Scrappy Softail

[kirrbby]

I've been putting 3.5 oz of 15w oil in the forks for my testing. With my biggest push, front tire against the wall, I'm only getting around 2¼" of compression. Seems like I should be able to get a little more than that. I'll be looking a little closer at the valving that I have with this setup while I have it apart too. I'm wondering if the hole that's in the fork bumps is getting covered by the inner fork leg, too early in the stroke now...restricting oil flow too early. I don't have seals on my top sealing bolts yet either tho, so I'm sure some air is escaping when I compress the forks. Still kinda early to make judgement on how the valving is workin. I need to get this springs right first...Or at least right enough.

 

[67Motorcat]

I remember Kirby, I cut my spring stop, so the springs went in with out any tension at all.

The ride is very soft and sags when I'm sitting on it about 3/4".

 

[67Motorcat]

Also, remember to add spacers to the front on the rear fender mount, so you don't have tire contact at full compression

 

[kirrbby]

I remember Kirby, I cut my spring stop, so the springs went in with out any tension at all.

The ride is very soft and sags when I'm sitting on it about 3/4".

That's about where I'm at now. I noticed the length of my new springs, don't match. I cut them out of sealed packages, but one is about ¾" longer than the other..? Anyway, right now one is compressed ½" and the other is ¼" loose in there. The bike sags about ¾" under its own weight, and about 1¼ with me sitting on it. I like the rake of the front end much, much better now. I'm feeling really good about that.

The first time I welded my fork ears on, I put them upside-down. The second time I had them the right way, but they were too low, but I could see where I would want them, to get the speedo and bucket right. Wouldn't it be funny if I put them upside-down again on the 3rd go-round..? Not really... But that's what I did...Tacked them on, up as high as I could put them, but upside-down again. Soo... as they say, one step forward, one step back. Still, getting the springs...better, was top priority, and they are. I'm thinking I'll buy another new spring, to try to get a matching pair. I'm not sure if they were different out of the bag, or maybe I over-compressed one somewhere along the way, and basically smashed it shorter.? Possible?? I suppose maybe.

I think I need to finish up everything that I have started on this project, while it's still reasonably fresh in my head. Then put it away till next off season :-/ The weather is getting nice here in Davison, and I've run out of time for this bike. I'm kinda bummed about that, but I'm pretty fired up to ride the bikes that are hot-n-ready.

 

[kirrbby]

HL ears are right side up. I like the height of the bucket and speedo, but the bucket is not quite centered. I'll have to figure that out and correct it before I weld the ears solid.
I'm quite happy with the stance of the bike now...feels right when I sit on the bike, and looks right when I'm not on it.
Next up is to pull a few parts off of it, flip it upside-down, and weld in the swingarm mount.
Then it's going into storage. Still a ton of stuff to figure out and do on this little guy. If I do anything else on it before November, I'll build the motor, maybe buy the missing parts.
I'll post some pics when I weld up the SA mount.

 

[69ST]

Hard to believe its May 4th...a balmy 45F and rain right through the weekend. Looks like you made good use of weather. The stance looks about right.

See why I suggested doing the HL ears last? Believe me, you're not doing anything very different than anyone else who's taken on major fab work. It's the nature of the beast. FWIW, magnets are a very effective for holding the HL ears in place while you walk away for a an eyeball measurement, then walk back to tweak `em, etc, until it's time to tack & weld.

 

[rfranks]

First of all, love the direction of this build and love to see the ideas.... people come up with. are you running into travel issues with the geometry/orientation of the shocks? Maybe you spoke of it in earlier post if there was any? What size motor are you going with?

 

[kirrbby]

Thanks rfranks. I'm following the lead of a couple other lh members who built very similar bikes. You can see links to their projects in my first few posts.
The front forks actually come together pretty well. I've made a big fat deal out of them I think, but that's just my process. I shortened the inner legs 1.5" to suit my taste. They still have the full 3.5" of travel that K1up CT70 forks have. And once I got the spring stops cut down to the right length, they feel pretty good.

Current, and I think final plan for the motor is 52x54 for 119cc's. Using the dratv 54mm crank with CT70H stator setup, rewound to make 12v. 4 speed atc70 trans with a Honda manual clutch. Still kinda planning to use a yoshi/Mikuni carb...22mm I think.
Should be a good fun ride. The bike will end up to be about CT70 size and weight. But the motor should move it along nicely
Hope to plate it so it can run the streets as well as the trails. It's lookin like 2018 riding season...hopefully. lol

 

[69ST]

Any time you're doing custom fab work there are going to be fits & starts. You'll probably end up redoing some of it, discarding work you've already done, changing your mind, discovering new details previously overlooked, etc. That IS the process and it's roll-your-own.

That should be enough motor to use a VM22, if you want to keep things modestly-priced and easily serviceable with domestically-available parts. The undersquare ought to have a nice, flat, torque curve with more than enough power for this little machine. My guess is that the wheelbase is pretty close to that of a stock CT70...no genius insight, or anything like that. Look at the spacing between the engine and wheels, pretty similar, visually, to CT70. Wheels of this size, pretty well require it, at a minimum. This is an example of what I mean that the design practically dictates itself...i.e. form follows function.

I suspect that this machine will be a bit lighter than a CT70. There's simply less metal. Should make for a very easily transportable little bike and that can come in handy. The larger Z50 tank capacity makes an interesting contrast...roughly double the range of a CT. IMHO, your chosen engine configuration is a good one for this chassis. At best, you're going to have CT70 K1-ish suspension & braking, along with J-rated tires (perfectly adequate for this application) so, not much point in going for 75mph hp when torque won't be affected.

Should be a nifty Z50...

 

[farm dog]

Kirrby what's up with this project ?

 

[kirrbby]

Kirrby what's up with this project ?

Haven't been able to get back into the Softail project.
I brought it back into my garage, probably early December.
It's been an awful off season for me tho....Maybe I'll post about it sometime.

 

[kirrbby]

I want a YouTube video of that.

Did you see it yet red69?

 

[red69]

Yes, and that was a couple of Hondas ago.