My shaft driven chop project

[someguymatt]

More or less lets talk about swing arms.
Im (once again) chopping up my V-Star 650.
This is how she sat last season...




She is now in pieces haha..



Im doing a real hardtail conversion but I'm diving a little deeper and reallllly going beyond just hard tailing it and also completely eliminating everything that is under the seat (battery, storage compartment, fuses).
The battery and fuses are being relocated and hidden, the storage compartment will be... Well... No longer available.

Just looking for opinions (if there are any) on the swing arm.
Heres how it looks.



Now Im just gathering opinions. Here Ive marked a few things.



The pipes with the blue lines are for sure out. Like I said, its going hardtail. Im just wondering if I can also chop out the the piping outlined in red.
Of course part of the rear swing arm houses the drive shaft, but I don't need any more "swing". Its going to be welded; no rear suspension at all. I won't need to compensate for the drive shaft trying to swing any longer.

Heres another visual of JUST the swing arm (pulled this pic off google).



Now, everything in red would be gone. And as you can see I added some black to show how the swing arm would NOW attach to the rest of the bike (Like a typical hardtail would of course).



The remaining housing would still attach to the frame via the bolt hole you can see in the picture above.
Now of course the frame will be properly braced with a couple cross members, in the end it will look very close to this.



Hopefully that makes sense.
Thanks for any advice!

Cheers,
- Matt

[53Bash]

If you hard tail it, you can get rid of everything associated with the swing arm. The shaft is supported by the engine and final drive unit, and does not touch the swing arm. As long as the rear wheel / final drive are held in a position that the original swing arm allowed, it doesn't matter what holds it there, or what (if anything) is covering the shaft / ujoint. If you move the rear wheel to change the relationship, you may need to alter the shaft length, ujoint location, or both. Easiest way to go in that case (on shafts I've looked at) is to put a spacer block between the engine and the ujoint (pushing the U-joint back), which would allow stretching the rear end without altering any drive line parts. If you want to get fancy, you can mount a disc brake rotor on this same spacer, and run your rear brake on the shaft.

[someguymatt]

If you hard tail it, you can get rid of everything associated with the swing arm. The shaft is supported by the engine and final drive unit, and does not touch the swing arm. As long as the rear wheel / final drive are held in a position that the original swing arm allowed, it doesn't matter what holds it there, or what (if anything) is covering the shaft / ujoint. If you move the rear wheel to change the relationship, you may need to alter the shaft length, ujoint location, or both. Easiest way to go in that case (on shafts I've looked at) is to put a spacer block between the engine and the ujoint (pushing the U-joint back), which would allow stretching the rear end without altering any drive line parts. If you want to get fancy, you can mount a disc brake rotor on this same spacer, and run your rear brake on the shaft.

Work and the wife have been keeping me busy, so needless to say I havent gotten the chance to toy around with it in a week or so.
But I figured that the small portion of swing arm covering the shaft was mainly just a dust/dirt/crud cover of some sort.
In this case, its getting chopped haha. Ill check back in when its welded

[billybiltit]

keep us posted,

leon

[Magnificentbastard]

I am digging those handlebars, could you tell me name and were you got them? Also did you had to lengthen any cables for these bars?

[someguymatt]

keep us posted,

leon

Will do!

I am digging those handlebars, could you tell me name and were you got them? Also did you had to lengthen any cables for these bars?

Biltwell Frisco bars! Love these things.
Ive had a few sets of bars and these are my favorite. And nope, cables are stock!

[53Bash]

I figured that the small portion of swing arm covering the shaft was mainly just a dust/dirt/crud cover of some sort.

Yep, and to make room to locate the u joint between the swing arm pivots (which it has to be, to do its job). Shaft bikes I've looked at typically have a rubber bellows between the swing arm and engine case that keeps crud from getting in there. I have no idea how vulnerable the U joint is to contamination. If not covered, I'm guessing you'd want to put some extra effort into keeping it lubed, at least.

Its pretty cool how the wheel / drive unit mounts on that bike, makes your job much easier than if the rear drive unit was supporting the axle. Should make for a good looking conversion!

[someguymatt]

Yep, and to make room to locate the u joint between the swing arm pivots (which it has to be, to do its job). Shaft bikes I've looked at typically have a rubber bellows between the swing arm and engine case that keeps crud from getting in there. I have no idea how vulnerable the U joint is to contamination. If not covered, I'm guessing you'd want to put some extra effort into keeping it lubed, at least.

Its pretty cool how the wheel / drive unit mounts on that bike, makes your job much easier than if the rear drive unit was supporting the axle. Should make for a good looking conversion!

Yea Im excited its gonna be cool!
I played with the idea of chopping the dual-backbone and making it a single, but I happen to like the size of this tank.
I ride this bike to and from work on the nice days so the extra tank space is needed so im not constantly stopping for gas.

I have ideas on how im gonna keep the ujoint from getting cruddy, time will tell.