Serious MT500 Surgery

[Minter]

As well as refitting my wife's beauty salon, eating too much food and drinking too much drink, I've managed to get in some good work in the workshop.

Gussets at the frame join are pretty much complete:



Good chassis design dictates that the ends of the gussets holding the rear shock mounts are not welded. This means water can get in and rot the frame from the inside out:



I've made new gussets that incorporate two shock mounting positions and will have a filler cap through which Waxoil can be sprayed once the frame has been painted.


The next bit I'm working on is the new airbox and exhaust.

More details in the Cesspit!

Mmmm Nice! I take you are going to have a choice of shock mounting.... I like that idea.....

[ellrider]

Mmmm Nice! I take you are going to have a choice of shock mounting.... I like that idea.....

Nah, he's putting 4 shocks on it. He's 19 stone now.

Did you see him tucking into that curry, apparently he didn't stop eating all over xmas/new year.

[Mr Kay]

There's more...

Mindful of Franc's experience with the steerer tube size of the Paioli forks it was with a little trepidation that I slammed in a best offer on a set on eBay. As it happens, despite being Italian and despite coming from a bike half the age but made by (effectively) the same company as the MT, they use Imperial bearings - 1" ID to be precise. A quick skim soon had the steerer adapted to take the MT's 25mm ID bearings.


A bit more turning had an old Moto Guzzi spindle adapted to fit the forks and some spacers to suit the KTM front wheel:


Then the whole lot could be thrown together, the fork caps loosened and the wheel lifted to see how much space I would have to run the new left hand header pipe.

It'll squeeze in fine!

All the grizzly details are, as usual, on the blog:
http://www.throbbingmissile.com/2012/01 ... -good.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Franc]

Looks brilliant, glad My experiments have helped another member, just wish I had access to the same level of tooling you have Alex.
Utterly amazing workmanship, really puts mine to shame.

[Minter]

Gets better all the time Alex! We were probably watching the same forks! Be intresting to see how they perform too! Having a brembo caliper instead of the grimeca thing is something i'd really like for mine! In fact all bikes should have brembo's!!

[Mr Kay]

Thanks chaps

On paper the 4 pot Grimecas are better than the sliding twin pot Brembo that I've had on my MT for a couple of years. In real life however, it's a different story - I've never found the Grimecas to be much cop.

[ellrider]

Nice mod, you should be able to touch the floor now.

[vtrsp1da0]

That depends on what hes going to do with the rear of the bike

[Mr Kay]

Nice mod, you should be able to touch the floor now.

[Minter]

Nice mod, you should be able to touch the floor now.

He is already sat on it and just out of shot!.... Remember he ate all the mince pies over xmas!