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The First Pics Of The New Project


jaylael
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Reminds me of a good story. A good friend of mine who has worked in bike shops for many years, fielded a telephone call from a customer asking for advice on how to find top dead center for adjusting the valves. My friend explained that "You need to insert a screwdriver into the spark plug hole and turn the engine over until the screwdriver is pushed out as far as it will go", thus locating tdc. He never mentioned anything about the compression stroke, which may have been helpful. Ten minutes later he gets a phone call back from the guy, asking, "Once you put the screwdriver in the spark plug hole and kick the engine over, how do you get the screwdriver out?"

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Reminds me of a good story. A good friend of mine who has worked in bike shops for many years, fielded a telephone call from a customer asking for advice on how to find top dead center for adjusting the valves. My friend explained that "You need to insert a screwdriver into the spark plug hole and turn the engine over until the screwdriver is pushed out as far as it will go", thus locating tdc. He never mentioned anything about the compression stroke, which may have been helpful. Ten minutes later he gets a phone call back from the guy, asking, "Once you put the screwdriver in the spark plug hole and kick the engine over, how do you get the screwdriver out?"

Yipes!

Speaking of locking up engines (!) this reminded me of an old trick I learned many, many years ago about how to lock the two-stroke crank up to, say, tighten the flywheel bolt when at a Trial (no air for the wrench available) and I still use it now and then. Use about 2 feet of 3/8th cotton or pliable plastic rope (very easy to carry in a tool chest), put a little in the sparkplug hole, move the piston up to find TDC, back the piston back enough to push some rope in the hole to fill the combustion chamber and them push the piston up till it stops the crank. You want to be careful not to back the piston down too far and have the rope go into a port, but it's pretty foolproof and won't damage anything. After doing what you need to do, back the piston down a little and pull out the rope.

Jon

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Guest majestyman340

From the pics of this bike it looks like the front mudguard is going to get very close to the front down tubes when forks fully compressed.....................is clearance here ok?

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Majestyman340, He already answered that one, page 4 post #50

JayLael

Feb 19 2008, 06:31 AM

The front fender just touches the subframe on full compression. I have allready pushed the forks down in the clamps to flush, and ground the front corners off the alloy subframe and it still just touches the fender. I have decided to lower the front fender about 1/2 inch closer to the front tire, which is just enough to get it to stop contacting alltogether. Since the engine is just plain longer than the original one, this is a minor problem which is not easy to resolve any other way.

Hey Jay,

I will send you pics of my "Highway pegs" when I get them done. They are not a requirement for competition so they are just being picked at when I get a few minutes here and there.

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Jay

. . . and just one more, "Oh yeah" comment. Didn't I see a pair of genuine Hodaka head braces bolted up? Which will be big time brace/stressed engine frame re-inforcements! So the front frame members will just be helping out a bit - could be A-OK.

Dibbies on first position in the test ride queue! (Well, after you of course!)

Ed

Ed: I'm figuring on test rides for all at Hodaka Days. You can be first.

Hey, everybody! This one of the guys who I was on about earlier.

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Guest majestyman340
Majestyman340, He already answered that one, page 4 post #50

Hey Jay,

I will send you pics of my "Highway pegs" when I get them done. They are not a requirement for competition so they are just being picked at when I get a few minutes here and there.

Thanks.............sorry I didnt see the reply.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Since I talked with you all last my over riding focus has been on the assembly and torture testing of a fantastic new (to me) modern trials bike, via the purchase of an engineless 03 Sherco 80. First thing possible I carefully assembled my new ride, using the 03 Sherco 80 chassis and the '00 250 engine, front forks and front wheel. The smaller 33 mm forks are more light duty and should serve quite well on the Hodaka. Since the last post, I have ridden the new bike in one event and so far it is working very well. The next thing ahead of me is to get back to work on the Sherdaka, but for now the poor thing is resting in bits on garage floor. More to come...

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  • 2 weeks later...
From the pics of this bike it looks like the front mudguard is going to get very close to the front down tubes when forks fully compressed.....................is clearance here ok?

Funny you should mention that. :D It hits really bad! The front subframe had to be removed entirely, and the new one will be drastically altered from the former, which now rests in the recycler's bin. Since riding season is upon us, I have been finding less time to work on this bike, but as time permits I will continue trying to climb this mountain of self imposed complications.

Sure do like the "new" 03 Sherco alot!

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I have missed much of this untill now, quite a project, not sure it is a rational project but non the less!

Based simply on appearance, it seems as though with proper triangulated brackets off the headstays, you could just run the front downtubes to the head brackets to fully integrate the motor as a structual member, as long as the entire cylender did not depart the motor the first time you hit a bump! Something needs to be in tension on the front, or it will buckle, reguardless of the main frame gussets! Have fun! :D

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That's my plan at this point, constructing a connector from the engine head stay to the steering head area. I think it will work fine. The first set of front braces would have done the job had they been clear of the front tire. I thought there was some contact before, but when I put the 80 forks on it got worse in spades.

This probably is an irrational project allright. The product of a long winter and years of daydreaming about a "modern" Hodaka. Once I get this bike done and parked on the lawn at Hodaka Days, my suffering will all be a distant memory. Next to all the amazing project Hodakas out there, this one will be just one more.

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Funny thing Jay, I think I ever only rode one Hodie back in the day. I was on a 125 Penton at the time doing the local MX scene. I think it was a Combat Wombat ?

I had a cousin that was heavy into flattrack in the 100 class experts on a Hodie, he lived locally and I stopped by one day to visit.

Never forget that in the course of our brief conversation(about 15-20 min. it seems), he yanked the motor, split it and withdrew the crank, stating he would just press in a new rod in the morning(at the shop), and reassemble tomorrow, it was that routine, no big deal in that world! Blew me away! They had them things wound up tight! Knew how long to run a piston or bottom end, as a science! :rolleyes:

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Guest majestyman340

If this motor has a central exhaust port, remember that you are going to need to have a pretty gentle curve on the front pipe for things to work properly, and that will mean the pipe is going to be further forward than the bits of alloy strip you have fitted to the bike, and may mean its likely the mudguard is going to contact the exhaust when forks fully compressed.

You also need to bear in mind that all modern bikes have the swinging arm spindle fitted through the back of the crankcases, so that the gear box sprocket is as close as possible to the swinging arm pivot point, so if you are retro fitting an old air cooled motor to modern chassis, then the back of the cases must be a close to swinging arm pivot as possible, or you will have major problems with chain tension and bike will probably not grip well even with something like the Hodaka engine fitted.

Edited by majestyman340
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You also need to bear in mind that all modern bikes have the swinging arm spindle fitted through the back of the crankcases, so that the gear box sprocket is as close as possible to the swinging arm pivot point, so if you are retro fitting an old air cooled motor to modern chassis, then the back of the cases must be a close to swinging arm pivot as possible, or you will have major problems with chain tension and bike will probably not grip well even with something like the Hodaka engine fitted.

If you look in the pictures he has the engine as far back as he can. The gearbox sprocket can't get any closer to the swingarm pivot.

I doubt he's building this to be the ultimate trials bike, so exceeding the performance standard of the original Sherco is not on the table.

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  • 1 month later...

It has been awhile since I posted on this project. Here are a few photos of the current bike. I had allot of re work to get the bike done and now it's about where I thought I was before. I guess I thought if I wished hard enough the front tire would clear. Whatever the case I am now looking back at the series of events which led me to here, and it really has been fun overall. I needed to secure the front of the motor in order to build the back part and the head stays, so in a way my first effort was simply a jig, and a source of welding practice time.

Looking at the photos one can tell that I have long harbored a good deal of fondness for the Mecatecno Dragonfly and Skywalker trials bikes. This Hodaka should sort of help to satisfy that longing to own one of these fascinating and rare spanish bikes. The top of the engine head is secured to the brame steering head area, with a straight piece of chrome moly tubing which was scavenged from a scrapped 1982 Maico frame, (so it's German quality steel) and it has been tig welded very solidly. I think it should be strong enough.

I have plans to finish it and ride it a bit before really finalizing the color scheme. I have had so much fun imagining the bike in different colors. Trying not to be too hasty in deciding. The black front fender is a temporary until I get together enough dough to buy the Sherco items. Anyway, hope those of you who are following this story will find these interesting.

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post-27-1210442218.jpg

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