“Eight Ball” creation. Part 4. Detailing.

So, the main line of my cafe’s design was found, and then became the time for bike detailing.

There was Winter 2013. I had a lot of ideas, such as unusual mirror assembled from various mirrors parts, or wire box’s aluminum covers cut by Dremel  tool:

Some of ideas required new tools, like a bench drill.

And here is result. Stainless foot pegs with 47 holes being drilled in each of them:

Some of the earlier made parts were remade with more accuracy, and became more functional.

That was a point, many parts were maid twice. Once just  to perform  their function, and secondly, to be better looking and working.  

I never worked with fiberglass and also had no time to learn how it should be done properly. So I made full sized  model and ordered tail’s making. When it was ready I made all needed parts and then tail part of frame was welded. Here I have to say that almost all welding works were done by one of my chums, a very good welder. 

In beginning of April 2013 all my earlier ordered parcels arrived. There were a lot of parts: gaiters, grips, dashboard, gas cap with fuel sensor, turn lights, headrace bearings, tap repair kit, different original parts, and so on. The geography of my purchases widened: USA, GB, Australia, France, Germany, Thailand… And then my cafe-racer project  was temporary  interrupted by another work needed to  be done. It was the Yamaha SRX-600. Nice single cylinder bike, but was in ass handed guy bad hands previously.  As a result SRX was totally overhauled in my garage, beginning from engine overhauling  to suspension, a bit enhanced with another motorcycle’s adopted units .

That bike required a lot of my time, thinking and efforts. There were a several  special tools developed, and also a lot of cleaning, polishing and wrenching works.  To be exact, I can say: those  work became an independent  project finally.  SRX-600 was finished by the end of the Summer, and I returned to Cafe-Racer project. 

 I finally solved question with front fork. The main obstacle was that current fork’s (XJ600 51J) tubes were covered with points of rust. Another one was ugly looked upper triple. To be precise, it was the ugliest top triple I have ever seen. That’swhy I bought FZ600 front fork with triples. It had the same tube’s diameter and brake calipers mounting points. But it’ top triple looked rather greater. In addition it had air pressure system and Yamaha Variable Damper as a bonus.  As you might guess, I rebuilt fork: replaced  bushings and oil seals, totally polished outer tubes.

IMG_1195IMG_1318Next was another portion  of metal works again.  After that I designed integrated tail light. The trick was in combination of the vintage car’s amber glass,  Red  HI-Power Leds and hand cut aluminum rim.

Upon successful completion I had to do another pivotal piece of work, the seat. Without digging into much details, the seat base was made from 3mm aluminum with stamped strengtheners and additional reinforcing steel patch.

I designed seat model up to seams positioning. Then custom seat maker made seat in line with my model.

It followed by construction of different smaller units, such as rear brake drive, centering of rear wheel to longitudinal axis of frame and so on and so forth…

The Year 2013 was coming to the end, and unfortunately, so the peaceful and  stable life in Ukraine. The anti-government clashes erupted in Kiev, were do I live and work, so project was interrupted again.

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