Encountered another puzzle that will need to be overcome….

Just been out in the garage playing with ideas, mainly on how to line the rear wheel up on the swingarm because each side is a different shape so its not necessarily a case of centering it on the axle. The sprocket sticks out a different amount from the Mito’s OE fit, this isn’t a massive issue but when added to the rear brake being an outie on the KTM wheels and an innie on the Mito OE fit it means that the rear calliper will not line up at all if I use the Mito bracket and calliper. I may see if the KTM bracket and calliper can be made to fit easier than drawing up and getting manufactured a new bracket for the Mito calliper. Are rear brakes mandatory? lol

I still can’t get the rear suspension linkage off the bloody frame either, tis being a complete bitch. Think I may well end up taking it to someone and get them to remove it before I end up launching it at a wall lol.

Front Wheel Spacers….

After a trying to save money on tools and finding out you can’t I finally managed to get the front wheel spacers measured, drawn up, ordered and now (as of 10min ago) delivered back to me manufactured.

“Attention-to-Detail” http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/attention-2-detail/114533548589838 recommended:

“Projection Components”  www.projection-components.co.uk/

email: projection@tiscali.co.uk

to me and I now recommend them to anyone else needing bits and bobs made up.

They are a very friendly company that have taken time to give me advice and I am so far very impressed with the quality of their work. I shall be getting back in touch with them for all the other bits and bobs the bike needs as and when I get that far

I finally got them fitted after confusing myself a tad. Wheel is nicely central now so just need to find my 320mm disk and get that spaced out… freaky man! lol…. and then it will be time to start sorting the headstock and getting the yokes to fit

lil update….

Am currently waiting for some tools to be delivered including a vernier so I can get some spacers ordered. Got the RSV spindle through the post today and with a lil bit of fiddling the front wheel should align pretty easy. Only going for a single disc set up to start with so I can use the wire spoked wheels, mainly to save dosh, but also I think they look really good and you don’t really see many sportsbikes with wire spoked wheels so a lil different from the norm too!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I have also been trying to get the angle of the front and rear sprocket inline with the pivot point. Looks pretty straight forward, just frustrating as I could really do with some jigs to line everything up.

New Front End….

I have found myself a set of forks and yokes off an Aprilia RSV1000, think they are from a 2003 bike.

They are in pretty good nick and give me the option of either sticking with a single front brake or going crazy and sticking twin 320mm front stoppers and Brembo set up

I have spent the afternoon trying to get the old yokes off the Mito. One broken hammer and a shed load of ice shoved down the centre of the stem later and it is finally off.

I slotted in the front wheel and lined up the bottom yoke at roughly the height it needs to be at. The top yoke will actually sit lower than it does in the pictures because the stem is shorter on the Mito than the RSV.

Looking for Inspiration….

With no lathe or even metal files, or big lumps of metal for that matter I had hit a dead end till I get myself at least to a tool shop, so to avoid achieving nothing this week I had a play to see if the wheels off the 300 would fit it the gaps on the Mito.

The rear went on easy:

It has the same size tyre as the OE fit 150,60,17 but has a different size hub and cush-drive. Am guessing I’ll have some form of issues with lining up the brake calliper but whatever wheel I fit will prob have that  and I can’t afford to buy new wheels if I don’t have to.

The front was more of a struggle, one coz it is a different size: 120,70,17 as opposed to 110,70,17 on the std wheel. It also has a massively different spindle, the disk is on the wrong side on the Mito too as it only has a spring in one fork and damping in the other.

I can see why a bit of extra weight and power causes handling issues. Def need to sort a new front end, Aprilia RS250, or maybe Ducati 916. Will require more mods then as well if I keep the twin disk set up from the donor front end.

So, the project has just got bigger. I was expecting the front end to need replacing but was hoping I could do it as a future mod and I guess I could keep the original wheels on it to start with but seeing how awful the std forks are they gotta go lol On a plus side to this it gives more room between fork legs so there will be less chance of the wheel rubbing and getting the brakes to fit.

Engine Mounting….

Had another look at the engine mounts this eve, refitted the front bar and by god its so close to having been an exact fit!

Gonna still need some cutting and welding but not much!

I ran out of time to continue playing this afternoon, more soon

The Strip Down:

Spent the day stripping the engines out both bikes, was kinda fun in a constructionally destructive way!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I offered up the 300 engine into the frame to get an idea of how much work is needed. I think it will be quite straight forward to mount the engine, just a few spacers and fabricate some brackets to line up with the front and top engine mounts. The kickstart is going to be a problem, not quite sure how I’ll overcome that but will have fun no doubt lol.

The good thing about this engine is no battery so weight can be kept down, but mainly it makes it all simpler to get it all together

How it all began….

After hearing about a roadrace bike based on MX bikes I was really taken by them and thought what a great idea.

http://www.450gp.com/EN/index.html

I have been hankering after a 2 stroke tho so was gonna get the kit and make it fit an enduro bike. I did lots of reading up etc and was a bit put off by not just the cost (£4.5k just for the kit) but also by it being a kit, not much of a challenge.

Anyways, the idea festered in my lil head and I came up with the idea of sticking the engine in a sports bike rolling chassis. The whole thing is getting bigger and more work the more I think about it but I wanted a project and I want something to keep me busy in the eves when I’m home

So the bikes:

Rolling Chassis from a 1993 Cagiva Mito 125:

Engine from a 1998 KTM 300EXC:

So, who is up for guessing when it gets completed?