CB360 - Penelope

[The Red Wonder]

After a good month hiatus...including a week of this in Aspen :

I am back in the shop and back at it! I know have all of the swingarm parts initially done and I should (fingers crossed) be able to finish it this week or next.


Laying out the cut lines for the bends to hold the axle mount plates:

Axle plate held in swingarm arm:

All welded up:

Set in place:

The tight radius piece took 9 cuts and re-welds to get it that tight!

The hoop, I had to make two 90s and join them with a plug...the bender couldn't go tight enough with the die that my friend had.

Here is the goal again:

I was toying around with the idea of a GT40 "Gulf Oil" theme...kind of like it

 

[The Red Wonder]

I got some more of the swingarm welded together and it is really taking shape now:

Still need to fit these guys a little, make sure there is clearance for the nut, wheel spacers, and then weld them in

I need some opinions on this one. What are your thoughts on the paint of the cylinder/head/valvebox? I am not sure if the black goes with the rest of the bike...Should I polish the fins of the cylinder/head, just the cylinders, just the head? Or just leave it the way it is? I could repaint everything a raw aluminum silver, but that would be a lot of work masking...again...lets hear some thoughts:

I got a few things in the mail too, including a CEV headlight/tach, my new rear spokes, a stem ring from Stone (THANKS!!), clutch springs, and new rear wheel bearings. The headlight is nice and small, about 5" in diameter. I am going to replace the speedo with a tachometer.

I feel really bad, I ordered the spokes from CMS in the Netherlands and the spokes got lost in the mail. I was talking to them and they had just sent out another set to me for free (5 weeks after the first ones were sent) when the original ones showed up...so now I have a set, and another set in the mail. I don't know if it is even worth it for them to spend another $35 in shipping for me to send them back, because thats how much they cost! I will talk to them and see what they want me to do, maybe I can sell them on here and send them the money.


Also, can a few of you measure the OD of your (18") rear wheel/ tire and then let me know which tire it is? The swingarm hits the offroad tire that is currently on there, but I am hopeful that a street tire is smaller (cross-fingers!!). The dirt tire fits in the swingarm at the very end of the adjustment but I am hopeful that I didn't make a huge mistake. Thanks!!


Again, thanks for looking, and please give me some input on the colors/ polishing stuff. FYI I am not done polishing up the covers yet, they will get shinier

 

[IndieSol]

Hadn't checked in on this build in a while. The rear sets came out excellent, love the head light bucket and the swingarm is coming along nicely. This is really great work.

 

[The Red Wonder]

Thanks guys! Ok, so 1 vote for just the heads getting the shiny fin treatment. I have the SS bolts, and the shininess, so I agree. There needs to be some shine up top.

Thanks Indie! I am pretty excited to see the rear sets on the bike. And for $50 delivered, I couldn't pass up that light!

 

[IndieSol]

I agree on polishing the fins. Always liked that look.

 

[HelthInsXpert]

First off, your build is pretty amazing. And I also agree that polishing or painting the engine fins silver would give you a bit better contrast.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

swingarm is looking great. I love headlight buckets with gauges built in. Definitely a sleek look. Although, I'd probably stick with the speedo instead of RPM's. Once you ride your bike for a while, you know where redline is....not always the case with how fast you're going

 

[stonenck]

sweet, lemme know how that part works! engine looks good! cant go wrong with the silver fin tips

 

[The Red Wonder]

First off, your build is pretty amazing. And I also agree that polishing or painting the engine fins silver would give you a bit better contrast.

Thanks man! I appreciate the input.

swingarm is looking great. I love headlight buckets with gauges built in. Definitely a sleek look. Although, I'd probably stick with the speedo instead of RPM's. Once you ride your bike for a while, you know where redline is....not always the case with how fast you're going

Thanks! I know what you mean, I grew up riding a two stroke ATV...there was no rev limiter so I learned quickly to shift when the power stops. But I just like watching the revs...and I have an idea in my head to make this:

Motogadget Motoscope Light on Harley-Davidson XL1200 スポーツスター

We'll see if it actually comes to fruition. Also, with the front wheel I'm using I don't really have an option for a gear driven speedo anyways.

sweet, lemme know how that part works! engine looks good! cant go wrong with the silver fin tips

I just slipped that little ring on and man, it was a perfect fit! I could barely get it off by hand, nice work and thanks again!

It seems like the consensus is to polish the fins. Now do I polish all of them? Or just the cylinder or just the head? Thanks again for the input guys.

I got the swingarm hoop welded in and I just need to figure out the pivot. I was planning on initially reusing the stock pivot, I cut it out of the swingarm and ground it down smooth, but now it just looks like poop, and the inserts will probably melt when I weld it. I could machine some brass inserts which would be pretty easy. The pivot insert (shaft that swingarm actually rotates about) has an OD of ~ .846" or about 21.5 mm...I can not, for the life of me, find a needle bearing with a 21.5 mm ID. Maybe someone else has some info on this, it would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Or maybe you guys have some good ideas for the pivot, lets hear 'em!

 

[The Red Wonder]

I started "skeleton-ing" the sprocket cover tonight. Still needs lots of clean up, but I'm liking how it is looking. Idea courtesy of PJ!

 

[bikeboy]

Idea courtesy of PJ!

And a fine idea its too. Why not loose the 'wing' at the rear ('scuse the crude photochop):

great work on that swing arm too. I never really liked 2-tone motors, but yeah, if you highlight the fin ends, that would look heaps better. Nice work fella.


cheers
ian

 

[The Red Wonder]

And a fine idea its too. Why not loose the 'wing' at the rear ('scuse the crude photochop):

"crude"??!! when you take the time to recreate shadows and match backgrounds, you lose the ability to use that word in your description! I like the way that looks and I will have to double to check to make sure the that would work, I think it will.

Thats another reason I love this site! Get fresh eyes to look over your work and give you new ideas you would have otherwised missed, thanks!

 

[bikeboy]

"crude"??!! when you take the time to recreate shadows and match backgrounds, you lose the ability to use that word in your description! I like the way that looks and I will have to double to check to make sure the that would work, I think it will.

Thats another reason I love this site! Get fresh eyes to look over your work and give you new ideas you would have otherwised missed, thanks!

well, it was a quick-and-dirty

I'm a big fan of the custom sprocket-cover after hacking into my F unit. Oil pump cover is from a C model. Both have now been powdercoated I ended up cutting away more than I kept!

 

[The Red Wonder]

I got some good news today. One of my neighbors is a wise old man who used to be an inspector for the MVD. I called him up and he offered to check the VIN #s to make sure the bike nor the engine were stolen and they are clean! So once I get her in a semi-roller state, I will be able to get a bonded title and plate with ease ;D


The swingarm is now all welded up. I think I have figured out what I am going to do for the pivot so I need to order the needle bearings for that and machine a few parts. Then I can cut the groove in the swingarm arms and weld it in.


After 80 tiny cut and grinds I ended up with a decent cope that fit pretty tightly

I thought this was enough of a gap from the axle location to make sure the spacers, nut, and bolt head would sit flush...

...but it wasn't

Who's ready for some off roading!

Took a sawzall to the tire to get it off

I took Ian's advice and chopped some more off the sprocket cover, and then started cleaning it up, I am quite happy with the results:

I didn't chop it all off like he had suggested because I wanted to keep the edges lined up at the top, and then keep it semi-symmetric at the bottom:

Thats all for now, thanks for lookin!

 

[diesel450]

Dammit! I just painted my cover. Might have to rethink that after seeing this. I like the custom look of it. Nice work cleaning it up too.

 

[bikeboy]

I didn't chop it all off like he had suggested because I wanted to keep the edges lined up at the top, and then keep it semi-symmetric at the bottom:

That looks great sitting on the motor like that. Good decision.

cheers
ian

 

[66replica]

Great looking sprocket cover! Nice work.

 

[The Red Wonder]

Re: CB360 - Penelope (gas tankage!)

Spent the whole day yesterday in the shop and made some great progress on the gas tank! I didn't take any pictures while bending and shaping I was in the zone and just chuggin away! I started with a few cardboard templates and the struggled to translate it to steel. The whole purpose of this is to add some needed volume to the tank, it might not be worth the effort, but it will be awesome and custom! Check it out:


The "cool" fish eye shots:

Straight shot:

Here you can see where the majority of the extra volume will be housed

The rear mount. A nut will be welded to the flat piece on the tank and a bolt will come in from the bottom. This little space back here that is kind of inside and under the tank is going to house my tiny battery

The tricky complex curve part that needs figuring out:

I am pretty happy with it, I hope you guys like it!

 

[CresentSon]

Nice darn work there Red. The sproket cover turned out great too.

 

[SquadraCorse]

Fine work on this. I love the calculated approach. Lots of stuff on this site can be pretty hack, but there's also some really fine work. This is a great example. Nice modeling by the way.