TR3 Inspired RD400 project

[ged]

Cheers Wizz. Nice work Ozzy!

It doesn't look dissimilar to the factory rear brake at a quick glance. I can see my rear brake coming out very similar! It looks great.

I believe holy hubs have a dual purpose of firstly, ventilation but also (probably) more importantly weight reduction and more particularly unsprung weight. I guess every gram you can eliminate from wagging around under the springs is a good gram to lose. The genuine TR3 hubs and brakes are masterpieces in their own right and I guess that's reflected in their value.

I was hoping you weren't going to say the rims were Excels...... They look really sexy, but I was hoping to get it out of it cheaper than a couple of hundred bux a rim..... I guess the first obvious alternative is to track down a rear rim out of an '80s chook chaser. Lots of those eventually came out with nice flanged ally 18" 36 holers I think, in WM3 which should work ok on the rear. Is the front rim a TR WM3 as well?

Other alternative is the cheap Chinese or Indian ally rims on fleabay for about a hundred bux each. Has anybody had any experience of those?

I'm still stuffing around on this SR cafe project for a mate and I have a full width finned ally hub to take a TLS brake on the way for that, so I might try a cheap rim on it and see how it pans out.

Yeah ok, the side stand kit makes sense, (could probably fabricate it easy enough huh?). I hadn't considered the chambers fouling it as an issue, but that would certainly solve it. I was more concerned with fitting a sidestand with a full fairing...... I guess I'll find out soon enough once I find a fairing, but I'm just anticipating an issue. I spent a couple of years on an LC back in the day and I did have a full (2 piece) fairing for it and from memory, the fairing was relieved and shaped through that area to allow the standard sidestand to stay.

I can see me fabricating up custom rear sets. I've got some nice leftover Ducati Pantah foot pegs and levers sitting around that will probably work in ok, but I'll need to fit the motor in the frame to see where the kickstart ends up. Hopefully there is enough offset in the kick crank to clear both peg and lever.... We'll see. I'm kinda getting a little too old to bump start my bikes!

I really will get round to starting my own thread as more bits come to hand! I promise..... The resurrection of this TR tank has been a real labour of love. I'm up to about day 4 now! and I've spent more in materials than it probably would have cost me for an import repro ready to paint...... But, It's an original '70s fibreglass masterpiece of mojo too good to toss on the tip and it's obviously waited a long, long time for somebody to give it some love. It's worth saving. Photos soon, I promise!

Cheers mate.


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[OzzyElsie]

. The genuine TR3 hubs and brakes are masterpieces in their own right and I guess that's reflected in their value.

The TR et al period rear brakes were very different and exotic next to the humble commuter. They were much bigger (probably 10 inch against the 7 inch) they were TLS and had vents and scoops. I would be surprised if they were magnesium as well.

I think front or rear would be over kill for a cafe racers but would sure look cool .

If you were really keen I think there are replica's being made - but expect mega $$$$$$$'s

.... I guess the first obvious alternative is to track down a rear rim out of an '80s chook chaser. Lots of those eventually came out with nice flanged ally 18" 36 holers I think,....

In the MX world the shouldered rims were called 'mud catchers' with the obvious disadvantage of collecting and carrying about 3kg of extra unwanted unsprung weigh in muddy conditions. I think it was the Elsinore that was the first production MXer with rimless alloys and within one season you wouldn't sell an MXer with mud catchers.

So you would be looking at sourcing from MXer 74 or older for mud catcher rims. They will be old, grotty and sort after. Cheap is unlikely.

And then you would have to polish them. That will make 5 days on the tank look like a walk in the park. The outside flange will be easy but the inner will be fiddly.

You could always use a commercial polisher but the $$$$$$'s and they'll use a 5hp mop and lean into the work to get the job done quickly. You'll get polished rim but much of the detail and profile will be obliterated.

OEM would probably have polished them in a shaker. That would probably be The Answer but I know little about such things and wouldn't know where to ask. And again $$$$'s.

So new Excel would probably be the best and ultimately the cheapest.

You could always polish the flange and paint the inner. It will look great, original, distinctive, creative or cheap and cheesy. I would have to suck it and see but I think the right colour could look great.

Other alternative is the cheap Chinese or Indian ally rims on fleabay for about a hundred bux each. Has anybody had any experience of those?

As with all of this cheap stuff you hear of good experiences and bad experiences. I think there is truth and prejudiced, bias and snobbery but I would take the chance. Maybe not if I planned to do 150mph down Conrod Straight or jump a 300lb Rickman Trimuph in the desert at 60mph, but for a roadie clubman why not.

Not that I've seen cheap Asian mud catchers. I've seen these.....

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/190672053089 ... EBIDX%3AIT

.......they look close.

Yeah ok, the side stand kit makes sense, (could probably fabricate it easy enough huh?). I hadn't considered the chambers fouling it as an issue, but that would certainly solve it. I was more concerned with fitting a sidestand with a full fairing...... I guess I'll find out soon enough once I find a fairing, but I'm just anticipating an issue. I spent a couple of years on an LC back in the day and I did have a full (2 piece) fairing for it and from memory, the fairing was relieved and shaped through that area to allow the standard sidestand to stay.

In a moment of madness/weakness I picked up this for $90 on EvilPay,



The standard LC sidestand lug is as ugly as sin but disguised somewhat by the bulk of the OEM exhaust. But when you put a 'tucked in' aftermarket exhaust on it sticks out like dogs balls.



So I thought I might cut the dog balls off and remount a side stand out of the way and out of sight. This Aprillia option comes with a sturdy bolt on frame mount and is design to swing through about 120 degrees which gives me plenty of options.

[ged]

Cheers Ozzy. Some good stuff in there. Yeah, those are the rims I'm looking at. I might buy one for the front of the SR250 thing I'm doing and have a look at em. It's performance potential is pretty limited and really, it's a posers bike rather than a fair dinkum scratcher, so that spec rim will probably be fine.

I'm now quite officially jacking Wizz's thread, but I'm really grateful for the input, so we better leave poor Wizz to his wedding preparations and I'll start putting my stuff in another thread and we can bang on endlessly without dragging Wizz off the job.

Cheers fellas.


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[Wizz]

Ok im back from the wedding n honey moon.......time to talk bikes.
I came across another set of 400 heads n barrels so i dug some surplus items out of the shed n they were sold swiftly on gumtree to fund the sale. They will be good for a spare set i guess.
Couple of question's for the guru's, the barrels will be mildly ported, heads machined to raise the compression n the squish modified to suit.....is it worth doing something special like machining in a o'ring for the head gasket? Supporting mods will be some V-Forece3 Reed Valves, HVC Booster bootle, JL pipes n pistons with bigger window ports. Im thinking a 28 flat slide Mikuni TM carby will do the job of fueling (thoughts on size of carby for my project appreciated).

[JonW]

The standard LC sidestand lug is as ugly as sin but disguised somewhat by the bulk of the OEM exhaust. But when you put a 'tucked in' aftermarket exhaust on it sticks out like dogs balls.

I still cant quite believe you noticed the side stand on that horrible ruined LC, what a monstrosity.

I use Triumph T595 stands on my builds, light alloy units that fit the OEM frame mounts, you just swap the pin over. The Aprilia stand is nice looking tho, will agree to that, wonder if that would help the LC above... hmm... maybe not.

[OzzyElsie]

I like it. I might build a variation of it.

[ged]

I'm with JonW. It's hideous.


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[BRG1200]

Love it or loathe it, there is not much LC on it, so hopefully it was built out of parts.
5 years ago no one wanted LC's over here, now they appear to be made of solid gold and fairy dust.

[Wizz]

Each to their own i guess. Its not my cup of tea, but it looks as though it would be a fun bike to ride.

[JonW]

LOL, its not the use of the LC parts so much as the use of that huge tank and small, short, hard seat with black too-long pipes and heavy looking front end with gaiters. Did the builder really look at what he had done and think 'yes, thats what i wanted to have!', really?!

Styling is part of bike building, and this is not it. Lumping everything up the front end and having free space under the back looks weird. Maybe Im just picky about looks, but even ugly bikes should be in proportion.

And... IMHO an LC tank does not belong on a cafe racer, as evidenced here... and anywhere else youve ever seen it.

[Wizz]

Aaaaaaaand back on topic, this is what I'm talking about in regards to the head. Can this be done to the standard head and is it a good idea with my planned mods n power levels?

[ged]

Aaaaaaaand back on topic, this is what I'm talking about in regards to the head. Can this be done to the standard head and is it a good idea with my planned mods n power levels?

I think we had better start up another thread where we can vent on random "cafe racer" disasters. I can see JonW and I share simialar views and I know I've got a pantload to unleash! Cmon Ozzy, post us up a target

Yeah, I'm interested to hear some views and options on tuning as well Wizz.

My initial thought would be, where are you going to use it?

It's really easy to transform a 2 stroke into a knife edged powerband rocket with all the horsepower in the top 2000 rpm, but it doesn't make for a particularly tractable road bike. One of the best things about the 2 RD's I've previously owned has been their very user friendly mid range power. You can tootle around all day in the lower rev range without chain snatching and plug fouling, but give it some fuel and it propels you into another world.

For my project, I'm tending toward building 2 motors. The road motor in virtually standard RD tune and a piston port track motor as close as possible to TR spec.

Those radial heads? Hmmm. Although the increased thermal efficiency makes sense, I can't say I've ever seen them on a race bike, which is where you find them commonplace if they offered a significant performance advantage..... I have a sneaking suspicion their more bling than zing.

[JonW]

Ged, yes lets take this offline... in the meantime have a look at this:
http://www.rzrd500.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... hilit=cafe

[OzzyElsie]

I'm with JonW. It's hideous.


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Then you probably don't like this as a style either.



I think both are in the same vein. Modernised, lighter, more power, handle better and yet still with the original identity .

They are Hot Rods .

[ged]

Ok, I've posted a reply here

forums/17/1933

So we can continue our dissertation without burying Wizz's fine project.