Scorpio - why my Cafe Racer's not finished

ako said:
Interesting thread!

Quaife do an inline reverse 'box. Might be of interest to you:

http://www.quaife.co.uk/shop/products/qbe35g

Thanx for that Ako. They make a fine product - but I can't afford to remortgage my house at my age !!

I'm looking to find a "Hot Rodder" solution that will do the job properly, but be relatively inexpensive. That's half the fun anyway - finding alternate solutions.
 
Back on it now. Moved first load of my bikes and parts doen to AC's today and did a little work on the various projects.

Here's where we're at with the Scorpio - body panels complete and mocked up, production chassis and suspension attached for dry build prior to powder coating and paint. The alloy tank size has now been increased to 20 litres [ 5 Imp. galls ] and details like the foot controls finalised. We've built 3" of fore - aft adjustment into the seat to allow for short - tall riders - foot control position also adjustable. We've finalised the headlamp / sidelamp and the mounts have been built in to the GRP moulding.

The new rear chassis clip with new bearing supports for the driveshaft / swingarm have been completed based on the road trial prototype.

Mainly detailing to finish off now, then the whole lot gets stripped down for the last time for final powder coating and painting. We're still unsure about the style of wheels, but we have the originals to get on with testing.

We hope to have the pre-production mule completed by the end of April for some serious road trialling.

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Hi Rat,

That's AC's plan. As with the other stuff I've developed with his help for MY use - there has to be an ultimate return for him. I hate to cost up the man hours he's thrown at it [ using his car building workforce] - not to mention the hours the two of us have spent on design and development. The original clay body took nearly 4 weeks !

As I mentioned previously - I'm hedging my bets for when my right knee gives up completely - or at least to the point where I can't hold a solo up when I come to a stop.

There will be two versions - the first one a single seater "Hooligan" model, and the second a 2 seater Tourer / Cruiser with more weather protection via the bodywork and all the "executive" gizzmos from the BMW RT Tourer Oilhead - heated grips, satnav, radio, etc., etc. There'll also be some built in hard luggage facility.

I've been posting about this project on some UK and EU BMW forums and already there's 5 or 6 guys who are in the same position as myself that don't want to give up biking - they've also expressed much interest.

Of course there's the other element of pure riding enjoyment, which may attract able bodied riders.
 
I would love to get tangled up with a shop like that. Right now the militarys pension program and my 19 years of contract service to go for it don't feel too bad with the up and down job reports everywhere.

What are your spindles from?
 
So, if I read you correctly, this thing is destined for a small (or not?) production run eventually, right? I'm curious if it's meant to compete with say the Can-Am Spyder? OR if it's in a different league? How would you market it?
 
Ringo said:
So, if I read you correctly, this thing is destined for a small (or not?) production run eventually, right? I'm curious if it's meant to compete with say the Can-Am Spyder? OR if it's in a different league? How would you market it?

In our heyday of the Replica Car Business [ NOT calling them Kit Cars ! ] AC produced around 300 kits a year [ 50 of them Turnkey cars ] and my more modest operation produced 200 kits and 30 of them T/Ks. I'm now retired [ 2000 ] and AC has trimmed his nbusiness to suit his lifestyle ! Maybe 12 kits and the same again in T/K cars. Mostly Jaguar C Type replicas, with a few D Type and XKSS.

However, the C Types and other Jags are very straightforward to build - especially when you've made perhaps 500 ! So life was becoming mundane, even around such exotica so AC was looking for something to fire his enthusiasm. That brings us up to date.

AC is 15 years my junior, so has plenty of business time left to manufacture and build his "bread and butter" cars. He was becoming jaded and needed a new engineering and manufacturing challenge. That was about the same time I was bemoaning the fact that my right knee was giving out. The Scorpio was born out of one of those "what if" sessions as my previous idea of a traditional trike was discarded [ been there, done that.]

As to competing with the Can-Am - on a production and glossy brochure basis there's no way that our tiny operation could compete. On an engineering and rideability basis.........we'll let others be the judge, but I'm happy that I've put 50 + years of engineering knowledge and design to good use. A bit like Shelby vs Ferrari / the establishment in the early days.

I was surprised at just how many Spyders Can-Am have produced - the interested should check out the Can-Am handling recall on the net. These were precisely the problems we encountered with our Mk1 and Mk2 prototypes .............................................

IF the results are as good as we anticipate then AC can gear up for 20 T/K and probably 50 kits a year using his existing facilities and workforce.

I've been saying all along [ in an effort to "persuade" him ] that he could build 5-6 Scorpios in the time it takes to build one C Type.

Rat - we might have a translation issue here - by spindles I'm assuming what we term hub uprights in the UK ? The unit that carries the wheel bearing, disc, etc. and attaches to the wishbone ?
That is a modified Ford [ UK ] component with just the basic casting used. We might use a bike style disc [ 305mm ] to reinforce the "minimilistic" look. The steering / suspension geometry is all our own design.

We do have some alumimium hub uprights that we use on the Race Cobra Reps - and although they look the bogs bollox the are quite bulky. AC was originally getting some special alloy units cast - but weight is NOT a problem and these units are robust and relatively inexpensive.

Discussions are already in hand with one of our US forum buddies who has expressed an interest in marketing the Scorpio in the US. I just want to get my own Beachcomber version on the road asap - I'm not waiting for my knee to give up, looks too much fun !!
 
Garage Rat said:

Tilting vehicles are a bit of an anathema to me ...... I'd be asking "why" ?? As an engineering excercise yes, but just seems like a bike with training wheels to me !
 
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