Road Trip Adventure on a CT70

Old Guy Too Many Bikes said:

Have you considered having your aluminum swingarm repaired. Have the crack welded up and have some heavy duty gusseting done on the weak area. Years ago we had a crack develop on our aluminum tandem bicycle frame by the steering head, We had it welded and reinforced and it's been good ever since.

Click to expand...

OLD CT said:

Shitty chinese aluminum! Go with a steel swingarm. That could have been real bad, the man upstairs likes you!

Click to expand...

red69 said:

The vendor's site says not intended for high horsepower engines, whatever that means. That's a bit arbitrary in my opinion. Thanks for warning us.

Click to expand...

fatcaaat said:

I have seen no less than a dozen of these swingarms or similar type swingarms break in the exact same spot. That isn't necessarily from poor aluminum (although it is certainly a possibility) but because they are overheated when welded. The material is heat cycle fatigued before you even mount it on the bike. I don't know what type of aluminum this is. I can say that the Gcraft ones are 6xxx series aluminum but when you hold a gcraft one next to any chinese one, you can tell right off the bat they are not the same alloy or really all that close.

As for steel ones, i have seen folks on the Fb modders page extend a stocker. Honestly, I would not do that. If I was hell bent on having a steel swingarm, I'd make one. However, all 4 of my CT's run Gcraft, three of them the Triple Square version. One has 22 RWHP bolted to it for almost 9 years and 3000 plus miles...never an issue.

All those guys that have their 18 HP daytonas and 190-212 builds coupled with the overly stiff cheap shocks are eventually going to snap their cheap swingarms.

Click to expand...

Robert thran said:

Hey Jacob just woundering what your doing with your swing arm problem? I’m on pins and needles over here because my swing arm looks just like yours ..mine came from t-bolt but could be from the same crap place in China that yours came from...I’ve been checking mine and it doesn’t have any cracks yet but I probably haven’t put as many miles on mine as you put on yours.? Do you know about the miles you had when you noticed the crack? Anyway you could send me more pics of yours in the area where the wheel goes on so I can see if it exactly the same.. with the bigger carb and the yoshimura pipe I’m running on mine it might have more power so it’s most likely just a matter of time before it cracks??? Glad you noticed your before you got in a serious crash!! Thanks

Click to expand...

Jacob Scroggs said:

Hey, sorry I haven’t been on Lil Honda in a while. I still haven’t fixed my swing arm yet. But I think I have a plan on how I’ll do it. I’m thinking about a fabricated plate steel swing arm. I think I can just get the dimensions from my broken arm and cut a couple plates with side walls. And then maybe some cross pipe reinforcement. Weight is not a huge concern for me. I mean come on... I’m pushing 250 and the bike will do 70. What’s a few more pounds gonna hurt. I’d rather have something safe than something lightweight.
I’m going to get to it, but I got a few other projects to finish before I can start. I’ll be sure to post it when I do build it though. Thanks

Click to expand...

Robert thran said:

10-4 just checking...

Click to expand...

Jacob Scroggs said:

Hey Robert…Check out this old thread I found. This dude machined his swing arm out of a 2” block of aluminum. I don’t think I could do this but it’s pretty cool!!
https://www.planetminis.com/threads/ct70-swinger-and-shocks-question.139267/

Click to expand...