KTM 620 stripped back

 Stripped off all the plastics today so I can see what
I have to work with.

Clean up etc etc

Bolted on my ebay centre stand and original headlight. And then a good clean up. Rear master cylinder on from the UK. Next task is to ride and ride and ride!!!!!

My new (slightly used) Kato supermoto

Picked it up a couple of weeks ago!

Project DR400 supermoto abandoned!

Long story short I had a very good offer on the USD forks so I took it and then what the hell lets see what I can get for whats remaining. Had quite a few calls but no takers yet.

I have decided that I want to take on a different project and so my vintage supermoto is up for sale in any way shape or form. I am located in Australia by the way.

Suzuki DR400 1980 model VMX project bike

95% complete bike disassembled

Genuine Suzuki workshop manual

New parts include many gaskets, cam chain, exhaust valve, rectifier, battery, throttle cable, sprocket & chain

Powdercoated frame

Plastic and chrome mudguards

Used spares include swingarm, shocks, wheel hubs, forks & triples, footpegs, 2 x bashplates, CDI unit, airbox and many more parts.

$500.

Also KX250 upside down forks (SOLD)

Pair of 16x3 inch aluminium wheels to suit café racer. Tyres are brand new Metzler lasetecs. Axle size is 17mm and drum brake is 180mm diameter.

$750

Tried a different rear tyre

I was never completely happy with the taller rear tyre, so I slipped in the front wheel/tyre in its place (as they are both the same!) and I like it, looks more super motard! Only its a front yre, so not a permanent solution!!!

Wheel building again

Seeing as how I sold the USD forks, I am going to combine the stock DR400 forks with a twin-leading shoe front brake (ex CB175) and a sun rim 17x2.75. Sometime ago I ordered some custom spokes at 146mm long but they just remained in their packet till today. Turns out that all these parts do fit together fairly well. Things to do include spacers to allow the 12mm axle to fit 15mm bearings and a bracket to mount the brake stay. By my calculations there should be enough room to squeeze a 110 wide tyre in.

Bits n Bobs

Over the last week have connected up the front brake cable, bolted up the new rear sprocket and spacers and carefully shaped the seat base. Need to source some high-density foam for the seat padding and make a front fixing to fix the front part of the seat. Also need to make a bracket to fix the front mudguard to the forks.

Crispy Custom seat

Decided to have a go at making my own custom seat base like the low-profile styles that are popular at the moment. My father used to do auto-trimming in his shed, so I have a good idea of whats involved. The plan is to fabricate the seat base in mdf and foam and then get an auto-trimmer to cover it in vinyl.
The photos show the seat base and rear mounting points.

Rolling frame

Got a new tyre fitted to the rear wheel on Saturday and bolted it up, just need to fine tune the wheel spacers and wait for the sprocket to arrive. Got rid of the tailight bracket etc and seat and am now thinking I really need a really low profile cafe style seat! Also wired on the front mudguard to see what kind of bracket I need to make and bolted on the bars. Starting to really look like a bike that will go somewhere some day

Rear tyre/wheel fitted

I now have a rolling chassis. To do list consists of fine tuning of the wheel and sprocket spacers. Have removed the inner rear mudguard as it looks a bit naff. Waiting for new sprockets to turn up before doing the fine tuning.

And the Rear wheel fits right in...

Thanks to a very generous member from perthstreetbikes.com I now have  the sprocket carrier machined down and a matching spacer which centralises the wheel and aligns the sprockets. After a few more small mods the brake torque arm and brake cable bolt right up, perfect. Just need to make sprocket bolts shorter, find a longer bolt for the torque arm connection and order a new rear sprocket.

Its not Photoshop its real!

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Bolted my USD front end onto the DR400 Supermoto tonight. Fits really well, the triple clamp bolt is the right length, all the steering stops work and the forks do not hit the tank! Am planning to push the forks up so they protrude out of the top of the triple clamp as the USD forks are 100mm longer. The 21 inch front tyre is 710mm in diameter, where as the 16 inch front tyre is 604mm in diameter, so there is 50mm already, so I just need to push the forks up by around another 50mm to get back to standard geometry.

Now for the Rear Wheel part II

Took a couple of photos to illustrate where the cush drive will be modfiied to allow the rim to sit in centrally in the swing-arm. Just remove material where indicated.

Now for the Rear Wheel

Now that the front end is fairly complete, I thought to see wnat mods are required to get the rear wheel to fit. It is an identical wheel to the front, from a KZ650 Kawasaki custom. The chain from ebay arrived the other day and together with my 'mock-up' rear sprocket I could investigate chain and tyre clearances. I discovered that with the chain in correct alignment the rim needs to be moved to the left by around 9mm. This will be achieved by machining down the face where the sprocket mates by 9mm or maybe 10mm. This will allow fitment of a 130mm wide rear tyre leaving 4mm clearance on the chain.

USD front end 99% complete

Hooray! Its been a while coming, but my retro front end is nearly ready to fit to the bike. Had a tyre fitted to the wheel this morning, a Metzeler Lasertec 110/80-16 which is the widest I can get between the fork legs. Also picked up a front brake cable from a Suzuki RM250Z (1982 vintage motocrosser) and it is long enough! Result! All thats left to do now is fine tune the wheel spacers and make a fitting to fit the lower end of the brake cable to the actuator. Am very happy with the result!

Front Brake Bracket II

Got the bracket welded up, then drilled the cable hole and slot. This is what it looks like with the cable installed. Need to now find a front brake cable that is long enough, probably from an early to mid-eighties motocrosser, more ebay questions? Easier just to go down to the local wrecker and find one that will fit!

Front brake bracket

Front brake bracket (in red) half done. Plate needs to be welded to the round bar and hole drilled thru for brake cable...

Vintage bars and grips

Arrived in the post today. Steel flat track bars and brown grips.

Cost up-to-date

Today I ordered some new flat-track style bars, vintage grips and levers. The total cost spreadsheet is pictured above.

The ultimate cafe racer

I have not yet featured any one else's custom work, but as refering to my previous post and me trying to find a suitable 'next bike' for me. Trust Roland Sands of RSD (Roland Sands Design) to come up with almost exactly what I was thinking of just this morning. Take one road registerable enduro motorcycle such as a KTM 525 EXC or a Yamaha WR450, add a super single 450 kit which transforms it to a road-carving road racer and then add some cafe touches and I think you have the ultimate scratching machine. Nice one Roland! Eleven out of ten!

Changing my motorcycle - but which one?

The time has come to trade my old motorcycle (currently a ZX12) for something different.
But which one? At first i wanted a supermoto or motard, but seeing as how i am building one, I was thinking about going the cafe route. I have also set myself a budget of $8000 all up. I do not want to spend more time buying something that requires a lot of modifications. The retro bikes such as Kawasaki W650 & 800 ,Triumph twins and Honda CB1100 are a bit too expensive. I want a bike that is fairly new (so I don't have to rebuild it) but has more up-to-date cycle parts. That only leaves bikes like the Yamaha XJR1200/1300 and Kawasaki ZRX1100/1200. Its a shame smaller capacities such as 750 or 900 are available. The Honda Hornet 900 is another possibility but requires too much modification to get to cafe spec. The XJR has some of the essential cafe elements such as an air-cooled engine and twin shock rear end.
I did this mock-up in photoshop to see how a modification such as changing the seat and tail combo can completely change the style. The bike is a basic black and grey, but just add a coloured cafe tail and seat with an imola style tail light and voila, instant cafe!
Still requires the subframe to be cut shorter and relocation of the battery and I also shortened the muffler as well.

Front Brake Torque Arm - 3D model

Quickly modelled ths brake bracket up in AutoCad 3d. Upper two holes mount to the lower fork leg, lower hole is where the brake cable goes through and the hole for mounting to the brake plate is hidden behind. Have used photoshop to emboss 'crispy one' on the only custom part so far. Part will be painted to match cylinder and the rear shock springs.

Original vs My Re-style

I think you would agree that my version (below) is definitely better than the original plastic fantastic!

Red cylinder

The overbored cylinder has no paint, so rather than paint the entire engine black, I thought lets just paint the cylinder red! Will be sure to paint the shock springs as well.

Front Brake Torque Arm - Drum to USD

Using AutoCAD I designed and drew up this torque arm bracket to connect the brake shoe backing plate assembly to the lower part of the left-hand fork leg. The red lines on the image show where it will go. The blue line shows the path of the brake cable. The cable mount will be coincident with the outer mounting point.

Vented front-brake scoop is now just a cover!

I have now decided that instead of fabricating a brake scoop and fastening it to the fork. It will just simply be a cover over the redundant cush-drive. I was concerned about the possibility of the scoop fouling with the front wheel and causing a front wheel lock up at speed! This means I have to chop the centre out of the enfield brake plate and figure out a way to fasten it to the wheel.

Vented Brake Scoop Part Two

Rather than try and make a brake scoop from scratch, I have photo-mocked up these Lambretta scoops to see how they look and fit. Available from India at about $20 delivered to my door. Should be able to bolt it to the brake plate with some allen-head bolts.

Vented front-brake scoop - Part One

Step 1. Remove unecessary parts from the part (brake shoe pivots).
Step 2. Reem out axle hole to suit KX front axle.
Step 3. Trial fit backing plate to see what else needs doing.

About 5mm needs to be added radially to make it match the diameter of the hub. A spacer needs to be made so the front wheel will also sit centrally in the forks. The brake plate will need to be reemed out further so it will fit correctly.