TOPIC:

Guess some of you dont know Leon yet.....lol

Great job on that experimental design....sure the final piece will be a success.

thanks for the confidence spdygon

leon

Leon, That is a great idea for an adjustable upper triple. Plunty strong, most likely. Most air head BMW use a stamped steel plate for the upper triple. There's more than one way to skin a catfish!

Yes your right, I don't know Leon, reading his threads from front to back though, is one of the reasons I joined this forum, I am an intelligent 54 year old thats been building and modifying bikes since 1979 when I bought my first 750 Honda. I won't carry on any further about myself as this is the internet and I could say anything I wanted, I'm not here for the high fiveing or back slapping either. My focus has always been on motorcycle suspension, within 3 feet of my computer I have 3 custom front ends and 3 alloy swingarms, 2 for my 750/4's and one front for my 750 Kawasaki, all have modern right side up, cartridge fork, front end conversions and all have custom triple clamps built to my specs {fork spacing and offset, as well as fork size}, I don't have the luxury of a mill and lathe, both of which I can use myself {champagne taste, beer money !!}, so I design and have friends both in the US and UK make parts for me, its far cheaper than having them made here, although I know a couple of very talented engineers local to me that build race bikes here in Australia. One should never assume that everyone else is "uninformed" simply because they reserve a different opinion. Whilst I respect Leons fabrication skills, or anyone else capable of making or designing their own parts, it doesn't mean that everything they make is correct {we do learn from our mistakes right ?}, I'm sure Mr Foale, Mr Rob North, Mr Egli, Mr Bakker, spondon, or any other well noted frame builders never tested "experimental" parts on the street, especially suspension related... I stand by everything I've said, no malice or bad will was intended.

80B4, if you read my posts, it doesn't matter what the top clamp is made from {within reason}, as long as it is in one piece top to bottom excluding the bar mounts, the more joints you add, the more prone the part is to movement, I found this out years ago building make shift suspension parts on home made go carts {for riding on}, thats why all top clamps are made as I've stated, whether they are cast, mild steel, aluminum or whatever other fancy metal you wish to use, no need to reinvent the wheel... You will NEVER see a clamp of Leons design on a race bike, for all the reasons I've alluded to, One piece drop clamps can be bought for this very application, just google "drop top triple clamp and have a look., They were standard on some early fireblade 929/954honda's for example..

750r1 your concerns are duly noted .and have been pondered over.
i started this thread to show off some pics of my work and my bike.

80b4,
thanks means alot coming from you.



leon

I'm sure that if Leon''s upper triple is dangerous he will admit it and then act accordingly. He's looking for setup data, he's not going to try to make a living making multi piece uppers.
Speaking of multi piece upper triples, my 1983 Yamaha Vision came from the factory with a 3 piece upper triple. I'm sure there are lots of other multi piece triples out there.
Like I said , there's more than 1 way to skin a cat fish.

80B4 wrote: I'm sure that if Leon''s upper triple is dangerous he will admit it and then act accordingly. He's looking for setup data, he's not going to try to make a living making multi piece uppers.
Speaking of multi piece upper triples, my 1983 Yamaha Vision came from the factory with a 3 piece upper triple. I'm sure there are lots of other multi piece triples out there.
Like I said , there's more than 1 way to skin a cat fish.

I'm sorry but you simply don't understand the mechanics of the situation if you think Leon's triple is anything like the visions top clamp, the Yamaha vision top clamp is nothing like the clamp Leon has made, it has absolutely nothing in common, NO manufacturer builds multi piece clamps of similar design, as I've already stated..

Hi Leon, sorry if I came across as being critical of you or your work, its just the design that worries me, I have some experience in this field and was just a little concerned. You're a smart guy, you'll work it out...

took it out for a few hours last night

didn't die

not even close .this thing is extra solid.no shifting of anything .

i'm fine with it.

we'll see.time will tell and sh!t will smell right .

didn't push it super hard,
but oklahoma back roads are pretty rough.so alot of mid-corner bumps surface irregularities etc.

super stoked and ready for some more saddle time



750r1,

i believe you have made your self perfectly clear.
your an experienced intellegent man,that does not agree with what i am doing.
i believe i have been perfectly civil through our posts and am now asking you to please clutter my thread no further with your opinion.
thanks for your respect in this matter.

leon

Leon, great work as usual. Why did you decide against the fork extensions extenders whatever? I mean I can probably answer my own question and say: because you can make whatever you want yourself. Was it that or do you have an opinoin or knowledge on them? I have been looking at them lately and all I can find written about them online seems similar to asking someone about what weight oil to use or what color is best.

KZ802 wrote: Leon, great work as usual. Why did you decide against the fork extensions extenders whatever? I mean I can probably answer my own question and say: because you can make whatever you want yourself. Was it that or do you have an opinoin or knowledge on them? I have been looking at them lately and all I can find written about them online seems similar to asking someone about what weight oil to use or what color is best.

thanks for the kind words man.

i wanted to try something different of my own design is the main reason

my lathe won't cut metric threads so that helped sway me away from fork extenders also.

i also only wanted my ideas and ability to constrain me.

not someone else's pre-conceived notion of how best to go about it.

hey it would be a pretty boring world if we all liked cool stuff

leon

Nice work.
RE- fork extensions.
You could gain extra fork length by simply fitting a 32mm male/female threaded slug to the bottom of the damper rod.
A simple job for the lathe and metric tap and die. ( don't even mention all the work I did to the Z cafe's forks for the same result think I was having a brain fart on that day )
Depending on model the thread for the allen screw is M10 or M12 by either 1mm or 1.25mm.
This would enable a bit more leg length between the yokes by allowing the spacer block height to be reduced if required.

750 R1,
My point is there are many different types of upper triple clamps. One piece, three piece what ever. Let Leon think outside the box. It's his bike, his work, and his skin. Most of us are grownups.