DR650...something

[squarefour]

Changes:

New oil cooler from a TL1000R that fits under the tank instead of hanging off the side.
Used brass "pushlock" fittings that are nice looking, but have this nasty plastic cup to cover the unsightly hose end. Fabbed substitutes from copper pipe end caps. Fiberglass braided sleeving over the pushlock hose and tucked into the copper cups.
Incorporated an oil temperature gauge made from a Harley dipstick thermometer, a 1/4" compression fitting, a pipe tee, and various adapters.
Tank pads (real, not paper mockups) made from a rubber bar pad (what bartenders make drinks on). Surprising amount of work. Had to remove the knobs on the edge by grinding with a Dremel and then even out the texture with a sandblaster.
Flipped and rotated the clip-ons and put in ends cut off an aluminum motocross bar. Wider, flatter and more pull-back. Comfortable and has the vintagey look I wanted. I think I will stick with this setup for a while.
Lathed a throttle lock based on the bottle cap tech tip. Not super attractive, but very useful.

Next up:
Working on a nicer bar-end mirror
Big bore kit is coming.
Frame paint (of course).
Maybe a tooled/stitched leather seat with a more sculpted shape. Been doing some photoshop work on this and it looks pretty good.

[squarefour]

Arty pic of my trimmed-up right side.

[PAWN]

this is a very cool bike!

[squarefour]

Okay, so it's back together now after some painting and polishing, hole drilling, etc. And the engine is now 780cc with a hot cam.

The frame paint was done by a buddy who is kind of a big deal in the bike paint world. It was absolutely flawless, but I suck as a builder, so it now has a couple scratches The hue is pretty subdued, but I like it. Get this: I picked out a paint chip after holding up about 20 shades of maroon up to the bike. When I turned the chip over, it said it was the factory color for a 1959 Ariel SQUAREFOUR. Freaky.

Next up: Thinking about some tank pinstriping and possibly a stainless exhaust.

[squarefour]

I didn't mention the oil filter cover I lathed from scratch. It needed an o-ring groove, a cavity and a spring holder on the backside, and I made "cooling fins" on the outside. Definitely the most involved lathe work I've done. The lettering cast into the stock piece always bugged me, and zinc content made it impossible to TIG-fill the ugly verbiage.

[davidabl]

This is a "WTF" bike in a class of it's own.

The sportsbikers and the dirtbikers must all do big doubletakes when they realize that the rear shock is for butt suspension instead of for some trick swingarm....

[captainawesome]

I love this bike, especially now that the final touches are on it. Are you going to keep the lettering on the back of the seat or removing it?

[squarefour]

I don't think I can remove the seat lettering without destroying the cheapish naugahyde, so I'll live with it. At least until it wears out. I think it has a certain flea-market charm.

The primary thing people notice (about the bike, not the seat) is that it is SMALL. Very few even notice the hardtail.

Spent most of the day at the painter's place mocking up various pinstriping schemes. i think we came up with something cool.

[squarefour]

I've got it! I'm gonna totally get a Centin patch made for my riding jacket, and people will be going "Ooohhh, Centin, is that the fashionable bike to get nowadays?".

[poonslammer]

bitchin

[squarefour]

I finally finished the new exhaust, and I rode it to work for the first time since the tearddown. No good pics yet, but I'll go ahead and post some cell snaps fresh from the commute.

That exhaust endcap, obviously meant to echo the oil filter cover, was made from Ø4”x3” long Al slug. A “reverse cone” is machined into the front. Took hours on the lathe. I also had to lathe the spigot that goes into the head. I had the clamping flange waterjet cut by a company I found on the internet. I highly recommend this, it worked out great. Note the wraparound exhaust bracket (I'm told it's called a "superbike strap"). This would have been tough except I had an identical cone, having bought a pair from an XS650 guy on ebay.

The tubing is Ø1.75 sch16 304SS and I used Hooker tube inserts, which are mild steel. I used a handy bend cutting template sold by Cone Engineering. Everything was MIG tacked together and then I took it in for TIGing. It's technically TIG brazed using silicon bronze rod. I chose that because of the dissimilar metals, it's a bit lower temperature so less warpage, and it kinda looks cool. It has a light bronze color that's a nice contrast to the SS when everything is polished up, but unfortunately disappears when it gets hot.

This exhaust stuff was tough for me, BTW. At one point I tacked the whole thing together, went to bed and woke up hating the look of it. Had to cut out a whole section and do it over. Getting the cone tucked in enough was also tough, but at this point it should touch the ground about the same time as the footpeg mounting lug, NOT the footpeg end.

Yes, the purple hue tells me I may need to richen it up a bit more.

[captaingrudgefuck]

this bike is fucking neat man! good work! im glad you chose the burgundy color. thats what i was gunning for haha. just didnt get my vote in in time

[oklascott]

i bet that bike is a blast to ride.

[squarefour]

It really is fun. I don't know if it handles better than the Duc I had, but it's certainly more enjoyable. The new exhaust helps this. While quieter at idle, it blats really sharp when you get on it. It sounds more like a racing Gold Star, and less like an angry air compressor.

Yeah I like the maroon also. Like the pinstripes, it's way low-key, but I'm good with that.

[squarefour]

Pic just to prove I'm riding it. Newcomb's on the Crest. Too chilly for the usual crowd. i was comfy in my snowmobile suit. No gas station anywhere on this route, so I had to use the liter-soda-pop-bottle-full-of-gas-in-the-backpack trick to get home. This may explain why I never see choppers here.

The Dunlop front tire on the rear works great, but is already to the wear bars, so I may rethink that idea...