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RZ350 re-frame... classic 2-stroke gets modern upgrade

kpke said:
The dude has design skills, big giant fancy machines, and the brains and know-how to make it all work.

Tricky process there Julian. Nice work.
Click to expand...

Be careful what you say about other people. We have feelings too!:afm199
 
kpke said:
The dude has design skills, big giant fancy machines, and the brains and know-how to make it all work.

Tricky process there Julian. Nice work.
Click to expand...

^^^
This....so much this.
 
I'm always impressed! People don't ask me if I built something, they accuse me of it. :laughing
 
Here's another quick update. If you remember the process I used to make gussets on the prototype frame then this will just be a repeat, although the overall shape has been adjusted slightly to the gen 2 frames.

20211030_123115 by andbike, on Flickr

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With the gussets pre-bent, they can be tack welded in place starting with the outward facing surface. Then carefully "pulled" to minimize the gaps where the sheet wraps around the frame tubes, then clamped and tack on the inward facing surfaces.

20211030_142744 by andbike, on Flickr

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Nice tight gaps:thumbup

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Then final welding. I wish I'd been a little more steady handed, but it is what it is at this point.

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At this point the main frames are essentially done:party Just minor brackets for component mounting all that remains to be added.

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Sunday was spent building (most of) a rear sub-frame. This particular sub-frame is ear marketed for a race bike that will receive a generic R6 tail. I need to get it built and sent off to a patiently waiting race team who has agreed to do initial track testing for me. They have fabrication skills to modify and fit the sub-frame to their bodywork, so I just need to have the tank and seat mounts installed.

I normally use 1" x .065" wall tube for my street sub-frames but to save weight on a race bike I use .035" wall tubing. I initially thought about putting a 180 degree bend to connect the two rails, but that didn't go so well:wow

20211031_144710 by andbike, on Flickr

Here are some of the pre-made sub-frame components including machined bungs, laser cut brackets, and fabricated parts...

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Here's the sub-frame coming together. I have to be VERY careful to not burn through the thin wall tubing..

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This is as far as I was able to get, so to be continued...

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Impressive stuff, as usual. It's fascinating to watch a hand built motorcycle come to life. :cool
 
Looking very complete. As mentioned by others, impressive and fun to watch the progression.
 
Happy Thanksgiving everyone:Port

The last few weeks has seen some progress, although slow. And although slow, I reached a major milestone.

In the last episode I was waiting for some laser cut brackets so that the generic rear-sub-frame could be completed. The brackets arrived, were fairly easy to form into shape and were a nice fit. It replaces the cut, trimmed, and bent square tubing that was labor intensive. Not sure if I mentioned that the sub-frame is going to used on a race bike so I used .035" wall thickness tubing. It came out very light at about 5 lbs.

With the sub-frame complete, and with the front and mid-sections completed I now have the first frame kit ready to ship!:party It will be going to a race team on the east coast. They will be running AHRMA, WERA, and some other east coast specific events. There are plans to put some VERY big displacement RZ/Banshee based engines into it. Fingers crossed that the frame meets their expectations.

Okay, here are some pictures...

20211115_204859 by andbike, on Flickr

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The full kit as being shipped. Total weight for the frame came to about 34lbs. That is almost identical to a stock RZ350 frame. Weight reduction was never a goal for this project, but just more of a side note worth mentioning.

20211120_120856 by andbike, on Flickr

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With the first frame shipped, I'm getting ready for the next phase which is to build a batch of swingarms. These will be similar to the trellis style swingarm used on the prototype, but will be re-designed a bit to utilize a single shock. Linkage and geometry will be a direct copy from the TZR250 3XV swingarm that has been used on some of the chassis mock-ups. First step was to head over to Alan Steel in Redwood City to purchase material for the three swingarms.

20211107_155318 by andbike, on Flickr

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This past weekend saw the second frame getting built up into a rolling chassis. In a few weeks the rolling chassis will delivered to Brian Turfrey for his wizardry at pipe building. The pipes on the prototype are also Brian's pipes, but they were originally built on a stock framed RZ that had been highly modified for a TZR250 swinarm. They happen to fit really well since I'm also using the same swinagarm (or duplicates of the TZR swingarm). But having pipes made directly to the new frame I think he can optimize the fit even better.

20211120_143125 by andbike, on Flickr

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That's it for now. Back to enjoying the Holiday weekend:ride
 
Thanks for the updates! Happy day after Turkey day.
 
As evident in the slower pace of my updates, I've been distracted by several other small projects that have taken time away, Like this shock spacer for our very own Meandad.

20211211_134510 by andbike, on Flickr

That said, progress does continue if not at the same pace.

For those who have been following for a year or more, these next photos may seam like a bit of a repeat. As mentioned in my last post I'm starting on a batch of three swingarms. These swingarms will be very similar to the swingarms built last year for the prototype, but will be mono-shock variation.

To begin I've started by making some of the machined bits. First was a batch of bearing cups. The bores look kinda shitty due to using a dull drill, but this is just a rough cut. Final bore will be reamed to size after welding, so these rough bores aren't an issue.

20211125_105304 by andbike, on Flickr

Next up is a big batch of pinch bungs. There are 4 per swingarm, plus a few extras (enough for a 4th swingarm?) These are turned on the lathe and threaded, followed by a milling operation to create the scallop on one side. These turned out nice.


20211211_174511 by andbike, on Flickr

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Sometimes things don't go exactly as planned... like trying to loosen the compound slide, then hand slips and hits a large drill mounted in the tail stock... ouch! That one hurt. But I finished the parts before going home and calling it a day.

20211205_165817 by andbike, on Flickr

As always, stay tuned for more (maybe) next week.
 
Yeah, ouch. That looks close to being a show stopper.

Nice work Julian. :thumbup
 
Okay, who's ready for a little update?

First off, I want to let everyone know that my wrist is healing up nicely. Might leave a small scar, but so far looking much better. Sorry no picture. Maybe in the next post.

Where did we leave off... I think I was preparing to build swingarms. One item required this time is a fixture to locate the shock linkage. Sine all of the swingarm and linkage geometry is based off a TZR250 3XV, I simply needed to mount a 3XV swingarm in my main fixture and build a feature for locating the linkage mount directly off the existing swingarm.

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Next on the agenda... I've been very far behind on making the buck for the tail. If you remember a few months back I assembled some plywood bases for the tail buck. I needed to make some holes using very long drill bits and for some reason just kept not doing it.

There are two sets of holes in each base. One set of holes is for mounting the base. The other set of holes is simply clearance for screw heads that attach the buck to the metal armature. I originally drilled the outer holes for clearance, then decided it would be easier to remove and swap bases if the outer holes were for attaching the base and inner holes were the clearance holes. So had to fill the large holes with dowel and re-drill. Confusing, I know, but will make sense later.

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Back to swingarms... Last episode I had made the pinch bungs for the axle eccentric cups. So need to finish those. The cups are made from 3" x 1/8" wall tube. First rough cut. Then pinch bungs welded on. Followed by slitting operation. Then cut each edge to final size.

20211226_145351 by andbike, on Flickr

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A few other details included making new fixture spacers for the front of swingarm. I've increased the swingarm width to accommodate a mono-shock configuration with the shock passing through a portion of the swingarm. Last item was to cut and trim the front center tubes. Font pivot area is now looking good!

20211225_154538 by andbike, on Flickr

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I've taken a few extra days off work next week so I'll have a good long weekend to make more progress. Maybe with luck I'll get some tubes in place for this batch of swingarms and see if I can get them finished up, or very close.
 
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Oh, and here's a few bonus pictures... helping a friend add an RZ swingarm to his RD400 (AHRMA race bike). I decided it would be easier to take a few mm off the inside of his frame than to make the swingarm narrower. Nice having a proper machine for the job!

20211218_171830 by andbike, on Flickr

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PS- sorry about the crappy lighting in most photos. That's what happens when working late afternoons and evenings in crappy weather during the winter.:dunno
 
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First,chicks dig scars right? Glad your arm is healing.

Second, quite an update on the RZ stuff. Amazing work you do. That reverse cutting situation on the RD frame, dang me, that's cool. Seems quite creative but maybe it's "normal" in your world.:thumbup

Thanks for the update.
 
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