- Joined
- Dec 22, 2011
- Messages
- 65
A picture of the Commando framed Weslake engined bike I raced from about 1990 to 1999.
The frame was pretty much standard except for a JPN style modified swingarm and a Norvil headsteady.
The engine was adapted in to slighlty modified isolastic cradle and front mount.
Oil tanks featured recently in another thread and this one was custom made, designed by me but welded by someone who new how to weld. It goes across the full width of the frame and simply sits in the vee of the frame rails, held in by a couple of rubber bands. Having gotten paranoid with stock tanks breaking their lower mounts and leaking this tank has no holes or drain pulgs underneath. Its easy enough just to take it out and turn it upside down.
I copied the idea from either the 71 or 72 JPN racers which did something similar. The ignition is Interspan so I didn't have to worry about fitting a battery and the tank holds about 8 pints.
The other feature discussed recently on the forum was the swing arm mount. You can't really see it here and I'll try and take some more photos of it but it fixed the wearing cradle /sloppy spindle problem. It used a couple of top hat bearing inner races that spigot into the spindle hole in the cradle. They are an interference fit and are pulled in by a grade 8 1/2 inch through bolt. Can't really claim the credit for this one as it again was a JPN idea that Norman White told me about. I have previously done the set screw and collar mods on another bike. The screws were 1/4 inch and threaded into the swing arm spindle itself. They snapped. So I went with the collars and they seemed to work. For the race bike I thought the JPN method was a better engineering solution.
The fuel tank is a Norvil fibreglass and I ran it for many years using race gas, leaded ERC 110 Then all of a sudden one year it rapidly delaminated. I asked ERC what they'd done to their fuel recipe and they eventually admitted thay had recently added " Co solvents" whatever they are. I guess this was a precursor to all the ethanol in fibreglass tanks issues we're having now.
I retired this bike in 1999 and put the engine gearbox and running gear into a Seeley Mk 2 frame - but that is another story
The frame was pretty much standard except for a JPN style modified swingarm and a Norvil headsteady.
The engine was adapted in to slighlty modified isolastic cradle and front mount.
Oil tanks featured recently in another thread and this one was custom made, designed by me but welded by someone who new how to weld. It goes across the full width of the frame and simply sits in the vee of the frame rails, held in by a couple of rubber bands. Having gotten paranoid with stock tanks breaking their lower mounts and leaking this tank has no holes or drain pulgs underneath. Its easy enough just to take it out and turn it upside down.
I copied the idea from either the 71 or 72 JPN racers which did something similar. The ignition is Interspan so I didn't have to worry about fitting a battery and the tank holds about 8 pints.
The other feature discussed recently on the forum was the swing arm mount. You can't really see it here and I'll try and take some more photos of it but it fixed the wearing cradle /sloppy spindle problem. It used a couple of top hat bearing inner races that spigot into the spindle hole in the cradle. They are an interference fit and are pulled in by a grade 8 1/2 inch through bolt. Can't really claim the credit for this one as it again was a JPN idea that Norman White told me about. I have previously done the set screw and collar mods on another bike. The screws were 1/4 inch and threaded into the swing arm spindle itself. They snapped. So I went with the collars and they seemed to work. For the race bike I thought the JPN method was a better engineering solution.
The fuel tank is a Norvil fibreglass and I ran it for many years using race gas, leaded ERC 110 Then all of a sudden one year it rapidly delaminated. I asked ERC what they'd done to their fuel recipe and they eventually admitted thay had recently added " Co solvents" whatever they are. I guess this was a precursor to all the ethanol in fibreglass tanks issues we're having now.
I retired this bike in 1999 and put the engine gearbox and running gear into a Seeley Mk 2 frame - but that is another story
