| CB750 SOHC " Trixie Special" - page2 |
| Week 12-14: December 07 - March 08 |
| email: flipprboi@benjiescaferacer.com Pierson Ave. 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 14-16: 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. |
