here's my work in progress

 

Thats looks great. Wanna build me one? LOL

 

That looks great brutha man. Have you started a thread with all of your progress or is this her debut? What are the details to come, color, headlight, intake, exhaust etc. ?

What kinda frame, tank etc. are you using there? I love that Sportster-esque tank.

 

I haven’t started a thread as progress is so slow, going on month 8 right now. I work in a fab shop, so alot of the goodies are homemade, such as the frame (95% 4130 chromoly) triple clamps, risers, disk carriers, exhaust and intake manifolds. Most of the other stuff has come from ebay. (wheels, seat, motor, 5" headlight, forks, brakes, radiator, etc)

Planning on powder coating the frame in silver vein with a silver tank & fender with a black stripe.

Forks are '02 GSXR 750, as are the brake rotors (carriers are homemade to fit HD wheels)

6 piston GSXR calipers front & rear

Wheels are 19" front & 17" rear HD wheels

Tank is a J&P Cycles late model sporty tank

Going with dual carbs to get away from the FI & all the associated hardware. 2-1 exhaust as well, havent decided to use an oval style canister or something more HD-like.

Small HD sprockets are hard to come by, 45 being one of the smallest I've found, so that along with an 18 front oughta effectively eliminate the need to use 1st gear. Figured that something along the lines of drag bars would be a good idea with 2.50 gearing……

 

I guess it never hurts to work in a fab shop. I'm gonna make 4 exhaust systems in the not so distant future for my TLS, SV-tracker, Intruder1400 and Skag mower. They'll all be 2-1 and out of prebent stainless tubing except for the Skag, prolly use conduit for it.

Looks like you may have room above the engine for a "hood scoop" lookin' airbox or such. You might even be able to keep the FI unless you got the engine without it. Do you have carbs yet? CV's really work the best, you might be able to use just one large carb for both, I think Harley has a 45mm and 48mm CV in their Screamin' Beagle catalog. Sure would simplify things and probably only kill some peak hp which might be a life saver with a rigid.

Radiator in front or in that big space behind the engine? The wishbone downtubes look too good to clutter up with a radiator.

You might try Sprocket Specialists if 45 is too big. They can custom make just about anything or give you ideas you may have not considered. If they can't do it then just about nobody can. Plus a girl works there as a tech. It always seems so alien to me when talkin' technical stuff with a girl, makes me giggly. She definately knows her stuff though.

 

I've been planning on dual CV40's, they're just too cheap not to try. I figured the dirt trackers are running 45mm & having to run restrictors (38mm for pro class?) & still dont hook up well, so like you said, I dont think I'll hurt HP in the normal riding range too badly.

I've been contimplating the radiator thing, I've picked up one that shouldnt look too ugly in front, my only concern with running it behind the motor is that finding a high point to fill & bleed from might be difficult, and then theres the whole airflow issue...

Jesse Rook had that cool KTM custom a few years back that ran a formed radiator behind the motor & looked pretty cool

 

You might could even run a radiator side-ways ala SuperHawk, RC51. You have to make sure that when moving the air pressure is high on one side and low on the other. A fan is a must regardless for when stopped. You might be able to go with a smaller square inch surface area but thicker to fit. If you do go in the front then maybe incorporate an ol'skool tractor lookin' shroud or grille. When ever the metric cruisers try to hide a radiator it usually is still an eyesore. You definately have a creative eye and the facilities to make it happen.

 

Some of the Suzuki cruiser radiators aren’t half bad looking, fairly narrow & thin, but the inlet/outlets have to be relocated to mount it cleanly. The fan is also too big, and I'm going to try the computer fan cooling route (as suggested a few days ago by other 'zoners) to keep it compact. I'll probably stay away from a radiator cover/aftermarket grille initially, seems to me that the more that they're dressed up the more they draw your eye.

 

keep those pics coming!!

 

 

did you buy the frame from ******* engineering? or did you fab it yourself?

 

That one there looks like an Ultima Chrome Horse/Wolf Daddy rigid frame.

 

Build Progress

 

Interesting. I quite like the Buel wheel in the first pics; and is that a front rotor on the rear in the last pics?

 

Everthing except the motor in the first mockup was borrowed, and I prefer spokes over mags, but to each their own.

That is a front rotor on the rear, I screwed up & bought a single disc front wheel & still had a rotor & caliper leftover, plus I'm cheap & didnt have proper rear rotor/caliper, so the choice was simple! Gotta see if that brembo MC will squeeze it without 8" of pedal travel..... :confused

 

A few new pics!

 

:hail:hail

Subscribed!!

 

I am intrigued to see how you're gonna get it to run

Also, in my opinion, it would look nicer if the exhaust can is angled up on the same rake as the rear frame tube :thumbup

 

I am intrigued to see how you're gonna get it to run

Do you mean due to the lack of throttle bodies/carbs, or just in general?

My first go around with the exhaust was using a yosh canister at an angle like you mention, but due to where the merge collector is, things just didnt look right. I wished it did, hand making the cone, muffler, inserts, etc was a expen$ive time consuming affair! :banghead

 

I actually like it. But I'd add some tubing to the frame, either in the battery-box area or along the fender, just for rigidity.

 

It can’t be seen from the side, but there are two tubes running under the battery box/motor mount & there are two more formed tubes in front of the rear fender. I haven’t ruled out more bracing behind the motor to take up some of that open space. Gotta get some of finer details sorted before I go creating more opportunities for multiple parts to attempt to occupy the same space.

 

OH! Good! That will make a big difference.

 

EW57, Keep the updates coming. I'm interested in any and all details of your build--especially the carb conversion (if only for the selfish reason of aiding me in my own build). Explain what hurdles you're facing, and the solutions you've found--including any parts suppliers involved. I also would be interested to know just how much power these engines produce when carbed. If a dyno isn't in your future, at least let us know a "seat of the pants" test result. Wishing you the best of luck. I haven't updated with any pics of my progress lately. I'm too busy trying to part out the rest of the TLR. Anyway, maybe I'll throw some up here in the coming month.

 

what TLR parts do you have left? Looking for a rear hugger, undertail, nose and/or motor...

 

How's your build coming?

 

nice work man...one day i will be skilled enough to build a one off for myself...keep it up with plenty of pics...i agree changing the angle of the exhaust might look a little cleaner...:rockon:hail

 

That is turning out pretty darn cool. I especially like the functional fork.

 

Oh, where to begin...... time has been the rarest of the necessary commodities, had another kid a few months back, so all free time disappeared. Also, at work, everyone other than myself (5 people) got laid off, and so my workload increased accordingly. The worst part of the layoff is my coworker/welder obviously hasn’t been interested in making the drive just for my benefit alone, so that has put a dampener on things.

Fitment issues all around! Everything wants to be where other stuff already is, which is ok, just time consuming to overcome, especially as far as aesthetics are concerned.

“Tricking” the ECU has taken some time to work out, regarding finding what pins go where and providing the values that the ECU wants to see for proper operation has taken some detective work, no surprise here as this was seen as probably being the biggest hurdle at the start of the project.

The radiator has been a struggle, its been quite a search to find one that wasn’t super ugly/huge and after four attempts I think I settled on an early 80’s Honda GL500 radiator, dirt cheap, fairly small & copper are all positive aspects of this radiator, I wish it was a little thinner as I’m concerned about tire clearance at full compression. My ‘97 TL1000 will completely bottom out the forks if provoked & if these ’02 GSXR750 forks are the same, I’ll either have to run really stiff springs or find a way to limit travel to keep the front wheel out of the radiator (ideas anyone?)

So, to recap, “excuses, excuses, excuses, whine, whine, whine” :banghead

 

Did you ever overcome those things? Would love to see this one finished!

 

I love this thread. Good luck with the build!