Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Swarf and inspiration

Atom-Jet is making me the two spacers, and so I attacked the rear subframe, cutting off about 5-6 lbs in the process.  I shoulda done a before and after weigh-in. But here's where I'm at right now.  I had some 3/4" 4130 left over, so I replaced the passenger area and luggage rack with just the cross-member seen at left.
A lot of time was spent with the angle grinder, first cutting off large chunks of metal and then grinding off the remains.  There is more that could be done, but I wanted to stop here before I went any further.  Depending on how the tank fits, I might need to adjust the angle of the subframe, or add supports to prop the seat section up a bit.
I've also been looking online for some inspiration -- some sort of neo-retro look for the bike.  Over the course of the project, my ideas will likely morph and change, but here's a neat Hawk I found while researching fuel tanks.
I can see it has a 125 GP seat on a custom subframe, and the tank was molded from foam and wood -- not clear if it is covering an aluminum tank underneath... not keen on using a fibreglass tank on a streetbike.
Speaking of tanks, I think I found something that should work with my frame.  As usual, its from a bike never imported official to North America... so I found it in Germany, sold to me by a Dutchman living there.
From a bike called a KR1S -- a 250cc 2-stroke that battled with RGV250s and RZ350s in Europe back in the 80s.  A bit rough looking, but comes with a cap and petcock, and rubber bumpers for mounting.  Hopefully it gets here in one piece and is suitable.  The original tank is too small, ugly as sin, and wouldn't work with my oil in the frame idea...

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