CB 750

I have been designing my next bike using Solidworks.  I have done a few test designs on girder front ends. I tested 2 designs to see the strength comparison to the two.

I like this design the most each leg should weigh about 9.8lbs.  The simulation is short but it shows a static load of 550 lbs pushed to the ultimate point.  With a safety factor of 1.98 calculated this should withstand 1000lbs+.

This is a tried and true design that you see most often on a girder style front end.  With the same load this safety factor was only 1.57, and will hold about 870lbs.

The Idea is to cut this out of 3/8 solid plate.  Either using my CNC plasma, or just cut the shape out with the plasma, and then do the insides by hand....

I drew this up to simulate 1" DOM with .120 wall.  Simple but it gave me a great idea of what the other design will hold.

This is what I have so far. I posted another mock up a while bike.  You may notice the bike is shorter in the rear, more rake in the front, and obviously the new front end and some color scheme that I think I will go with.  I just need to do handle bars.

Elegance in machinery

I really think that moving machinery is so beautiful.  I love this table.  Some times I wish I was creative, or something.

This is your mind on KZ

A friend of mine put DJB in contact with me so we could fix up is boring old KZ1000

First thing that has to go is all that junk in the trunk!

Here's a tip use 1" conduit to mock up your next build 10' for $2 = way cheap!  I had this pic with the top rails being tacked up on the out side of the motor mount rails.  

Your next tip is Pick a better frame to chop...  Not that this won't turn out looking SWEET, but that it is all sorts of weird Japanese fabrication that I have to deal with to get good looking lines.

I borrowed the same seat DJB wants to use from Brandy Knotts, and I think it Looks SICK!

Tip 3, when you need to make a slot in your stuff always drill a hole at the end of the slot to make that drop piece come out nice and easy, and it looks totally cleaner.  Luv the port-a-band

And here you have it all chopped, cut, bent, and tacked together. Not bad for just one days work on the bike actually doing some work on it.  Only had to cut one piece over, so I used about 12' of 1"x.120 tube.

Modified Fender

 So because the back right tail light went out and I needed to replace it I decided to change it up a bit.  I wanted to move the lights up and face more out. I hope this will increase visibility and save my lights in the future.

Oh and I added some accents to match the tank.

All in a days work.

I got bored I suppose and added a jockey shifter to the bike.  I needed to fix the foot shifter from the accident I was in back in April.

I got some 1/2 in. hammered stock and bent 'er right up.

It took some fine tuning to get it just right next to the motor and through the pipes.  I think I still need to tweak just a little to get it right.  It only took me a few hours to pump this out.

Welds to be seen

So these are some of the welds I snapped from the frame jig we just finished.

This one has 2 MIG welds at the top of the pic witch are ok and are considered a 1F Tee Joint.  The joint in the center was a 2G Butt on the sides and a 1F Tee on the sides.

Now this one I have to say at first glance will look messed.  You can see the bead is really convex and some serious undercut.  This was done in position 2 x 3G vertical down (either side) and a 4F underneath, w/o filler metal.  This would be a great example on w weld joint to get full pen on the root pass then I could do a filler/cap over it with filler rod. 

Some welding

I'd sure like to say that every time I weld I want it to look pretty and nice.  Sometimes though its just about getting the job done and being able to walk away.  I did a job for some lunch the other day.

This guy (Jared) brings me a BMW seat pan that is swiss cheese, and paper thin.  So I patch the holes.  Pretty simple .0625 Tungsten and some .035 filler wire from my MIG, and some 16ga. backer plates.  Totally not pretty but solid.  I told the guy to make a mold and fiberglass the thing and toss the original.