The Water Buffalo-Seemingly never ending cafe project

[shinyribs]

Ah, great minds think alike! If you get started on yours a month from now you'll probably get done ahead of me. This is gonna be a slow crossover cuz I'm not parking the bike for it.

I have a couple ideas for the levers and linkage but I don't know what ill like til after its made. Trying to keep it sorta simple and subdued looking so as not to stand out. Most pieces will probably end up frame color. Thanks for the link. Ill check it out when I'm not on the phone.

[shinyribs]

Baby steps. I got the end caps for the foot rests made up tonight. I started in on the main shafts,but progress is slow.

[shinyribs]

One shaft made,the other is in the works...

[shinyribs]

Got some decent progress done on the rearsets today.

Got the other shaft done and threaded the ends for the caps. Made the frame mountsand found out that this old belt driven lathe won't drive a 3/8'' tap into steel. The belt slips Oh well,the box of finished pieces is growing though.I'm gonna try to knock out the pivots tomorrow. I'm running a little short on material. Can't mess up!

[TOOLS1]

3/8 tap? Could not find a 10mm tap? I hate it when people put SAE fasteners on metric bikes. Makes it hard to work on them. Requires two sets of tools.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

I only have one set of taps AMERICAN!!!!Don't worry.If you ever work on my bike I'll handle the rearsetslol

[TOOLS1]

Oh don't worry. I have a special wrench, for situations like that. It's called a "Hot Wrench."
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

 Stay away from my stuff!!!

[shinyribs]

I'm real happy with the progress I made tonight. I rarely am.

Got the pivots made.Pressed in a piece of brass and got it all turned down for a bushing. The aluminum shaft wasn't going to hold up to much rotating so I made a steel sleeve that I pressed on for the brass bushing to ride on. Then I cut a couple grooves in there to help retain the grease. Real happy with how this turned out.



Now to divulge my secret for aligning mounting tabs.

Tools,ol' buddy ol' pal,now you will see why I went with 3/8'' thread on these. I hope you can forgive me.

We all know how hard it is to get mounting tabs perfectly aligned.This might help.

Thread the pieces on to a piece of all thread to keep them perfectly aligned. It makes it easy to level the tabs and clamp them in place without them shifting around on you.



To align the second pair of mounts make up two flat plates.Just use something good and sturdy.Aluminum probably isn't the best choice for this,but old road signs are very stiff yet still easy to drill.

 Drill thru one plate into the other when making your holes and the mounting holes will be perfectly spaced to one another.Use these to locate the other mounts and use the all thread again to help with keeping them in line. This way all four mounts are perfectly level and square to one another.

This helps me keep from getting out of whack since the frame tapers from top to bottom. If the upper mounts are wider or narrower than the lower mounts I would have ended up with foot pegs that were not level to the ground.



Badda-boom,we have mounts. I gotta admit,it kinda hurt grinding off that powdercoatAll in the name of progress,though.


BTW,when I was mocking up where the foot peg location needed to go I realized just how wacky the stock foot pegs are. These are the original pegs to this bike and don't seem to be damaged. Is this normal?

[TOOLS1]

They make all-thread in 10mm. So that is not an acceptable excuse.
TOOLS

[shinyribs]

You are so predictable

[Piute]

            The Water Buffalo-Seemingly never ending cafe project

                     Just for the NEW Members
         
               This started as"HERE IS MY FREE BIKE"
                                                 

                             BACK IN THE BAD OLE DAYS
                                             
         
                                                 




                                                                         sorry bud needed a good

[shinyribs]

 I love that pic. It's my desktop background. The mailbox flag was hoot,too!

[shinyribs]

I bolted the rearsets up tonight  to start figuring on the linkages and found that the plates were quite wiggly

Plan B: mo' metal. No mo' wiggles.


They are beginning to look quite chunky. Hopefully some satin black will help them hide a little bit.

[shultz_1978]

What if you rounded off the edges a little. It they may not look so boxy. They look very strong though.

[shinyribs]

I thought about your idea for a long time today Shultz. Everytime I round off edges like that I can never keep it uniform. Since this is soft aluminum I was wondering if I could use my router on the edges???

Anywho,I just shot some satin black on and it seems OK.For now at least. I like the contrast of the hardware/pegs against the black. I took a little ride with them today and I really think I'm gonna like them. Instead of sitting just on my tail bone these leg a lot of my thigh rest on the seat since my feet are further back and my knees are lower. Hopefully I can get the linkages sorted out soon,I'm dying to ride these puppies.



Oh,after I got them mounted. Extra bracing and all...they still wiggled. What the...?!?! It's not my plates flexing. It's the actual tubing of the bike frame itself!!! I hope they dont stress crack the stinkin' frame. Still pondering on what to do there.

[Piute]

             Oh,after I got them mounted. Extra bracing and all...they still wiggled. What the...?!?! It's not my plates flexing. It's the actual tubing of the bike frame itself!!! I hope they dont stress crack the stinkin' frame. Still pondering on what to do there.

                          I may never fill what you mean but
        Honda put thoughs Fugly Aluminum plates in for a reason I'm sure,read about it too.
             Bothers you to much might wont to see more WERE THERE AT


                               this side don't look like much compared to other
             I'm wondering do you fill it more braking or accelerating,
                                     (pull/fill would be left or right Ya-No)

[shultz_1978]

They do look a lot better in black.

If the tubing in the frame is flixing, Can you putting some plating in the triangle right in front of it. No that might look bulky.  But that might help it from the flixing.

Just throwing my first idea out there. It real look good in black.

[Piute]

[TOOLS1]

I would have made them mount to the engine mounts; like Honda did with the matics, and F models. Also I notice you have went back to the pods. Couldn't handle the wheelies?
TOOLS