76 KZ900 B1 - from crates.

nice progress. keep it comming.

Just out of curiosity, why not use a piece of 1/4" plate for that gusset?

RobK wrote: Also, had a bit of a setback on Saturday.

Got home, went into the garage and realized my carelessness. Fuck - I coulda punched myself in the face for that one! :pinch: We live 3 blocks from Broadway here in Denver and the alley gets a lot of traffic from the Magpies (guys looking for metal scrap) and homeless folks. Needless to say, the crate was long gone.

Good news is that most of the gear in there was not going to be kept (like the old chain, the stem and old rear axle. Unfortunately the clip ons (and controls) from the ZX-6r front end and a NOS stator cover were also in there. There was proably other gear in there too, which I'll figure out as I go on.

Well there goes that arbor for the missus. :pinch:

That gusset looks good to me. Personally I used 1/8" plate there. 1/4" seems awfully heavy to me, unless you were going to mount a gun turret or something. Your work looks clean. Keep it up.

BTW Happy Birthday!

sucks about the parts getting jacked!

not that you want to buy (much less chinese)but these adjustable clip ons are a pretty neat idea.i would think you could build a set.

cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Adjustable-CNC-C...&hash=item25615fe649

even if they were fabbed and welded they could be cool.


the welded gusset is nice.did you build or buy your dimpling dies?

kidkawie,
1/4 plate is total over kill.i would use .125 thick,which is around the same thickness as the tubing.you typically match the material thickness of the tubing when making gussets.welds easier to.thats my .02,fwiw.

leon

After a fair bit of reading, I decided that even thin sheet is pretty strong (in the triangle leading to the head tube). As Foale states:

"This can be easily illustrated with a rectangular piece of cardboard, any attempt to flex the rectangle into a lozenge shape is strongly resisted, but just try and twist the board and you will experience little difficulty."

So with the addition of the the curve, the fold-over (which adds torsional rigidity) and even the dimple (I think), the relatively thin metal used for that gusset should be more than ample to deal with the stress. After all, there are already some pretty big tubes doing the lion's share of the work, the gusset is just helping out. Or as Foale says...

" the amount of flexure is proportional to the cube of the unsupported length, so reducing that by a half increases the stiffness by a factor of eight. Hence even small gussets can stiffen a multi-tubular frame considerably."

Though in the interest of full disclosure, my engineering education comes from making and breaking stuff, so I stand ready to be corrected.

Leon, my 'dimpling die' is the end of a 2' length of 2" tubing and a ball-peen hammer!

...and I like those clip ons! Thanks

Leon, my 'dimpling die' is the end of a 2' length of 2" tubing and a ball-peen hammer!

...and I like those clip ons! Thanks[/quote]

awesome idea!
that is my kinda deal there robk.

i just worry about the dimples not being connected from one side to the other side and leaving a little catch all down on the inside.

leon

531blackbanshee wrote: Leon, my 'dimpling die' is the end of a 2' length of 2" tubing and a ball-peen hammer!

...and I like those clip ons! Thanks

awesome idea!
that is my kinda deal there robk.

i just worry about the dimples not being connected from one side to the other side and leaving a little catch all down on the inside.

leon[/quote]

Yeah I realized after I hit "submit" that the tube was probably closer to 1.5". The ID was pretty much perfect for the 7/8" hole I'd drilled. I used the round end of the hammer, chocked up on the handle, started slow and worked my way around. It was actually easier than I feared.

14ga is plenty stout for frame gussets,i just folded my steering head gussets over straight without the curve in them.
my swingarm pivot gussets have the curve in them but they were made from 3 pieces and welded together

A little progress.

Slower than hoped because I actually redid the gussets a few times to get them the way I wanted them. They're in and I'm happy with them.

I was explaining what I'd been doing to my wife and how the bead wasn't quite as strait and pretty as I would have liked when she asked: "will anyone be able to see them?"

"Well no, but that's not the point, is it?"


And we've got a new member of the family...('82 XT550)



This one's gonna be my wife's when it's all cleaned up she's new to bikes and loves enduros.

nice score on the xt for the wife.

the neck gussets look good.
it is very funny how offensive a weld that can be seen is,when you are the welder :sick: .

looks good,keep us posted.

leon

im thinking you could use some more penetration on those welds,but maybe its just me

wireman wrote: im thinking you could use some more penetration on those welds,but maybe its just me

That's actually the second pass. I grinded the first pass down and laid these on top.