Swingarm to brace or not to brace...

[Kev L]

Another update on the brace saga. Got my bits back from Maldon Powdercoat yesterday, can't speak highly enough of the work they do and it all comes with a 5yr guarantee. Not an industrial firm so they take care of your parts. Anyway attached are some pics of the swingarm with the brace fitted and painted and the various bits and bobs added -





Next lot will be of it on the bike, eventually.

[lloydie]

i do take it that you did test fit a rear wheel with tyre on
as to make sure the tyre didnt foul the hugger
as the brace angle might of changed ?

[Kev L]

Yes mate all checked and ok. I bought the new bearings and seals for the arm the other day, so just need fitting and then onto the bike. All I need is time and inclination!!

[Kev L]

Just to finish this thread off I have a couple of shots of the finished and fitted swingarm -







Already placed them in a seperate thread but thought I should complete this one.

[agentpineapple]

heres mine......

[seb421]

heres mine......

How much would you or Kev charge to make one of these? and get it powder coated or painted black too?

Love the look but dont have an angle grinder or the skill to go with it guy's

cheers

[agentpineapple]

in all honesty seb, i don't have the skill either
i bought a blade swingarm and sent it to tony mon, as part of a deal we had together involving a set of blade wheels, he kindly sorted the swingarm for me, i can't even remember what it cost, give tony a shout for some advise, he did post a thread about his one on here somewhere.......

[Kev L]

I bought a spare VTR arm and a 97 blade arm. Cut the brace off myself and took the two items to a welders. I reckon it would be cheaper for you Seb if you bought the two arms and took it to a welder to slice off the brace and weld it on the VTR. It is pretty difficult to get the angles wrong as long as you don't reduce the brace. You would save yourself a lot of postage and costs doing it this way. If you have any doubts/difficulties I will pm my mobile no to you. The only note of warning is that some peeps have had interference issues on full compression of the rear shock. I think this depends on whether the subframe is straight and oval or round high levels. Good luck.
My welding cost £30 and PC was £35.

[agentpineapple]

thats cheap for p/c kev, and i've heard great things about malden p/c........

[tony.mon]

The reference points for mounting the brace is that you want it as far rearwards as it will go; this leaves the tips of the brace poking out rearwards; just cut them flush.

The forward mounting (the just off-vertical one) has a flat panel with a column either side; the RH side column needs to be profiled and fitted with an infill to avoid shock horror issues.

Just grind the front to an angle, leave the top intact but relieve it about 10mm at the bottom, just weld an infill plate over the hole.

It doesn't show, looks neat,
and does the job.

You can see what I mean when you study Marty's picture, that's one of mine: "here's one I did earlier"

Your Storm hugger won't fit, but get one for a Blade of the same model and it'll go straight on, you'll just need to get a chain run protector for the exposed bit of chain top run by your left boot when riding.

And you need to also use a Blade rear caliper mount.
The sliding stay is the wrong gender, standard is female but the Blade one needs a male section, carefully cut through the welds on your donor Blade arm and have it reattached to the braced arm.
It's easier to get the alignment right if you temporarily fit the rear wheel spindle and Blade caliper mount, that gives you the alignment you need.

[Kev L]

Have a look at page 1 of this post and it shows the difference between the storm caliper mount and the blade.

[lloydie]

This is the nicest braced swing arm I've seen .
Looks stock and been done very well
Shame it's still on a blade

[Kev L]

That looks to me like they've done what I suggested to Seb. Used ally sheet to box in the blade brace to give a different overall look.

[VTRDark]

I think you could be right Kev. That messy weld gives it away and spoils the overall look.

(:-})

[Jamoi]

Sorry it's an old thread, but I need to start looking for a suitable hugger/chaingaurd to fit my braced swingarm. What's the best thing to search for? Are there any chaingaurds which will fit but don't have the hugger part?

Sent from my GT-19505 using Telekinesis