Project Stealth

So some of you may have been following my Airhead Drag Bike build and may have noticed that's its come to a bit of a halt while various bits are out being painted etc so to fill the gap in proceedings what better way than to start another project....

I had previously posted about an R100R but this had caused some constination amoungst the forum and to be fair I understand that this may not be to everyones tast but as I also had some positive feedback so hopefully if your reading this your enjoy the build as much as I will... time will tell.

Anyway enough rambiling, the bike was bought about a month ago and the following week it was stripped to bare frame and most of the unwanted parts listed on that popular auction site.

This is the frame in its current state of undress, all unwanted brackets have been removed this will no longer have a center stand and as the old prop stand was part of the crash bars which are also gone so a new prop mount is on the list for additions along with some frame plates around the swingarm mount.

[/URL][/IMG]




more updates to follow soon

You have captured my attention again. I can't wait to see what this turns out to be but something very nice I'm sure .

Go for it.

Thanks guys

Ok so the base bike was perfect as it had spoke wheels and would work perfectly with the intention of running 17 track day tyres and even tubeless to boot result....
The rear wheel would be supplying the 17 x 2.5 for the front so that was sorted but now we also needed a 17 x 4.00 rear rim so the search was on. What became clear was they did not come up rim only and the price of the whole rear wheel when we only needed just the rim was a bit of a big pill to take, not one to be put off by a challenge we managed to find a later pair of wheels in very good condition at a mege price it seems that no one wanted to go pick them up and I managed to talk the seller into putting them in the post.

Ok so man maths are playing there best hand here and we now had a choice - the origonal front wheel has a set of discs which mount into the center of the wheel but the new later rim has the disc mounted using a perimiter type design so a nice open space in the middle of the hub, also using the new front hub would mean I had a complete front wheel + new rear hub to sell - hope that's clear

Moving on if any of you have ever taken these type of wheels apart in my experience all the story's are true...so to the rear wheel at this 1992 vintage the nipples are still in the hub but are use an allen key for adjustment, not one of these nipples would move clearly they had got mege comfy in there home and didn't want to play. We reasoned that the spokes which are plated and not super in condition would not work in the new configuration so out with the angle grinder once the tension was off the nipples all fell out and with a bit of perserverance they could be parted from the spokes as well, the remaining spoke ends left in the rim all played ball once shown a specially made drift.

Now we moved onto the new rear wheel we wanted to keep all the nipples for reuse, in there later guise they are now a 6 star type ajustment a quick try with the star tool and all the nipples undid - wow this is going to be easy, how wrong could we be. Sure all the nipples all came off but this time all the spokes had grown into the rim anyway after 8 hours of grinding, hitting, heating and cursing the rim was spoke less.

Origonal rear wheel
[/URL][/IMG]




New front about to give up its hub


And new rear about to give up its rim



So these wheel parts are all at the powder coaters as we speak, the new SS spokes are also due next week and we even have a cunning plan to sort out the front spindle miss match but that will have to wait.....

Loving it
I have also spent time this week stripping a pair of cross spoke wheels,what a thankless task,at least 4 hours of my life I'll never see again

mikeyboy said:

Loving it
I have also spent time this week stripping a pair of cross spoke wheels,what a thankless task,at least 4 hours of my life I'll never see again

Click to expand...

Thank you.

Thanks looks like its not only me then....

We had packed off all the bolts and and the key items to the platers, its a bit convluted these day's as they have a minumum order so its via the back door to get small batches done.

So here's some shiny stuff, when you compare the nipples allen & 6 star its looks like that's the only difference, looking forward to putting these wheels back together. What i have read these are super trick to get right so if anyone has any pointers / methods for assembly we are all ears..
[/URL][/IMG]

You will need a proper steel machine to do the rear, front is a bit easier with a Radco type timber one, but only if if you are happy with the spokes at less than half the correct tension.
There was a recent thread with links to people who have the machine and can do them properly, and you would be well advised to use them, but you might have difficulty if finding anyone who will work with powder coated components, so you might want to check before you set out on that course.

OMG i have been so lucky! My last two wheels came apart in about 40 minutes each.... much faster than the previous one which involved lots of swearing and skinned knuckles :-/

And having tried the rear rim as the front, just a word of caution..... there are bugger all tyres for a 2.5 X 17 front. I ended up going back to a 2.5 x 18 to get decent tyres that would do road and track, settling on a Metzler Z8 which has been a revelation!

Thanks for the comments good job we are in the for the long haul then and a few challenges to overcome along the way

Andrew

Can you remember what size 17 tyre you went with ? and did you ever find out the rear offset you used ?

Hey there,

I think it was a 120/70 and even though it was "pretty close" it was totally wrong for the rim i threw it in the bin :-/

It gave the bike terrible oversteer on the front tyre and i had to actively pull on the bars to stop the bike laying on its side in corners. Most noticeable on track but still made the bike feel rubbish on the road.

So you will need to go for a 110/80*17 which has no modern rubber, just the trusty old BT45s, Avon Road Rider and Dunlop Street Smart. At least that's what came up on FWR.

Glad I've got the Z8s as they are "almost" as confidence inspiring as wets in the rain.

Wheel offset to come Wednesday if all goes well......

Thanks Andrew, looking forward to the update - we have a plan for the tyre / riding issue you mentioned but thats some way off

Farther Christmas came early with some shiny bits...

Stem adjuster and the 2 types of spoke nipple

[/URL][/IMG]

And the wheel rims hubs and rear spring








We need to work on the front wheel hub and remove the coating from the disc mounting faces and clean out all the threads but really nice job as always from Trestan's just waiting on the spokes and the rebuild can begin.

This might sound silly..... but went to measure the offset last night and couldn't :-/ I'm going to need to take wheel off so bare with me. Or you can trust my dodgy maths and assume 2.5mm as that is how far over my drive shaft is from centre

Oh and the previous tyre was a 110/70 17, not a 120 as stated above. It was the wrong size still and you'll need a 110/80 17 for it to handle OK.

Beemerboff said:

You will need a proper steel machine to do the rear, front is a bit easier with a Radco type timber one, but only if if you are happy with the spokes at less than half the correct tension.
There was a recent thread with links to people who have the machine and can do them properly, and you would be well advised to use them, but you might have difficulty if finding anyone who will work with powder coated components, so you might want to check before you set out on that course.

Click to expand...

Really??
You do talk some shite sometimes

Edit,not meaning to be rude,but I can name at least 3 local wheel builders that are happy to take on x spoke rebuilds.
The one above took just over an hour to build and although I prob got lucky and the rim was straight,it's running at less that .2 mm
Run out in both planes so it's not brain surgery

Call me inspired.... spokes have arrived and hope to start the build over the weekend. Nice wheels Mike

paul cardy said:

Call me inspired.... spokes have arrived and hope to start the build over the weekend. Nice wheels Mike

Click to expand...

Feel sure you'll get on just fine,assume the spokes are the same length and snug them up to show the same threads left if that makes sense,put it on whatever jig your using,if the rim is true(welded section Wil run out) get it running close ,again by adjusting spokes by feel ,then gradually start to torque by feel ,it will run true.
Then decide on final spoke torque.it will need to be retorqued once its settled as the powder won't allow the spokes to seat .
If you get it running true on the first set up ,retorque shouldn't affect things much..
I too have one to build with an off set.para hub,,mono drive,1100 4" rim.. might be a bit of a task but,,,,,,the rewards are worth it

Thanks for the words of encouragement Mike, well after a great Saturday and the first start up of the drag bike we couldn't leave project Stealth on the side lines.

So far only the front wheel has seen some action, its not all gone plain sailing but after a lot of faffing about its all together, I have no attempt at this stage to get it straight and true but have just left everything with an even pressure. We need to re fit the wheel bearings so we can set the wheel up for final alignment which also starts another challenge which needs sorting as there are differences between GS and R100R spindles and bearing sizes.....more of this next time

Looking good. I wish I had your project work ethic, yiou have 2 on the go and always seem to have plenty of progress.........top stuff.