What did you do to your motorized bike today?

popped a hose and starting to think plain old vinyl hose just aint up to the task of water cooling :(

maybe plain old reinforced vinyl airline will do it!

now im just thinking... make pump or just "borrow"?


and what this head will be like with just a stock exhaust?
 
wha???? and not be able to see the bubbles?


:giggle: later, later...when im more confident :)
 
Took two of my rigs out into a parade weekend before- James, my soon-to-be 15 year old on one with me on the other- joined by a fellow named Dan who had removed the tines from his Honda cultivator and bolted on a sprocket that drove a clustered rear wheel mounted in the front forks... ran it through a deraillure, so he had (technically) six gears. Unit sat right over the front wheel, recoil start with centripital clutch- he could unbolt the whole thing and return it to garder use.
I asked him about the gears- in first gear, he could climb any hill in town without peddleing. third gear was as high as he had ever take it- too scary to persue a higher gear, he told me. At about 40mph it gets the collywobbles.
 
Mailman brought me a 1987 Suzuki DS80 motorcycle fork I got from ebay:

Similar to the popular Suzuki K10 fork, minus headlight mounts and fork covers. Thankfully, this dirt bike stem is 1" diameter and it slipped right into my cruiser frame headset. It's 1" too long, so need to cut & rethread the stem and install correct bearings.

For mockup, I bolted in a 26"mountain bike front tire. Skewer was too short, so I used the rear axle one. The triple tree is 4.8125" wide, 14.625" from axle to bottom of triple tree bracket. The DS80 OEM front tire is 2.50-14, or 19" diameter. I'll use a Dunlop 404 motorcycle tire. It is 3.15" wide and 26.67" diameter. If I don't cut the stem, I'll have 3.58" fork travel before bottoming out. Sidewall clearance is .81" per side, which is a LOT. On my Rockshox fork and Schwalbe 2.35", there is .25" side clearance. The Schwalbe tire would have 1.21" sidewall clearance per side in this DS80 fork..

This tire is a MONSTER. It is the OEM front tire for certain Harley Davidson bikes:

https://www.denniskirk.com/dunlop/fr...prd/542536.sku
 
Instead of cutting and rethreading the stem, I'm gonna bore the top of the triple tree so that the stem can protrude upwards. Then I'll use another nut on top. That way I can also adjust the triple tree bracket to gain more fork travel.

Kills two birds with one stone.
 
I got a hold of a 1988 Suzuki rm80 triple tree bracket for measurements. Looks like this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Steering-St...r:1987|Model:RM80&hash=item35c3b2e8cb&vxp=mtr


Made of cast aluminum, it's a little heavier than the DS80 bracket.

It also has a 1" steerer tube and is 1" shorter than the DS80 steerer tube. That means no cutting/rethreading and less shimming. The beauty of this model is that it comes with a factory motorcycle disc brake!

It fits into my cruiser bike headset!

This triple tree accepts 33mm fork legs, compared to the DS80's 26mm legs., so fork travel should be less. It also has adjustable top and bottom clamps, which means that the fork tubes don't have to be opened when you remove the tree top or make adjustments. No oily mess!

The Suzuki RM80 uses a 17" wheel. To run a 26" tire, one needs to respoke the hub to a larger rim. However, the RM125/RM250 uses a 26" tire. I'm gonna look for that triple tree bracket. If it has a 1" steerer tube and fits onto my bike, I'll consider that one. Since the RM125 has 35mm fork tubes, fork travel will be even less. It also has adjustable top and bottom triple tree clamps, so no messy oil spills too. If it fits and isn't too heavy, I'll use the RM125 and factory 26" tire.
 
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sounds pretty heavy duty :)

only issue i find with relacing is determining required spoke length....gee, a thread roller would be a nice tool at times!


speaking of nice tools, i got my plasma cutter today :)

only meant to be 8mm capable, most profiles i need are 1mm, so one pantograph later and im gunna have pipes left right and centre.

mmmm, pipes....lots and lots of pipes :)
 
If the RM125 suspension fits and not TOO heavy, it comes with correctly-sized wheel.

If not, then I'll find RM80's 17" front wheels, one to run as is, as I respoke the second one.

If the RM80 & RM125 hubs are same size, I can use the longer RM125 spokes on the RM80 hub.

HeadSmess, what's a pantograph?
 
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