Project Varatrackerstorm or Firetrackerdero.

[lloydie]

Starting to look like a very interesting project

[Varastorm]

Hi Lloydie, I'm still plodding on buying bits'n pieces.

Hit a bit of a wall a few months back when a mate of mine took his own life, he was only in his early 50's.

He was going through a divorce & she was going to strip him. House, pension, cars, bikes, savings & shares.

A letter arrived from the solicitors stating the above & he hung himself in the Kitchen the same day.

Really sad state of affairs. He'd looked after her too, she'd never worked a day in her life.

Anyway, like I said still slowly plodding on with the project. I thought I'd only need a few bits, how wrong was I.

I was going to start welding things up but I took a step back & sorted the suspension out so it will sit properly & as it should when it's finished.

I'm limiting myself to £50 a month on parts so the wife won't notice & it seems to be working. But it has slowed the project down a lot.

So far I have sorted out / bought..

Cbr600 F4 forks fitted with F4 calipers & F4 master. The shortened Vara forks was a bad idea.

Cbr600f3 front wheel, machined 2mm from either side of the disc mounting faces for the correct spacing.

Cbr929 rear shocker, one of the shortest shocks Honda makes & the Std spring is very stiff also. I went the wrong way by making up a piece of wood as a guide as no big bike shocks are available that short from Honda.

Std VTR foot peg carriers, CBR 600 F2 rear master cylinder (same as the Vtr).

Vtr rear slave & carrier.

Varadero sprocket/clutch cover, Vara clutch rod, Vara clutch cable & Cbr600 f4 clutch lever.

Vtr thermostat housing expansion bottle & pipes.

SV 1000 naked radiator with fan, I don't like it, it's too big & it spoils the lines, but it needs some sort of cooling. I will change it later on when I spot a prettier smaller rad.

Yamaha R6 5EB 48 tooth supersprox rear sprocket (mounting holes drilled out to 12mm) with a DID 530 gold chain. Std front 16 toother.

Std Vtr headers (cleaned) with Remus link pipes & Comedy stubby rough as hell Remus straight through silencers.

Fuel cap, thought I was never going to get one tbh.

CR250 throttle with shagged cables..

I've been outbid twice on separate Pingel high flow fuel taps, just too expensive, will just have to have patience.

Been buying electrics too, Vtr coils (pair), CDI & ignitor boxes, finned rectifier.

Just finished off this months monies on a VTR solenoid, Varadero 125 handlebar starter switch & some 90cm front brake pipes.

There's more bits to get & it is getting expensive, but I semi knew in the beginning of the project it would, there just isn't enough of one bike that would of done as a base bike to convert.

But I am getting there, just slowly, not like Fabio's project. That seemed to get done over night

[AMCQ46]

sad news about your friend... RIP.

Bike build will be a good way to take your mind off the dark things

[lloydie]

It's moving on faster than Flatline's duke .
Sorry about your friend ,I lost one 10 years ago for the same reasons .

Keep plodding alone and it'll be build soon enough

[Varastorm]

Cheers guys, he was a really nice guy, big shame. Suppose I'll always wonder if a chat could of changed things.

When I was a kid my hero was Evel Kinevel, to me, he was the man full stop. I had the stunt cycle & used my old Beano annuals as ramps, happy days indeed.

With me doing research on flat trackers, It's only recently I realised he used a flat track Harley.

Perhaps unwittingly, when I saw the Vtr flat tracker picture that started the project I could instantly relate to it.

Weird how stuff happens.

[Varastorm]

I am having huge issues with Photobucket atm, here are some pictures of where I am.

This is the bike on the 929 rear shock & F4 forks.

They did lift the bike a little more than I liked, so I have been re thinking the frame to allow for the lowering of the seat & tank. This then has had the knockon effect of having to lower the carb & re engineer the manifold. proper faf.



Here's my best effort for the intake manifold. The drilled Mikalor clamps are holding everything together ready for tacking together. Took me all day to set it up so all the joints were butted true. The following day the bike fell over & screwed it all up, pissed off was an understatement.

[sirch345]

Thanks for the update, I enjoyed reading that You've been busy.

I'm sorry to hear about your friend, RIP.

I am having huge issues with Photobucket atm, here are some pictures of where I am.

This is the bike on the 929 rear shock & F4 forks.

They did lift the bike a little more than I liked, so I have been re thinking the frame to allow for the lowering of the seat & tank. This then has had the knockon effect of having to lower the carb & re engineer the manifold. proper faf.



Here's my best effort for the intake manifold. The drilled Mikalor clamps are holding everything together ready for tacking together. Took me all day to set it up so all the joints were butted true. The following day the bike fell over & screwed it all up, pissed off was an understatement.

Great work with the carb inlet manifolds I can imagine you were more than pi$$ed off with the bike falling over after putting all that time in,

Chris.

[fabiostar]

sorry to hear that sad news big man.....


on the bike front..that is proper class looking with some proper, problem solving going on..

[mik_str]

First of all condolences for your friend...

Bike is coming together very nicely - quite an innovative project Question: why not pipe the carbs in more directly (into closest cylinder as opposed to the criss-cross)? Just curious.

Keep up the great work

[kenmoore]

Very keen to see what the carby does to the engine.

I have seen a couple of other VTRs with side draught carbies and they sound sweet.

Makes sense to me , get it jetted right and it will be a lot less hassle .

I am watching this with much interest.

Would love to hear it running.

More pics of the whole bike please .

P.S Sorry about your mate, unfortunately as you get older this becomes a bit of a regular occurrence!

Love the bike, like the tank and seat combo .

Lookin good

[Varastorm]

Yea, Chris, Fab & Mik_ster very sad state of affairs. Shame.

It's a going to be a slow build guys, not as quick as the Fabio brilliant build, but hopefully I'll get there

Bike is coming together very nicely - quite an innovative project Question: why not pipe the carbs in more directly (into closest cylinder as opposed to the criss-cross)? Just curious.

The original plan was to plumb the pipes like you mentioned Mik & I have tried, but I had issues with the front pipe pushing the carb out too far & then looking too out of place.

Also the rear inlet height is a lot higher & the turn needs to be tighter to line up to the manifold. It just didn't look a nice tidy job.

It was a bit of a faf setting it up with the Mikalor clamps & there is no room for error, but I was amazed how well it fitted together by skimming each other & the tensioners. I never had to modify (tighten) any of the mandrel bend faces either.

Btw, if any one is interested in building their own inlet or exhaust, I searched high & low on eBay for (cheap) tight 90 stainless mandrel bends.

They were around £11.99 a bend & I needed lots.. anyhoo, one advert stated that theirs were superior to Chinese ones !

So now knowing they were out there, I searched again & finally found them, under the title of

"Sanitary Weld Elbow"

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/51MM-2-OD-San ... 1438.l2649

I ordered a load of 90's two 45's & a 300mm length. They took a month to arrive & they look spot on.

Also the Mikalors are W2's & they are from here, 5 x 51mm for £10.54p free .p&p

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-x-51mm-55mm ... 1438.l2649

[Varastorm]

Very keen to see what the carby does to the engine.

I have seen a couple of other VTRs with side draught carbies and they sound sweet.

Makes sense to me , get it jetted right and it will be a lot less hassle .

I am watching this with much interest.

Would love to hear it running.

More pics of the whole bike please .

P.S Sorry about your mate, unfortunately as you get older this becomes a bit of a regular occurrence!

Love the bike, like the tank and seat combo .

Lookin good

Thanks Kenmoore, I am hoping the jetting will be close, as in ridable to the dyno to see what's what.

I doubt it will run great but the dyno guy I go to "Paul Bland motorsport" used to race dragsters & has set up webers before.

It's one of a pair from a fiat 2ltr twincam, my thinking is 2 litre = 2 carbs. 1 litre = 1 carb = 500cc per choke

There's not been much going on build wise tbh, I am still sourcing parts with my £50 a month plan

Build wise I am reluctant to weld up the top frame in case I have issues getting the carb to run right. With no top spar I can swap out the carb if I suspect an issue with it & fit the oem VTR carbs which I know run right.

Obviously it will not be ridden like this, just the initial ironing out of issues that might come from all the parts being second hand from eBay.

My thinking is, if there are issues with anything including the carb it will make things harder to fault find. If it won't tick over, is it the carb or the electrics? I'm just trying to cover all bases.

I too am pretty chuffed with the tank & seat combo tbh, I am going to keep the tank a secret as it has a dink in it & am looking for another but they are rare.

I am really looking forward to getting this sorted for the road, should be a hoot.

Might be worth making a jig for the frame & manifold & selling a kit to turn the Varadero into a Tracker

[VTRDark]

Sorry to hear of your loss mate that's a heavy trip to go through. He must have loved her very much. Don't torture yourself with what ifs as when someone is in that state of mind...well....

Bike looks great and fantastic workmanship there.

[Varastorm]

Very sad VTRDark, it really is.

I've just spent my months £50 on these, I know they aren't megaphones, but they'll have to do.

It's going to be a long 4 weeks..

All I have to do is remove the snapped studs & build some headers

[fabiostar]

oooh nice cans..supertrapp make some good gear.