Norton / Harley Ironhead Cafe Project.. Build thread

This is my second attempt at the exhaust, I had to stop and buy more stainless bends, as those I had were distorted in some of their bends. Not a problem under a car, but when polished on the bike they'd look crap. Its held together for now with tape and string, but tomorrow I'll get the first bends tack welded, then bring them home to check they are ok, before taking the remaining sections to the welder to finish the headers.
 

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Who's tank is that on it? Is that a Hawg Halter caliper on that bike in the Norley shop?
 
o1marc said:
Who's tank it that on it? Is that a Hawg Halter caliper on that bike in the Norley shop?

Tank is from Norley, I think they get them in turn from T.A.Baker http://www.tabclassics.com/ who aren't too far away from Norley. The front end including the caliper on the black bike looks to be from the Buell its built from.
 
Bevelheadmhr said:
Tank is from Norley, I think they get them in turn from T.A.Baker http://www.tabclassics.com/ who aren't too far away from Norley. The front end including the caliper on the black bike looks to be from the Buell its built from.

I see you are right, upon closer inspection it is a stock Buell caliper, it is very similar to the HHI 6 piston caliper.
 
The exhaust is pretty much done, though still needs to be polished, and one pipe under engine needs to be expanded to give me a slip joint. I'll weld on a couple hooks and use exhaust springs to hold it together next week.

One problem I had was that some of the bends I had to cut were deformed, which would've made welding them to a straight piece look awful, so they were binned..

Some bends were deformed when cut in half..


Using the good bends I did have, I could've gone for this option, as it involved a minimum of welded joints..


But it didn't look quite right, so I tried again and came up with this instead.. note all the string, tape and even an old tooth brush I used to hold everything in place, it was tricky with just one pair of hands


A few more trips back to the welder and its done.. It would've been better if the megas were a little higher and tilted up, but the gearchange linkage means this is as far as they could go on the left and the right hand side had to mirror the left..


 
LHS pic, not much to see, the downpipe just turns under the engine and goes forward. I still need to cut approx. 1/2inch from the end of the downpipe, to allow the exhaust to tuck in closer to the frame rail to give more ground clearance.
 

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I refitted the rear brake, having got the bracket back. I'd lent it out to be used as template. Spent a long time looking at the exhaust, pity but its not quite right yet. The down tubes and megas need to be higher, for more ground clearance, to clear the rear spindle and to look better. I also noticed that the brackets holding the footpegs were flexing under my weight, which was amplified by the megas. They'd probably be ok, but since I wanted to move the pegs forward for comfort (they are along way back) and to give more room to raise the exhaust, I decided to make new brackets to move the pegs forward and modify the exhaust too. The red lines show what needs to be done, hopefully by the end of this week..
 

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I just noticed the mega tips are not parallel to each other, is there a way to "fix" that. Right now the right side is abut 4" shorter than the left and you plan on shortening it another 3-4" and the left only 1" compounding the difference.
 
They would be parallel to each other when everything is tightened up, in the pics the mounting brackets and downpipes are loose, so the megas may be offset. One of the biggest headaches with making the downpipes is getting them spot on so the megas are the same angle and position.
 
Everything in the pic looks like it is installed. The joint at the connection of the reverse taper is n line with the shock mount and the other side looks 4" in front of the taper, is there that much play in adjustment when tightened up? How will you move the rearsets, make a new shorter bracket?
 
o1marc said:
Everything in the pic looks like it is installed. The joint at the connection of the reverse taper is n line with the shock mount and the other side looks 4" in front of the taper, is there that much play in adjustment when tightened up? How will you move the rearsets, make a new shorter bracket?

I see how that looks now, the brake side mega looks like that partly due to the angle of the photo and because its header pipe under the engine is the one joint not finished yet, so its not in its final position. It needs a slip joint, either by expanding the tube or welding a sleeve onto one side of the joint. I held off on getting that done because I knew I may want to modify the exhaust once I'd given my self time to ponder it.

Edit to add.. yes I'll make new brackets, prob out of 10 or 12mm 7050 alloy plate, and reuse everything else. I should have done it months ago, but I liked the look of the LSL rearsets too much.
 
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