V649HP-Kawasaki's new gravel runner

so where's that bike?

Dentvet is still babysitting for me. I had a problem with a u-ship carrier flaking out. I had to start the whole process over last week. The bike is supposed be delivered the weekend of March 15th now. My pile of parts has stabilized....

damn, ya shoulda let me know, i would have delivered it for you, flown home.

i would have babied it all the way, i never ride over 55...well, maybe a little over.

I appreciate it, but I hear these bikes can cause parkinson symptom's, at least that's what Sanjoh claims
Leaving it with Dave has not been all bad, he got bored & put new forkseals in, then the battery died...

sanjoh is only about 125 years old, i think he had the shakes BEFORE he built that rat bike. he shakes so bad he had to glue his bike together with red.

...that's what he told me anyway.

Howdy sir,

I was a little bored last month so I took a little trip to your side of the Mississippi.



The rental bike.



A short bridge and lots of water.



Controlled explosions.



For hauling guns and ammo.



Marcos Fort, build by the King of Spain.



One of the first angled flight decks.



The spark that ignited the flame of war.



A tribute to great men.

David

i would too if i was stuck in all that snow and cold up there, man, i'd go crazy.

looks like a great trip.


several news stories in WSJ on the Bakken...estimated production over the next 40 years, and the reservation lease scandal. leased the drilling rights on tribal lands for 12 million, then the same lease was sold for 954 million.

reading up on some routing for this season, the scheming has started.

I'll have to look up the lease stuff. Sounds about normal. A company buys the lease, then gets all the permits and proves the viability of punching the holes and finally sells to the company that actually drills and produces the oil. The lease may go through several hands before it is finally produced. If its in the right area, it will usually go up in value. The owner of the minerals, usually only gets a small portion of the lease, they normally get most of their money off the royalty payments, a percentage of the oil produced. However if a BIA or tribe official was sleeping at their post, they might have gotten much less for the lease and the royalties than other people. To be fair, when the first leases are negotiated, its hard to put a value on the lease.

I'm not too sympathetic, its well known that there are outrageous "dignity payments" when companies work on tribe lands. Of course the bad thing about all this corruption and graft is the fact that the average joe is left out, creating some bad feelings within the tribe.

Anyway, let me know if you plan to hang out in this area or not. I already have two weekends in July that are booked.

David

Here is the article you were talking about.

Some things to remember,

1. It was early in the cycle for drilling in this area.
2. $700 x 85,800 is $60M, not $949M
3. Once the land was leased, $185M was invested to drill wells a prove production.
4. Some of the land was leased from private owners not the tribe.
5. Reservation is 988K acres with 458K acres owned by individual tribal members and the tribe.

Some red flags:
1. "favorable business climate for native owned businesses"
2. Awarded without auction

the investigation is on that 86000 acre lease which was sold for 14 million, then resold two years later for 949 million.


i'm trying to get some plans together, but i wouldn't be doing anything big before august.

Wracked my brains for ways to get the surface profile right...





So that the below will look proper this second time..






Found these and tried to source it from friends for a day... so that they can be scanned for the surface profile




Ran into a dead end there.
Now i intend to take the tail plastics off the bike and use plaster of paris to take a mould off it....

Any better idea?

that "650R" insert can be used to fabricate a pair of exact copies in steel. these would become your baseplates. the drilled dowels that you already have would be carefully cut to fit the required depth and angle to fit the existing M8 mounts behind the plastic tail fairings. as you tighten the M8 fasteners, the baseplates will be pulled into general conformance with the desired shape. the shape can be fine tuned with a hammer and sandbag backing, easy.

once the shape and try fit are satisfactory, bolt the base plates in place with the dowels still loose behind them.

fabricate pannier mounting points out of something like 4mm x 30mm flat that will run with the length of baseplate, terminating 10mm from the ends. radius the outside corners 10mm, and pre drill properly spaced holes for 3 M8 fasteners. this mounting point will be welded perpendicular to the baseplate above the baseplate mounting holes, and needs to be scribed and ground to perfectly fit any contour in the baseplate. i recommend that this mounting point run parallel to the upper edge of the baseplate.

once fitted, the mounting points should to tack welded in place with the baseplates mounted on the bike. protect adjacent surfaces. this locks the contour. unbolt the baseplates and tack the dowels in place. try fit the assemblies, and if everything still checks, finish the welding.

now you're ready to mount the hoops using mounting points that correspond to the baseplate to make it easy to demount the pannier racks. the trick here is to make sure that the pannier hoops are parallel to each other in two planes. takes some clamps and straight edges, plus more tack welding in place. it's the only way to do it accurately in a one off fabrication, but the process is easy.

weld a tab on the back of the hoop to accept a cross brace. the brace should be located where it is inconspicuous, but will not get hit by the rear tire at full suspension travel.


at least there's no snow on the ground...

Lots of work for cosmetics, I'd use your mounting dowels & just lay out & holesaw holes in a spare set of factory covers for the rack mounts to pass through. It would look great & be easy to fabricate.

whatever the subject, opinions vary.

function and durability, sure, but i'm a fit and finish guy too. if it doesn't look good, it ain't goin' on there.

our Indian friend is free to choose his own direction.

And that's why your bikes come out so nice

I think using his lug mounts through carefully bored holes in the OEM covers would look factory for a lot less headache.

A friend of mine is visiting Germany.
I was wondering if anybody knew an online place for the fork tube clamps.

I found one... its manufactured by Puig (refer the instruction guide pdf for the drawing).
http://www.louis.de/_109692ddf0c590dcf9e475e1ca817f0cdb/index.php?topic=artnr_gr&artnr_gr=10006704

Unfortunately there is no stock for the 41mm ones.

there must be dozens of companies offering 41mm clamps in various configurations. the 41mm fork tube is common to the HD motos and the tube clamp is the usual mount for accessories on several models of that bike.

for instance...

http://www.pingelonline.com/stabilizer_fork_tube_bracket.htm

are the 41mm Protek clamps out of stock too, they're offered online at many outlets and can be shipped anywhere.

i've documented the use of the DRZ400S 49mm forks mounted in the OEM Versys triples and using the DL1000 wheel. other builders have used a variety of different fork and wheel combinations on the Versys/Ninja motos, with the wheels primarily spoked, either 19 or 21. spoked wheels have also been used with the same DRZ 49mm conventionals in Versys triples.

if you choose a set of forks and intend to adapt their OEM triples to the Versys/Ninja steering head, make sure the front wheel and brake setup will fit.

the fork mounting centers of the DRZ400 triples are 20mm NARROWER than the Versys triples, and that means clearance issues if you intend to use the DL wheel.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=874168


the builder is using a DL650 wheel with the bearing recesses bored to accept wheel bearings with a 20mm ID. this has been done before and works if you have a machinist with the right equipment, and willing to do the work at a reasonable cost.

From another forum. Crashed '03 zx6rr for 500 ish. Looks like the forks and frame are a no go.
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=423171

the builder who ran into problems fitting his DL wheel just needs to work out the center line spacing on the triples. it could be possible to use the flat top 636 clamps or some other set which swaps easily onto the ER6 steering head. this type of swap on the ER6 to fully adjustable USD forks is very well documented.

plenty of cheap 636 triples on ebay, IF they will work with the 49mm DRZ conventionals, and i haven't verified any dimensions.