finally

Well it's been awhile since I worked on the bike, I keep saying I'm going to spend few hours on the bike today but never get there in the end until now, though I've given lot of thought to what to print or polish and if print! What print colour to do them in, like the calipers.

What you see here is only lightly polished to shows the scratches/marks that are still on the surface of the swingarm after sanding' Like the forks, the swingarm did't look that bad until I started polishing and then all the marks start jumping out at me..lot of hard work...sanding/polishing for this reason some of the area around the shock maybe printed.

        

As you can see I've removed lugs on both sides of the swingarm I haven't decided whether to fit a metal chain guard yet, if I do I what it to be very minimises so you can still see most of the top run of the chain. As I'm not doing any major bodywork to the b4 by doing these little items may just add like something to the whole picture. I may also fit a small home made hugger to keep most of the mud from the wheel being thrown up at the shock but at the same time not covering any of the tyre up.

By removing the lugs has helps to tidy-up the look of the swingarm and makes it lot easier to polishes.

 

If you enlarge this picture it should shows after a light polishes the marks that still need removing so the finale polishing reflect as much light as possible from a smooth surface'  i.e. radiants gleaming lustres.  

                                                                                                                  Bit more done and looking better, I can do better I have two more grades of compound to go a pink and a yellow- super high gloss. There are still areas where I need to do bit more sanding and have found wet & dry paper works best for removing fine line and marks still showing through the fine polishing stage. At the moment the chain side looking the best side, so more work to do to the other side, so back to work. SEE       

Hold-ups

Business workload has improved even though the bike build hasn't, it's getting little like my 1969 swb 4.6 xj6 series1, Jaguar with manual gearbox/overdrive. Which has been stored in the garage along side where the Bandit is kept for some years now but unlike the Bandit have no plan to start working on it yet.

Few months ago I brought the undertray which you see fitted in the above photo (the photo doesn't do it justice). It's made for the Bandit 600 so needed to do some cutting and filing to get it to fit, I've left the pillion grab bars in place as I didn't what to cut them off at this moment in time. There are areas where the undertray doesn't meet the b4 bodywork very well if not at all, also where the battery meets the undertray  the tray will need cutting-out and reshaping so the battery can be refitted. As well as this am reshaping the rear of the undertray where it also meets the rear light and the two fixing bolts for the rear b4 bodywork. To do this' I need to fabricate number of backer plats which allows you to lay-up the repair the same way the undertray was built--gelcoat first. Which hopefully will means very little finish work will be required.

I google' moulding material's but couldn't find anything that would make my life any easier so decided to return back to the old trusted car body filler to fabricate the backers. The photos below shows some of the backer plates I've made-up so far, these still need some finishing off, i.e. more reshaping, smooth-out and painting.

When I get to re-fibreglassing the undertray the backer plats are waxed with releasing compound and then fixed to the outside as tight as possible to the undertray which is first turn-up-side-down, then lay two coats of black gel coat into the repair areas, once the gel coat becomes tacky start to lay-up the fibreglass fabric mating, when the repairs are done let dry for 24! Hours and then removed and discarded the backer plates.

I've been working on the swingarm on and off over sometime now regards to polishing and possible other ideas which is why I haven't cut anything off yet? . The photo shows how the swingarm might look like but since this photo was taking it's been re-sander back again before being re-polishing again.

 

 

I seam to be coming across more then my own fair share of problems during this build and this is the latest' After finishing the sprockets and chain setup? I started sanding-down the mould edges that are left behind in the rear-wheel casting process and needed to remove the brake disc to do so I had to undo the Allen-key-type bolt's head of which I managed to removal three of them but the other two bolts were partly seized and the Allen-key bolt head was rounded off so had to drill the head out and the last started to come out but as I thought it was coming out it snap-off.
I do have a set of extractors somewhere but can't find them so looks like I have to buy new set.
Again this happens a while ago' it pays sometimes to walk away from a problem but not this long.

The June to October time is busy time dealing with car and van MOTs and many other thing that needs doing at this time each year and now I hoping I can spend bit more time on the bike, lets see?...................       

 

   

 

 

New front sprocket

Please excuse me! Apologies' I'm going to have a moan' If things aren't bad enough with my business having a lack of workload and therefore money getting tighter by the day and with then trying to motivate myself to getting out and work on the b4.....Then to cap it off  today' With trying to upload photos to Photobucket site and organize them into same order! Only to find that Photobucket keeps   moving them into a different order again and again after each time I tried to place them back into order...so moved it from custom back to newest first for now I've giving up trying? for now... Photobucket new site sucks. now with moan out of the way!


I received the new sprocket from Scott/sprocket department @ TALON ENGINEERING LTD,  on Monday the 24 June.  The sprocket looks great.

The new sprocket manage to motivate me to get out on the following day Tuesday to see if everything lines up.

 

The chain seams to miss everything like shift rod.

 The front and rear sprocket seam to be in good alignment with one another, using a straight edge again (not the same one I used before as that straight edge wont now fit in-between the chain and tyre now the chain is Adjusted-up.   The swingarm buffer chain touch defense!/slider isn't in place yet will fit later' though I've have had it in before it needed a bit of cutting to do so.
Again I haven't taking all the links in the chain out yet that I need too, will do this later near end of build so in the photo the chain adjusters are near the end of adjustment. Finally used the laser tool to double check my work?.

       

 
 

 
 

In general

Sorry I haven't posted lately, what little spare time I've had I've spent on the bike.
Photobucket hasn't help either with all the changes' their did to the site, I complained, received e-mail response apologizing, theirs took on board some of my remarks, one of them "missing album page numbers" now pages number function is reinstated.  

During this second build it's been very hopeful to be able to discuss via email, forum-pm with a guy in Richmond, VA, who has done the front and rear mods I am doing which has been very helpful' So a big thanks to him. There still only so much you can ask and you have to put your own blend of idea into the mix as well, but it's been great to discuss things with someone, something I didn't have during the first build.

And now the B4: The rear wheel: So Far:

Another guy' John who runs his own small machinist shop in Southampton machined the sprocket-hub doing a great job in keeping the lower lip which is needed to centrally new 520 sprocket on the hub when tighten. The hub surface is milled to bring the rear sprocket closer to the tyre and help with aligning the two sprockets.      

Unlike the guy in Richmond, VA, I wasn't able to find a company that could supply the front or the rear sprocket in 520 off the shelves in the UK. He used two RM 250 sprockets welded together then machined down to give the correct offset needed?. Again I couldn't find a machinist that could do this, if I had more time to spent looking I may have found a machinist who could?. 
After many email's' to various companies with very few replies of which only two were really helpful.
Mark@ POWERLINKS, has now made the rear 520 sprocket up and supplied the chain and Scott/sprocket department @ TALON ENGINEERING LTD. Scott is now making the front 520 sprocket. At the time I had nothing to give Scott to make the new sprocket from, other then few photos and measurements from Richmond, VA. I wanted to get the offset for the front sprocket right first time around as I don't want to have second sprocket made up. Trying to get front and rear sprocket exactly align with each other using a straight piece of metal seems an easy enough method but in practice, it proves to be a tedious job and in the end decided the only way was to tension-up the chain but without a sprocket how' So I came up with the idea to make up crude dummy sprocket out of wood' The first had teeth, the second didn't, but they seam to worked to a fashion and with the aid of a laser-align tool got the offset I required. Few weeks ago posted to Scott, it a 4/6 week turn around time. Said he call if needed any more info. So far I haven't heard anything back which hopefully means he not having any trouble with making the new sprocket up!.  

 


While I wait for the front sprocket to come back, I have starts putting the front-end back in to sort out what still need doing, as well as to check if I've polished in all the right places! I'm short on money at the moment so I put the forks back together for now with no oil in them, will carry out the repairs that need doing later.

There're nowhere to mount the mounting bracket that holds the speedo/tacho and warning light's cluster from b4 to the gsxr top yoke. I could have drilled two holes in the yoke and fixed the mounting bracket in this way, But I didn't want to drill holes in my polished yoke. but I came up with the idea to mount the bracket via steel plate which is fixed between the ignition barrel and yoke using the two fixing-screws used to fix the barrel in place under the yoke,

Once again a trusty 3mm piece of wood to try the idea out first, followed by piece of steel, which in-turn will be beef-up later? (Strengthen). 

 

 

The tyre looks....

Awesome’ The tyre looked big enough off the bike but once in place its’  “Massive’  my attempt too captive this with the camera doesn't quite come off, no matter how many shoots I take.    You need to be here! to see how large this 180 tyre looks slotted in the b4 frame.  



Before I could fit the RF swingarm into the b4 frame and still continue using the new lift, I first had to fabricate some new support to mount the b4 back onto the lift before being able to cut off the peg's steel backplate to make room for swingarm too slid in-between the frame. And no’ these new mounts aren’t going to be my new foot peg's..lol..





 Leaving part of steel plate in place on both sides to be able to refit the original rider-pegs but too reworked them first to allow the rider-pegs to be able to adjusted by undoing two bolts? So they can be slid to find the best position!!. I have the basic idea set-out but still working on refining the idea.
The wheel and swingarm went in few months ago, I only just got to posting on it today.

The caliper setup I wanted to use was with the RF mounting bracket which locks into a slot on the rf swingarm which is used to lock caliper, unlike b4 where it needs a torque rod to do the job. Trying to find a rf caliper is another thing? here in the UK. B4 caliper for various reasons wont work with this setup. There only one guy that I know that's has done this mod before and is in the later stages of another build so I posted on his thread on a great bandit fourm he said 94/95 gsxr750 should fit, he was right. I found 95 gsxr750 caliper on ebay.UK. The only good caliper and price I could fine. Came yesterday and it fits well.    

The caliper in top of photo is B4 bottom is GSXR750 (the b4 is not as small as it looks) 


The bike lift works well not to say the lift hasn’t got its !!! points but the good points more then make up for them. I don't know how it would work if I needed to removal the engine. It take bit of mucking around to change between foot-pegs and wheel mounts, gets easy once you done it fee times. It save the mucking around with blocks which so often you find there in the wrong place/position.. as I did on the first build. Unlike with the lift were I just lift or lower, not forgetting I can slid/move the lift with bike fix to it cross the floor     without the fear of knocking the bike/lift over.  

Present-2nd build

lifting ones ego

The roof isn't finish, neither is the inside and other items like the lighting isn't much better. But finally the bandit is back in and as you can see! I've got a new toy-tool! "The original red bike lift". This year for one or more reasons hasn't so far been a great year so I'd decided to treat myself to a present to make things feels bit better.
It took awhile to sort out and fix the small bandit to the bike-lift' mainly due to fixing foot pegs to the footpegs mounts on bike lift, but lift works very well and life lot easier now with the bike in the air. First job I decided to Tactic was the RF900 swingarm which has been in-out few times now, swopping between the new and old arm to see how best to go about doing the work to fit RF900 arm into the frame I know and can see there will need to be some cutting to the steel support behind the rider foot pegs for the RF to fit.
My approach to this will be slightly different to the way someone else has carry out the work on his b4. For one I like the 400 foot pegs' Although I would like them to be touch higher and back a bit further, therefore my cutting to the steel support will be bit difference and to both sides. As I'm supporting the b4 off the lift via the bike pegs before I can remove steel I need to fabricate my own mounts to fit b4 at a differncnce point before I can do any cutting. So I've just bought a pack of two 6mm steel-bar plates 150mm square off ebay to fabricated the new supports plates which will able me to get to the steel support to do the cutting. (More on the swingarm in a later post, only to say the RF900 swinger fits as well as the b4 original swingarm does across the pivot point on the original ).
It's a lot nicer standing up then laying down on the floor without using blocks of wood so on to block the bike-up. If I got the rear out and wanted to start on the front that's no problem unlike before. I can stop the lift at any height where I want too.
I was looking at the normal bike table before I saw this lift. The workshop is long and thin and wouldn't have had the room for a bike table and with this lift when I'm done I can hang it up on the wall out of the way.
    

Rear Wheel conversion

It’s while ago now that I spotted this gsxr750 wheel on ebay and the biding time was almost up, I knew gsxr wheel up to end1989 were 4.5 and  the cushion's drive/hub had five nuts'  The 1990 wheel change to an 5.5 and cushion's drive/hub had six nuts. I was after 4.5 wheel. Anyway' Times was run out and seam a good buy and nobody else was biding so put a bid in and took the dog for her evening walks. While out' I suddenly realized I counted the wrong-side I had in fact counted the brake disc side which also has five nuts on both wheels' years. And yes you guess it' I won the bid. At lest I got for good price.

Few days later when the wheel arrived I began to wonder what the b4 would look like with 5.5 wheel, why not try it up against the bike "hey" this may work. The more I thought about it! Wow' wouldn’t it look aces. The wheel fitted into the swingarm which I had acquired much early in my search for parts. I was to learn later that the swingarm wouldn't fit the frame of the b4' so back to the drawing board.



For a while it looks like things won't going to work and perhaps I should go back to the 4.5 wheel idea, I thought of cut/mod/weld the swingarm as I and a mate can Aluminium weld. My MIG isn’t setup for Aluminium, were my mates MIG can be.  But I decide not too...Too much work to spend on little four!.


Then a guy from the USA! "Cross the pond" started to post about fitting 5.5 to this b4. I believe he used an RF900 swingarm and an offset sprocket from RM250 which he had machine as the b4 doesn't use a nut to hold the sprocket on. I started searching for RF900 swingarm and learnt RF900 wasn't as liked here in the UK as else were' so finding a RF swingarm isn't gone to be easy and at first no joy. Then while on the net looking for another item' Up pop one and here it is, I haven't decided on how I will finish RF swinger yet will wait till see how parts fit, just because someone else has done the conversion before! Isn to say you can't improve on it' adding your own touches' makes it "Unique" and on the other hand we all can all get it wrong at some point! .

  

    



I believe the measurement across the pivot point on the original b4 swingarm is 220mm the same as the RF, the first swinger I tried fitting didn't fit because it measured 228mm across the pivot point on the swinger and that's without the end caps on, the RF900 measures 220mm and this does include the pivot-spacer-end-caps. This is why as far as I know most' if not all single-sided arm won't fit as they seem to be all between 228-284mm across the pivot and most! single-sided have different-type of pivot mounts point then the b4. 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           The photos which shows the two ends of the two diff swinger, the gsxr in the top of the photo and rf900 in the bottom shows the end-cups in place    

The guy from Cross the pond, Had his b4 back on the road for a while when he started to have trouble with the chain rubbing against tyre and frame, he did various things to the b4 to overcome the problems?. For the same reason' is why I haven't painted the rear wheel yet because I wish to keep the180/55 tyre on so I can carry out a dry-fit-run to see how the chain and things line-up. For checking alignment I will use Laser Chain Alignment tool rather then measure by hand as this is not alway 100% certain.                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                             The bottom right hand photo is of the end-cup for RF900 shown in-place in the above photo.
 

I have measurement of the original b4 swinger  somewhere just can't remember where I put them at this moment. If I was fitting the RF900 swinger into a RF bike frame of the same year, it would be Straight fit. Because I'm not' I need to make sure that both the b4 and RF are the same or very similar layouts to each other "ie" the rear wheel must follow in alignment/path of the front wheel and Swingarm needs to fit well into the frame' I need some end-float to allow free movement of the swinger when pivot bolt and nut is tighten-up but not to the point where the swingarm is moving from side-to-side between the bike frame which inturn will allow the chain to move in and out of alignment as I flick the b4 in and out of corners! . 

The single-sided arm link above' I came across after posted this post when I was looking for something else, I have no ideas what they did to fit the arm. do you know more? .
                                                                                         
Present-2nd build