| email: flipprboi@benjiescaferacer.com Edison, NJ 08837 USA |
| For the past 3 months, we've been busy lately with custom ordered parts, other BCR project bikes (el Poquito, lightning racer, etc), and coming up with new products, that the " trixie special " project was put on hold. We are still behind schedule from the customer orders and other projects, but spring is coming and we want this project up and running. That's why we are back on this project and hopefully things will be rolling (fingers crossed). The Overall shape of the tank and seat.., well it's more organic, round, curvier, long and stretched but not long that it extends out to tires . Its more of a Nortonish, Egli-vincent look, than a boxy dunstall, CR look. The tank and seat in the pics are just master mold. We finished the master mold for the tank and seat way before we got the frame powder coated. The master model mold is made of metal and smoothed with plastic body filler. Making the model is like making an actual tank and seat, except the functionality and internals are different. You are only after the external shape of the tank and seat when you make a master mold. Some builders starts off in making the master mold out of foam, but we opted to use metal. Foam tends to warp as the fiberglass mold dries. It's all because the resin use in making the fiberglass mold gets hot as the resin dries. If you have a warped model, you'll have a warped mold, and in effect the final product will have high or low spots. We test fitted the master mold to see how it will look on to the bike and to see if there will be any clearance issues before we make the production mold and the product itself. We also checked how will the tank and seat be mounted. Plus fitting the model tank and seat on to the bike will somewhat give us the push that we need to finish this project. After seeing the profile, and looking at it at different angles, we are happy with the lines so now, off to make the tank and seat. Now some backgrounds of the tank and seat and explanations how did we come up with the shape. The length of the tank, well its all because when we look at the bike from the side we want to see the engine to be in the center of the tank. Having the engine in the center of tank gives the engine a gem, center of attraction look. The height of the tank, its all because we wanted the top surface of the tank higher than the upper trees, giving the bike a dominating road racer look. Good example of the same tank height profile would be most Ducatis and Norton's Manx. Width of the tank, well we wanted to make it narrow than the engine so when you look at it from the front, the engine is bulging giving the bike a powerful muscle bike look. And the shape of the tank, its round and organic in front and tapered towards the back thanks to the aggressive knee cut outs. If you look at it from the top, it looks like a speeding comet with a long tail. If you look at the tank from the side looks like a bullet train w/fading tail from the tremendous speed its doing. The seat, we wanted to have a reverse effect of the tank, but we didnt want the seat to dominate tank. We just want the seat to follow the lines of the tank and somewhat support the look and have the lines flow. The edge of the seat where the seat pad will go, is rounded off similar to the "pinas 550" seat. The only differnce would be " trixie special " seat has a somewhat pulled back look where the front is straight but the back widens as the lines hits the tail hump. We based the shape of the tail hump from the arch of the knee cut outs of the tank. We wanted the seat the same arch as the knee cuts so when you look at the bike from the side, its balance and proportional. The tank and seat will be in carbon fiber but we will add some stainless and aluminum details to give the bike an old school cafe look with somewhat modern minimalis look. The bottom contour of the seat will be wrapped around the lines of the frame, and will have space under the tail section for a tail light and electrical components. The tank will be secured with stainless strap, and will be divided into two tanks, one side for gas and one side for oil. To prevent the heat of the oil from travelling to the whole gas tank, we decided to make the oil tank a separate unit and have it tuck inside the gas tank with insulation. To cool down the oil, we decided to add an intake air scoop in the front right side of the gas tank, and finish it off with stainless grill. Not only will the air scoop be functional, it will also add detail to the tank and to the whole bike itself. We are happy with the sexy lines that the tank and seat will give the bike. So now, next on the agenda for this project build would be to make the actual carbon fiber tank and seat. To be continued. |
| Week 14-17: June - July 08 |
| After much deliberation with the BCR crew, we decided to change the set up of the wheels and tires, the finishing touches of the front end, clip-on set up and the exhaust set up as well. We came up with a new look in the front end. We wanted the front end to have a clean, somewhat stream line look. So we decided to make a fork covers that would go all the way up to the upper trees. We got rid off the rubber gators and came out with a stainless fork covers where even the upper portion of the forks will be covered, and even a section of the lower trees. We are still using clip-ons but we are going to use stainless to match the front end. We stripped the powder coat on the lower tubes and upper trees, then polished it. Having the fork covers in this set up will make the front end give that bulky aggressive look that we want. The front shouldered wheels we had on didn't look good. It didn't have the look that we wanted, so we changed the front to a 4.5 x 19" and slap some 110/90 we had originally. Then we got a 6.5 x 18 Excel aluminum rim for the rear, and slap a 160/60 tire. We could have just slapped some 16 Harley in the rear, but we want that big uniform look on the wheels. The exhaust, we wanted it to stand out but not to take over the look of the whole bike. We wanted the exhaust to be short for a change, like Moto GP bikes. We decided to make it a 4 into 4 system so people we'll know we mean business. In making the 4 pea shooters, we used 18 gauge SS to save weight and we made the tips removable so we could repack the fiberglass in the future. The inside perforated pipe is 1 3/8" and opens up to 2" at the tip. It'll give a deep open sound at open throttle but will be quiet at idle. We also we decided to take apart the engine again and get the cylinders bored out to 835cc. We are also changing the cams to a stage 1 street cams. |
| Week 18: August -December 08 |
| It's been awhile since we worked on the trixie project bike. Just been busy here at the shop with customer orders. Anyway, update for this month would be the headlight, clip on bars, polished up the exhaust and the sexy tank. When you look at the front of the bike, the first thing you notice would be the headlight. We were planning on just using the stock headlight and bucket, but that would be too easy. Like always we wanted to make something different. This bike is very special to us so we didn't want to just buy somebody else's headlight bucket, make the bracket for it, and call it custom made. Since there is really no deadline for this project, we decided to make our own headlight bucket. We wanted something simple, functional and will attract attention. For the headlight lense we opted to use Hella H4 with HID bulb. The headlight bucket and ring, we made it out of stainless steel. In designing the headlight bucket, we wanted it as if its built in into the fork covers plus we eliminated what ever is not needed like the headlight bracket and the housing for the lense. In mounting the bucket, we wanted it close to the tress as much as possible and not higher than the upper trees. Then after the bucket has been mounted we decided to have a cover at the back of the headlight to give a clean look. The cover in the pic is still in the works but it will be flush against the fork covers and headlight and it will cover the everything between the upper and lower trees. A look similar to HD's Fatboy. Not really a big fan of clubman bars so we made our own clip ons and have the bars welded perpendicular to the forks. Having the bars perpendicular to the forks will give a clean uncluttered look. In our last entry, we just have the exhaust unpolished. So after some fine sanding, and high speed buffing, the stainless exhaust is buffed to a mirror chrome look to match the fork covers. At first we were planning on using carbon fiber composite for the tank and seat. But using carbon fiber on tanks has already been used by other builders. We even made a couple of Carbon fiber tanks and seats for own customer. There is nothing wrong with using CF composites but we wanted something different so we decided to use platinum silver composite instead. We were planning on having a Norton Manx paint scheme anyway, so the platinum silver composite will fit perfectly with our plan. The fabrication of the tank and seat are all done. Right now it' s out to the painter to get the Norton Manx paint scheme. Next on the agenda is the aluminum oil tank, grill for the air vent on the gas tank. seat upholstery and the old school stainless rear sets. Stay tune. |
| Week 19: march 18- -march 26 |
| Had some free time last weekend, so we decided to work on the Trixie Special. We made an aluminum oil tank that will tuck inside the platinum silver composite tank. The oil tank has the threaded male fitting and will use an aluminum filler cap that matches the gas cap. The oil tank will approximately hold 2.5 quarts of oil, which i think is more than enough to help cool the engine. Like the original plan, to add detail to the engine, the oil will travel in copper lines. We just need to polish the oil tank and it's one less work in our long to do check list. Finally was able to finish the fabrication work on the tank. Added the mounting brackets, apply the sealer inside the tank for the petrol side, mock-up the aluminum gas caps, and made the stainless tank strap. The only thing left to do is make the grill for the cooling vent for the oil tank and its off to the painter to get the Manx stripes and some BCR badges. Stay tune! Next on the agenda is the new color for the frame. |
| Week 12-13: December 07 - March 08 |
| CB750 SOHC "Trixie Special" |
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