AirHead Drag Bike

Carbs fitted for clearance checking



Gear change rod fitted will need to be adjusted once we get this thing running



And so we can do some stopping the rear brake arm






So off for to WesterZoyland to watch some drag racing Sunday and see if we can pick up some info for next season....
 
WesternZoyland was a good day out mega hot, lots of really friendly people, looking at slick tyres and running presures. Tried to find bikes running spoke wheels then looking at what if any tyre clamping they were using as once your down to 14/12psi the chance of the tyre slipping round the rim and damaging the tube is good. Bit of a mixed response some had nothing others used 4 self tappers through the side of the rim into the tyre - but clearly not into the tube....., or the method we will probally go down is like the trials bikes with a rubber clamp which holds the tyre agains the bead which is clamped to your rim.

On to the next stage of the exhaust, so merge pipe was on its way to being finished the 2" pipe has been added and here we are welding on the first 45 degree 2" bend.



Trying to measure twice and cut once we then welded the other 45 to the straight length of 2" pipe and looked to see what needed to be adjusted to bring the two 45's to meet- hope the pictures make more sense :)






next up with all this tacked together we needed a methed of stopping the pipe twisting and holding it at the correct angle, here we have a steel mount which has a slot arrangment facing to the rear of the bike so this section can be removed, to hold teh exhaust we used a 6mm SS allen bolt and weled this to the 2" pipe, you will see we have all sorts to between mout plate and bolt but in the final solution we will turn up aa aliminium spacer.

 
Here with the silencer also in the action..


Welding with no filler rod - which they could all be this neat....


And all fitted to the bike



And with the silencer, the horse shoe bracket is still in the making to hold the silencer but no final desision on this yet

 
Rob - Solidstate100

Thanks guys - forgot to post this last pic. Off for 2 weeks now so hope to kick into high gear.....

 
Well maybe no high gear but 2/3rd ?

Time to finish off the swingarm - first up the exhaust hanger, as the swingarm on longer swings........ this ended up with a small set to help the silencer angle but may get a further tweak


And all welded up


Next up although the tyre had a bit of clearance to the swingarm drive shaft side, having seen how much the tyre grows in width with low psi a bit more room was never going to be a bad idea - after cutting at the closest point this then needed plating back over





And final pics after re assembly




Next up its modifying some perfectly good cables for ferules that match my levers and strip down the front forks to see what can be done to limit the travel.
 
Your just showing off. If I had the time, money and knowledge, I could do that :green gri. Can't wait to see the video of it winning. :bounce1
 
JungleJim

Wow if it could do some winning that would be superb, just enjoying the building, riding it will be a bonus.........
 
Its good news and some bad news day.....

Started the wiring and this looks to have gone ok few wires left which will be a discussion with RM but as this is a race bike.... its a fairly basic arrangement so hopefuly even we can sort this out.

Moved onto the drive shaft spacer, having patted ones-self on the back for such a great job adding clearance to the drive shaft side we finally got around to mounting said spacer - ok to the engine side but turns out we had been too greedy for clerance and when trying to bolt up the drive shaft flange its a no go :blast . never like doing things twice but looks like its out with the hacksaw again - we have a plan but still a bit of a :banghead:

More pics to follow
 
Bit the bullet and sorted the swingarm clearance issue- less than we had but no rubbing:green gri



Cut up and modified some of Venhill's finest with new nipples at the lever ends + made up the throttle cables.


Kill switch


And finally the wiring - sort of laced up temporary.


Drive shaft adapter now bolted in place.




We are going to cut a section from the sheild / come drive shaft boot area and some make a shortened allen key so the allen bolts can be tightened up in situ, the whole removal of the wheel is a bit of a faff ( basiclly bevel box needs to come off to remove the wheel), so it may end up easier to remove the swingarm complete when the occasion arrises, so access to these bolts would be helpfull. The hope is that once the correct gearing is found then other than general checking and maintenance the rear wheel would only come out for a tyre change - so lets hope not to often....
 
Final update of the holiday back to work tommorow :tears

Worked on the front forks as we need to restrict travel and run at a reduced ride height to std, no pics :( but lots of oil trails on the drive, over bins and generally everywhere but in the forks.........we now have a plan which will also need the front fork springs to be sacrificed to the angle grinder more to follow.

Dellorto Carbs - HOW HEAVY is the throttle action need to talk to RM but something will need to be changed or rider needs to man up big time....

Catch tank - needed to have one of these but in the fine tradition of lets make it complicated we made up a bespoke bracket and a bought a bling bottle, its going to be mounted between gearbox and frame low down on the gear change side. Aluminium flat strap and some of that lovely ali solder later.





Added some ears ? so the cable tie should stay in its proper place, the bracket is going to get powder coated and maybe some heatsrink to stop any rattles.....and the bottle may end up in front of a spray gun in the whole final paint scheme..what ever that ends up like - suggestions on a postcard please

 
From memory ( and by the looks of your fork lowers ) 220cm3 at 7.5w would be my starter ( quite stiff for the older g/s forks as they were 5w and some went 7.5 w but 10w is quite heavy for the older airhead G/S forks - but seeing what your splendid machine will be doing..hey, who knows ?? :D ).
 
Thanks Kenny, well something oily has been bought and should turn up tommorow for the fork rebuild...fingers crossed.
 
Fork mod was a success from a ride height perspective, not added oil yet and will leave this to the final build up - the environment agency is very happy about this.......Opec not so much.

The bike is now been stripped down for various finishes to be lavished on it.........spoke to Tunneruk with some vary vague ideas of paint schemes so will need to re light this debate, if we can come up with a plan hopefully you will get to see the next part of the project come together at his workshop.

The next phase will be to get a few remaining parts from RM build it all back up and then book up a rolling road session where the engine can be run in and set up, bit late in the year to be finishing a drag bike but should mean that if it all it goes to plan we should have a working bike for end of this year and all ready to go for next season......... also give me plenty of time to come up with some plausible / non-plausible excuses why none of this happens.

So next post should be some bright and shiny bits.............:rolleyes:
 
Thanks Solidstate100

If it all goes to plan the frame will get dropped off at the powdercoaters this weekend.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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