Well you asked for another Ducati build

[sirch345]

Shame you can't get an MOT if you also put the rear indicators in there ...

this is true... there is a min distance between them...

Making the exhaust retaining flange out of 15mm alloy plate was quick and easy…

As an aside, that tin of marking blue is 50 years old, given to me by my Dad, along with one of my treasured possessions, a 0 – 1″ micrometre when I was 15 years old. Not much left in the tin now, but its still usable.

when I was a kid, I used some of that blue on the eye pieces of my brothers binoculars.. he still mentions it now!

The stainless steel collar however took an absolute age to make! I should have really used some stainless pipe, but its an odd size and I couldn’t get any that would fit, so I ended up machining it out of a solid piece of bar stock. I hate working with stainless… everything you do with it makes your life hard, just like the material!

That made me laugh

Looking good

Chris.

[buzzer]

I tried for a while to make a seat out of alloy sheet, and failed. the shape is just to complicated! in the end I decided on an alloy and glass fibre approach. I lifted the tank slightly so the finished seat will have some clearance, and then covered it with duct tape, followed by some tin foil to act a a release. This actually worked quite well! Cutting the foam to shape took a while and is a dusty job, but with the fan blowing on me and out the door it wasn't too bad. The key to using resin is the mix ratio... I used 2.5% as it was a cold day, in the summer that would have gone off in 5 mins! I will send it to the trimmer to do his magic... this is one of the few jobs I send out.

[sirch345]

It'll be interesting to see how it turns out once it's been trimmed
Even though all your hard work will be covered up

Chris.

[buzzer]

To get the tank low, and get rid of the large pump mounting hole I had to cut the bottom out of the tank. easy enough with one of those 1mm cutting disks which I seem to use a lot of these days! I needed to make the infill patch and contour this to fit the hole. to make this easier I profiled it to the right shape by cutting some wood and pressing it to shape in the vice, then a bit of planishing to get it to the final shape.

The aim is to get the gap as small as possible to facilitate a nice weld. I used some 1mm mild steel plate which matches the thickness of the tank, so TIG welding is no problem on a low amp setting. I used a couple of magnets to position it before adding a few tacks all round. At this point I ran out of Argon... The last refill I bought was £65.. now its £104!

The outlet is made, but I need the filter fitting on the bike first so I can position it to get the pipe runs neat. Once this is welded on I can leak test.

[buzzer]

I picked up the headlight and fuel filter brackets today... What a fantastic process waterjet cutting is! They were profile cutting a 150mm thick block of alloy while I was there! The jury is out on the brackets at the moment, but I am struggling to think of a better design

[lloydie]

Keep it coming as I really enjoy seeing your builds progress

[sirch345]

The closest I have ever got to Waterjet Cutting was from watching American Chopper some years ago. I can only imagine how amazing it must have been to see that happening for real rather than on the TV

It looks like you have a Motobatt battery there, are you a fan of them

Chris.

[buzzer]

The closest I have ever got to Waterjet Cutting was from watching American Chopper some years ago. I can only imagine how amazing it must have been to see that happening for real rather than on the TV

It looks like you have a Motobatt battery there, are you a fan of them

Chris.

definitely a fan! myself an my mates have used them for years... they do need a charger with an AGM setting on them though, old type chargers just cook them

[sirch345]

The closest I have ever got to Waterjet Cutting was from watching American Chopper some years ago. I can only imagine how amazing it must have been to see that happening for real rather than on the TV

It looks like you have a Motobatt battery there, are you a fan of them

Chris.

definitely a fan! myself an my mates have used them for years... they do need a charger with an AGM setting on them though, old type chargers just cook them

Thanks for the reply Tony

I have stuck with OEM Yuasa batteries over the years, and I must say I have had excellent service from them.

However the reason I was interested to hear your opinion was some years ago Motobatt batteries were all the rage, then for different reasons the interest seemed to drop off.

As with so many things purchased online today you have to be aware of Chinese copies, can you possibly recommend a company who sells genuine Motobatt Batteries here in the UK

Chris.

[buzzer]

I buy from the importers on Ebay Chris...tayna-batteries is the sellers name. I like AGM as I can mount them in any position

When i bought the bike it had a QD system on it… while I liked the concept, it was too big and heavy so I sold it on and decided to make an underslung exhaust of my own design. I wanted smaller and much lighter. I started with a mock-up of builders foam to get the shape and angles, and then moddled this in 3D. I did do a basic model on my iPad, but then found I had to pay to output it to a file! really frustrating! so I got my mate to do it and then had all the individual parts laser cut.

The baffle plates have staggered holes, which should quieten it down somewhat, but if not, I have a backup plan! Who knows if this will kill any performance? if I lose a few BHP so be it… but you never know!

here is a 1 min video of the process

[lloydie]

That’s going to have a nice clean look to it . Silly question !!
Won’t that hold a lot of condensation ?

[sirch345]

I buy from the importers on Ebay Chris...tayna-batteries is the sellers name. I like AGM as I can mount them in any position

Thanks for the INFO Tony, I'm familiar with Tayna-Batteries on Ebay, I also think MacV2 has mentioned them a few times before

I love the look of what you are doing with the exhaust on this build

Great to see your video too

Chris.

[buzzer]

Apart from a polish the exhaust is welded up and finished. I didn’t want to have distortion and burn through when attaching the baffles, so for these I used TIG braze which worked quite well.

The slip joints are held together with springs and to hold these I needed to make some spring hoops. These are actual quite difficult to make to get the bend just right and to a consistent shape. I made a little jig to make these.

[sirch345]

Looking good, I bet you're looking forward to hearing what it sounds like now

Chris.

[buzzer]

yes, I cant wait to hear what it sounds like!

here is everything to go to be powder coated. The swinging arm will be just blasted though as I will be polishing that. In some ways it was a shame to strip the wheels as they were perfect, but black, and I want silver. The powder coater insists they are stripped of the powder coat before I send them, as its so difficult for him to blast it off… in the past I have used industrial paint stripper but its expensive, and a terrible job to do. This time I took them to a local car wheel refurbishes and they put then in their stripping tank for a couple of hours.. they came out fantastic, the pain literally fell of! I left the disks on and they came out without any paint on as well. I will be taking my engine cases in next!

last post for a month while we go and get some sun!