A bike called Redemption

Thanks rusty. More coming soon.

Duane

When we left off last time, we had a roller.  It was sittin' on the wheels, with the motor in the frame and motor mounts made.  It's coming together nicely.  Now, the little things that take a lot of time but seem so inconsequential.

All the controls from the RF900 get put onto the GS frame.  I cut the old mounts for the foot controls off, made new mounts from steel, and welded them to the frame.  I made a small subframe under the seat that holds the foot pegs for the pillion seat.  I was pretty sure it never going to see a passenger, but it is also used for the exhaust hanger.  It's not a big deal, because I can use it to mount the hard bags when I get around to making them.  There is also two extra plates that are mounted under the seat that will be used for the hard bags as well.  I welded a plate under the seat subframe and the electrics are all hidden under the seat, including the battery.

I'm at the point where I need to figure out what headlight and tank to use.  I put the GS light and light fairing up and the GS tank to see what it would look like.  It kind of had the look of an '80s muscle bike which I really liked, but the GS tank wouldn't fit over the new back bone without some serious modification to the tunnel.  I had an old tank from a Honda Nighthawk laying around so I tried that but it just looked way to small.  So then I put up the RF tank and headlight.  That was the one.  It just looked right.  I cut the mount off the RF frame for the headlight fairing and welded it onto the GS.  Once the tank was on, I could make a seat.

Now that everything is built, it's time to tear it all down again.  Everything is taken apart.  Down to the bare frame again.  I detabbed it to get rid of everything I didn't need, my friend did the final welding for me.  The gussets at the headstock were trimmed to make more room to get the motor in and out.  I took some 0.25" round bar, bent it to the required shape and welded them in under the gussets at the headstock just to make sure there was enough strength there.  I also made a gusset between the back bone and the "bridge" that goes to the where I cut the old back bone out.  And one more gusset in the back bone to rear suspension mount area.  All the welding done, I took the frame to work and sand blasted it.  Before it gets painted, I smoothed all the welds, so there isn't any body filler in the frame.

While I was working on the frame, the motor was out.  Perfect time to get into that.  I knew I needed to get into the motor when I bought the RF900 because the owner said it ran out of oil.  Sure enough, the crank messed up along with at least 2 connecting rods; the connecting rod bearings were in the oil pan.  I found a crank on Fleabay.  Connecting rods, rod bearings, main bearings and thrust bearing from the dealer.  I reused the timing chain, valves, pistons and wrist pins etc.  I made sure all the oil passages were clean and free of junk and then put it all back together.

A mechanic I am not, so I asked a shop that I was working with at the time if I could do the engine there, so the mechanic could look over my shoulder.  No problem.  When I had everything apart, I measured everything from the piston bores to all the bearing clearances.  So the mechanic asks me if I was going to use plasigage to check my bearing clearances.  I told him I didn't need to because I measured everything with a 0.0001" dial gauge, you know, like how it is supposed to be done.  I'm a machinist, measuring I can do.

While the motor was apart, I painted the body work and frame.  The frame and swing arm were painted a sandstone, the bodywork was painted aquamarine blue, a GM color, and the rims were painted burnt orange.  For the artwork, I didn't want to do the same as everybody else; so no skulls or evil stuff.  Instead, I decided to do an angel theme.  That is what the wings and portrait are on the tank.  On the front fairing I painted a Maltese cross because I am a volunteer fire fighter.  The orange graphic on the side of the tank is asymetrical, just because it bugs people and the orange graphic on the fairing is endless, symbolizing God.

Now the motor is done and everything is ready for final assembly.

This building bikes stuff is pretty incredible.  We get to test ourselves, trying new things and expanding our skills.  While I hope never to sell this bike, I will still build bikes.  It is just so much fun.  It's too bad we need sleep, 'cause I could do this 24/7 and never run out of ideas and stuff to try.  What a blast!!

Here is a little sneak peak of what the future holds.

This is on the back burner for now. I want to change over to fuel injection the same time I do the turbo. The plan is to use microsquirt and machine a custom intake that will use a single throttle body from a small gas engine.

I'm with you on fitting the turbo.  Unfortunately, it's not in the cards at the moment.

I looked for cone filters before I made the intake.  I couldn't find any at the time.  Also had a problem finding the silicon connecting pieces.  I think, if I can find those parts, that is my best bet for the time being. 

I don't think the warm air from the top of the transmission where the air filters will be would be an issue.

When the time comes for the turbo, I want to make an intake manifold that uses a single throttle body, not 4 separate throttle bodies.  That way, I can make the jump to fuel injection at the same time I do the turbo.  That is the plan as of right now anyway.  But things tend to change without notice.

Anyway, any help on where I can find pod filters and silicon connectors would help tremendously.

Hey Steve. That is what I need. It looks like you have 2 filters feeding 4 cylinders? Can you tell me where you found those?

Thanks