Featured Sweets' Desert Sled Project

So, I realise the radio silence on this was pretty deafening, truth is I had a few other things to do, so here is a load of stuff completed up to now.

Bits done without detailed photos include:

• TTP Secondary Air Removal, Air Box baffle removed, new air filter and air intro trumpet. I haven't installed a new map yet, a few other things need completing first.
  
• TEC rear shocks installed, these are intended to be from a Scrambler, so are 40mm longer than Originals. I wanted OEM look ones, with no piggy back reservoir. You can see these in the photos at the end.
  
• TEC pre-load adjusters and progressive springs in the forks.
• Motogadget M-Tri wired to new Motogadget Tiny Speedo.
• Speedo bracket made from 3mm aluminium sheet, yet to be folded
  
• Seat is now complete and needs collecting - I am excited about seeing that.

So, a few other things too.
Tail Tidy manufacture by me, from 3mm thick Aluminium alloy.
Here is my paper outline under the cut down rear fender (still in primer)



Top holes are to locate the tail tidy under the rear light. the next, wider holes are for the LED number plate lights. And the ears on the outside are for the indicators. It will need folding.

Here is the alloy cut out, sanded but this will not be the final finish.



And here is rough assembly before I do the folding



You can see the right hand side number plate LEDs is installed, and the right indicator too. Number plate has been redacted. Unfortunately the only decent folder I have access to is in Steve's workshop, and he is away at the moment. That is why the indicator is stuck up in the air at a stupid angle.

Next, the tail loop, which has been welded and painted.





Next, the headlight "box", again made from 3mm Aluminium sheet.

I templated it in card, here is the card box (top right) with the cut alloy. I wish I had a guillotine, this was all cut using a jigsaw.........



Roy then helped me out by welding this all together. Here is the completed box (don't judge the surfaces, I am working on that)



And here (roughly) is where it will sit, prior to drilling holes to locate it onto the clock bolts on the top, and on the voltage regulator bolts (before relocation) at the base



The lights all fit inside, as does all the rest of the gubbins, even though it is an odd shape (due to my keeping the steering lock). My number board will go onto the front of this box.

Lastly, Roy and I eventually managed to synch diaries, and today (and tomorrow) is exhaust time.

We started from both ends. At the back, a 2" NB section (this is 304 stainless) for location of baffles. These are my "silencers" and sit horizontally over the rear peg brackets. I have adapeted the pegs to fold backwards (not up) when not in use.

Here is the bracket, which is located on the inside of the rear peg brackets. The fold is to hold the pipe away from the rear shock. The rectangular plate on the right is irrelevant......



Then working from the front, we cut down 2 x 1 1/2" NB elbows to start for the high pipes on the clutch/gearbox side, to follow the line of that case. Everything was tacked in place, for fit before final welding later.



Next, we dive down behind the clutch cover, straighten out on the horizontal and flare (eccentric reducer) to the 2" NB



Of course that means we can close out to the "silencer section", adding a slash cut to the rear for extrs badass-ness.



(note the rear-folded passenger footpeg below)



And what is more, in the one day today, we managed to get the other one done too. A good days' work, considering that none of these are straightforward, and you have to consider roll on every joint, as well as the angles turned, and getting the end-fit nice and tight so that Roy can do most of the Tig work without wire. He has some proper skills, I am lucky to be able to call on his services.



So both pipes are completely tacked, tomorrow we move onto welding them up. I can't wait.

I am really pleased we managed to find a good line for these that looks like (but not ecactly similar to) the original Ekins pipe line (see page 1). Foot peg access both sides is excellent too

Vroom vroom.

Dave

 

So, we got the welding done, and luckily there was very little distorion that may have required any more brutal surgery to re-fit.
Here they are

Right



And Left



To give you (and me) a little more idea how it looks, I wapped the tank and a side panel on. I think this photo really highlights the extra ground clearance.



And from the rear, you can see how the pipe hugs the form of the bike.



Slightly diappointingly, I went to pick up the seat, and they had left the downstand round the edge outside the seat cover, which was a little annoying, but to be fiar, they are doing it again at their expense.

I need to get a reasonable level of polish on these pipes, which so far looks relatively okay (no photos yet).

After the polishing, I will be concentrating on lights and electrics - I really want to sort those out so I can hear how the pipes worked out.....

Dave

 

Nearly done now



It sounds epic at the moment

 

Thanks gents, so in a bit more detail.......

We have gone from here



To here



as Sod's Law dictates, Summer is not the best time to try and do a bike customisation.
There are weeks when you're away with the family, childcare issues when you're not because the little darlings are home, and in between that, delivering work and doing everything normal life requires flat out in order to catch up.
So the summer weather is great, and the pressure is high to finish off the project, but the ability to do so is much less than any other time.

So now we've reached deep into September and I am only just about finished. Grrrrrr

But I have made steady progress on a few things, and now the culmination is close at hand.
The seat is complete and looks great, an appropriately simple design. I did away with the rear hump.
The pipes are polished, with a little underlying texture left underneath to give them a used look.
They are a little too loud, so I am working on a perforated baffle insert. The materials are arriving tomorrow
I have got the front and rear fenders back from Andy in paint, along with the faux carb tops and the OEM fork brace, all of which were done in a flat matte silver, which has a touch of bronze in it. Getting these allowed me to complete the front end and wire up the rear, fitting all the lights. The (amazingly cheap) Audi-style progressive flash LED indicators are very cool, all you do is short out the flasher unit (they progress themselves) and hey presto.
The tanks and side panels are now resplendent in their bronze green (that's the proper name, it is a Land Rover colour). I have spent a whole afternoon rubbing them back into the intentionally thick underlayer of filler primer to achieve the more lived-in look I am after, and the decals put on and also aged, before the final clear coat was applied, wet flatting and mopping. They look like they have been dipped in spit. Perfect.







Most of the wiring changes (for the new can-bus Speedo, and keyless ignition) are done, and the host of connector type stuff that used to reside inside the headlight now fits under the tank, where there is a significant extra void to hide them, expecially now that the SAI system is gone.
The new bars also had a bit of a problem, in that the turn down on these bars is closer to the outer end, and as a result, the bottom inside end of the brake reservoir prevents the whole lever assembly from being rotated forward enough for comfort, so I have had to cut off a section and re-finish it to allow a usable fit.
I have taken off both wheels and the new tyres are fitted. I went for Continental TKC 80 Twinduros, with a bit more volume than standard on the rear to give it some bulk, as it is a smaller diameter wheel.
I have got a custom alloy sumpguard welded up, having cut and bent the sections myself. All of the alloy bits are being worked (by me) all the way up the sanding range to 1200 grit before a light polish, so that they have a pleasingly flat satin look to them. This includes the sumpguard, the speedo bracket, the tail tidy and the headlamp box.













I would really like to thank Roy for all the welding and fabrication skills, and Andy for all the paint work - both of which are integral to this customisation, and without them being under 30m from my own workshop, I would never have taken this on. Thanks gents

Dave

 

I needed to take a piccy of the other side of the bike for insuance purposes, so thought I would share it here


Roy and I are turning the wider (2" NB) sections of the exhausts into silencers tomorrow, by using 300mm of 32mm perforated stainless pipe, wrapped in stainless wire wool, held in place with stainless cable ties. The end will be welded in situ.
Some initial experiments with cheapo bought baffles wrapped in wool show that this final modification will turn it from deafening (I literally had someone jump a foot into the air when I started up at the petrol station) to something more, errrr, legal.
Dave

 

So we got it done. Here is the start point on one exhaust, 300mm of 2 inch Nominal Bore 304 stainless pipe with a slash cut end. Not much noise attenutation here.



The exhaust uses the passenger foot peg bracket to locate, so I have had to rotate the footpegs so that they fold away backwards, not upwards.

And this is what goes into each pipe, the bottom one here is ready to go.



Stainless Perforated pipe, 280mm long. At one end we have used two holesaws to make a outward flange to tack inside the end of the exhaust. The centre "offcut" is welded to the other end, so that the gases have to travel outside the perforated tube through the stainless wire wool, before entering the perforated tube and exiting the exhaust.

The top one is yet to be wrapped in the wire wool.

There is quite a high degree of noise reduction, but it still has, errr, "character"

 

Thanks. No, we haven't. I set about doing this for no reason other than creating the bike i wanted to ride and own, and having fun doing so.

It has been great, and it does make me want to do other bike projects, eventually. But parts manufacture or supply isn't part of the picture i envisaged.
Cheers again

 

I realise I didn't share a photo of the pipe with the attenuator inside, so here it is



I asked Roy to secure it using two large-ish tacks. Plenty of strength, but also removable, if, as I suspect, the wool eventually breaks down and the silencing effect is lost. the tacks built up a little colour on the outside of the pipe, so I re-polished it, and used a brush wheel to clean up the inside.

D

 

Not really part of the bike, but I wanted to have the ability to carry some luggage at times, so I took myself off to the local stainless stockholder to see what was going cheap in their offcuts section. The answer was some round bar (8mm) and some flat (20 x 4mm I think), so we made up a pair of these from them, one each side.

Flat bar bracket fixed to the rear frame fixed nuts, and a bent flat bar onto the top of the rear shock. Bent and cut and welded round bar is welded onto these fixed points to allow a relatively small pack (for tools, lock/chain etc) to be clipped on, or prevent a larger seat-top pair of panniers from sagging into the wheel arch. You can see the other one inside the loop of the one this side



I wanted it to look as lightweight as possible, and matched the rear shock angle so that it fits with the bike.



You can hardly see it from the rear, it follows the centre line of the shock, so that even with full suspension travel the chain (or disc the other side) won't hit the panniers.