'78 Yamaha SR500E

Sorry,the weather has been so s#@t that I've no recent still shots of the mighty SR (other than the one in my intro post).
I did manage to get two short vids a few weeks ago when the sun poked out;

Yamaha SR500...part IV

Yamaha SR500....Part V

There's a few other SR vids on my channel.I you care to look you can see some of its evolution.
Hope you like it/them

HOLY CRAP! Thats one amazing machine man. Beyond well done.

Wow...props..

Way cool!

Dude, that thing is the cat's pajamas for sure.

Seriously, those two windows are siiiiiick.

Just need some mini laundry tumbling around in there

Will def check your stuff out and steal some ideas for my SR project!

What is the cover made out of? I always though that would be cool to do but never attempted due to the difference of a wet clutch vs dry clutch.

What kind of material can handle those heat tolerances?

What is the cover made out of? I always though that would be cool to do but never attempted due to the difference of a wet clutch vs dry clutch.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the interest.
Its polycarbonate (Lexan is a well known name).I used 6mm. Makrolon.It was an end-cut from a local plastics guy.He didn't even want anything for it at first,I gave him beer money & got enough to make 4 covers.

Here's a shot of the start of the job.Yamaha thoughtfully cast in strengthening ribs that made finding the center way easy.





Making the initial cuts.




No turning back now :-\




Trimming the poly.



I etched the 'SR' on the poly by doing some masking on it & heading to the bead-blaster at work.A quick repaint of the cover & its GO time.Really wasn't all that much trouble.



You should note that the allen heads have little else to do but gently hold the cover in place while the Toyota seal packing (an excellent material similar to Yamabond) cures.The seal packing will be the securing method.In fact,the bolts can't exert too much pressure or the poly fractures.Once the seal packing was cured I set them in place ( I had counter sunk their seats with an proper-sized end mill) with red Loctite on their threads and crazy glue on their head seats.I had tapped the small 'fingers' I had machined on the cover and the allen heads screwed into those with only enough torque to get them to fully seat.Calibrated fingers help with this step.A dab of seal packing over the inner face where the allen head threads,slightly, protruded and that was it.
No issues with heat so far.I've seen bunches of similar covers commercially available so that gives me a bit more confidence in my mod.They do tend to fog up with milky condensation on cold mornings,though it burns off fairly quickly.

holly crap dude!! you have some mad skills!! whata wicked bike..

wow, good skills man!! definately a work of art!!

I'm gonna keep the bead blasting in mind for edging logos. thats such a simple idea. I wonder if it would also work on paint without blasting through?