196 replies to this topic

[LukeH]

Engine craddle MK2 is born!!

 

I started on Saturday and finished it this morn  (Sun). It's all new except the rear most piece that I salvaged from the old one. I much happier with the build of this one, especially the main backbone which is now much neater and a better design than the last.

 

The left hand upright looks unfinsihed where it attaches to the subframe mount but I still have another piece to add that will tie into it effectively capping the end of the box section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I determined the engine height (30mm higher than previous) relative to the subframe by referencing a number of pictures of completed builds. I could see that the bottom of the oil cooler bolt was slightly lower than the top of the front cross-member on the subframe. The left-to-right position is the same as before and the front to back position is roughly the same as before albeit a few mm further foward. I've also picked the front of the engin up slightly so that the engine leans back. This will hopefully help gain a few mm of clearance at the front for the exhaust. 

 

I'm now roughly back to where I was before I realised the craddle needed to change and it's only taken a weekend plus £10 worth of materials. My custom diff hanger brackets have arrived from the laser cutters so I can get on with fabricating the bracket next.

[LukeH]

The diff hanger brackets I designed and had laser cut arrived. Here they are test fitted to the diff output covers.



The black marker on the aluminium part is where I might trim down to gain a bit more space between the engine and subframe. I don't need them to be square now I using my custom mounts.

[Tomm]

This is a very inspiring build and i will follow it closely. It seems very rare now days to get home build bike powered minis which are put on the road with home built cradles. 

 

Would you recommend The West garage diff? 

 

Like I say i will keep a keen eye in here, something I have always wanted to do. 

[LukeH]

This is a very inspiring build and i will follow it closely. It seems very rare now days to get home build bike powered minis which are put on the road with home built cradles. 
 
Would you recommend The West garage diff? 
 
Like I say i will keep a keen eye in here, something I have always wanted to do.

Cheers. It really helps with the motivation when people say nice things like that

I toyed with the he idea of buying a kit but couldn't really justify the cost but I really wanted a bike engined mini. I figured I'd try building my own and if all else fails I can buy a kit or stick an a-series back in.

The west garage kit is a very well made a well priced bit of kit. My only slight niggle is that's its not really designed for the way I'm using it so Ive had to fab my own mounts (I will be posting the pictures in a mo). You still have to buy quite a few bits to build it up such as diff, output covers output shafts but it will still work out about £650-700. Lynx is about a grand but comes with LSD. Douglas at west garage was really helpful.

[LukeH]

Diff hanger fabrication

I've been working on the diff hanger the last few days. It's taken about 4 hours to get to this stage.

I started out by cutting a wooden spacer the same width as the diff so I could work out the hanger spacing and angles. Next I cut all the metal on the chopsaw.





Keeping everything square was tricky but it turned out good. It's only tacked so I can change things if required.

Edited by LukeH, 14 November 2015 - 08:15 PM.

[gadget555]

Look's good I'll be following this one. keep up the updates and good work.

[LukeH]

Order placed at McGill Motorsport for rod ends and weld in inserts. Hopefully they'll arrive before the weekend so I can crack on Saturday with the diff fab

Edited by LukeH, 19 November 2015 - 08:54 PM.

[LukeH]

I guess its going to look like my project is all over the place with this post. The reality is that when I can't get in the garage I try and do stuff on the project in the house. Here is an update on my progress converting a Smiths Centre speed to work with the bike engine.

I purchased another centre speedo from the forum so I keep mine intact. It happens to be a kph clock which means the scale goes up to 150, perfect for the bike conversion.

I didn't waste anytime tearing it apart. I'll be using a stepper motor to drive the needle controlled my an Arduino microcontroller. That will also keep track of the odometer which I'm displaying on an OLED.

Here a few work in progress pics. I've sprayed the centre face to remove the mph scale plus the kph marking as the outer scale will now be mph.







Here is the code running. The Smiths logo is displayed on startup and the odometer is recalled from memory. I don't have the stepper motor yet so can't show the needle function.





The white bit is cut from cardboard and now sprayed black. The OLED screen was smaller than the hole so I cut the card to make it neater.

The Arduino does all the hard work. It measures the input from the r1, converts to a stepper position and move the needle. It also counts the distance and writes the updates to eeprom so its saved during power down. My code is a little rough but considering I'd never touched an Arduino 4 weeks ago I'm pleased to get this far.

Edited by LukeH, 16 November 2015 - 10:32 PM.

[Midas Mk1]

Awesome Project Luke! Following daily aha!

 

I don't know if you know but smiths have actually had a similar idea too - this from their twitter feed:

 

https://twitter.com/caigauge

 

Edit : tmf won't allow twitter image links

Edited by Midas Mk1, 16 November 2015 - 10:51 PM.

[LukeH]

Awesome Project Luke! Following daily aha!
 
I don't know if you know but smiths have actually had a similar idea too - this from their twitter feed:
 
https://twitter.com/caigauge
 
Edit : tmf won't allow twitter image links

Cheers

Yeah I became aware last week when Evil Twin posted on my topic in the mini chat section. It looks a quality item and would probably buy one if I can't get my own sorted. I'm curious to find out what microcontroller they are using.

[kevtm49]

Hello,

For starters I'm sorry for my English, I am French and does not speak your language well.

I admire the work and I'm willing developments, I also have the same project with an engine hayabusa and I'm just about to study the differential system with crown of motorcycle.

Continue like this and put as much information and pictures is very rewarding, I try to present my project it will be sufficiently advanced.

Thank you

[LukeH]

Hello,

For starters I'm sorry for my English, I am French and does not speak your language well.

I admire the work and I'm willing developments, I also have the same project with an engine hayabusa and I'm just about to study the differential system with crown of motorcycle.

Continue like this and put as much information and pictures is very rewarding, I try to present my project it will be sufficiently advanced.

Thank you

 

Hi

 

Welcome to the forum. Don't worry about your English, it's better than my French!

 

Make sure you start your own project thread to show us all your own progress. Good luck with it.

 

Luke.

[LukeH]

The stepper motor arrived today and so did the rod ends from McGill motorsport. The latter were a crazy price for what they are but I guess they are quite a critical part for the build so I went for fairly decent ones. Hopefully I will get a chance to start fabricating the link bars on Saturday otherwise I won't be doing much for a few weeks after that due to other commitments.

Edited by LukeH, 19 November 2015 - 08:56 PM.

[kevtm49]

 

My current work for the differential

[LukeH]

 
My current work for the differential

Looks good. Very similar to the West garage kit I purchased.

Will you be machining it yourself?