Thread: Project: 500GP
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Old 18-04-17, 09:04 PM   #86
squirrel_hunter
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Sunny Swindon
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Default Re: Project: 500GP

As I didn't have a drift narrow and long enough to knock the crushed swing arm bearings out I took the arm up to Rolling Art Motorcycles to knock them out and take a look at the arm. Everything appeared to be correct on inspection but the reason for crushing the bearings were unclear. I decided and hoped that it might have just been "one of those things" so stuck a new set in and put the arm back in the frame. Unfortunately it wasn't one of those things something was amiss but I didn't know what. So back to Rolling Art to pick their brains this time armed with the swingarm and the rest of the frame.

After some investigation and measuring it looks like the internal swingarm spacer is 0.32mm short. It doesn't sound much but as the swingarm bolt is tightened against the frame the inner races of the bearings are moving out of line and result in a tight and notchy movement. The plan was to put the spacer on the reverse lathe, but unfortunately its made of aluminium so a shim was in order. Thankfully Rolling Art had some stainless steal shim material that was 0.4mm thick and so this was added onto the spacer before having a new set of bearings put in. The arm went back in the frame, was tightened up and all was good, some nice smooth movement.

I now have a frame swingarm and wheels ready, so it was time to put them together.



Forks went in first with the bike somewhat precariously balanced on some boxes as I proceeded to set the steering bearings. I needed to run a tap down one of the lower fork clamp bolts which presented the problem of there not being a M10x1.25 tap in my set. Thankfully a local hardware store had one so I could continue.



I put the original disc back on the front wheel, tightened the hub bolts and then put the bike on a paddock stand before putting the wheel in.



Now a slight mistake on my part as I appear to have forgotten to take a couple of picture of the captive wheel spacers I've made. If I'm honest the bike doesn't really need them as the front and rear wheel spacers are quite long but they were fun to design and make. Basically they are just a remake of the original spacers in aluminium but with a 0.5mm lip on them that sits behind the dust seal so they don't just slip out they make it a determined effort to remove them so you don't have to have an extra set of hands to put the wheel in. And it worked quite well.



The speedo drive is locked into the fork correctly on the front as well so all good to go there.



Onto the rear and a new sprocket (44 Tooth) and retaining tabs were installed onto the hub and the hub tightened against the rim. The wheel then fitted nicely in the arm with its captive left spacer and welded right spacer.

Its starting to look more like a bike now. But back to the front and it was time to add a little bit of stabilisation in the form of a steering damper. Now I know some people will say this isn't really needed for a road bike of this nature and I can see that view point, but remember the theme of the build is 500GP and as most racers have one it would be rude not to.



The damper and fitting kit was sourced from the US via eBay and a company called Parts Traders. The damper is a 7 way adjustable unit made by Billetanium, it looks the part but I need to finalise the mounting points and change one agricultural looking bolt on it.



Looking at the bike I could see steering might be an issue so it was time to fit a set of TCR handle bars. I need to finalise the position of them as well as the fork height and the fork brace but that can be done when more of the bike comes together.



Sitting back looking at the machine I can really see the progress that I've made, its had a little delay with the swingarm but with that fixed so much has came together so quickly. Now the only question I have is considering I'm building this in my house on the first floor, when should I move it into the garage, before or after I put the engine in?
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