Sheeking Motorcycle Blogs

Preperations for winter came early this year as we try to be one step ahead of the snowfall. Needless to say, the snow has yet to come.

The basic concept of this is; one BMX + two Ski's & a little bit of Moto-R Design fabrication = one awesome SNOBIKE.

We need two things for this to work - Snow (we rarely get sufficient snowfall here)   

                                                Hills (this is the flattest part of the UK)

If neither come to us, we will have to go find them to test this out.

Didn't get to make it to EICMA in Milan this year, so headed up to Motorcycle Live at the NEC to check out the latest bikes.

Particular interest was paid to the Ducati 1199 Panigale and MV Agusta F3 with lots of close up shots acquired. The F3 is truly stunning, so much design detail on every single component.

 Also had a chance to check out up close the Yamaha M1 and have a feel of the wafer thin carbon fiber bodywork.

 All those hours modeling parts and creating drawings in CAD and finally the real parts arrive!

We had a fairly big delivery of lasercut pieces arrive from Optima Stainless at the end of last week. This consisted of frame gussets, subframes, battery box, fuel tank pieces and some templates and jigs, which is handy, as we were waiting on these to make progress.

 

The few pieces shown include the end piece of the rear subframe (flat pack form of the CAD model shown in a previous post) at the top, the entirety of the front aluminium subframe above, with instrument panel support and headlight ballast pack in place and the new battery box below (I had to bend something!).

There will be more photos coming shortly when the parts get bent into shape.

Here are the very first photos of the engine and drivetrain that will be powering the Angelic Bulldog motorcycle streamliner. With the finishing touches being performed by Dan Dole at the Footman James Classic Bike Show and arrival of the freshly machined bellhousing and rear engine covers, the specially made Elite gearbox was attached for the very first time.

So here it is, the offset square 8 configuration, originally based on two Honda Blackbird engines, feature counter-rotating crankshafts which link up to Elite gearbox via a specially made shaft traveling through the heart of the engine. All this is mounted onto a special baseplate to which will sit within the chassis. Its great to see at this stage, having been on the drawing board for over 18 months. The final assembly is huge and mightily impressive!

Theres some more photos below, and for any more info on the details of the engine, check out www.angelicbulldog.org.uk

 The rear light unit arrived a few days back and we wanted to see how the final thing was going to look, so spent some time machining the aluminum housings from the CAD data and were so excited, we just had to put it up here!

 The rear light is very similar in styling and also made in two halves which screw together, locking the LED light unit in place. This bolts directly in the rear subframe, sitting within the top of the tail piece so is a real feature of the back end.

Looking forward to the day that we can light them up on the bike!

Now wheres my electrical engineer . . .

This is the headlight unit that we are proposing to use on the bike which arrived some time ago from the USA. The projector unit is a bi-xenon Morimoto Mini D2S along with a solenoid input and ballast pack. This will all be housed in a machined aluminium casing which will fit onto our front subframe.

In addition to this, we plan to have some daylight running lights either side on a specially machined aluminium feature that sits in the air inlet opening. It looks good in CAD, but I'm not going to show you all that yet!

Whilst we are waiting for some lasercutting and material to arrive to make the frame, we spent some time designing some rearsets to fit to the bike when its complete.

They have a 5-way range of adjustment, feature Needle roller bearings, knurled footpegs, anodised matt black etc. More details will be put up when they have been manufactured. Its likely that we will have to have a small quantity made, so if you are interested in some then let us know via email as they are designed to fit a standard curvy SV as well.

The frame is also now complete in Solidworks so we have grabbed a few closeup shots of some of the details. 

Chamfered edges feature on all the bosses to minimise any excess weight.

Headstock gussets and aluminum bearing inserts. This allows for easy interchanges between different fork setups which use different sized bearings with the insert clamped into place using pinch bolts.

The past few weeks have started to see some aspects of the CAD model come together so I'll be uploading more pictures of the completed pieces soon

For now, we have the rear subframe, which will be manufactured out of tubing and waterjet cut pieces.

As we are always on the quest to reduce weight and complexity, the subframe has been designed with only three main tubes in triangulation, opposed to the usual four used by most manufacturers.

The fabricated piece on the rear has multiple purposes. At the front, it supports the rear of the seat pan, at the rear fixes to the rear light unit making the whole piece rigid, and the mounts on top act as a bodywork support.

We have some photos of the latest piece of Angelic Bulldog streamliner to come off the milling machine. This piece acts as a cover on the front of the Dan-Tec offset square-8 engine and bolts to the left-hand Blackbird crankcase. 

I believe this is the final piece for the engine to be machined, so we'll hand it over to Dan next weekend and will hopefully see a fully built engine very soon!

Its quite a substantial piece of aluminum, good job weight is not really an issue for us!

It shows a full 360 degree view of the SV650 steel trellis frame that has now been fully converted into Solidworks from the original mock-up. The CAD data will now allow us to machine all the parts and bend the tubes to start fabricating a full working prototype.

There has been a fair bit of work recently inputting the design into CAD in order to assist with the process of making parts for a prototype, so very few photos of real progress to show.

With the side fairing off, today was the perfect opportunity to get a quick snap showing the engine neatly packaged within the frame and bodywork.

From this (rear frame lug, slightly corroded) . . .

 

. . . to this.

Rebuilt to original specifications - just 2 1/2 years work.

Well, we've hit the deadline with a few hours to spare, so these shots were taken outside the workshop shortly before being loaded up and taken to the BMF Show.

 

There's been far more then just a splash of colour added so I'll go through the list of upgrades that have gone on. The front end is all GSXR 600, forks, brakes, wheels and handlebar controls. Straight forward swap-over from the standard SV front end. At the rear is an '09 ZX10 shock, again, a hassle free change from the standard shock as the dimensions are very similar. The rear pipe is an Akrapvic carbon unit, with a specially made exhaust hanger coming off the subframe unit.

In addition to all these performance upgrades, new light units are present. There's a bi-xenon projector lamp which will be housed in an aluminum shroud coming off the front subframe, with daylight running lights either side and the rear will be an LED arrangement, though these are still work in progress.

  

Its far from finished, but this stage gives a great idea of how the final bike will look. Now, lets get one up and running!

Apologies for the lack of recent updates with regard the SV project. There has been a bit of a push on that of late as we want to have it looking its best and on display next to the Norton M28 Concept bike at the BMF Show.

So if your making a trip to the event, be sure to come and check it out for the first time! (I dont know where we will be, so look out for the rather long stand with Angelic Bulldog mock-up on).

 

The fibreglass bodywork has begun to make its way onto the bike. Alignment is going to take some time as there are no mounts on the frame so these will need to be made as we go along.

 

 

Success! Pulled the side panels out of the first molds today and they have come out good. Still needs a fair amount of work though to make the surfaces perfect along with aligning with the clay and fixing to the mock-up.

Most of the time this week has been spent making fibreglass molds of the remainder of the bike. Most of these parts will have to made using split molds, which take a couple of days to layup. Above is a photo of the tank/airbox cover, which splits into 3 parts (top and two sides).

20 degrees ambient - how crucial is that? "It's crucial" they said!

Well, we managed 27 degrees ambient . . .

. . . before heater number two toasted itself!

Time to find another heater to make this resin stuff cure properly!