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

I don't have a well thought out comment other than I have been staring at the latest pic for way too long.
 
N4teTheGreat said:
I don't have a well thought out comment other than I have been staring at the latest pic for way too long.
Click to expand...

^^^
That in itself is a well thought out comment.
I'm doing the same thing.
 
The last few weekends have been way too hot to be in the garage, or I've been sick in bed (with a bad cold and not the other "C" thing). Anyway, a few minor updates...

In the last update we saw plywood being laminated. Those pieces of wood now are finished fixtures for holding the revised upper and lower main frame tubes and look like this:

20210720_155934 by andbike, on Flickr

The main frame fixture uprights are now positioned a few inches farther forward (compared to the original version) so there is now some interference that needed to be cleared from the uprights. So more machining at lunch time today:

20210720_154030 by andbike, on Flickr


20210720_154359 by andbike, on Flickr

More brackets arrived last week from my favorite laser cutting service in Reno:

20210712_184737 by andbike, on Flickr



Now with the fixture uprights back in place, I'm just about ready to begin the second gen frames:party

20210705_134201 by andbike, on Flickr

20210720_155300 by andbike, on Flickr

Stay tuned. Things are going to start getting real in the next few episodes :Popcorn
 
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Nice Julian. You do great stuff and it's nice to be able to follow along here.:thumbup

I wonder if you had the same thing I had. Very "deep" super cold. Still coughing a bit but other wise it's 95% gone. Weird fkn irritating summer cold that cycled thru the whole gammit of sick symptoms. I never get sick. I thought I had IT, but C test came back negative.

I hope you are all better. :party
 
With a bunch of prep work now complete I was hoping to make some real progress on the gen 2 frames this weekend. Well, unfortunately I hit an unexpected snag in my plans. So, here is what did happen.

Saturday was spent building head tube assemblies. I started by digging out some old bearing cups that were left over from another project that didn't require as many as I had purchased.

20210724_114609 by andbike, on Flickr

I also had a few head tubes also from an old project, but they turned out to be a hair too short, so I decided to prepare new tubes. First is rough cutting.

20210724_120422 by andbike, on Flickr

The rough lengths of tubing get machined on both ends to get the ends true. I also hit them with some sand paper while in the lathe to clean off the surface oxidation.

20210724_133926 by andbike, on Flickr

With both ends machined true, the next step is to measure the length of each tube and mark the amount needed to take off so that they will all end up at the correct length.

20210724_145331 by andbike, on Flickr

All are now the same length and ready to weld the bearings cups in place.

20210724_151129 by andbike, on Flickr

20210724_161130 by andbike, on Flickr

And now three head tube assemblies are finished.

20210724_160756 by andbike, on Flickr

20210724_160821 by andbike, on Flickr
 
Today I was hoping to get good start on the front frames, but didn't get as far as I had hoped.

The original project goal has been to build 5 frames total + one set of cut and trimmed tubes for reference. With two prototype frames completed and one set of reference tubes already cut and trimmed (to the prototype design) I have enough bent tubing for three gen 2 frames... if I make no mistakes along the way.

20210725_114239 by andbike, on Flickr

Remember those plywood fixtures. Here is how they get used. First the small fixture is used as a guide for marking for rough cutting, then sanding to proper fit.

20210725_114610 by andbike, on Flickr


Rough cut tubes.

20210725_121249 by andbike, on Flickr

Sanding to final fit.

20210725_121945 by andbike, on Flickr


Now using the larger fixture as guide for tack welding the frame halves together.

20210725_130700 by andbike, on Flickr

Then a little more welding.

20210725_134103 by andbike, on Flickr

The ends of the weld bead don't need to be perfect as most of the weld is about to be cut off.

20210725_134113 by andbike, on Flickr

The fixture is now used for holding the welded tubes while being notched for fitment to the head tube assembly.

20210725_143220 by andbike, on Flickr

Now have three upper and lower tubing sets ready for final fitting.

20210725_145248 by andbike, on Flickr

Looking good so far.

20210725_160739 by andbike, on Flickr

But wait... WTF! for some reason the front engine mount brackets don't seam to fit very well. There's about a 4mm gap where it should be a close fit. I could move the tubing closer, but it wouldn't end up in the correct position on the head tube.

20210725_160747 by andbike, on Flickr

I'm going to stop hear and go back to the drawing board and make some adjustments. The brackets fit really well in CAD, but when you're dealing with bent tubing sometimes reality and CAD don't match perfectly. Not to mention I'm sure you can see the cutting and fitting of the tubing isn't a high precision operation. Luckily the location of critical points (head tube, engine mounts, swingarm pivot, etc) are accurately positioned in the fixture, so if things get a little off in connecting the dots that is not only okay, but sometimes anticipated. Just gotta be sure the important dots are in the correct places which they are.

I continue with fitting of the upper tubes (lower tubes in the picture because I'm building the frames up side down).

20210725_171220 by andbike, on Flickr

20210725_171238 by andbike, on Flickr

Back at my computer I make adjustments to the brackets and send out for another batch of laser cutting. Hopefully they arrive next week and I can continue next weekend. Anyway, getting very close to having some gen 2 frames!:party
 
So very cool!
Thanks for all the pictures and descriptions.
 
Thanks everyone for the comments. Much appreciated :thumbup


auntiebling said:
always fun to see updates

are the bearing cups off the shelf somewhere or made to your design?
Click to expand...

The bearings cups are made to my design. With any custom parts, the cost goes down as quantity goes up, so I always make a few extra. I wish they were off the self, but probably not a high demand item.
 
Thread newcomer here, and wow, super, super cool thread. I've never seen a 500 look as good as those AK-1s on the first page... God I'm in love. Love that rear wheel mounting.

For China- I'm curious, what parts did you see? I just went there a couple summers ago and had a great time. No manufacturing visits, just sightseeing, but would love to hear a bit more about your time there.

Your RZ build looks stunning, that R6 tail really works. I've seen people do R6 tails on ex500s too. Looking forward to more updates!
 
auburn said:
Thread newcomer here, and wow, super, super cool thread. I've never seen a 500 look as good as those AK-1s on the first page... God I'm in love. Love that rear wheel mounting.

For China- I'm curious, what parts did you see? I just went there a couple summers ago and had a great time. No manufacturing visits, just sightseeing, but would love to hear a bit more about your time there.

Your RZ build looks stunning, that R6 tail really works. I've seen people do R6 tails on ex500s too. Looking forward to more updates!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated! :thumbup

As for China, I've been there maybe a dozen times and mostly in cities a few hours west of Shanghai. But have also been to Tianjin and YingTan City. One trip I was able to visit Taipei and surrounding areas. Each trip was normally 2-3 weeks. I think my favorite city is Suzhou. I did a lot of work in that area splitting time between a bicycle manufacturer, an injection molding facility, and a large contract manufacturer where we would set up our assembly lines. Of course a lot of day trips to visit other facilities. Coming home each time would make me appreciate so many things that we take for granted in the US. I made some good friends in China and although its a tough place to travel to for work, I'd gladly go back just to see some of the great people I had the pleasure of working with.

Most of my time was spent in places like this...

20180716_102630 by andbike, on Flickr

But occasionally I'd have a free day on the weekends to go out and explore with my friend Alex...



30728592_10156364335509468_1174772013286293504_n.jpg


31072999_10156376126834468_9015822947775938560_n.jpg


31091991_10156376519819468_2036245579876532224_n.jpg




One of my favorite places to visit when I have spare time in Shanghai is the art galleries at M50 (50 Moganshan Road)...

29340011_10156282189634468_7348460491066310656_n.jpg


29356090_10156282126134468_9024243016411381760_n.jpg


29313352_10156282126274468_2310118640566927360_n.jpg


And of course the local Hai Di Lao (hot pot) was our favorite place to go after a long day in the factory...

20180719_202917 by andbike, on Flickr
 
i would love to tour those manufacturing facilities. those are GT bike frames, i think. "triple Triangle" design is pretty distinct
 
auntiebling said:
i would love to tour those manufacturing facilities. those are GT bike frames, i think. "triple Triangle" design is pretty distinct
Click to expand...

I can neither confirm nor deny the brand of bicycles being made at this factory:teeth
 
Ohhh man that's so awesome that you got to swing by Taipei as well. My parents were both born in Taiwan, came over for school and I was born and raised in California. Go back often to see family though. I definitely feel you on appreciating how different life is here in the US vs Asia... And even then, it's great to appreciate California vs the US! Just such different cultures with different values, country's history such a difference in how many people there are and how crowded it is, and just how much nature we have around us stateside. Well a different kind of nature I should say.

Besides relatives and people, the thing I miss most about Asia is for sure food. So much more history and different textures than you'd find over here, and so cheap, god I love it. Also that factory is awesome, the scale is something I can't even imagine.

So follow up question though, how often would you get stopped for pictures? Haha.
 
auburn said:
So follow up question though, how often would you get stopped for pictures? Haha.
Click to expand...

I never got stopped for pictures, but I did have an interesting experience my very first trip to Asia. We flew into Taipei. Because of a long layover between flights we spent the day exploring the tea gardens up in the hills above Taipei. It was my first time in a foreign country and it felt very exhilarating. It was beautiful. People were very friendly. But everything was also very different than back home. I saw huge groups of people on scooters. Neon signs with Chinese characters everywhere. People everywhere. It was just amazing!

That night we flew into Nanchang and made the hour drive to YingTan City. Now I felt like I had just landed on a foreign planet! It was wild and crazy and so different in every way. I'll never forget that experience. During our stay in YingTan I never saw another white person. My co-worker is of Chinese descent so he fit in, but I certainly did not. I never had anyone ask me for pictures, but I was certainly aware that I stood out. It was weird. I kinda felt like a celebrity because of how many people would stare at me from a distance.

Because of our work schedule, we were back to Taiwan for a few days (Chiayi City), then we had 4 days to kill before heading back to YingTan to wrap up our business, so we decided to stay in Shanghai for a few days. I was surprised at how westernized Shanghai was. I had seen KFCs and Mc Donalds in YingTan City, but Shanghai not only had American stores everywhere, but American and European people everywhere. I felt like the strangeness of China had somehow been lost.

For several years after that first trip I traveled to areas just outside of Shanghai so never experienced that wild and crazy experience of my first trip. Its funny because I traveled with a lot of young engineers making their first trips to China and they would all remark on how different it was. I would just shake my head and think about how they have no idea what the rest of China is like once you're away from the very westernized costal cities.
 
Frame Maker said:
I never got stopped for pictures, but I did have an interesting experience my very first trip to Asia. We flew into Taipei. Because of a long layover between flights we spent the day exploring the tea gardens up in the hills above Taipei. It was my first time in a foreign country and it felt very exhilarating. It was beautiful. People were very friendly. But everything was also very different than back home. I saw huge groups of people on scooters. Neon signs with Chinese characters everywhere. People everywhere. It was just amazing!

That night we flew into Nanchang and made the hour drive to YingTan City. Now I felt like I had just landed on a foreign planet! It was wild and crazy and so different in every way. I'll never forget that experience. During our stay in YingTan I never saw another white person. My co-worker is of Chinese descent so he fit in, but I certainly did not. I never had anyone ask me for pictures, but I was certainly aware that I stood out. It was weird. I kinda felt like a celebrity because of how many people would stare at me from a distance.

Because of our work schedule, we were back to Taiwan for a few days (Chiayi City), then we had 4 days to kill before heading back to YingTan to wrap up our business, so we decided to stay in Shanghai for a few days. I was surprised at how westernized Shanghai was. I had seen KFCs and Mc Donalds in YingTan City, but Shanghai not only had American stores everywhere, but American and European people everywhere. I felt like the strangeness of China had somehow been lost.

For several years after that first trip I traveled to areas just outside of Shanghai so never experienced that wild and crazy experience of my first trip. Its funny because I traveled with a lot of young engineers making their first trips to China and they would all remark on how different it was. I would just shake my head and think about how they have no idea what the rest of China is like once you're away from the very westernized costal cities.
Click to expand...

Even though I only travel there every so often, I can definitely feel the change as well. In a big modern city like Shanghai, I feel it's inevitable. A lot of people on the mainland like American fashion, stores, etc. Lotta US pop culture gets exported, right? And jeez, Eastern Asia sure has changed a lot and quickly over the last couple decades. Hmm even the fact that you were able to catch a flight between Taiwan and the mainland gives some context to your post. Having grown up in the states, I'm definitely not "full" Asian, but I can sort of almost blend in. My Mandarin sucks though and is spoken with a heavy American accent, but still enough to get around. Kinda halfway in a way haha.

I love that the young engineers still get some version of your experience for themselves, even if it's changed a whole lot since your first time. Everything's relative I think, and if you haven't traveled a lot the perspective just isn't there yet like it might be for you. Awesome to hear your stories though so thank you for sharing!
 
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