t-dubs underbraced stock swingarm.

this is where i am going to document the underbracing of t-dubs kz650 swingarm.he wants to keep more of a vintage look so he decided to brace his stocker rather than just swapping in a late model swingarm.
it will be similar to rstnicks swingarm on his kz650.
first we have to bend some 4130 cro-mo that is 1" od with an .065 wall thickness.light and strong.i bought a 6' tube and put a couple bends in it to start with.



then after i cut the bent pieces off i could tweek the bends to get them just where i wanted them.



then some visualization to get the lines right.

i was not satisfied with the way the brace wanted to come together with the stock axle plates.i wanted it all tied together rather than just welding the tubes together in front of the axle plate.so after some thought(like 5 seconds:laugh: ) i decided to cut a notch in the front of the axle plate so that the tube for the brace slid in and somewhat under the axle plate.



which allows the tube to tie everything together and maintain the strength.




leon

looks like the brake stay will clear fine.here i have it pulled lower than it would actually be,to help support the tube for visualizing .



that is where we are right now,i'll post more as it happens.thanks for lookin.

oh yeah t-dub my buddy asked if you were a richard petty fan?

leon

This is awesome! Looks like I'm gonna have a killer swingarm! I like the idea you had to tie it in to the axle plate, going to be better that way. Keep up the good work

Who's Richard Petty?

the guy that made that color blue(petty blue)famous,geez!



:laugh: :woohoo:

leon

Oh, not a Nascar fan, sorry. I can't remember what made me pick up that colour for the frame.

So it looks like you are mimicking the ZRX style of bracing Leon. Are you planning to mig weld it together, or tig it? And how did TDub talk you into working for him anyway? :ohmy:

Do you really think he's gonna tell you that?

:woohoo:

i likey a lot.....hmmmmmmmmmmm.........

porchev,
i know i will tig all the chro-mo together.tig doesn't like dirty metal and not being able to get inside the original swingarm tube to clean it i am not sure.i have seen people tig on old frames and i welded the rear end back on my buddies kz with tig.all the jap metal i have welded on before acted like it had impurities in it anyways.i have built swingarms for klx110's and ttr90's that adults roadraced and re-used the axle plates and pivots(and replaced the tubing with chro-mo),they hated the tig .i might have been trying to weld to much to hot :blush: .
i want to tig it all,we'll see.

t_dub has ways of getting people to do things :laugh: .

leon

I didn't get to see what was all involved in the making of the bracing to my swingarm, so this will be great to see from start to finish Leon.
Not even sure what was used to weld mine.
I just handed away my arm, and some weeks later got this:





It sure has helped add stabilty in the corners and over bumps at highway speeds.

rstnick,your swingarm has served as a great design study for t_dubs swingarm.it will be close to yours with just a couple design tweeks.
i was amazed at the difference that my trellis style swingarm made in the corners,and especially mid corner bumps.bumps that used to cause me to switch lanes are now just bumps,very stable.



of course the 190/200mm wide contact patch prolly don't hurt :laugh: .this is before i painted the wheel center black.



off to work on t_dubs arm.pics to come :silly: .

leon