Finally a project bike update

I managed to get a set of XR 400 wheels with black rims and hubs that were right up my street. Nice wide rims, and the rear hub is the same disc bolt pattern as the original hub so I can use the original disc.

As ever, things aren't that easy. I've had to get a new front spindle made as it wasn't possible to get new bearings for the new wheels to fit the original. I'm lucky, I guy I work with is a model engineer and has lathes and milling machines, he did it for £30.

The big bummer is that the 320mm supermoto disc I bought to fit the original front hub when I was planning to have a 17" rim built onto that hub doesn't fit this new front wheel.

So its new spacers for the front wheel and probably some at the back. The back hub is actually a little narrow so I'll be getting a spacer made to space the disc off the hub. Spent last sunday doing the drawing for the spacer, all proper like, then I went to order the Aly I need for my mate to make it, and find that postage for the material is double the cost of the material itself. What a pain in the arse. Now I'll have to wait until I've made the measurements for the front caliper bracket that needs making so I can order all the material at once. The new caliper bracket is to fit the 4 pot Brembo I got to beef up the front brakes and alleviate the issues with trying to fit the original sliding caliper.

There's a 320mm front disc the correct bolt pattern on order so hopefully I can get that caliper bracket worked out and get all the Aluminium I need ordered. I'm using http://www.aluminiumwarehouse.co.uk/ in case any of you are interested.

I've also been  trying to bend the seat rails for the new rear sub frame. This is the best I've managed so far, the former for the pipe bender I'm using isn't the right size for the tube and its flattening the tube a bit on the bends, its OK but not perfect. I think the next step is to try padding the former out a bit or make the leap and splash out on the correct size former. I'm learning as I go along, which is fine, but its taking a long time and burns through tubing. I've also tried bending it using heat but the tube bender has given the best results so far.

And I've found time to take some more stuff of my duke, bye bye nasty old mirrors, hello nice neat bar end mirror. Bar end needed a little bit of turning to get rid of  a step in the end of it and turn the shaft down a smidge so it would fit in the end of the bar. I've kept the brass weight that's OEM and the weight of the mirror is more than the heavy original bar end but I've had to move the mirror from the end to the top of the bar end to help reduce the vibes.