G'day blokes, Just here to whet your appetite. LeighSA and I are at his place in (at last!) damp South Oz. We've spent the last couple of days pondering lengths and lines and dimensions. The good news is that the new all road outfit for my faithful old 900 is more than just thoughts . Leigh bought some cheap tube that we've cut and bent and welded and broken off and re-cut and re-welded etc. Now we have a mock up of the chassis and body, plus some definite plans relating to fuel and luggage capacities. The body will be 'unique', except there will be two. Only. Front body work styled along the lines of the Tiger fairing. It will be dkfferent. It aint going to be quick. I'm expecting a build over the next few months, maybe longer. But it will be extra speccie when it's finished. But, guess what? There are NO PHOTOS. yep, there are now. Actually, there are but they are in my camera and I don't have the cable to down load them. I was just a bit impatient to start a thread. And Leigh has just (belatedly) got himself onto the asylum. Watch this space.
I've left the Trumpy & the bits with LeighSA for his attention over the next little while. He's got a few jobs to do, so I'll just be patient. :ddog I suppose it's not like I've got nothing to ride. If it was urgent, I'd have done the simple job of buying a Ural and then just joined the crowds that you see everyday I do, however, have a few photos of what's been done so far. It's all just mock / design at this stage. The chassis is just out of cheap tube so we could bend / cut / weld / cut / re-bend / re-weld until we got a nice shape for a nose cone mold and the basic dimensions of the chassis & suspension. It'll give you an idea of where we are headed. Starting with the Tig, a tube and a wheel in approximate position. Leigh tacked up the basic chassis. The inner chassis is a twin beam ladder. There will be 6 attachment bars - 2 from the lower motorcycle sub-chassis mounts & 1 from each of the upper motorcycle mounts. The lower mounts of the sub-chassis are to be re-positioned to be co-linear. Lean out adjustment will be simplified. Simple swing arm suspension arrangement. Loop over the top of a spring/damper unit. Tube mock up for the nose cone mold. The shape will replicate the upper portion of the Tiger's fairing. It may get a couple of Hella 140's, that I've got at home, mounted at the front. Time will tell. I don't actually do much night riding any longer. I used to ride at night all the time. We talked about having headlights painted on the front - like drag bikes. No firm decision, plenty of time. Front chassis tube to curve around to the leading edge of the tyre. There will be a step. No, there is no intention of driving the sidecar wheel by chain outside of the sidecar :huh It's just a DR650 wheel. The rear wheel will be the rear rim from the Tiger, on a fabricated hub. The outer valance of the mudguard will be much trimmed down. Loop to support the high level seat. Grab rails to be positioned - over the wheel, across the front. There will also be a low level seat for those unavoidable highway miles. An aux fuel tank & aluminium boxes into the rear, under the seat. We talked forages about whether to fit a tank or just use gerry cans. Lots of to & fro. I'm now convinced that a tank has more definite positives than potential negatives but it's not going to be a petrol tanker by any stretch. That's almost where I left it. We pulled the engine out and it will be refreshed. The absolute bug-bear of T300 triumphs is the air cleaner. Having been stopped a couple of times due to dust build-up, the airbox is to be modified to allow a pull-out filter. I'm hopeful that the 6 hour job will be reduced to 10 minutes. Another design issue is access to the countershaft sprocket. The cover design incorporates the dipstick and the clutch hydraulics plus, you have to remove the footpeg / gear change assembly. Leigh is going to investigate the possibility of separating the three functions so that the countershaft sprocket can be easily accessed and maintained. The crap that builds up in there must do horrible things to the life of the chain / sprockets but one just can't get access to it to clean in there. I s'pose that's the compromise made in designing a bike in modular construction - it was never intended to be a 'dirt' bike. That's it for a while. I'll sit at home and Leigh will getaroundtuit, as and when he does. As they say in the classics 'It may not happen overnight, but it will happen'.
man, that layout is awsome. i really like the side profile of the side car and how it matches the profile of the tiger's. way cool
One job at a time. Given the bike is 12 years young and the last 9 years has been dragging the sidecar, the engine is getting a very thorough look through. I knew it was burning oil, although it had good compression. No1 cylinder has been a bit of a problem child for a few years now, the exhaust temp was significantly lower than Nos 2 & 3. Leigh did a leak-down test while I was with him. The pressure gauge didn't move but he could hear air leaking. I could too, once he told me what I should be listening for (gumby) The head is getting serviced, cam chain replaced and a hone & rings. Leigh tells me that there was some grunge buildup in the coolant galleries - I have to be a bit more regular with the maintenance rather than 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. It's good that I'm working a few more hours now, I've got to pay for this.
If you have it out you may want to consider the starter sprag too. I understand there may be an age issue with it. Check out: www.tigertriple.com
G'day Pezz. I was in Adelaide last weekend. My engine is splattered all over one of Leigh's benches. To my untrained eye it looks to be in excellent nick inside. The head has been done. Having said all that, I've decided that, since it is in pieces, it is getting a full rebuild. Leigh put the logic of that fairly well when he pointed out that if I keep it another 15 years I'll be in my 60s (:eek1 - shit didn't see that coming) and I may put another 150-200k on it. No point in saving a couple of hundred quid here or there and then having to spend many times more on pulling it to pieces again later. The advantage is that we've been able to see that the thing is really robust inside. We knew that the biggest problem I've had with it is the airfilter and that that is probably the cause of the problems I have had with it. So, the airfilter re-design is a definite, as is the carve up of the combined clutch pushrod/dipstick/countershaft sprocket cover. Geez I'm lucky I know some talented people. And I never knew that there was an inline fuel filter between 1 & 2 carbs! wonder if that had anything to do with the cold running of no1? I don't recall reading about it in my manual. Actually, I will be very patient with this. I reckon it will not just look trick, when it's finished it will be trick and do the job that I want it to do.
JUst remembered, the biggest problem I think I'm going to have will be getting it back of Leigh when it's done!!
Nice project so far. I will admit to getting the horn for the 900 Tigers, there's one I see every now and then round here with a chair on, looks so cool. I have a 94 Speed Triple and you're right about the airbox being a PITA. Good luck.
Yeah Ray, Laura and Alec, thanks for coming over last week-end for my 50th birthday, big surprise :eek1 and great to see you guys . All the bits ordered for the big Tiger, found a bloke to get some small lengths of chromoly tube and plate, so that is good. Dummy sidecar mudguard is painted, ready for me to make the first mould. BM GSPD going along will send pics soon!!!
What about something like this for a tank Ray? This one is a 38 ltr, but you can get smaller (or larger) ones.
Damn Clancy!, that is a work of art. Is that one of yours? if so, where did you get it? I'll eventually need something similar for the V-Strom Outfit project, probably only 20 litres though.
