Hi All. I have been working on my RD again. I don't post too often, but I thought I would share some pictures of the process. My bike is a 1974 RD350, and over the last few years I have been working on making it look more like an old 1960's Yamaha YCS-1, or something like that.... Basically I love the way the old 1960's Yahamas look, but I also like being able to do third gear wheelies. This bike is my humble attempt to get something of both.
In this round of upgrades I am replacing the rear shocks, rear rim & spokes, along with the sprockets & chain. I kind of did this upgrade in about seven phases. (1)Research and order parts (2)Prep the bike, remove, measure, and disassemble the rear wheel (3)Clean the hub assembly (4)Polish the hub assembly (5)Lace up the hub,spokes and rim (6)True the rim (7) Button it all back together again.
(1) Research and buy crap:
+The rear shocks are a pair of 13" RedWing Hammer Heads, sporting 70/130 springs. 13" is a little longer than stock, but it turns out to be perfect after preload.The shocks were about $200.
+I am replacing the original rear rim and spokes with a stock diameter 2.15 (WM3) Excel 'high shouldered' alloy rim (custom drilled for my RD's rear hub), the rim cost $179.
+It is laced up with a set of Buchanan's spokes (custom cut, stainless, 7-9 gauge, with stainless nipples). Buchanan is a fantastic company and they're a delight to work with. They can match up and produce a custom set of spokes that will fit together ANY rim to ANY hub. Knowledgeable, professional, fast, and fairly priced. My spokes were about $125.
+At the same time I ordered up a chain kit -- I bought a set of 530 to 520 conversion sprockets from Sprocket Specialists. These guys also are 100% on top of their game. I like working with professionals who know what they are doing better than I. It makes things easier, and even if it feels like spending more money in the moment, I can be assured that the quality is the best, and I will not need to spend the money twice because a mistake was made. Remember I said I like third gear wheelies? I ordered a 14 tooth steel front sprocket and a 42 tooth "tough" anodized aluminum rear sprocket, both for a 520 Chain. The sprockets are being custom made in house, and will not arrive for a few weeks. Sprockets are about $130.
+Then I ordered a happy pro-grade D.I.D. "X-ring" racing chain off eBay, $79.
+Other misc expenses included a bottle of degreaser, as well as some sand paper, WD-40, metal, polishing rouges and fresh cloth buffing wheels, totaling about $50.
+All together this job is costing about $763.
Why would I even share the dollar amounts? I think that someone who is thinking about doing the same upgrades will want as much information as possible. This would include pictures, the dollars, as well as other details.
Besides it is funny as hell for me to sit here and say that I just spent more than $700 on my bike, but when I post pics of it, it still looks like a turd. Priceless!
(2)Prep the bike, measure crap, take the rear wheel apart(part one):
My 1974 RD350, before the rear rim replacement. Got to love that suede and duck tape seat and mis-aligned headlight... Like I said this is a work in progress. One thing at at time. I usually prefer to get things mechanically sound before I make them aesthetically appealing. I have done a bit of work on the engine for performance, but not too much. I think it is one of the faster RDs here in Austin. The tank is from a 1967 YCS-1, which I had to stretch and weld back up before it would fit on the frame. The seat obviously is ridiculously horrible, but I'm just not worried. I sew my own bike upholstery, and this seat is just an experiment with using suede as the top material. Sometime in the next month or two I will make a new seat pan and upholster it so it looks pretty good on this bike.
This is a detail of the front wheel. Red arrows indicate direction of travel. I font the front rim at a friend's old junk yard, and laced it up about a year ago. I believe the front drum brake is from a R5. I had a shop make custom lined brake shoes for me. The compound is one designed for some kind of industrial equipment. It seems to perform reasonably well.
The other side. Red arrows indicate direction of travel. Ventilated to resist fade. The holes need some kind of bug screen. I'll get to that eventually.
Soon this will be so slightly different that most people won't even notice. LOL.
Here is me getting excited, envisioning the wheel swap.
White arrow indicates direction of travel. (Would you believe I have accidentally put things together backwards in the past?) This wheel is amazingly dirty. The non o-ring chain I have been running is simply filthy. And I just cleaned it not all that long ago. I mean, I'm sure it is a fine chain and everything, and I bought it because I didn't want a power robbing o-ring chain sucking away my ability to do third gear wheelies.... But I just HATE how it makes my whole freaking bike filthy. This greasy mess was 90% of my motivation to break down and buy 520 conversion sprockets and X-ring chain. Sealed chains are clean, and they don't freaking fling crap everywhere. My old chain also was starting to tightly bind at a few links... that kind of was a reason too.
To Be Continued.
Peace and grease,
Fang
In this round of upgrades I am replacing the rear shocks, rear rim & spokes, along with the sprockets & chain. I kind of did this upgrade in about seven phases. (1)Research and order parts (2)Prep the bike, remove, measure, and disassemble the rear wheel (3)Clean the hub assembly (4)Polish the hub assembly (5)Lace up the hub,spokes and rim (6)True the rim (7) Button it all back together again.
(1) Research and buy crap:
+The rear shocks are a pair of 13" RedWing Hammer Heads, sporting 70/130 springs. 13" is a little longer than stock, but it turns out to be perfect after preload.The shocks were about $200.
+I am replacing the original rear rim and spokes with a stock diameter 2.15 (WM3) Excel 'high shouldered' alloy rim (custom drilled for my RD's rear hub), the rim cost $179.
+It is laced up with a set of Buchanan's spokes (custom cut, stainless, 7-9 gauge, with stainless nipples). Buchanan is a fantastic company and they're a delight to work with. They can match up and produce a custom set of spokes that will fit together ANY rim to ANY hub. Knowledgeable, professional, fast, and fairly priced. My spokes were about $125.
+At the same time I ordered up a chain kit -- I bought a set of 530 to 520 conversion sprockets from Sprocket Specialists. These guys also are 100% on top of their game. I like working with professionals who know what they are doing better than I. It makes things easier, and even if it feels like spending more money in the moment, I can be assured that the quality is the best, and I will not need to spend the money twice because a mistake was made. Remember I said I like third gear wheelies? I ordered a 14 tooth steel front sprocket and a 42 tooth "tough" anodized aluminum rear sprocket, both for a 520 Chain. The sprockets are being custom made in house, and will not arrive for a few weeks. Sprockets are about $130.
+Then I ordered a happy pro-grade D.I.D. "X-ring" racing chain off eBay, $79.
+Other misc expenses included a bottle of degreaser, as well as some sand paper, WD-40, metal, polishing rouges and fresh cloth buffing wheels, totaling about $50.
+All together this job is costing about $763.
Why would I even share the dollar amounts? I think that someone who is thinking about doing the same upgrades will want as much information as possible. This would include pictures, the dollars, as well as other details.
Besides it is funny as hell for me to sit here and say that I just spent more than $700 on my bike, but when I post pics of it, it still looks like a turd. Priceless!
(2)Prep the bike, measure crap, take the rear wheel apart(part one):
My 1974 RD350, before the rear rim replacement. Got to love that suede and duck tape seat and mis-aligned headlight... Like I said this is a work in progress. One thing at at time. I usually prefer to get things mechanically sound before I make them aesthetically appealing. I have done a bit of work on the engine for performance, but not too much. I think it is one of the faster RDs here in Austin. The tank is from a 1967 YCS-1, which I had to stretch and weld back up before it would fit on the frame. The seat obviously is ridiculously horrible, but I'm just not worried. I sew my own bike upholstery, and this seat is just an experiment with using suede as the top material. Sometime in the next month or two I will make a new seat pan and upholster it so it looks pretty good on this bike.
This is a detail of the front wheel. Red arrows indicate direction of travel. I font the front rim at a friend's old junk yard, and laced it up about a year ago. I believe the front drum brake is from a R5. I had a shop make custom lined brake shoes for me. The compound is one designed for some kind of industrial equipment. It seems to perform reasonably well.
The other side. Red arrows indicate direction of travel. Ventilated to resist fade. The holes need some kind of bug screen. I'll get to that eventually.
Soon this will be so slightly different that most people won't even notice. LOL.
Here is me getting excited, envisioning the wheel swap.
White arrow indicates direction of travel. (Would you believe I have accidentally put things together backwards in the past?) This wheel is amazingly dirty. The non o-ring chain I have been running is simply filthy. And I just cleaned it not all that long ago. I mean, I'm sure it is a fine chain and everything, and I bought it because I didn't want a power robbing o-ring chain sucking away my ability to do third gear wheelies.... But I just HATE how it makes my whole freaking bike filthy. This greasy mess was 90% of my motivation to break down and buy 520 conversion sprockets and X-ring chain. Sealed chains are clean, and they don't freaking fling crap everywhere. My old chain also was starting to tightly bind at a few links... that kind of was a reason too.
To Be Continued.
Peace and grease,
Fang