Engine transplants & modified Bikes

[F5 Dave]

This is silly, why am I considering all this when I can go plonk some readies down & buy an R6 with no legal hassles?

I've had my SP for 10 years. I really am hankering for another road going 2 stroke. I'll buy a tourer & just need a sprotbike for playing around on, but a small 2 stroke keeps the speeds down for these heavily policed days. light weight & 2 stroke sting is what I hanker for.

I miss my old RZ350, but had 18" wheels & bendy everything else, brakes were barely adequate after I'd upgraded them to 4 pot suzi ones. Rebuilt std ones were miserable. 250s have no midrange.

So one option is a Yamagama, RZ engine in RG250. + these days RGV front end & swing arm /wheels/brakes. Into an Aprillia would be better (& seen on Web) but puts a few more K on the price & I know of a readymade Yamagama that needs some attn (sadly rego lapsed).

Good handling with sensible road tune (more midrange than a fragile 250) + many more HP available from after market, but I won't get into that (google Banshee & Cub).

My SP may, or may not have several pushing-the-boundary -is it standard or not? parts. But this project puts me well into the Modified vehicle, certification required category.

Has the state made it so infeasible to attempt such a project anymore? I have done transplants on racebikes & made a road special before so I am likely to finish it unlike most people who start this sort of thing.

There are transplant bikes running around, but are their days numbered? Who has gotten certification for a bike?
& also any ideas for wgtn (don't think CWks would want to stick neck out)?

[avgas]

Ive found certing anything major these days a mission. buy a new bimota vdue (you can still get these imported new)

[F5 Dave]

What was it? 15000 euro & dodgy reliability even with carbs? out of budget.

[edit] actually 15500 not including shipping from US, so pretty good guess (injection one had more serious probs that couldn't be fixed (2 in chch by the way)
http://www.vdueusa.com/more%20info2.htm

PS no joke - my desktop currently is:

[Forest]

What was it? 15000 euro & dodgy reliability even with carbs? out of budget.

[edit] actually 15500 not including shipping from US

Shipping from Italy I believe - so the freight cost will be even more.

[F5 Dave]

Well it's waaay over budget so let's not go there, lest I might as well put some lights on a NSR500V. . . . Lower comp for pump gas, add some length to the header section. . . . .arrrrgh!! Where's that balaclava?

[F5 Dave]

BUMP!!.......

[Fryin Finn]

Buy a Gas Gas EC 250 and super motard it. They come with all the street legal bits and you could get SM parts without too much hassle.
Oh yeah sorry about being so logical.

[F5 Dave]

I have the road legal parts for my GasGas EC200 already. But no. That seat would do me in for a start, even the grief from yesterday is bad enough.

[jonbuoy]

I'd be keen to know how far you can go before the WOF inspector blows the whistle on this sort of stuff too. There was an RGV frame on trade me already modded for a big thumper it wasn't regd' though.

[avgas]

15000 euro
Last RGV500 i saw for sale in NZ was $18,000....second hand.
Injection is all fixed now, the carb'd 1 was a dog only cos it was underpowered.
Ol' man is still kicking himself for not picking up a RZ500 he saw for $8K a few years back.
Why are 2 strokes leaving so quickly dammit!!!! especially considering how much development has gone into 2 stroke diesels in the last 30 years.

[F5 Dave]

A friend has a slow project with a RZ500 with FZR400 forks, wheels etc. Don't think he will ever finish it so compliance may not be a problem for him, but it may be when I buy it off him. Argh! NO NO NO, I want a twin.

Anyway this is getting off topic.

Yes there have been a few transplants around, like the XR into KR1S, but these were all old pre-draconian law change. Has anyone done one recently & how did they get through the initial inspection?

Do i really have to give up & buy a still-in-original-box ready-to-fly batteries-included bike accepting it will be heavy, TUV approved, CE stamped & environmentally friendly?

[Motu]

If you make it pretty factory looking most dumb inspectors (like me) won't pick it up,while the smart ones will notice,but might turn a blind eye as they know everything is cool.If it really looks like 2 bikes joined together with gutter bolts and some H8 MIGed on while the engine is in the frame....then you might have to get it VINned I'm sorry to say.

With my own bastardisation project joining two different brands together at the hip with galv water pipe - they say I should be ok getting it VINned as a ''homebuild''....like a chopper y'know....So long as you are neat and tidy using sound engineering along the way you should be ok.....get it glanced over by your local LVV inspector at various stages so he knows what has been done.

[F5 Dave]

Sadly I have run out of galvanised gutter bolts, so I'll smear them with pig fat so they don't rust.

I know a sensible & fair inspector for WOFs & previous mods have been made to look factory.

This project would be somewhat more two different brands & two different Eras joined at the forehead. Also the bike will not be pre registered so will have to go through VIN. People do engineering certs for this sort of thing on cars don't they?

LVV being Low Volume Vehicle something or rather?

[HDTboy]

At one point Cowpoos had an NSR250 frame, and KX500 motor. I don't know what he's done with them though

[rexb]

Here is a web site to make you want the RZ350 back
http://www.rzrd500.com/phpBB2/
I like the ways they have modified the RZ into a fast bike, eg R1 front end and the FZ600 swingarm, then all the ideas to hot up the motor

[unhingedlizard]

I changed the wheels, tyres, brakes and suspension on my TDR. When I did fess up to a WOF inspector he just asked if it had passed wofs before with the mods. When I told him it had he passed it with no further questions.

[F5 Dave]

Rex, seen that & better conversions, many with late model RGV parts, but really would rather go the whole hog as the RZ frame is pretty flimsy.

As it would have to get Vin'd for new rego it would need a LVV certificate. The problem is I don't know of any who do bikes, (ideally wgtn) & if the process is possible & what the headaches are & cost for certification. LVV website list of inspectors doesn't work.

Yes there have been a lot of transplants -esp in race bikes, I've done 4 myself, but none of that is relevant to the Legal aspect of Vin-ing them now.

[F5 Dave]

ok after a few calls I finally found a chap in wgtn who does the certification. Said can be done without too much drama, but all mods have to be included at the one time. They also issue a plate that is as big as your hand to be attached to the frame. Under the seat would have to be the option, even if make a bracket just for it.

Certification costs ~$400 & of course if bike needs to be re registered first time vin etc will probably cost a k.

By no means prohibitive, but not the sort of thing you want to do too many times.

Right, now to start searching out candidates.