But ... a forum member said over here:

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=45252

that him and his mate both use 5.5" rims on their race bikes with no troubles .... hmmm ..... <looks through the window into the middle distance pondering ... >

A baying public awaits for, nay, demands an update...!

Thanks Malc, :-)

I was hoping to get it on track for the last available day last weekend but missed out. Believe it or not, I actually went out riding for a weekend rather than being in a garage.

Since my last post though I've had to content with the errant Italian machines - regulator went on one and took the battery with it, and the other was fuelling very badly .. and Keihin FCR 41 flat slides are not for the feint hearted, so time has been spent there.

But on the NC30 front ... I decided to ditch my copper pipe efforts for now and do as Cammo says and violate a stock NC30 brace.

So I bought a cheap one of these to help me get the angles the same on each side:



And with some time in the vice, then on bike, then in vice, then on bike, then in vice then on bike etc etc :



Photo is a bit wonky, but in reality it is pretty straight:



Now .. the bit that has held me up ..



And making a hole for it in this:



The hole has to be in the right place, but I have nothing to hold it steady enough to stop the drill wandering about! it'll have to wait until after new year I am afraid. I'm off for a week's bike riding over the break.

But, before that, the support team and I are indulging in some pre-xmas lunacy and travelling 1400klm round trip in a day (we do that in Oz) to pick this up:



It is a '92 NC30. Price is good and it'll be good to have a spare so that if I bingle things again, which is almost inevitable, I'll have another bike to ride or rob from, during race season.

Believe it or not ... it also comes with fibreglass molds for making your own NC30 and NC35 race fairings, front and rear. So that'll be interesting ... I'll post more pics here when I get it.

Have a good Chrimbo y'all ..

Hey buddy, have you had a chance yet to test out the new rear suspension set up? I'm really curious to see if the HRC replica linkages make much of a difference with the S1000RR shock.

I'm only waiting for the linkages to turn up from Rick O (last piece of the puzzle), should be here within a week, just in time for Hartwell MCC round 1 at Broadford. Which series are you going to be racing in this season?

Happy new year to you and all.

I've not had the bike out on track as yet. Last track time dried up in early December and they've not yet started track days again. I've had a break from the VFR and have been fixing the daily rides (did 3000klm over xmas break - another 3000 to do next month around Tasmania).

I did get back into the garage last night to restart the VFR work and get it track/race ready.

I'll just be doing interclubs and practice days this year I think - I need to develop the bike and 'slow down to speed up'. Besides, I'll be in Tassie on the same weekend as the 1st Hertwell round.

What shock you using? The BMW?

I normally go over to Tassie every Feb/March for a week riding with mates, they have the best roads and the least amount of fanatical cops trying to get you for going 4km/h over the limit. What bike are you taking over?

No, I picked up an '09 GSXR600 shock. I wasn't able to find a BMW shock that wasn't being sold for stupid money, the GSXR shock only cost me less than $100 delivered from the states. Looks like I won't have any time to do a trackday to set the suspension up before the Hartwell round, I better use the practice sessions wisely :-)

Alright fellow fat and lazy xmas-ers, time to get things going again in the new year. Race season starts (very) soon so I'd best get my sh*t together and actually have something to compete on. I have along list of small things that need to be done to get me on the grid in 2014, so here goes.

You may recall how crapped off I was with the battery box situation, that my fantastic mudguard-batterybox might be hit by the rear wheel. This guy:



So, being a tight fisted lazy git I thought "why not just turn it over and bend stuff until it fits?". Before I had the tray sitting below the line of the lower subframe, I'll turn it over and see what happens:



Bingo.



A few quick measurements show that it'll take about 135mm of rear wheel travel to hit this guy. Granted that stock road trim is 120mm. That should be enough. Remember folks, I am a moron, and this is experimental science.

So a quick battery fitment check:



And things look good.

Some quick late night measurements and some drilling to get the rivets in





Now ... let me tell you about my riveting skills, and my riveter. First of all, I have never riveted anything in my life, so this is all virgin territory, and secondly, I got my rivet thingy from a 'deceased estate' so it just might be pretty ordinary. It looks a little pre-war:



And it really was shite. Rivet ends got stuck, and this is how stuff looked:



not great. So, bin the riveter, and despite only having two rivets in (pending purchase of new riveter) continue with the science:



And it clears the seat. Nice:



The end of the tray is just sitting on the shock .. so this'll have to be dealt with:



The crankcase breather bottle has to go somewhere, but new small 'decor' bottle seem to fit the bill, and fit the space, so looks good:



The right side frame fairing mount used to look like this until I mangled it:



Now my replacement looks like this:



.. so some help from my cheapie thread tap set:





get the result:



The new rad cap needs drilling for lockwire:



and those mounts I made to the new rads need some rounding off to make sure they don't eat anything:

You may also recall that I had some shock/swingarm clearance issues. So, I figured I'd make an length-adjustable pull arm (dog bone) to help with ride height and clearance. I ordered the bits and here we go:



The stuff to make an adjustable pull arm between 120mm and 160mm in length .. paaahhlenty.

A quick inspection assembling of the parts reveals a very very high quality setup:



Offering them up to the installed HRC setup show they will be okay on length. I have many things to do before revisiting the shock though. Stay tuned.

Looks like you've got enough to keep you busy right up until your firat race (that always seems to happen, no matter how much time you have, things get done right at the last minute...or just before you're due for scrutineering!). By the way, when's your first race?
Am I wrong, or are you back using the GSXR shock in place of the Beemer?
Love your idea of the adjustable dog bones. I've seen that set-up before but wondering how it would affect the rising rate, etc, from when it's set to 120mm long compared to 160mm?

StrayAlien wrote: Now ... let me tell you about my riveting skills, and my riveter. First of all, I have never riveted anything in my life, so this is all virgin territory, and secondly, I got my rivet thingy from a 'deceased estate' so it just might be pretty ordinary. It looks a little pre-war:



And it really was shite. Rivet ends got stuck, and this is how stuff looked:



not great. So, bin the riveter, and despite only having two rivets in (pending purchase of new riveter) continue with the science:

Mate, don't bin the pop rivet pliers just yet. Digging deep into my memory, and going back to my metalwork 101, the problem you have could well be your choice of pop rivets and not the pliers.

As I recall there are two different types of pop (or blind) rivets one is a "break head" and the other is a "break stem" type of rivet.

As the name suggests the mandril (the bit you pull with the pliers to form the rivet) on a break head rivet is designed with a weak spot just below the head of the mandril. as such once the rivet is properly formed and the tensile load through the mandril reaches a certain tensile load it will shear just below the head...like so:

Whilst this leaves a nice visual finish it is actually the weaker (but not weak) option of the two as the rivet in effectivly hollow.

Alternativly, and what I suspect you have used, is the "break stem" version of the pop rivet. Once again as the name suggests these have the designed weak spot on the stem of the mandril so it shears further down. This leaves part of the mandril inside the newly formed rivet, making it stronger (as it is not hollow) but cosmeticaly is not as appealing sometimes...like so:


You could use either for the battery box job you are doing, but there is nothing wrong with just buzzing over the head of the formed rivets with a file or sanding disc to tidy them up