Taimoshan Cycle Works | Just for fun
Taimoshan Cycle Works
Phone: +61 417 894 663
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25.01.2022 Well its be a long time since I have posted about building bikes, but COVID-19 has given me time to work on my own projects. So my isolation and lockdown has meant locking myself away in the garage and getting on with the Carbon Triumph Bonneville T140 and the Vincent 1330cc Twin super light. So the next few posts will be about these 2 projects. As you can see in the image below the Carbon T140 sat in the sunroom in our 1st floor apartment for quite some time ( wife not ha...ppy ). The bike has evolved a little since 2012 when I started the project and some of the parts (wheels, forks and brakes) were scavenged for another bare metal Triumph T140 cafe racer I built a few years ago, but on the upside technology has evolved and I found a company that would make me a custom set of spoked carbon fibre rims, so the plan has been upgraded and the weight target reduced to 110kg, which should be achievable. So hope you enjoy the project doco
24.01.2022 Honda CBX fuel injection build progress.... Starting to come together now.
23.01.2022 Will provide Dyno sheet with the bike
20.01.2022 Hot Bike of the Day - The confederate B120 Wraith - built by the Confederate Motorcycle Co down in New Orleans. These amazing bike are rare and expensive, the bike was originally designed by an engineering artist by the name of JT Nesbitt, the bikes are powered by a 120ci Jims , Harely V twin derivative. the Engine produced about 125hp and 135 ft/lb of torque. The bikes were a little controversial as they appeared to have a full carbon fibre back tube and carbon girder for...ks, however, later investigations of the B120 showed that the large diameter back tube was actually an aluminium tube with a carbon sleeve. ( not quite so cleaver ) but still a visually amazing bike. ( the original prototype may well have been full carbon) The Confederate workshop was destroyed in the Hurricane Katrina tragedy and was later rebuilt , but JT Nesbitt had moved on to other projects, so subsequent Confederate machines lack that jawbropping JT Nesbitt uniqueness and are now in my opinion a bit Orange County Chopper Blahhhhh! Sad really. See more
19.01.2022 Hot bike of the Day - Today's little gem is the product of the notorious Danish cafe racer builders the Wrenchmonkees. This cafe racer started life as an ordinary Laverda Jota, The Jota is a 1000cc triple that made about 90hp and was built between 1976 & 1982. Laverda's are a pretty rare Italian bike are pretty thin on the ground in the Southern Hemisphere. In Europe they have their own small cult following and you can see why when you can turn them into something like this... Nice Work and I would definitely like to own this one!
19.01.2022 Latest shop upgrade to Samurai 6 the Honda CBX1000 (1425cc) cafe racer.... Electronic Fuel Injection to replace the CR Smoothbore carbs, Throttle bodies made in house from multiple layers of carbon fibre formed over a polished aluminium mandrel also made in house ( see my website www.taimoshancycleworks.com for more details) . This is a work in progress, now that the order in parts have arrived it is now time to start machining up the injector bosses, MAP sensor tube nipples, butterfly shaft bearing and seal housings, the fuel rail and fuel rail mounts etc etc
17.01.2022 A couple of close ups of the fancy custom carbon spoked rims. You can also see how the 150 tyre really only just fits the rim.
16.01.2022 Carbon spoked rims arrived, they weigh about 1.5kg each, so super light. Also I've gone back to the original British style "bread box" T140 tank, after briefly toying with a sprint style tank, but now re-made in aluminium. I did make the moulds and made some trial carbon tanks, but I hit some issues with trying to use the mould of the original tunnel shape, as the shape was awkward, so become pretty complicated to assemble the components. Need to redesign the tunnel really t...o make it work, which costs a lot of time. Faster to make and ali tank to spec to fit the carbon frame. Back onto the tyre issue, the rear rim is 5.0x 17, as the manufacturer only make one size, so that brought another set of problems to solve, ie rear tyre width. T140's usually max out at a 130 rear tyre before the 530 chain starts to hit the tyre. You can get a 520 sprocket and chain but it only gives you are few mm more clearance and not nearly enough for the min size you can fit on the 5" rim, which is a 150 tyre (just). The answer is going to be to redesign the carbon swing arm to fit a jackshaft and run the chain down the RHS of the tyre. More to come on this little conundrum in later posts
14.01.2022 Engine installed back in the bike to start working on the sprocket alignment issue and jack shaft design. As you may have noticed, the motor is a Triumph TR7 engine converted with an electric start unit from the period from the pretty rare T140ES model bike. Also now engine is back in the frame, I can work on the oil line routing, head steady mount and the engine breather system that will involved drilling and tapping both rocker covers and plumbing in a couple of one way ...check valves into lines venting back into the Oil in Frame up near the head stock. Exhaust is already completed but can be fitted back to the bike until I can get the bike of the stand and on its wheels. Also found that the jack shaft idea creates a LOT of complexity in the final drive. Biggest issue seems to be how to tension it he primary chain with a fixed location swing arm pivot. If I can find an elegant solution here then the rest is not so hard, just and bunch of machining to be done and some pretty substantial mods to the carbon swing arm that was largely complete.
11.01.2022 Hot Bike of the Day - Today's bikes are some of the earlier work of Japanese custom building legend, Shinya Kimura, founder of Zero Engineering and now Chabott Engineering in California. Shinya is largely acknowledged as the founder of the bare metal retro steampunk style of cafe racers. The bikes all have a rough around the edges, well lived in look, of a long hard life. A number of builders have tried to copy his style with varying degrees of success and talent, Hazan Motorworks featured previously is one of those builder that has more than succeeded. Shinya has many Hollywood celebrities as customers, including Brad Pitt who has 2-3 of his bikes.
11.01.2022 In Jan I started mocking up the bike with the new tank and some of the original parts to see how it might look and get a feel for how hard it was going to be to fit the 180 rear wheel/tyre (the one in the pic is a 150 squeezed on a narrow rim getting it down to 140mm width) There are really only 2 ways to fit the 180 tyre on a Vin and both involve a lot of work, but the first is what most Vin people do and that is to fit an offset primary sprocket, but that has it's problems... with a bunch of machining, a new G50 plate and it shifts the load outward on an unsupported shaft, which in my case could be a problem with 120hp. The other way (the hard way) is to offset the UFM 1" to the left on offset head brackets then make a new swingarm with the wheel in the "right place". It also turns out the the centre of mass is actually much closer to the offset position than the original position, so the bike should also handle better. Just as an FYI the forks are Showa from a 1098 Ducati with Radial Bembos
10.01.2022 Taimoshan Cycle Works - Suzuki GT550 - Triple 2 Stroke - "Gold Digger" is now FOR SALE. Run in miles only on the clock, 54hp at the wheel on the dyno, about the same as a 1970's Kawaski H2 750 triple in std config and you know their reputation! Current full NSW reg. Open to sensible offers. Get in touch for more details
10.01.2022 Coming Soon - Taimoshan Cycle Works Universal "Kick Back" solution for aftermarket electronic ignitions (Boyer, lucas Rita, Pazon and others) for Brit Bikes - BSA, Triumph, Norton, Vincent and more. Testing should be complete in the next month. Message me with your email and name to get on the notification list when the units become available.
09.01.2022 1955 Vincent "Nero Superleggera" is a project I started back in about 2008 with the aim of building a Vincent with 1hp/1kg power to weight ratio, maybe with hindsight a little ambitious? So I set out and ordered a set of reproduction crankcases in the UK and pair Terry Prince 600cc (92mm bore) cylinders, twin plug heads + a 100mm stroker crank, making a 1330cc Vincent Twin. With the 10.5:1 comp and Terry's fast road cams, we figured we could reasonably target of 120hp & 100 f...tlbs torque. The next trick would be to strip weight, lots of it to get the bike down to a dry weight of 120kg, pretty tricky when the engine weighs in about 50% of the target weight. The latest calc with all the parts weighed in so far gives a best estimate in the real world of a bike with a total dry weight of 140kg. To put this in perspective. The Vincent Twin normally weigh in at between 206-208kg depending on who you talk to and produces between 45hp (Rapide), 55hp (Shadow) and 70hp (Black Lightning, 170kg in race trim) So my project with 120hp and 140kg should be a pretty quick bike even by modern standards. Fast forward 12 years and I have collected most of the parts and had Terry Prince assemble the engine, so I could really start the build process. Over the next few months I will share some of the steps and the ideas I am working on to get the bike to 140kgs. As you can imagine there is not much retained of the original bike as most parts are made of cast iron, steel, lead and concrete, all the heaviest substances known to man. Most of the evolution bike is made of carbon fibre, aluminium and titanium.
09.01.2022 Hot Bike of the Day - 1970's Honda CB750 SOHC by Vibrazioni Art & Design, this bike is the work of a furniture company in Italy, that make chairs and stools out of old Oil Drums... This bike and a couple of others are a PR stunt to showcase their skill and promo their furniture company. I love the raw, Shinya Kimura style and the recycling of the logos from the drums, perfectly placed as livery for the bike, no paint required ( will a little clear varnish to stop the rust )
08.01.2022 Taimoshan Cycle Works 1982 Triumph T140ES - Bare Metal Cafe Racer + proud new owner
06.01.2022 Well, finally the Suzuki GT 550 Brat Racer "Gold Digger" is finished, on the dyno and ready for the road and to be sold to a lucky new owner. Here are some dyno runs on the dyno at Robinson Precision Engines, Bathurst last week.
05.01.2022 Ordered a pretty tidy flat trackers seat unit and seat pad for the Triumph T140 project from our friends at Redmax in the UK, going to have to rebuild and redesign the seat base now and also looks for a brake/tail light unit that will fit the new seat shape
