EN 125 overhaul

[nathanwhite]

Handlebars arrived!

hmmm, little bigger then I thought


I pulled the cross bracing off, threadlocker didn't do much at all to hold it together


Mocked up on the bike





and controls (the working one's anyway)






It does seem quite wide, almost disproportionally so. However when sitting on the bike and shifting from where these controls are to where clipons/clubmans would be, I do like this position better.
A slight issue I noticed, I cannot reach the gear lever without moving my foot completely off the footpeg, my foot doesn't bend that far sadly. It shouldn't be too much of an problem, but I'll have to wait until I can actually ride it.

[Henk]

Haven't read the whole thread but from another gather that this is a bucket build. Nice work so far.
I'd consider trimming the bars down so they aren't as wide. I've seen wide bars cause crashes for others when a rider coming around the outside has hooked the bars with their elbow, standard width dirt bike bars in that instance and happend to the same rider a couple of times. things can get quite tight on track at times.
For the rear sets ali plate and hacksaw / file work is fine I've done about five sets like that and it takes a bit of time but works fine, 10 or 15 mm plate seems the biz from a crash ability point of view.

[nathanwhite]

Thanks! Only reason this isn't in buckets is because it didn't start out with this intention

This is the first time i've really messed around with a bike, so I'm still trying to find what works and what doesn't. That's a good idea re the ali plates, however because the build is being driven by a shoestring budget i'm exploring the cheapest options before the most practical ones. Once it's up and running (just need to sort out the brakes really) I'll be looking at stuff like that.

[nathanwhite]

I'd consider trimming the bars down so they aren't as wide. I've seen wide bars cause crashes for others when a rider coming around the outside has hooked the bars with their elbow, standard width dirt bike bars in that instance and happend to the same rider a couple of times.

I had a quick look and shuffle around of the controls today, I can trim ~45mm off each side before there isn't enough room for the controls. Definately going to do that now, just have to wait to get all the bits bought, assembled and ready to go so I know exactly how much to chop

[ducatilover]

You've done exactly what I am doing when my new bars arrive...that also look exactly the same as yours. Oh dear me lol

[nathanwhite]

Before I go blow up form irritation, how exactly does one measure a wheel diameter?

[ducatilover]

Double the radius of course mate?

[nathanwhite]

So I've had a two week holiday, didn't go anywhere just bumbled around the garage, made myself a lightsaber without having to think about anything bike related, but that's another story.

Other Doug's awesome caliper turned up and many smiles were had.

Then they stopped rather abruptly when I tried to see how it would fit.

Seeing as it's a 4 pot caliper rather then a 2 pot one, it sticks inward from the disc quite a bit more then the factory one. Now this wouldn't be a problem on a big 600 front wheel, but I don't have that that kinda space to maneuver in. Infact I'm short about 10mm.
The caliper is hitting into the spokes of the wheel meaning mounting the caliper is not going to be as simple as an adapter plate. After a bit of thought I supposed I could space out the disc to the required amount, but then after some more thought I realized that this could seriously play havoc with the handling...

I'm a little out of my depth here (as usual) so any insight regarding the matter would be helpful

[ducatilover]

How much rotor to fork clearance have you got?
I think you may just need bigger hammer

[nathanwhite]

I figured I needed some inspiration for this, so I went to start up the bike and have a quick blast around the lawn. Except of course the jolly thing wouldn't start. so the weekend was spent trouble shooting. Finally got it down to a broken negative wire on the loom side of the magneto. Replaced and presto! Working bike.

So the blat up and down the front lawn showed me a couple of things I need to fix:

1. The bars a reallly wide. When I have the levers all setup, I'll trim as much of the bars off as possible.
2. The footpegs are really really far back and up. Almost like it wasn't designed for the rider to be using them, funny I know. It doesn't seem to be too much of an issue at this stage though(I'll need to get it on the (road)track to confirm) The big issue is that because the footpegs are so far back, the shifter is incredibly out of place.

[nathanwhite]

Sometimes the hardest problems



Have the easiest solutions







Typical.







So after I had mocked it all up I pulled it apart again for a repaint because it parts of it looked horrible



Also going to have to get kinky with a knife and a file because the clutch lever is integrated with the left hand control box but the brake has it's own extra thingy beside the control box. In any case the effect is thus





and when you talk about different size master cylinders what is this referring to? I assumed the connection between the MC and the hose but when I measured the EN OEM one and DucatiLovers ZZR'sthey were the same (the EN's one was about .5mm bigger actually)

[koba]

Master cylinder size refers to the bore of the cylinder, not the coupling.

Read up about hydraulic ratios, here is a start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_machinery

EDIT: to be more specific:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hy...rque_275px.png

Also, keep the 'bars wide; leverage is good on "wibbly wobbly" bikes.
(You have a very wibbly wobbly bike)

EDIT2: Now those massive pics have loaded I'll change that advice to say: don't chop the bars too short. Try them long and go from there.

[ducatilover]

I like the wibbly wobbly comment
I can make my GN have a wibble wobble by shaking my torso

It's awesome

[koba]

I like the wibbly wobbly comment
I can make my GN have a wibble wobble by shaking my torso

It's awesome

Dave Croxford coined the phrase. Cool guy.

[nathanwhite]

Not a lot done, but it's pretty awesome. This was all done a couple of weeks ago, I just haven't seemed to get around to uploading the pics.

So I wanted to build a dash unit for the bike, something simple that would house my on/off switch and the gear indicator lights (because I hadn't pulled the bike side connectors off just yet) After a bit of scrounging around for bits I found the origional headlight brackets. Hrm.

A little bit of bolting drilling and filing later




Looks good, onto fitting the bits!

Hole #1


holes 2-7 and filling in extra one


and a shroud for aesthetics sake




Painted it up and stuck a tube around the edges with (of all things) hot glue.


The trio of bolts under it is be the eventual fasteners for the race number







It's not perfect, but considering it didn't cost me anything I think it's pretty darn good. The filled hole didn't work out how I wanted it too and I may rip the paint off to redo that, but for now its fine