New member oldish biker!!!

Hello Group, I am obviously new to this forum and RSV's in general, I am an engineer by trade and also have quite a well equipped but small workshop at home where I make stuff, I joined at the recommendation of a member TimR V2, he suggested this Engine to me for my next project, after doing a little research I have now purchased a Gen II motor with pretty much all the auxiliaries, Harness, ECU, Oil coolers, Rad, pipes, etc etc and its only done 1600 miles before it met with the breakers, and looks brand new with no damage at all, no doubt I will have lots of questions as the project gets under way hopefully none too stupid, I have read quite a bit on here over the last few days, and you lot seem clued up, I hope I can contribute some info as well over the coming months.

I think this Bike / engine is some what overlooked.


Cheers


Shaun

What is the project!!! now there's a question it is going to be a Centre Hub Steered sports bike, this sounds a big undertaking on the face of it, but I like to challenge myself basically if its difficult to achieve I will do my best to get it done, I work a little different to most builders in that I firstly computer model the whole bike in 3D and then use these models, after FEA (Finite Element Analysis) on all the components is done, to either machine them from billets or fabricate and or combinations of the two, I make all the parts myself inc the chassis, swingarms, master cylinders, etc etc, I also make all the tins by hand, Tanks etc from aluminium, I do all this work in my 17" x 17" workshop, which is quite well equipped with CNC milling, Lathes, Spark erosion, tube formers, Tig welding etc etc etc oh and loads of files and other usual stuff.

I already have the Engine, the wheels, all the brakes are done and the rearsets etc are made, during the last build I made a few spares with this project in mind, my target completion (first ride) date is 6th March next year, this should be easily achievable but can depend on my proper work commitments, and if the weather is better than last year ill spend a little time riding.

The 3D models are a couple of weeks from completion the front end was done ages ago, (I only just got the engine) this means I can scan the motor mounts and finish the chassis drawings, and as soon as its something like Ill post images............

My last project is probably not to the taste of you guys on here, but bare in mind this was built deliberately to be different, and I built it to my liking not yours lol, and I have other bikes to play with, some you would like, MV F4, Rob North Trident, some not, Velocette Venom, Triumph TR5T, and a few others, however I like all bikes, if your interested in looking at the last build Ill post a link at the bottom of this post some of you might have seen it already, comments criticisms are always welcome.


Now then some questions:-


I have Gen II Engine with Harness ECU etc, however I have concluded during my reading over the last couple of day's that although this is the engine to have the electronics are a pain (CAN data) I have read that the Gen I electrics are better, now in order to use the early Harness and ECU what changes will I have to make to the motor???

Harness?

ECU? with new timing tables, is this available in the UK and from who??

Will I need a PC for fuelling I think so?? but which one III or V?

Rotor? and Timing pickup?

Front Cam cover? do I have to change this or can it be modified?

Injector Plugs?

Any suggestion on other connectors or sensors I will need to change will be helpful, or anything else or other advice that you can think of will be very much appreciated, I have pretty much all the sensors etc from the Gen II bike.

Here's the link!! to the last build, most info is in progress / final build pages.

SWSVX

That about it for now lol

Cheers


Shaun

I'm supprised you haven't it was ridden all last summer only did about 3000 miles in part because it was in a few shows and I was busy with other stuff, but it will be Taxed again this summer.

Paul Ali said:

Ah well i only moved back over to n.east in july, so got a few rides out last yr but will be out much more this yr I hope. Do you show at farmyard?

Click to expand...

No I asked to go there when I was quite Ill and they refused to let us in, there rules are no cars! no padestrians and no excuses, thats ok in most cases but bikers are supposed to bend rules on occation, if I'm not suitable neither are my bikes, I do go to Hemsley on my bike on show though days now I'm able to ride again. :nana

This is by way of an update, I now have 2 gen1 ECU's and two full harnesses, I also have a spare set of 56 and 57 mm throttle bodies, I've also been in touch with Garbo from the other Aprilia site, he was very very helpful, I will be using his eprom's, in addition I have just bought another engine!! this is the Gen1 version, I will be using this for testing some ideas, and as development unit for some billet CNC cases and stuff.

Its funny when you start a new project things seems to move on very rapidly at first, but I'm sure things will slow down as I get into the detail stuff, these things tend to go in waves, and the learning curve with any new motors is quite steep but I feel I'm beginning to understand this engine a little now.

Shaun

Hiya Paul, Get him to send me some pics of the problem area and or phone me the number is on my site.

Cheers

Shaun

I've moved on a little, I now have two engines ones a Gen1, I bought it for both spares and development, it was the cheapest way really, I now no what I need to do to the Gen II motor both mechanically and electronically, excepting any funny surprises, I'm also well on the way with the chassis design, although I still need to get one of the engines on the miller in order to scan the engine mounting points with a little precision, I've also bought a couple of shocks of differing specs + some I have lying around to play around with, although at the front regardless of what I buy, Ill probably have to re-shim and or re-valve!! but that's much later on, at the moment its all about getting all the necessary bits and pieces in place in the computer model, and testing the suspension movement etc, before committing the design, once all this geometric stuffs out of the way I can work on the aesthetics a little.

right I'm off to the pub.............




I never ever give up! the universe knows this so it gives in, to lessen my pain

Its simpler to think of the steering head being shrunk and fitted inside the Hub, this separates, braking, suspension and turning forces from each other, in theory this is better because the suspension still works under braking, you don't get dive and a reduction in trail, causing instability! this means you can brake later and get on the power sooner, however its difficult to manufacture, and suffers a few quirks bump steer can be a problem, and lack of feel from the front end can also be a problem, I think this is more a racing problem than it would be for a road bike, and it has seen success in racing recently, also its about to enter the MotoGP2 field in some form or other.

So why has it not caught on in racing, in part due to the above but also fashion and conservatism in the biking fraternity, plus it can look odd, the beard wearing feet forwards crowd from the 70's and 80's gave it a bad image I think, their bikes may have worked well but looked naff.

Why am I doing it, I like to try new stuff, and see the problems for myself, I also want to ride / own a bike of this ilk, I could very easily build a high speck bike with Ohlin this and that, but so can anyone with a wallet, I dare to be different, I can't justify the price of a Vyrus or Tesi which are essentially the same bike with detail changes, made by the very same people, both are derivatives of the Difazio system developed in the UK in the 60's, a guy called Parker (USA) also developed a system based on the Defazio one, this was an improvement in the feel department, and was used badly on a Yamaha GT somthing or other in the 90's.

Unlike most of the above, I endeavour to make the hub and associated components myself, it will be a lot of work but its my time, I do as I like with it, and I might just learn something new!!!


Shaun