Project Ruby Racer (custom FZS600)

[ChristoT]

Looks awesome! Keep the updates coming! 

[Ruby Racing]

Thanks fellas.


They should be a bit shorter in length now as I'm bang up to date with them.

[Punkstig]

It's so much better having the rear brake caliper above the swingarm rather than below.
Really bad design by yamaha on the fazer as all the crud just builds up meaning  you have to look after them more often!

[nick crisp]

Personally, I think he just likes to get spaced out.... :rolleyes

[Ruby Racing]

It's so much better having the rear brake caliper above the swingarm rather than below.
Really bad design by yamaha on the fazer as all the crud just builds up meaning  you have to look after them more often!

I have to agree. However I wanted it underslung purely for the aesthetics.


I would like to mount it without the torque arm as I think they look gash. However to weld a bracing bar on the inside of the swing arm would require far too much surgery on the swing arm. That's why I'm not doing it. Too risky as the swing arm may get weakened or distorted. The torque arm will probably be hidden to a certain extent by the silencer, so I may be able to live with it.

Personally, I think he just likes to get spaced out.... :rolleyes

:rolleyes

[Ruby Racing]

Day 29 - 15-12-13 - Before I make the brake bracket I thought I should get the rear wheel properly sorted, otherwise my brake bracket measurements might be out. First thing to do is purchase some
new wheel bearings. There are bearings in the sprocket carrier which I can leave in as they had spacers in and the ones I made replace them. In order to get the correct size replacements with a 20mm inside diameter,
not 25mm as per the KTM, I needed to get the old ones out. In the past I've used a drift and hammered them out. I wasn't able to do that with these as the spacer that sits in the hub couldn't be pushed aside far enough
for the drift to sit on the bearing.


I had bought a cheap blind bearing puller set off eBay. I tried with that with no success. It just kept slipping out. Took it to my evening class and no success there. Looking at the KTM service manual I saw there was
a special tool to remove them. So I went to my local KTM dealer to see if I could rent the special tool. They didn't have it, but the technician took my wheel away and within three minutes came back with the bearing
removed. Thanks Mark. I felt a right numpty so asked to see how he did it. He had the same blind bearing tool as mine, except it was a Snap On product. I could see the difference in quality and design compared to mine and
understood why my version didn't work. I didn't expect mine to last as long as a premium product, but I did expect it to actually work. I bought cheap as I would rarely use the tool.


Old bearing on left, new one on right.





I could now see why I couldn't push the hub spacer aside. It had three protrusions running almost the length of the shaft which I assume are there to keep the spacer central when fitting the axle. After some thought
I've come to the conclusion those protrusions aren't really needed as once the wheel is torqued up for the first time it should stay in place when the axle is next removed. I haven't seen them on the other spacers I've
encountered in the past so I reckon I'll be OK. If not I'll get some tabs welded on at each end.








Next up I started on the bracket to hold the Koso speedo. My first effort was pants as I got a measurement wrong. So I had to start again with a new design and another piece of 3mm aluminium. Got the second one
correct. Will get it bent on the the huge bending machine at college on Tuesday night. Wanted to press on with the upper fairing mounts, which are causing me a bit of a headache it has to be said, but without the rear
wheel fitted the bike isn't sitting correctly and I need to make sure I get the angle of the fairing correct and therefore the brackets.





Day 30 - 17-12-13 - Got my speedo bracket bent in the bending machine. Still needs finishing off, which I'll do once I know it fits OK.





Then I set to on making a new rear wheel hub spacer. This time I had the correct grade of aluminium for the job. I had purchased
a metre long length of 50mm thick round bar made of 6082 T6 aluminium. This is often referred to as aircraft specification so should be tough enough for the job.


It is certainly harder than the stuff I had been using up to this point. You can feel the difference on the lathe. As such it was taking me longer to work the metal. So much so that I didn't get the job finished in time.
I really hate that. When I start a job I like to finish it. As that was the last class before Christmas I have to wait until the 7 January before I can finish it. Well, I have to work over Christmas so I wont get much chance
to work on the bike anyway.

[Ruby Racing]

Day 31 - 21-12-13 - I had a couple of hours spare so I worked on the speedo bracket for the Koso speedo. I tidied up all the edges by making them rounded, so no sharp edges. Once finalised I'll get some sand paper on it to really smooth things off. I'll wait until I've done some extensive test riding first to make sure it's strong enough then it'll be painted probably. Looking at it I'm wondering if it will be strong enough for the job. It's only held in place on the top yoke with a couple of M6 bolts, so may be subject to too much vibration.

Also not happy with where I've mounted the Starlane GPS-2 lap timer. I had planned to mount it in the same place I have done, only with the face on the same plane as the the speedo. Unfortunately the low height of the screen has prevented that. That said I haven't done the top fairing mount brackets yet, so I may find that I do in fact have room. If so then I could hide the power cable for lap timer. Where it is at the moment it would need too tight a bend in the wire and that would just end up breaking.

Next job will probably be to cut off the wires to the Yamaha ignition key and then temporarily fit them to the KTM ignition key to check that works. Actually more to check I've deciphered the wring diagram correctly! The Yamaha ignition barrel is knackered as it takes about 20 attempts to turn the key. Plus removing the KTM ignition would be a pain.

[Fuzzy]

Ooh, missed this last update. The cockpit is looking very neat, the lap timer being further forward does not detract from the overall appearance imo.

[Ruby Racing]

Ooh, missed this last update. The cockpit is looking very neat, the lap timer being further forward does not detract from the overall appearance imo.

Hit the NOTIFY button at the top, then you should get an email when I update.


Thanks for your kind words. It's mainly the dangling power wire to the lap timer that bugs me. Still, early days and I may find a better solution.


Another update coming soon.

[Fuzzy]

I did! I get notification emails for so many threads now, I've gone full circle and have ended up still missing stuff  :rolleyes

Looking forward to the next installment.

[Ruby Racing]

Day 32 - 13-1-14 - My good friend Shaun who is a qualified electrician had given me directions how to connect up the loom to the KTM ignition switch. As my electrical knowledge is non existent I followed it to the letter using some block connectors. I plugged it into the loom and tried it out.

I could see the instrument backlights were on, but nothing else seemed to work. After about 15 seconds from turning on I could smell burning, then some smoke appeared from the connection at the loom. Ooops! That's not good and I immediately turned off and disconnected. Looks like I need to get Shaun back, because I haven't a clue.




[size=1em]Day 33 - 15-1-14 - After what seems like forever I was finally back at college last night and could finish the internal spacer for the rear wheel bearings. It's not perfect with regards to finish, so much so that my tutor commented that I had a VERY fine thread on the shaft of the spacer. I understood this mickey take immediately, as he was referring to the fact that I  hadn't got a dead smooth finish. I would like it to have been perfect, however it will live in the hub between two bearings never to be seen by anyone. What I was pleased about was the fact that my replacement was only 0.05mm longer than the OE one. I can live with that.[/size]

You will note that the design is different to the OE one. I couldn't replicate the OE one with my current machining ability, so this is a design that another of my mates came up with. So big thanks to Mike for that.










I also had a go at mocking up the rear brake caliper bracket using a piece of 3mm thick aluminium. At this stage I just wanted to ensure that I got the holes for the caliper positioned correctly in relation to the axle hole, before moving on to designing the caliper. I was pretty much spot on, so was chuffed with that.









Day 34 - 16-1-14 -[size=1em]Got the rear wheel bearings in today. Did the old trick of putting the bearings in the freezer overnight and then heating the hub with a heat gun. Previously I've used a hair dryer for this, but still ended up having to hammer the bearings into place. That doesn't feel nice. If you've not heard of this, the idea is the bearings contract in the cold, ever so slightly and the hub expands in the heat, ever so slightly, making bearing [/size]insertion easier.

I wasn't holding my breath. Once one side was done I got a bearing from the freezer. I lined it up as level as possible before I reached for the hammer and drift. As I let go of the bearing I expected it to sit in the opening. Nope. It just dropped straight down into position. No way! How happy was I? I couldn't believe it. I made sure it was in position then turned the wheel over. This is the important bit if you are to avoid much swearing. Make sure to put in the wheel spacer before fitting the second bearing. Done.




Further disbelief followed as the bearing on the other side dropped into place as easily as the first. Result. Now I could carry on with measuring up for the rear brake caliper using washers to space out the caliper to the correct point, as the 5mm thick disc only has a 7mm wide channel to run in. So I needed clearance of 1.5mm on either side of the disc. Not much room for error and obviously critical to get it right. Pretty confident with my measurements.










Day 35 - 17-1-14 - [size=1em]Carried on with the caliper bracket. Now I used the OE Fazer bracket to help me determine where the hole for the torque arm needed to be placed.[/size]




Day 36 - 18-1-14 - [size=1em]Back to the ignition wiring. Shaun had a good look at the wiring diagrams and spotted that the diagram I had given him for the Fazer didn't tie up with the wire colours actually in my bikes loom. He did an internet search and came up with the correct one. The smoking wires was because I had unwittingly given him the wrong information. DOH! He came up with a completely different set up which I'm glad to report worked [/size]perfectly. Thanks Shaun, I can now use the KTM ignition switch.




Back to work on the brake caliper bracket. Confident my measurements are correct I purchased some 10mm thick aluminium plate and made a template to mark out the shape. On some good old Corn Flake packet yet again. Guess what my favourite cereal is? Once done I decided on the lazy cutting out route of the plasma cutter at college. I've only used it once before, but it's a fantastic bit of kit. It literally cuts through metal like a hot knife through butter. Oh the power!

On the day of the evening I was going to college to cut out my bracket I realised I needed to redesign it. That was a bit last minute dot com, however just glad I realised it before wasting metal.







Day 37 - 27-1-14 - [size=1em]With a rather rough looking test bracket I found I was out by about 1mm as the disc was rubbing against the caliper. An easy fix, I just need to make the wheel spacer 1mm wider to push the [/size]bracket outwards. The mount for the torque arm also needs to be about 2mm further out.










Day 38 - 1-2-14 - [size=1em]I made new wheel spacers last Tuesday at college, taking into account the need to move the brake bracket out by 1mm. I used the 50mm thick round bar made of 6082 T6 aluminium and [/size]managed to get all four done just as the class ended. Glad I'm not paying someone to do this work, it would cost a fortune in labour. Well at least at the pace I work at! That's why this part of the job is taking me so long to complete. I make something one week, try it, then find I need to make a change, but have to wait for the following week to make a new part. Very frustrating.




Speaking of getting someone to make things for me. I realise the brake bracket is not something I can make as I don't have enough time left on my course and there is no time left to teach me how to use a milling machine. Bit disappointed about that. So I may have to look at getting one made on a CNC machine. I think I'll get in touch with Harris Performance as those boys have MotoGP experience and know exactly what they are doing. Hope it won't be too expensive.

Day 39 - 3-2-14 - [size=1em]Some time ago I'd managed to confirm that the front and rear wheels were aligned. Now when I checked they weren't! Was it the new spacers I'd made? Pretty sure they were correct. It was [/size]driving me mad, so I slept on it. It dawned on me that I hadn't torqued up the swing arm pivot bolt, so I did that. The front end was all tightened up correctly.

I had the rear wheel just pushed all the way back in the swing arm and tightened up correctly. I thought maybe I should use the adjustment marks cut into the swing arm. I did that and checked again. Now that's better. After much subtle adjustment of the front wheel direction I got it to be be between 1.1 and 1.5mm off centre to the right hand side. I don't know how critical that measurement is, although it should ideally be perfect I would think, but that doesn't seem too bad to me. Lets not forget this bike has had a front end impact, so there is still a chance the frame has a slight bend in it. Once I strip the frame down I should have a better idea.

[noggythenog]

ooooooooft!!!

looking seriously nice fair play.

bet you're getting excited now, it is really taking shape.Gonna be a quality looking item me thinks. 8)

[Ruby Racing]

Thanks Noggythenog.


I'm trying to contain myself! LOL. This bit seems to be taking a while, but I need the rolling chassis to be sorted before taking the angle grinder to it! That's when the real transformation will take place.


I'm going to make it the best I can, but hopefully she'll look the dogs. Time will tell.

[Chris]

Amazing effort man! Starting to really take shape.

Chris

[Ruby Racing]

Cheers Chris.  :thumbup

[ChristoT]

Looks awesome! When my bike's done, we'll have to do a custom FZS meet!  :lol

[Ruby Racing]

You're on! 

[ChristoT]

You're on! 

The Ruby Racer, the Noggy Fighter, Project Fazer - The ChristoFighter, Wraith's bike, DarthFazer's bike... any other 600s?

[Chris]

Mines customised... just still has a fairing... 

Chris

[ChristoT]

So will mine, and so have DarthFazer and Wraith. It's not limited to streetfighters!