GSx1100 Dresda Solitaire (I may have had a Clivecident).

[imago]

3 minutes ago, DAZ said:

Regarding the electrical bits'n'bobs , are you planning a box or something in the area immediately behind the headstock , I ask as it would be ideal for the could obviously, but it seems quite a visually large space ,especially compared with say harris mag4 

I'm going to stick all of the electrical stuff under the seat/tail unit on a tray. There's not going to be loads as I want to keep it pretty basic, switchable fuse panel, ECU for the injection, starter relay (may go by the engine TBD) reg/rec and the battery.

That'll leave things clear up front for a small GPS speedo a rev counter and minimal idiot lights. I think it'll look better with as much free space as possible up front. At the moment (again TBD) I'm thinking a single large round headlamp. Tthat may change as I have a couple of other possibilities in mind, but it won't be having twins on it.

[DAZ]

5 minutes ago, imago said:

 but it won't be having twins on it.

You sure ?  

[imago]

17 minutes ago, DAZ said:

You sure ?  

Bloody certain, I don't want even more expense! 

[GeorgeEI7KO]

1 hour ago, DAZ said:

You sure ?  

They'd hand it back to you pretty small I'd reckon!

[Wagola]

4 hours ago, imago said:

Bloody certain, I don't want even more expense! 

I'd risk it !!

[imago]

How it started, how it's going. It's exactly three months since I picked up the Dresda frame. Making real progress now.

Well on target for the weight too, it's a shave under 125 Kgs as it sits. 

[imago]

Back into some of the little jobs, first up the sprocket carrier. Original bearing size was 17 x 47 x 12. Changing the spindle from 17 to 20 meant a new bearing was required, but 20 x 47 x 12 isn't available as a sealed bearing. The easiest option then was to open up the bearing housing by 5 mm and use a 20 x 52 x 12.

When the bearing arrives I can then build it up, make the wheel spacers and get the rear wheel set. Once that's done I can check the chain run and see if I need an offset sprocket, then get the chain and sprockets ordered.

[imago]

OK, I've got it down to two possible colour schemes for the Dresda. Either a variation on Martini racing, white with a single orange stripe bordered by blue off centre on the top surface of the tank and tail. Or, the VW Harlequin multi-colour as squares on the tank and seat/tail. Thoughts?
 

[R1guy]

1 minute ago, imago said:

OK, I've got it down to two possible colour schemes for the Dresda. Either a variation on Martini racing, white with a single orange stripe bordered by blue off centre on the top surface of the tank and tail. Or, the VW Harlequin multi-colour as squares on the tank and seat/tail. Thoughts?
 

Harlequin 

[clivegto]

My Harris is 208kg fully fuelled but the turbocharger is quite heavy. 

[Dezza]

I remember all those old Ford Capris, Cortinas, and Escorts in the late 70s/80s that were converted to 'harlequins' after one or more body panels had suffered terminal rust

[imago]

54 minutes ago, clivegto said:

My Harris is 208kg fully fuelled but the turbocharger is quite heavy. 

I remember you saying that, and also the similar weight for scratcher. Once I'd got my head round what sort of bike/project it was then the aim was to build something similarly light and nimble.

Then I decided to start using the goodies store and get as much out of a normally aspirated air cooled engine as I could to replicate a race bike's weight and performance from back in the day. The K1 GSXR makes an excellent template at 200 Kgs and 160 hp give or take a touch.

Hopefully with either injection or smooth bores (TBD), a big valve ported head, taking the displacement out to 1168, lightweight pistons taking the compression up a touch, stage 2 cams and a free flowing Cowley exhaust it should achieve that but not be right on the edge so be reliable.

The overall package being a creation from a long gone era that will keep up with, if not actually embarrass, much more modern machinery, that looks the nuts. Going the stage further and fitting a turbo'd oil boiler would take it away from the '80s race bike thing. 

[Havoc]

3 hours ago, Dezza said:

I remember all those old Ford Capris, Cortinas, and Escorts in the late 70s/80s that were converted to 'harlequins' after one or more body panels had suffered terminal rust

Kind of what I said on a different platform After being side swiped on both sides during a roundabout faux par in my Renault 4, I scavenged the replacements for the 6 damaged panels off 6 different wrecked R4s in the local scrap yard, all different colours....

[DAZ]

Martini, its too nice a bike to look like a scrap yard special....

[BillyR]

The martini porsche had some nice swoopy graphics going accentuating its curves..  

[clivegto]

3 hours ago, imago said:

I remember you saying that, and also the similar weight for scratcher. Once I'd got my head round what sort of bike/project it was then the aim was to build something similarly light and nimble.

Then I decided to start using the goodies store and get as much out of a normally aspirated air cooled engine as I could to replicate a race bike's weight and performance from back in the day. The K1 GSXR makes an excellent template at 200 Kgs and 160 hp give or take a touch.

Hopefully with either injection or smooth bores (TBD), a big valve ported head, taking the displacement out to 1168, lightweight pistons taking the compression up a touch, stage 2 cams and a free flowing Cowley exhaust it should achieve that but not be right on the edge so be reliable.

The overall package being a creation from a long gone era that will keep up with, if not actually embarrass, much more modern machinery, that looks the nuts. Going the stage further and fitting a turbo'd oil boiler would take it away from the '80s race bike thing. 

My origanl aim was 1hp per 1kg like the early r1 claimed, a turbo made it easy once I figured it out as couldn’t afford to farm that out and I like to learn new stuff. I think your aim is doable but I recon it'll weigh about 170kg fully fuelled. 

[Dezza]

Obtaining a true 1bhp/kg from a normally aspirated oil cooled OSS bike would require deep pockets. Doing it using an aircooled engine would require very deep pockets.

[imago]

22 minutes ago, clivegto said:

My origanl aim was 1hp per 1kg like the early r1 claimed, a turbo made it easy once I figured it out as couldn’t afford to farm that out and I like to learn new stuff. I think your aim is doable but I recon it'll weigh about 170kg fully fuelled. 

I reckon it'll be nearer 200 personally as there's quite a few bits to go on yet, but it'll be interesting to see. 

One other interesting thing of note were the rims when they had tyres on. The sidewall structure and air pressure within make them way more rigid than without. It's removed all the flex from them. Presumably it's the same sort of effect as a bonded windscreen in a modern car/van in that the tyre itself has become a stress member for the wheel. I went with Bridgestone S23 in the end BTW.

 

[imago]

11 minutes ago, Dezza said:

Obtaining a true 1bhp/kg from a normally aspirated oil cooled OSS bike would require deep pockets. Doing it using an aircooled engine would require very deep pockets.

Quite honestly there's no way I could justify, let alone afford building the engine that's in this now. I totted up a rough cost and to get an engine to this state would be eye watering.  Fortunately as I had most of it here gathered over the years I could put it all into one without costing anywhere near that, and have a good use for it.

The engine is :-

Spot on cases with all threads in tact, stripped, vapour blasted and Cerakoated.
Crank stripped, built, and welded by Roger Upperton from a total of four cranks to cherry pick the best bits.
Barrels bored out to take pistons.
Pistons from a one off batch made specifically for endurance race engines (light, raised comp, minimal skirts etc)
New Ape cam chain.
Head stripped, flowed, ported and larger (EF) valves fitted again by Roger Upperton.
Stage 2 cams.

etc, etc, the list goes on. If you wanted to start from nothing and buy all the parts along with the labour you'd be well North of £6k. A well built turbo charged oil cooled engine with a turbo kicking out 250 - 300 hp would cost about half that.

That said, the end product will be a completely fresh build of a rare bike, and it's very unlikely anyone would be daft enough to chuck that sort of money into building one like it.
 

[Wagola]

5 hours ago, Dezza said:

I remember all those old Ford Capris, Cortinas, and Escorts in the late 70s/80s that were converted to 'harlequins' after one or more body panels had suffered terminal rust

And crash damage !! Well ...............mine anyway..........

[imago]

A bit of bodywork this morning. Make sure there's room for the electrics and electronics as well as the battery. Then look at trimming the seat unit. 

[imago]

Twiddly bits make a big difference. I got some rubber bungs to cover the ugly bolt ends and prevent corrosion. Just glue them in place. 

[imago]

A bit more shaping of the radii required, but I think that's about right. 

[imago]

With the seat shape roughed out I can sort the battery position. Using a larger battery I have room to move it forward and down. Better weight distribution, more space on the tray, and also allows neater loom routing. 

[imago]

The short version of the story is, there isn't a sealed bearing the correct size for the sprocket carrier. (Supplier thought there was.) So, I now need to turn a press fit sleeve to take the size which is available. I also want to make a new carrier from scratch, along with some new cush drive pins/bolts. The sleeve will get things rolling again, and the new carrier will allow me to adjust the sprocket position, be stronger, and I just want to do it TBH. That'll probably come later though.