Poor man's lengthened swingarm

[SS_canuck]

I was inspired by GreenMachine's +6" swingarm he is using on his alcohol burning street freak build. I did a little chopping and cutting and came up with my own +3" swingarm. It was built by cutting away the slotted section of the original swingarm. A piece of 1-1/2" x 3/16" wall square tube was parted down the seam and slotted on a mill to accept the adjuster. Everything was then TIG welded back together. The added in piece was milled to slip over the contoured and formed portion of the swing arm to allow the rib to be welded like a gusset. Should be pretty ridgid.
From what I've read, going beyond 20mm additional length will cause the swinger and tire to look detached from the bike. I'll try an ST90 rear fender to tire the lengthened stance back into the bike.

 

[RySem]

wow...looks awesome! great job...I love seeing the backyard custom jobs. All of the good aftermarket stuff is ridiculously expensive.

 

[MSZ]

Looks good. I look forward to seeing the custom fender/brackets you'll come up with.

 

[ghunt]

:thumb:Looks good, It's a lot of fun to customize these bike's. Using the stock swing arm like that should make very strong. Are you going to upgrade the forks.

 

[SS_canuck]

Not looking to upgrade the forks at the moment. They will be the weak point of the bike handling wise. I can't seam to part ways with the KO series. They are the cleanest looking factory fork that was available (IMO of course)!
Also going to have to lengthen the brake lever rod and the brake stay bracket to suite the new geometry.

 

[knucklebuster2]

swingarm

looks good,tell me if you dont mind what made you deciede on 3" extension

 

[SS_canuck]

looks good,tell me if you dont mind what made you deciede on 3" extension

Thanks,

I'd read a RacerX post where he stated that a swingarm with greater that a 20mm (3/4") addition in length made the wheel look detached from the bike. You can buy +100mm (4") Kitaco swingarms, so I picked a length in between.

I'm still strugging with getting the fender and taillamp mounting right. The shocks I'm running have a little too much stroke and the tire can hit the trailing edge of the fender.

I'll get some more pics up when I sort it out!

 

[ghunt]

Here's a shorten fender from a bike in the UK

 

[greenmachine]

way to go SS!that looks sweet.i thought of the same type of design.but i was ascared of a posible break,with the shock and the add-on being so close(bad experience at the dunes)
btw did you keep the same shock angle as stock?
i figured that if i didnt the shock would bottom out,so i kept that in mind.
yes moving that rear wheel 1" out makes it real hard on fender location.
because when you 6+ that fender serves no purpose.good luck in your design:41:

 

[SS_canuck]

Thanks GreenMachine,
The shock angle is stock. The amount of travel that that particular shock has(2-5/8"), required me to change the swingarm length.
I had to change the way I was looking at the relationship between the fender/taillight mount and swingarm length. The swingarm had to be shortened to accomodate the new fender location.
The fender is mounted with 1/2" long spacers on the front mount holes to angle the trailing edge up. The taillight is then mounted an additional 1" reward and slightly lower. One of the resistance welded nuts that mount the taillight bracket was long since broken of this bike. The 2nd one was only partially attached so I removed it too. At some point in its life the bike sat outside and the taillight screws likely seized. It did not have a taillight or bracket when I got it. The brackets were mounted to the bottom side of where the taillight bracket normally mounts. The fender required opening up and slotting some holes. A new hole was drilled to accept the relocated taillight bracket at the trailing edge of the fender.
Swingarm new length is +1-1/4". Easily could have squeaked another 1/2" out of it. If I were running a 4.00x10 or a 3.5x10 tire, I could have easily fit 2" with the revised fender mounting.
Now I just need a 1" longer brake stay arm and 1" clevis added to the brake rod. I'll probably fit a bronze bushing to the brake pedal lever while I'm at it. And then paint.......and oh yeah, the rest of the bike is also in pieces!

 

[makotosun]

Very well thought out and nicely executed! I will be interested to hear how it handles, if it makes a difference. I have a spare CT swing arm I have been planning on doing something similar with, but had not thought through the execution yet. I will be keeping your solution in mind!

Great job!

 

[markbrede3]

Looks good Great job

 

[SS_canuck]

All done. Some warm riding weather would be nice.

I was able to re-use the original brake stay. I built a new brake rod using some 6mm diameter shafting that I threaded. To make things really (and to add in some adjustability) I install a spherical rod end in place of the right angle bend that normally attaches the brake rod to the brake lever.

 

[btcook]

Looks good! Where did you get those Honda decals?

 

[fatcaaat]

nice

Nice job on that....I have a plus 4 extended aluminum swinger on my CT and I don't like the way it looks where I have the fenders. I am switching back. 2 inches is about as far as you can go and retain the look.

As for handling, I couldn't tell the difference between my non-lengthed swinger on one bike and the lengthened on the other.

Your welds look top notch too BTW>

 

[SS_canuck]

Hi Btcook. Those decals came from a seller on ebay. The leading edge of the decal pealed away from when I masked them off to touch up some paint.

Had the bike out for a couple rips now. You can actually feel the relocated center of gravity. Under hard braking, the front wheel is less prone to locking :yikes:as some of the rider weight was moved forward. The braking threashold range is wider. Ride is less choppy. While running last years engine combination, it would pull the front wheel with a little more predictability and control. That control was thrown out the window after dialing in the carb!

 

[knucklebuster2]

good job

you have you own Monster Garage goin,tell me about the exhaust bpipe in the pic,did you make that

 

[SS_canuck]

The exhaust is a XR50 Pitbike exhaust I picked up on ebay. Had to cut and re-route the pipe to stop burning my pant legs off. I installed the DEI exhaust wrap to keep the heat off my leg. Can is a copy of a pro-circuit T4. Had to drill out the rivets and re-pack with FMF silencer packing.

Sounds nice and performs good!