"New" Ratty Hack... I hope!

[NortwestRider]

The reason I used square tubing was because I don't have a tube bender.That subframe for the Vstrom did it's job for over 5,000 miles and about 1,500 of those were offroad and I didn't baby it !!!

[Leaf]

Still no hack attached, but I figured I'd beat the hell out of it on the national forest access road a bit, and see if anything broke. 3-day work trip starts tomorrow, so I had to get some jollies in before that.....

The throttle did stick a couple of times, and the idle was all over the place. I'll have to polish the slides, I guess. :s Or maybe it was just the rain. Regardless: problem.

But the crappy Shinkos handled it great. I think they handle rainy pavement better than the Perellis on the 500, too. O_o Minimal squirreliness spinning through mud-holes as well.

It's more difficult to catch air than it was on the ol' 200, though.

I'm going to have to raise the front fender. The rocks like to sling around through that little 3/4" space and make an awful racket.

But I have a feeling that those stamped wheels probably aren't up for that kind of abuse on a regular basis, and that Velorex frame certainly isn't. :P That road is a lot worse than I remember it in several places.



Happy face? Insane face? OMG will it break down trying to get back out of here face?

[bmwhacker]

Just had to ask......

[Leaf]

Oil can for the chain. :P There are a couple creek fords on that road. I'm too cheap to buy chain wax, so I use old motor oil... It makes for good cable lube, too.

[Leaf]

If anyone is wondering if the Trash Hawk (which I think has been renamed Eris) killed me yet or not.....

Nope, not yet.

I've been away from home on business since the last post here, and haven't done anything with the rig. But I just got home finally and am hoping to fiddle around with at least some subframe head-scratching tomorrow. I'll try to get pictures of the Junk Pile, at least. :3

[Leaf]

Booooo, the machine shop is full of broken down tractors today. ;_;

Maybe next weekend....

[bmwhacker]

BUMP......
So how we coming?

[Leaf]

Still riding it solo, and haven't gotten enough solid time to build the subframe yet. Last weekend, the shop was full of broken tractor. This week my grandma died and I spent today at the funeral. I /might/ dig into it tomorrow....

I haven't given up (or stopped thinking about it), though! :P The sidecar is still strapped into the bed of the $300 Wonder Truck, waiting anxiously.

Thanks for your interest! I promise I'll update with something of more substance Soon(tm).

It's wearing the pusher pretty quick on the pavement, at least in comparison to what I'm used to with 100% street oriented tires (maybe I should quit popping wheelies >_>). I hate to see how fast it eats through them once the hack is mounted. XD

[blazebfd]

Howdy! Fun thread. FWIW, I just tied my '72 Spirit Eagle to one of my '05 Vulcan 500s.
The Vulcan has way plenty of power and gears for the hack. Still tuning the setup, but
have it generally straight and tracking. Previously had this car on my '65 R60/2; the vulcan
has lots more horse pressure. Keep up the posts and good luck.

[Leaf]

Very cool.

I /almost/ bought a 454LTD (the bike that came before the 500A, which is actually a faster bike from the power-to-weight ratio, lol) to use for a solo bike, so I could put the hack on the 500, but the deal fell through. :3

Those 500s are rather surprisingly more powerful than you expect, aren't they? :P It feels like it has twice the torque of the Hawk, even after gearing the Hawk down one tooth on the front...

[Leaf]

I trucked the sidecar down to the Ole Hillbilly Fabricatin' Fercilitee (aka the machine shop down on the farm, which is actually an ancient barn) late this afternoon, then came back and rode the bike down. But I forgot my camera. X_x

The Hillbilly Lead Engineer (that being my cantankerous ol' dad, who can fix about anything given a pile of junk, a crescent wrench, and some tie wire) got curious and came to help, and we stood around and head-scratched for a while, walked around the rig, smoked cigarettes / chewed (that's his thing), laid around looking under the rig pointing at things, drank coffee and smoked more cigarettes/chewed, sat on upended buckets staring at the rig, and debated at great length upon the various methods of Hillbilly Fabricatin' we were considering.

We finally came to the agreement that it was too difficult to build one larger subframe, but would have to build two smaller ones, one for the front and one for the back, since the exhaust collector and brake pedal are in the way otherwise. The rear subframe will mount to the footpeg and fender bolt, and carry both of the rear mounts. The front subframe will mount to the motor mount and hang down to catch the front lower mount. The front upper mount will sneak inside the curve of the exhaust header and mount to the downtube. It won't be as strong as a one-piece dealy, but hopefully that won't matter on a 398cc bike with a Velowreck. I don't think there is enough trangulation on the rear upper mount, but don't want to bolt it too far back on the fender (it's not very strong there). Might bolt a piece of big channel or a plow point or something back there to reinforce the fender and do it anyway.

When it was all said and done, we spent about 5 hours and only ended up with me making some cardboard templates and him cutting a couple of flat steel bits out of a broken corn chopper blower track. Lol.

Then my tachometer made a gawdawful grinding noise and broke on the way home. D:= Fleabay time.

[Leaf]

Phewf. Ya don't realize how much you depend on the internet until it breaks down for a week...... D:

I put a floor jack under the engine and removed the front motor mount so I could use it for a pattern. Then used a bandsaw to make a couple of extension pieces for the subframe to bolt to.



The front of the subframe will bolt to that. I built about 1/3 of the subframe, but screwed it up and threw it away. Hopefully better luck this weekend... :3

I roughed it out with a cutting torch, and then did the detail work with a bandsaw and bench grinder. I drilled two of the holes (one on each side) slightly off (oops), and had to enlarge them one bit size to get everything to fit.



Here you can see how the motor mount widens at the bottom. I didn't notice this until I was tracing it onto one of the bolt-on bits. Oops. So I had to fabricate some spacers.



It's pretty darn solid. I am pleased.

Now chant with me while I go for subframe #2 this weekend: "Measure 2-3 times, cut once...." Lol.

[cleatusj]

Comes complete with JD Green paint.

[Leaf]

Originally Posted by cleatusj

Comes complete with JD Green paint.

I'm going to take it all off and rattlecan it with the same rust treatment I used on the frame, once everything is all made up. :3

Kind of a shame, really. I think the JD paint adds to that certain hillbilly jai ne sais quoi that I strive so feverishly to culture.

[small_e_900]

Originally Posted by Leaf

I think the JD paint adds to that certain hillbilly jai ne sais quoi that I strive so feverishly to culture.

Prime-grade signature material, right there.