nOi!ce

Frame stiffened up nicely as soon as I tacked in the lower cradle. Mounted up some nice bosses for the front engine mount. Finish welded the cradle. Aaaaaaaaaand now I need to put some cross bracing in between and extra bracing around the lower rear eng mount. Woot. About 5in of ground clearance. A little low for my taste, but thats what you get for stuffing an oversized lump in a tiny frame. That little honda motor better be a runner, otherwise I might have to cram some other craziness in there. Maybe a TT600 single??? Time will tell. Gotta go finish this shyte.

The engine is hanging in there on it's own now. I'm going to put some small tube through the bolt holes on the frame for the front hanger, just like the original CB400 mounts. It took some precision drill work (yeah right) but it all lined up nicely. I was going to start on the rest of the frame and saw that it was after 3am in the wee morning, so I mocked it all up and couldn't resist a few snaps. More work to do.

Getting everything where I want it. Mocked up the exhaust to see where the pipes would run. I want to keep it nice and tight. I decided to continue the cradle underneath the engine to keep the pipes pulled in and give a place to mount a skid plate. Although this thing will hardly clear a cockroach when its all done. Whatever, if it doesnt work out I'll just build a jig and make my own frame. Hardtail of course. Either way, Im having a blast.



Sorry for the blurry pics. I was in a hurry.

I wanted to keep most of the original cradle but, the engine wont sit low enough and be removable for maintainence. Also needed to line up the output sproket to clear the swingarm. Been working my day job hard, so progress has been slower than I prefer. I killed a bunch of time trying to mount my tubing bender to my garage floor. The 10 dollar diamond tip concrete bit was toast after about an inch and a half of work. Did it slow and tried to keep it cool, but it didnt live up to its name. Ive got a few railroad ties buried in the back yard that should stay put. Ill just have to mount the bender and use it outside till I build a heavy-ass workbench that mounts to the wall. I drew up 10,000 sketches for the lower cradle. Madness. I have dreams about engine mounts and triangulation. Speaking of triangles, I found some useful stuff. TonyFoaleDesigns.

Do you ever...

...stop and think about IF you should do something BEFORE you do it?


...Nah me neither.
A lot more work to do before its even remotely safe.