Front forks

I've been collecting front fork parts to upgrade two of my bikes. I want my SS50 motorcycle to have thicker front forks, as it struggles with the original 25mm forks while at the same time I would like to upgrade the SS50 race project with stiffer yokes and better internals.
By now I've found pretty much everything, so I've started work on it.

These yokes will have the handlebarmounts removed to look like MT125R yokes, the clamp will be more stable then the bolted type.

Forktubes will be replaced by MT5 tubes that will be shortened, thes also have the big plugs on top that match with the clamped yoke. The internals will be made as a copy of an MT125R forkleg, which actually has some sort of damper. Sadly loose parts are not available, but I have a forkleg on loan to copy from.

As the forks were out of the frame, this was also the right time to weld on a fairing stay:


that was some slight progress on this project, I've also started on the front fender, but that is on hold again, as I had some parts for another project

new rims......four of 'm

Okay, its winter over here, so the bikes are inside for now, I don't want them to rot away because of the salt on the roads. So The V-double-U is getting used a lot.
But I happenend to hit a patch of ice that caused me to crash into a curb, puncturing one of my front tyres....
The other front was pretty much worn, and so are the rear ones on my set of 15" BBS rims.
For now I have some old 14" rims, that I really don't like the look off, so I had to decide about getting 4 new tyres for the summer, or getting completely new wheels.
I decided on new wheels, a new look, something different:

For now they are still inside untill the weather clears, but I wanted to get a quick look so I took this picture with the wheels standing in front of my car. It will actually become lower with the low profile 13" tyres, so I hope I can still get over the speedbumps.

Superhead

Yes I've gone over to the kitakkiewakkie-craft side....
I've traded a spare CL70 head, which are quite rare over here, against a takegawa superhead with worn valves and some more little issues.

Today my dad was looking around for something to do, so I gave him the cilinderhead to go and play with :P
Guides were reamed from 5mm tot 5,5, to fit standard S90 valves, seats were cut, head was glassbeadblasted and the valvelift was checked with the cam that came with it. This all looked good and it will become the cilinderhead for my SS50 racer project.
Now just to decide on a gearbox and clutch.

I've heard that a German friend might have a spare clutch, he races an SS50 engined kreidler, but I sadly can't find any contact information.
If you know this guy, or if you are him, could you give me an E-mail?

Kennen sie die fahrer dieser renn-Honda, bitte senden sie ein E-mail

Tank Coating, part deux

My tank is being painted, thanx dad.
We had a big can of red, so that's what color the tank is going to be. Decided to remove the old emblem mountings as they were pretty mangled, probably will look better with a classic set of honda wing stickers and some silver stripes running along the length, just like the old RC tanks.

I'm liking the way this looks, might just put it back on my SS50Z moped, to make it look more like the way it used to, long ago:

Same tank by the way, one or two crashes earlier...

122cc motor cylinderhead

Done a little bit of work for my S90 in between all the other projects.
The plan is to build another engine, bored and stroked to 122cc by using ATC110 parts, cylinder, crankshaft and head. Only the ATC110 head has separate valve seats which are pretty thin, which means there is not enough material in them to install a bigger inlet valve.
A while ago I recieved a head from someone, probably C90, that had a full cast in combustion chamber, much easier to put a larger valve in there, but this head didn't fit the ATC110 cilinder.
I had to machine the space for the top of the cilinder, and also the studbolt hole where the oil comes up, as the ATC110 has a large rubber collar there and the C90 head didn't have a space for it.

ATC head on the left, C90 on the right.

the valve I plan on using compared to the original S90 inlet valve

when made to fit the head, this motor will breathe a little easier.

little changes

Some little changes have been made to my SS50, just a crappy pic in the dark, but it's wintertime, it gets dark soon and I didn't have my exhaust mounted in time to make pictures in the light.
Custom painted tank emblems, exhaust that came off my motorcycle, different seat, CB50 shocks and a slightly different taillight (short lens type)

BMW front forks

I've done a lot with the front forks of my BMW, stiffer springs, more preload, thicker oil, shortened original springs...
I pretty much had a good setup for a while, eccept for the occasional tankslapper at slow speeds.
Back in the day, they sold tubular fork braces, that I thought would make a great period specific addition to my bike, so I bought one off ebay, mounted it to my bike and as the weather was sort off nice, I had a testride.

I wasn't at the end of the street yet, or I had the worst tankslapper yet...
I had hoped this would be pretty much the answer to all problems, but it turned out to open up a whole new can of worms.
What to do now?
Another period upgrade for the front forks were alloy top yokes that clamp the forklegs instead of the original bolted connection. I've seen them on ebay, and they are not cheap. But what I've seen before, was that some people make their own by using a bottom yoke as a top, and as we had some bottom yokes laying around, I started adapting one.

In the picture you can see what will be the underside of the top yoke, I machined it down so my clip-ons could remain as high as possible for comfortable road use.
I also machined the center hole to fit the stemnut.
and then mounted it, as it was still sort of nice weather, I had a testride.
Yess, this made a dramatic inprovement in handling, not perfect yet, but were atleast getting close again. Now that the forks are much stiffer, I might just need thinner oil again.

Now I just need to finish the yoke, some more material needs to be machined off to be able to tighten the stemnut, I'm just not sure yet what to do.
Leave it as is, showing the raw casting with the numbers and logo, or machine the whole top flat and polish it to get one flat shiny surface....what do you think?

Tank Coating

My dad has been working on one of his Beemers, that will need its tank coated...this got me thinking about an old SS50zk1 tank I had laying around.
When coated it would be usable again, if something could be done about the mangled filler opening.
And so this project began:

the original opening has been cut out and replaced with an original Honda flip-up cap that was cut out of a CB-motorcycle gas tank.
I never really liked the looks of an SS50z tank, but this really makes it a lot better.
I might even use this tank for my race project, otherwise it will be a spare, or for sale.

A bit of old news

It's a bit of old news, but my camera broke, so no pictures for a while.
My dad and I went to the Ital-dag, even though I don't really have a close connection with italian bikes, sometimes you need an excuse to go for a ride.
Ralph made some pictures, also at the parking lot, and I really liked this one, the state of my dad's Oudshoorn BMW at the moment:

Behind it, my R90/6 joe-bar caferacer, compare the size.

Cool stuff.......oil, that is

I had this idea for a while, just been looking for the right parts.
Don't know if I really like the look, but it was fun to build, something unique, I mean, how many C110 oilcoolers have you seen?