Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

I rekon I would be good for about 1.5 k on this beast

Its still freaking me out...looking at that knobby inside the rear hugger...

What a beast
...might make a good...um...umm... flat tracker...mile, of course !
Any down your way ??

Where's he up to with this Gos?

I think he's only got a couple of little things to do then he'll be taking it out soon

Nelso wrote:.....Where's he up to with this Gos?.....

been heaps of action on this - as Mick C indicated, the bike is now basically complete, and we should be getting some video of it in action at the Marulan day next week.....

Here are the current updates from where we left off last time - Laurie is constructing the radiator bash-plates....

".....The two engine mount/rad guards are done.Very strong and stiff for about a 1.8kg extra weight.standard brackets weigh a pissy 500g.
Right side in its welding jig ready to go.Just needs the front edge folded....."




"....Left side also ready to go and has its front edge folded....."




"....Right side finished welding....."




"....Left side done....."




"....Right side done...."




"....From the front...."




Heaps more to come.......

OK - this whole next section is devoted to a particularly special accessory that Laurie wants to use on this bike.

Its a combination clutch/rear brake lever, called the Clake lever !! This is amazing - check the photos......

"....Just received whats called a clake combination clutch/brake lever.
Nicely made looking unit with a conversion kit to convert a cable clutch into a hydraulic actuated clutch,very neat....."







"....This is made by the inventor Owen of IMT industries in Victoria so its locally made. This is a first time fitment for a zx10 so it is going to take some sorting to get it right. It fitted up well enough,easy to bleed the clutch and brake.The clutch uses mineral oil and the brake dot4 fluid. Only difficulty was the hydraulic clutch cylinder was 40mm short in its pull rod.I fixed that with a bracket made to length,sorted. The clutch cylinder slots into the bracket where the cable used to fit....."

Detail shot of the Clake at the clutch-actuating lever end...




The Clake fitted to the handlebars...






Some more information from Laurie, about the reasons for fitting this set-up.....its about as trick as you can get....

"....What i like about this is the fact that i now have the rear brake on my left handlebar. I have ridden mountain bikes for many years and so am very used to using the rear brake on the left handlebar and in fact prefer it. The clake has a natural feel to the lever and two fingers is all that's needed to actuate the clutch and brake,nice and light.
The clutch still needs sorting as the clutch is slightly dragging,not fully disengaging,making gear selection whilst the engine is running,difficult.A change of cams is needed. The clake is adjustable for leverage ratio on the clutch and brake and take up and overlap of the two. Owen has provided in the kit 3 cams to allow fine tuning and has 300 such profiles to choose from.I will ask him as to the best cam to fit for whats needed....."




"....The clake has a two part lever system. The idea with the clake is that when you first pull in the lever a short distance it starts to disengage the clutch,which is suitable for changing gear . When you pull it in further it starts to actuate the brake,which you can feel in the lever. Where you pull on the small lever will give different effects of clutch and brake,ie braking/changing gear/selecting gear or neutral. The cams give the feel or overlap of these parameters and are tunable according to preference or application. It requires a certain amount adaptation to aquire the technique for proficient use,but that will come with practice and practice makes perfect. I will provide info on changing the cams,etc as i gain further insight on the clake....."

OK - here are some really good detailed explanations about how the Clake system actually works....

"....Ok time for a description on the workings of the clake. First how the lever system works. When pulling the lever,which is a two finger affair,the first part of the levers travel starts to disengage the clutch,allowing gear changes normaly.Most of the pulling is done by the left finger.Further pulling of the lever starts to actuate the rear brake and further disengages the clutch....."




"....This pic shows the lever being pulled but with most of the pulling being done by the right finger,this action causes the smaller lever to pivot inwards slightly, thus pushing the small rod you can see into the housing,this delays the point at which the rear brake is actuated,thus allowing greater disengagement of the clutch before the rear brake is actuated....."




"....This pic shows the lever being pulled but with the fingers also pushing slightly inwards towards the center of the bike,this causes the small lever to pivot all the way and push the small rod further into the housing and thus totaly disengages the rear brake actuation and enables a clutch assist function,thus making the lever act as a normal clutch and without any rear brake .This is good for say bump starting the bike or pushing it around whilst it is in gear...."




"....Got to say i am well impressed with the thought and engineering that has gone into this thing,all pivots are needle rollers,the cams are steel and they have roller cam followers working off of them.The body is machined from billet aluminium with attention to lightness and strength where needed. The clutch and brake features are all adjustable using three sized cams which are located in the lever,they control the lever ratio of clutch and brake (pull force required) and the point at which clutch and brake start in the levers travel and the overlap between the two.There is also the clutch assist feature which is also fine tunable with a cam.There is approx 300 cam profiles for tuning. This is how the cams are reached and changed within the clake...."




"....First the lever is pulled backwards until a plastic cover clips back and releases the pivot pin...."




"....Pulling the lever all the way back exsposes the three cams....."




"....The pivot pin is then pulled out with a pair of pliars....."




"....The lever as removed from the clake...."




"....The three cams removed and a allen key needed to remove the M4 bolt.Top cam is the brake.Middle cam is the clutch and bottom cam is the clutch assist...."




"....Inside the lever is more levers and cams for the clutch assist feature...."




"....Inside the clake still on the handlebar is a set of roller cam followers actuated by the cams and working the clutch and brake hydraulics...."




"....So once i have had a serious go with the clake i will comment on feel ,control,ease of use etc etc. I think its one of those things which will feel awkward to begin with but with practice should be awesome in application....."




OK - that's about as good a technical explanation, with photos, as you are ever likely to see about the 'Clake' combined clutch/rear brake set-up.

More to come......stay tuned.

OK - back onto more *normal* things.....well, about as normal as you could expect on a ZX10R chook-chaser.....

Here are some great photos of the new sump/header guards and radiator guards....


"....Been busy as usual. Just finished making the sump guard and header guards. Made the sump guard from 3mm 5083,folded and welded to shape. The header guard is a 1.5mm sheet bolted to the lower rad . Also notice i got lazy and bought a mesh rad guard,should do for the time being....."














Starting to look very purposeful now.....

Excellent work guys!!! its lookin great!!

is it road legal?

Yes mate, it currently has full registration......



The seat has now been upholstered, and the whole bike is looking very close to finished......

"....Almost there. Just got the finished seat on...."






"....I have a headlight and the instruments roughly fitted,now its starting to look real dirty...."




"....The rear brake light/indicators etc fitted...."

Hey Gos, I'm not a off-roader so obviously have NFI, but wouldn't that rear hugger just fill with dirt? If you have a 10R with knobbies it's going to dig the track surface up a bit...wouldn't like to stuck behind him on a firetrail either ,

Looks the good though .

Mick

I think most of the dirt will be hurled out the back before it gets a chance to get caught in the hugger mate ! But like any project, there will need to be a lot more trial and error testing......if it was a bit muddy, I reckon the hugger would get filled pretty quickly.........time will tell......


Anyway - moving on with some more stuff - here is an interesting modification, to try and improve the 'driveability' of the ZX10R dirtbike. Laurie is experimenting with heavier fly-wheel weighting - not something we normally attempt in the garage eh ??

"....Presently looking at fitting a heavier flywheel mass too the starter clutch in order to tame the power delivery down. Theres not much room to work with so may machine up a lump of tungsten so as to get the weight i need. Tungsten is about 2.4 times the weight of steel and has good mechanical properties. Just need to source some which may not be easy,any suggestions anybody?...."




"...I am an impatient so and so.Seeing as no one could produce a lump of tungsten on demand i decided to machine up some steel instead.Done. its about 400g heavier and is an interefence fit onto the starter clutch housing...."








"....Fitted the flywheel last night,started the bike and promptly burnt a hole in the clake clutch line %&#@. Refitted the cable clutch,all good. I then realised sat morning that if i was feeling game i could take the bike for a ride,legally.All the lights etc are fitted,everything works..Roadworthy. So i have been riding the bike around town all arvo,what an effing hoot to ride,even with knobbys on.Its so damn quick. I am chuffed,no problems so far.Although the fly wheel hasnt made an ounce of difference to the power delivery.Need to go heavier. I received an email reply from a mob in the states for a lump of tungsten and they quoted 600 usd.And i need to prove what i am using it for(US export law). I am soon to receive a quote from a mob in china for sintered tungsten heavy alloy,95W-4Ni-1Fe which is a machinable grade.should be alot cheaper i hope...."


So Laurie has been out riding the beastie around the local 'burbs........shortly, there will be some more video of this bike out on the dirt, ripping it up....


Meanwhile - here are the final 2 photos of the current series, which show the bike in all its finished glory. Not much else left to do, except find some dirt and go Roostin' !!!!









Stay tuned for the video action !!

Awesome work there guys

Wow!!!! That thing is insane GREAT WORK!!!

it really looks da goods now .