Tale of an SR650.

that is going to look WICKED! :evil:
what bike is that shock off of ?

Shock is an Ohlins, off a Ducati 900SS. The 900SS has a cantilever style swingarm/shock layout, so thats why I went with it. I had a guy measure the ducati for swingarm length, shock mounting position etc and transfered these dimensions over to my KZ build. So theoreticaly it should have VERY similar geometry to the Ducati....at least that was the plan. The ZR arm is 1.75" lomger, so I moved the shock mounting point back 1" to compensate for the extra leverage. Obviously the CG etc between the two bikes is quite diferent so other than that its trial and error lol.
The shock spring is for a 200lb rider, I happen to be 200lbs so that worked out well. The bike will likely be 30lbs or so heavier than the Ducati though, so may have to get a different rate spring. Once I weigh it I'll have a better idea.

Its setup with 24.5* of rake as well, so quite steep, but I have a damper to go on so if its twitchy I'll dial in more dampening.

Started to fab the top brace, I've got a bit more done now, but no pics yet, I'll be tinkering again this evening so I'll post up where I get to later

i'm lovin it.
a KZ caries the weight ratio, back a bit, compared to the duc, so your spring rate should be pretty good.
dont worry about the rake mine is similar and its steady at 125mph.

Here are a few more pic's of the swingarm build.



Putting some heat into the aluminum to weld





The upright brace, clamp the hell outta it as aluminum tweaks a bit when cooling as I found out the hard way.



A few of the welds, not use to the spool gun, but other than the stops/starts its not too bad.

them spool gun welds look real nice.i have one but have never personaly used it.now that i know you can get welds that nice it kinda makes me want to try it out.

your making some good progress.that swingarm is going to be stout as fU(#. :evil:

keep up the good work and keep us posted,

leon

The spool gun is a bit finiky, I tried using the recomended setting on a few test pieces, and it was so far off its not even funny. I played with the heat/speed for 4-5 test welds and got it working very well. I had guys telling me you cant make nice welds with a spool gun and I was wasting my time.

I must say I'm pleasantly suprised by it, much cheaper alternative to buying a TIG....although a TIG is on my list

The brace is HUGE, more I look at it the more its overkill, it's got an in your face robustness lmao. I have a few more plans for using the spool gun, headlight brackets, gauge mount, exhaust mount etc.

on the upside you can polish the piss outta it without worry of getting it too thin :whistle: .

leon

Arrrrgggghhhhh, the swingarm was too big to get any heat into it, just disipated heat way too fast to make it worth while. So a bunch of the welds look like complete ASS. Started grinding them down, and I like it better with the welds smoothed out lol, so not as big of an issue as I had thought.

I clamped the arm to my bench with 6 c-clamps and 3 pair of grips. Tacked everything and started welding, alternating sides/ends to keep it from warping. Let it all cool for 2 hours, cold to the touch, and unclamped it. Set it in the frame and the pivot bolt slid in like butter....so far so good....grabbed the wheel and spacers, set it in, took a DEEP breath and prayed that the arm hadnt tweaked and that the axle would go in as smooth as the pivot.

WELL WHOLY HELL, fookin thing slid in like it was a greased VAG lol, no fightin at all and everything looks spot on. Whhheeeeeeewww glad I didnt fook up the arm

Going to do the finishing fab on the mount tonight, so i'll post up what I've fooked up then

glad it worked so well for you.

leon

No more wooden box holdin her up, its on her wheels

SWEET!!!!