SV650 - August Update

We had another track day booked at RAF Benson in the middle of the month, so held off stripping the back end of the bike down until this had passed to get on with welding the new swingarm.

These are all of the steel components that will go into the welded part of the swingarm. In addition to the above, there are a number of machined aluminium parts to mount the rear wheel which can be seen below.

The first tacks on the lower half of the swingarm. We thought we'd take it steady and tack a little at a time, then check it on the bike, then tack a little bit more . . . 

 

Here's a shot of the lower half of the swingarm on the bike with some of the CNC machined components loosely bolted in place. It gives a great impression of how its going to end up looking!

SV650 - Swingarm Progress

The jig for the swingarm has started to receive the first set of tubes for swingarm number one. We have had to make a few adjustments to the jig to add some stiffness and some additional stops. Now we have it tacked together whilst we work on and check the prototype swingarm and then we can weld it fully.

There are four tubes in the swingarm design that feature bends, so we have re-familiarised ourselves with the tube bender (once we made a new, suitably fixed stand for it in the new workshop). We went in at the deep end straight away with this 80 degree bend (previously the max bend that we have done with this tubing/bender was 50 degree) and it came out perfectly, with very minimal tube distortion (I see CNC tube benders produce much worse).

A bit more cutting, bending and notching and a swingarm begins to form on the jig. I really enjoy how easy this process is when time has been spent perfecting a lasercut jig, as everything just fits as it should, unlike the jig process we used for the frame.

And we end up with this. After a few evenings, everything is notched and all the tubes are located in place. Now to order some more TIG rod and start to tack/check on bike.

On another note, its not all been hard work in the workshop here, we have been having a bit of fun! Here's a recent picture of our buddy Greg having a test session on the SV at a recent RAF Odiham ARD. 

He liked.