Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Hand made is cool and all, but when it comes to a track bike, a "one-off", custom, or bespoke part doesn't do you any good when said part fails.  The proddie bike guys and gals just buy 2 of things that are likely to need replacement -- 2 brake levers, 2 clutch levers, 2, etc....  In my case, there were two custom-made pieces (of what may become many) that I thought I should have spares for (and whose initial fabrication/design/concept I was pretty sure I could improve upon.
One was the splined shift shaft -- at first I put two ends on it, to reverse the shifting if needed or possible.  In the end, traditional street style shifting was the only option.  So version 2.0 would only need one arm facing down.  Note relieved area for chain run.
This is the second version.  It still needs to be painted (note the bit of rust on the inside of the tube.  I'm happy with the design as it makes for a very sturdy, direct, and positive-feeling shift.  It will also work with a 16T sprocket, but the 15 I have on leaves a bit more clearance.

This is the outlet for the oil feed.  It works quite well, despite looking a bit rough.  It is a metric tube size, so the compression fitting had to be custom-ordered, and you can see where the steel feed tube has a few marr marks from being bent (I heated it and filled it with sand to minimize a kink forming, however).  I did buy a second DRZ400 feed line, and Cycleboys is going to silver solder a simple "stump" on the mount that has a barb on it for the appropriate hose.  The 90 degree bend will be in the hose itself, but I hope it is not too sharp to starve oil flow.  If version 2 works as well, I'll use it. 

Version 1 of both parts will go in the spares kit, just in case.  Paint work for the Key Lime Kawi is coming albeit slowly...

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