SV special build - S-pokey-V.

[svbmx]

Amazing work!

[millemille]

Fuel cell basic structure all welded up...





Amazingly, it was fuel tight first time.

Measured the capacity and, slightly disappointingly, it's only 12.75 litres. So probably good for 70 to 90 miles before reserve. Good job it's not a touring bike.....

Repurposed a couple of unused silencer brackets for the front mounts...







I'll weld those on next week and then once the bar is welded in place I'll cut out the middle section, leaving a short stub either side, to clear the carbs.

Cut the fibreglass tank cover to suit the filler and breather....





Need to machine some bosses for mounting the CDi and Quickshifter control box plus machine the fittings for the fuel tap, filler cap and level sensor as well as the seat unit supporting plate.

Slight set back on the yokes - the bottom yoke, when almost finished, slipped in the mill clamp and got damaged beyond repair. So that's had to be started again.

As my hunt for a set of second hand proper SV FCR's seems to be having no luck I've cupped my testicles and emailed Allen's Performance for a price on a new set.

I can't help but wonder at the loads pulling up on the front mounts causing the bottom of the tank to flex leading to fracturing eventually.

[millemille]

That's why there's the vertical spine fixing all of the load bearing elements together and the load bearing underside section where the front mounts are is 3mm rather, than 1.5mm used for the rest of the tank. Also the rubber grommets on the front mount should help.

But ultimately I will be very, very surprised if there is any turning moment about the cross bar when the M10 bolts are torqued up so the front mounts won't be subject to any significant forces.

I thought you'd have thought about it, but had to mention it.

[millemille]

Fuel cell just about finished, just chasing down the last little leak before filling it with fuel foam and covering the bottom in gold reflective foil to mitigate against heat soak in the fuel...



Had a bit of a setback with the yokes, the mate who was doing the machining we couldn't do ('cos we haven't fully got to grips with the 4th axis) and was doing it as a foreigner at his work has gone MIA. Hoping it's nothing serious but fearing he's got the gooner for taking the **** with the amount of foreigners - other than mine - he'd been doing.

Bad for him undoubtedly, but I want to press on. Luckily Martin at Slingshot Racing was selling some sets of superbike yokes, including a set that were as near as **** it is to swearing the same as the ones being machined...



So these have been bought for a very reasonable sum and need some fairly simple machining to fit.

Whilst talking to Martin I mentioned that if he ever came across a nice shock for a CBR1000RR of the same vintage as the swingarm I'm using I'd be interested. The shock in there currently - a Ktech breathed on OEM Showa - was given to me by a late friend, Dr John Hinds. For sentimental reasons I'd like to use it, but the reality is it's got very crude preload adjustment and no length adjustment. Anywho, Martin said he'd got a rather tasty, but rather neglected, WP race shock that had been used by an Irish road race team that ran the ex BSB/HRC UK/Karl Harris CBR1000RR's. Given that I worked on these bikes in BSB when Karl was riding them back in 2005 it seemed serendipity should be acknowledged and I've had it off him.

It's a nice bit of kit, with a titanium body and high and low speed damping adjustment, but has some issues that may yet prevent it being used. It's going to FTR next week for them to look at...





In a moment of madness I bought these tasteful bad boys from a breakers near Heathrow....



These are Alpina tubeless spoked supermoto wheels for the Aprilia SXV. Spoken of highly in supermoto circles for their weight and strength and allowing you to safely use tyres not designed to be used with inner tubes.

I took a punt on them as SXV wheels of any kind very rarely come up for sale 2nd hand. The front is in tip top condition but the rear has a "slight" issue...



Having weighed the OEM wheels with inner tube and the Alpina wheels, so a like for like comparison, the Alpina wheels are lighter to the tune of precisely **** all!

Yep, they weigh exactly the same as the current wheels. The only advantage they offer is the tubeless tyre running (modern sports tyres are not designed to run with an inner tube and if you do run a tube there's a real risk of overheating the tyre due to the inner tube moving around inside the tyre carcass).

Not decided what to do yet. I'm erring towards building the Alpina rims onto the Aprilia OEM hubs, if only for the utterly gopping colours, but may yet just get the OEM wheels relaced with tubeless spokes and nipples and keep the Alpina's as spares if needed.

Working on the frame and giving it adjustable swingarm pivots. Machined a set of slotted adjusters....



With a variety of cutters/grinders/drills/saws/files/rasps cut holes in the frame...



And the insert is nigh on fitting....



These will get welded in either side. There's a series of inserts that fit inside the slotted adjusters...





By varying the position of the hole for the spindle in each insert you can raise or lower the swingarm pivot position. The slotted adjusters have 16mm of adjustment, +/-8mm from the original position, through 4 inserts in 2mm increments. For that proper works look you anodise each pair of inserts in a different colour so that you can see at a glance what offset you are running.

[maviczap]

Lovely update!

[CodeJACK]

Have not logged on in a while but glad I did. Great build, you have some serious skills and imagination, fair play

[Jayneflakes]

Any updates on this monster build? I would love to see how it has progressed.

[millemille]

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

Any updates on this monster build? I would love to see how it has progressed.

No updates to speak of I'm afraid; moving house, new job, new road bike and doing work on that have all stopped major progress.

New front axle and spacer has been machined to suit the yokes, other than that not a lot else.