Project superlight

[cal44walker]

This winters project is too lose every last kilo off the RVF trackbike as well as dropping in a set of Mike Normans long rod Cosworth pistons. Next year will be my last on a 400 and I'll be pushing it technically as far as I can.

-Lightwieght yokes. Anyone know if the Tyga triple clamps are lighter than the OEM ones?
-Wheel lightening. Anyone tried putting the standard wheels up on a lathe and turning a few 100 grams off the rims?
-Titanium axles. Whats the view on these as I can get a set of wheel axles, swingarm axles and motor bolts made up.
-Titanium rear suspension springs. Anyone got a source for these to fit a Maxton rear shock? Expensive but light and a better spring material than steel.

[RonniB]

Hi Matt

- I know guy that can help you out, well priced and you can spec the detail yourself (alloy stem?!?)
Want email adress?

- I heard of this in the past (300g from the rear if I remember correctly) and you can skim the upper flat part of the swingarm to.

- Motorbolts = probolt, swingarm axle = I know a guy that could help and he could also make you a front axle, 7068 or 7075 alloy 5-6mm thickness is suitable.

- http://www.mojo.co.uk/

Guess you are running total loss and no starter?? Then I got an idea for the starter gear/ign rotor, replace the lot with an alloy rotor with steel inserts to trigger the ignition box, should save approx 700g rotating weight on the crank

will look forward to see how low you can go, I'am at 146kg with starter motor and GSXR genny..

Ronni

[cal44walker]

Hi Ronni

I'm at 162 dry with starter motor, MHP twin exhaust and standard wheels. I want to get down to about 145 dry and then lose 10 kg myself. The major plan is:

No starter motor
Tyga full system with carbon short pipe
Lithium 5Ma battery
New Aim dash with carbon front fairing.

You can email me the contacts you have to fabricate those axles and I'll see what prices they want. I'll get hold of Mojo and find out if they can get springs to fit a Maxton shock and RVF forks.

cal44walker@yahoo.com

[RonniB]

Hi Matt

I sent you a email.

You really only need a 2.3Ah battery, half the weight of the 5ah.

Wheel wise, I saved 1.2kg on a PVM Mag wheel from RC30, basicly many of the 90' honda race wheels will work, they have the same disc PCD and caliper offset and they are all (well almost, you can get 3.75 to run slicks at insane corner speeds) 3.5 x17"

Ronni

[Drunkn Munky]

Like the sound of those Lithium batterys. How are you guys going about weighing your bikes? Can i bodge some sort of scales at home?

[RonniB]

I got two identical digital bathroom scales, they are claimed to be accurate within 200g each, so should be no more than 400g off, but in reality they are about 300-500g off each, but then again, I can live with that. They were £8 each..

LiPo batteries are great, light weight and good performance, but are very sensitive to heat, they won't explode but they simply break up and loose their charge. 70 degrees celsius (ambient/radiant/surface/whatever temp) is the absolute max they can operate at, so I keep mine in the front cowl, away from all the heat generated by the bike. Weight wise ofcourse this harms the CoG, but then again, a LiPo battery weighs 370g, 130g less than a single NC30 headlight and this placement afterall helps to keep the CoG high(ish) and forward, which I like.

Ronni

[RonniB]

viewtopic.php?f=22&t=19496

I guess you seen this Matt??

Light wheels is the best mod just after sorted suspension (really goes well together)

Ronni

[Morespeedvicar]

Hi, if you still have the generator then just use a set of small aaa for the battery, or maybe even a big capacitor, as you wont be using it to start it. I dont like LiPo batterys they sound good but only work really well with ballenced charging and temp monitor circuits. I think there better than Li-ion batteries but are still very fragile.
10 aaa Ni-MH will only cost a 10 or so and do the job perfectly well as you wont be drawing much current from them just using them to smooth the voltage from the generator, and power ignition circuit during a bump start.
Cheers
Ian

[A Really Proud Dad]

Hi we went through the same process at the start of last year with Mike at BMC Racing. Between us we managed to lose 13.5 kilos off an RVF 400. If you need any parts, information or know how give Mike a ring at BMC Racing on 01948667976 i,m sure he,ll be happy to help

[RonniB]

@ ARPD; how low did you go?? and what was your front/rear balance?

Ronni