dropped off the alloy at a local engineering firm who will cut the imperial thread so it can screw into the primary cover (as we cant do that), then we can do the rest. May not work, but got to try.

Wow, lookin' good & you're making great progress, and thanks for the info on the kit. Cj

Bevelheadmhr said:

I still have a big issue with the rubber mounts at the bottom of the oil tank. In the photos of Tritons, the 'rubber bands' go around the rear engine mount/swingarm axle, so they are pulling down on the oil tank. This seems odd to me, as that leaves only the mounts at the top of the tank providing any support. I did have a close look at a couple of Tritons at the Stafford Show, and they seemed to have their oil tanks resting on a frame cross member, using a rubber pad to protect from the vibes. I cant do that with my bike as that would place the tank far too low.

Any suggestions? BTW the 'elastic bands' I used are just O rings as I had nothing else to hand for now..

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Hi Bevelhead,

Your' project looks great

The oil tank is held in place by the top bolts, the elastic bands and normally a "shelf" with a piece of foam to support the bottom of the tank. The shelf (on a Norton) would bolt to the rear gearbox mounts.

Good luck

Webby

I thought thats how Triton oiltanks were mounted, not sure I'd want to rest the tank on the cross brace of the frame, even with foam or rubber, suspect the vibes from the engine wouldnt do it much good. I'll work something out.

I used an early commando central mount tank, with the long top tab bent to attach to the top crossbar, and I welded on two lower tabs at the bottom corners which I affixed to the rear downtubes with rubber padded strap clamps from Fastenal. It worked a treat.

You can make out the right side lower mount here-


Looks decent, and relatively inexpensive-

ok, thanks for the replies, I think Ive worked out what needs to be done with the oil tank mounts.

I sat down the other evening and listed all the jobs and parts I still needed to finish the bike.. it came to 3 pages of A4 .. oh well, best keep going then.

I ordered a few more parts this week, headlamp, ignition barrel, tail light etc. The tail light arrived today, a bit of a cliche perhaps, but I like it. need to make a mount for it now and for the number plate too.. Ill add it to the list.





I've also taken the starter apart, painted the case and polished the alloy end cap. Putting it back together wasnt so easy, keeping all the spings and bushes in place is very fiddly. The ridged end cap normally has a chrome cover, which wont look right on the bike, so I intend to make a billet one instead.. I'll add it to the list


When I refitted the starter motor, it needed a new gasket, not a problem as I'd bought a full gasket set ages ago. One of the best things about older Harleys is the availablity and cost of spares, the full gasket kit cost me about £50, and its a quality product, not a cheap Chinese knockoff.










A couple more tasks ticked off the endless 'to-do' list.. First fitted a Tomaselli throttle and grips, it will need a one off cable to work with the S&S carb, that can wait for now..



Next the hydraulic clutch conversion is going ok, had to use a Banjo bolt with a built in bleed nibble for the slave cylinder. It sticks out a fair bit from the case and looks as if it'll need some kind of protection in case its gets knocked or the bike falls over (fingers crossed it never will). I need to work out how long a new clutch rod needs to be to work with the slave cylinder.. another item on the to do list..

Old Bembo slave cyinder on the left, we used its piston and seal in the new one..


The one off slave replaces the clutch inspection cap in the Primary cover

Finally, I tried a few calipers I had, all Brembos, a couple from a Ducati 916 and one from a Honda CB500. None really worked how I wanted, so I ended up buying a new rear caliper at a very good price. I'll take the swingarm and wheel to my mates workshop later this week and make the wheel spacers and a caliper mount. It means the bike will have two black front calipers and a gold rear, which bothered me a little, till I noticed that a BMW 1000RR has gold front Brembos and sa black rear, so if its good enough for BMW its ok for me..



Shiny new caliper.. need to make a mount, torque arm and wheel spacers next..

On most featherbed frames the cross member can be unbolted. The oil tank usually sits on a rubber cushion on a tray mounted on the engine plates, and is held in place by two rubber O rings which have been placed on the cross member before bolting it in . These are then stretched over two bosses on the sides of the oil tank. What is the intended end use for that nasty motorcycle ?

acotrel said:

On most featherbed frames the cross member can be unbolted. The oil tank usually sits on a rubber cushion on a tray mounted on the engine plates, and is held in place by two rubber O rings which have been placed on the cross member before bolting it in . These are then stretched over two bosses on the sides of the oil tank. What is the intended end use for that nasty motorcycle ?

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The rear gearbox mounting plate unbolts, so I guess that's the equivalent of the cross member on the original frame. The intended use? As a road bike, with as much power as I can squeeze out of the engine while keeping it reliable. Standard Ironhead XL1000 make about 55bhp at the rear wheel and weigh 525 lbs wet.. aiming for 75 bhp plus and at least a hundred pounds off the standards weight.

The back wheel spacers and rear brake are done now, along with a special order alloy sprocket from Renthal.. its hard anodised so should last ok. The stainless wheel spacers were heavy, so we took a bit of weight off by cross drilling them, 3/4 of the way through.. I've been following the speed trails at Pendine Sands over the weekend, and definitely want to take the ironhead their next year. Running on sand sounds like it could be interesting :wink:

looking good, thanks for the posts and pictures...keep 'em coming

Id just knocked up a tank from a sheet of alloy , and cut a Rover oil filler neck ( Alumn. )
& had a profesional welder nail it up .

Id tend to try to get One Gallon Volume , so 2/3 fill youll keep the olde iron alligator from
getting hot & bothered .


The Early Widelines , the sub frame top ( & bottom ? ) Bolts went right across , so fed through
the tube welded across in the Oil Tank . Had a Rubber Tube thrown in that . Fairly Satisfactory .

Cool project, keep the pictures and comments coming.

Jean