Dogbytes' R80 ST project

Oh yes!

Nice to see it all the same colour! :) it is going to look Very Nice Indeed!

In truth, after five years of looking at it in various states of shit, it is lovely to see bits of it looking tidy.

Nin the same vein, the powder-coater reckons we'll have the frame, monolever, etc back by the weekend.

Tomorrow I've got about a thousand miles to put on a hire car in order to... collect the engine and gearbox from Richie Moore.

It's all coming together folks.:thumby:

Oh, and I had a wheel-building lesson this evening, so I finished the front wheel.
 
Well because I'm a bit of an 'ard bastard trooper I toughed it out and got the bits painted (base coat only) in my booth which reached 49 degrees this afternoon!!!!!

I'll let the photos do the talking!

IMG_9843 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9845 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9846 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9847 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9848 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9849 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9850 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9852 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9853 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9854 by tunneruk, on Flickr

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IMG_9855 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9856 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9857 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9858 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9859 by tunneruk, on Flickr

IMG_9860 by tunneruk, on Flickr

I hope you like them John!! :blast
 
L
Tunneruk said:
Well because I'm a bit of an 'ard bastard trooper I toughed it out and got the bits painted (base coat only) in my booth which reached 49 degrees this afternoon!!!!!

I'll let the photos do the talking!

I hope you like them John!! :blast
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It's a work of art, mate. I absolutely love it!:D
I just have to make the rest of it live up to the paintwork!
 
Dogbytes said:
L

It's a work of art, mate. I absolutely love it!:D
I just have to make the rest of it live up to the paintwork!
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Good O!!!

You can see how much I changed the design of the tail piece (and hopefully why I needed to)

I'll get some clear on the bits tomorrow ............. and an invoice in the mail :D
 
Yeah, I can see exactly why the seat unit design had to change but I think the original concept is still perfectly represented. It's a lovely job.

Tomorrow's going to be an expensive day - bills from you and Richie! :D
 
Dogbytes said:
Yeah, I can see exactly why the seat unit design had to change but I think the original concept is still perfectly represented. It's a lovely job.

Tomorrow's going to be an expensive day - bills from you and Richie! :D
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Bloody hell, that IS an expensive day! With a bit of luck mine and Richie's invoices will get mixed up:augie
 
Quick preview...

Long day, yesterday, in fact I've just walked through the door.

However I couldn't go to bed without showing you this...
Definitely towards the pointy end of road going airhead motors (and at around £150/kilogram it should be :D). I'll give you a rundown of the general specs later.
 

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Today I collected the frame, etc. from the powder-coater. Unfortunately I didn't get it until quite late and couldn't do more than offer it up to the motor for a quick look...
 

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Richie does a nice job doesn't he? I saw that engine when it was in the back of his land cruiser before the work started.
 
:eek:
Northern Monkey said:
That looks sooooool feckin nice it's untrue ! When you get bored you can work on mine!!! (Ps bring your own budget !) ;)
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Thanks, I'm working hard to ensure that the finished product will be up to the same standard.:eek:

It's sad but true, budget is important. You can make cool things but it takes time and time is money. Good materials cost money. If you can't make it (for lack of time, technology, experience) you have to buy it in and again if it's good it's expensive (for the above reasons).

A BMW S1000 HP4 costs, what, £23k? A decent privateer S1000 race bike is £75k. Kawasaki make a bike costing £44k, Honda make one costing, allegedly, £132k! I read that the K1600 that Krugger built for BMW took 3000 hours to build, now, if you're a former world champion custom bike builder, you ain't working for minimum wage, so that too is an expensive bike.

I may share, at the end of all this, what this has cost. I already have a pretty good idea and it is scary - but I could easily spend another £6k or so on parts if I had the opportunity. Who's to say - it may get a 'stage 2' treatment at some point, or it may not. Whether it does or not, it is going to be a very nice bike but whether it is economically justifiable is, in the final analysis, entirely down time whims of fashion and peoples' perception.
 
Whims of people's perceptions! Feck em! If you're doing it for anyone else then you're wasting your time ;)

Just hurry up already and let's see it finished! ;)


Sent by magic
 
Arse well and truly bitten!

Doing a build like this and not doing a proper dry build always had the potential for disaster and sure enough, 1 day, it has bitten me on the arse.

The problem was that it was all becoming a bit time critical so I didn't wait until I had the actual engine with its actual ancillaries before I stripped the frame et al for powder coating, painting, etc.

Anyway, the engine and gearbox went in beautifully right until the time I thought I'd put the carbs on to admire it. Carbs? No probs, velocity stacks? Not a chance. The stacks interfere with the diagonal frame braces, particularly on the right (rearmost cylinder.

I could shorten the inlet stubs, I could shorten the velocity stacks but both of those options (and I've checked with RM) would trash it's mid range performance. In an ideal world a set of cranked inlet stubs - so that the carbs sat almost parallel to the crankcase would solve the problem. Not ideal from an inlet tract point of view, but I'd be tempted to try it. I mean, airheads inlet tracts aren't exactly ideal anyway.

Anyway, I have retired to sob pitifully and consider my options...
 
Dogbytes said:
Doing a build like this and not doing a proper dry build always had the potential for disaster and sure enough, 1 day, it has bitten me on the arse.

The problem was that it was all becoming a bit time critical so I didn't wait until I had the actual engine with its actual ancillaries before I stripped the frame et al for powder coating, painting, etc.

Anyway, the engine and gearbox went in beautifully right until the time I thought I'd put the carbs on to admire it. Carbs? No probs, velocity stacks? Not a chance. The stacks interfere with the diagonal frame braces, particularly on the right (rearmost cylinder.

I could shorten the inlet stubs, I could shorten the velocity stacks but both of those options (and I've checked with RM) would trash it's mid range performance. In an ideal world a set of cranked inlet stubs - so that the carbs sat almost parallel to the crankcase would solve the problem. Not ideal from an inlet tract point of view, but I'd be tempted to try it. I mean, airheads inlet tracts aren't exactly ideal anyway.

Anyway, I have retired to sob pitifully and consider my options...
Click to expand...

Ouch, ouch and thrice ouch!
 
Bloody hard to swallow, when things go wrong.:mad:

However, if it were me, I'd shorten the stubs if it's cheaper than the stacks and see how she goes. They may warn you of her midrange being down, it may be acceptable to you tho.:rob
would you benefit with the optimum + cost.:nenau

One step at a time, after all, she is being built to your spec, and it's taken a long time.
 
It all looks so brilliant so far I'm sure a good plan will appear. I've seen them before where the bell mouth has a shape cut out of it to allow the brace through and thought "That looks cool". :cool:

Any photos?
 
markjackson said:
It all looks so brilliant so far I'm sure a good plan will appear. I've seen them before where the bell mouth has a shape cut out of it to allow the brace through and thought "That looks cool". :cool:

Any photos?
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That is favourite at the moment - I need to figure out how much I need to lose though.

Will post pics of that bit in the morning.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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