Custom DF250RTB build up

Here are some pix of my DF250RTB in the very early stages of a cafe racer makeover. I'm ditching the bobber rear fender for a full length British-style "mudguard" with a BSA number plate. I added 7" barrel springs to the seat which actually made the bloody thing fairly comfortable. A Lycett padded seat cover is on order to complete the British look. I removed the secondardy air injection system and fabricated a stainless steel block-off plate. The ignition switch has been relocated to the left side which cleans-up the neck area. The front fender had been reversed so that it projects forward more and I can install a number plate (or pedestrian slicer if you prefer). The handlebars are low rise Super Bike bars which will ultimately be switched to clip-on's or clubman bars. White football grips... if you have to ask...

The heavier mods will be in the form of converting to mid-controls, building a new exhaust and fitting a more suitable fuel tank. My goal is to have everything done by mid July for VMD at Mid-Ohio.

/Mike

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Interesting mods to your DF. I am interested in how you do the mid controls conversion. Looks like the exhaust will have to be changed to get it out of the way. I thought about moving it under the bike ala Buell.

Pardon my incredible ignorance, but I have no idea what is meant by "forward controls" and "mid-controls". On my bike, all my controls except the gear shift and rear brake (i.e., clutch, brake, throttle, lights, signals, etc) are on the bars. Are those forward controls? If your control are not on the bar, where else could you put them? And why? Wouldn't this then oblige you to be taking your hands off the bars all the time? What about safety?

Again, apologies for the abject newb query!

thanks!

Forward & mid controls refer to the foot-operated brake/shift levers. Forward are usually mounted on the down tube; mid are mounted on the bottom frame (like the JH600). BTW, ignorance is reserved for those who never ask the question.

Here's my question ...

There's been a lot of info posted about the new family of bobbers. These are very interesting bikes. But only very rarely do I ever see any of them on Beijing's roads. Are they in other Chinese cities? Are they not C3 compliant? Are they being made only for export?

Bella,
Where did you get the 7" springs?

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Where did you get the 7" springs?

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They're generic Harley parts found in numerous catalogs.

/Mike

Here's a little sneek peek. Not much progress I know. Lot's of other projects taking priority. Mid-Ohio VMD is coming up in 2 weeks and I need a pit bike. Time to hustle. So far...

Gilera Fuel Tank
Seat Barrel Springs
Full wrap 6" rear fender
British rear number plate
Low rise black handlebars
White GT hand grips.
Sport mirror
Ignition switch & horn relocated
SAIS removed

/Mike

Attachment 4650

I like this thing! Tank looks right at home.

Looks like its gonna be sweet

Bela,
Looking good. How about a close up side view of the rear fender? My ass and back got soaked the other day in the rain with that stock chopped off rear fender.

I only took a couple of shots. Keep in mind the tank and rear fender are not mounted... just sitting on the frame. I'm going to reproportion the front fender by grinding off the welds and rewelding so it sits 50/50 on either side of the brace. This will give me room to mount a pedestrian slicer. A 7" British headlight is sitting on the bench as well as 35mm clip-on's.

I will not have time to relocate the foot controls and fab a new exhaust in time for VMD, but it's on the to-do list.

/Mike

Attachment 4651

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Originally Posted by BellaCorse

...This will give me room to mount a pedestrian slicer....

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A what???

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Originally Posted by euphonius

A what???

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Front licence plate mounted on top of the fender

http://i471.photobucket.com/albums/r...g?t=1273347093

Hey BellaCorse, you have done a great work on your stuff, after mods your stuff is looking awesome, all the mods are very nice, as specially exhaust, I love it, hope you enjoyed your ride, thanks for sharing.

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Originally Posted by jamewatson

as specially exhaust

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jame,
That is the stock DF exhaust.

Those bikes have an EGR and the Suzuki powered bikes have a PAIR, both have catalytic devices but the systems and how they operate are different. The EGR is up stream and the PAIR is downstream.

The EGR dilutes the incoming, it displaces oxygen and reduces combustion temperatures, it keeps them under 2500 degrees as that is the temperature when nitrous oxides form. It does that by depleting oxygen in the air coming into the combustion chamber.

The PAIR is different it adds oxygen on the exhaust side, it encourages the burning off of exhaust gases by pulsing oxygen in through a vacuum control set of valves.

The PAIR removal should be proceeded by removing the catalytic device down stream or it could get clogged eventually.

Removing the PAIR will not improve performance removing the catalyst would. The Suzuki bikes are held back by the restrictive exhaust and do not really need enrichment or if so very little.
Removing the EGR could improve the performance and may even require changing the fuel to air mixture which could be too rich now that it is not being diluted with oxygen depleted gases, resulting in backfiring. That is why old timers say you need some back pressure and engines that have straight headers back fired.

I do like that frame, its to low to support straight up and down controls, so it really can never be a café racer. It’s too bad they did not copy the frame off the Matchless…

http://garagecompany.com/bike_pic200...s_g80_rr_1.jpg

The Matchless is a good example of the "vibe' I'm going after. The DF chassis can be converted to rear sets if one relocates the rear master cylinder. The frame actually has plenty of ground clearance. I'll be going for a more relaxed riding posture, as well as a more simplified conversion, so I'll just move the current forward controls back a few inches.

/Mike

That is not were my concern lies; the controls can be relocated; my concern is in the ergonomic and the distance between the seat and the relocated pedals, the resulting distance would be very short. The seat seems to be too low and could be moved up in height, maybe and maybe a little forward but the tail would appear to be very long then. A café racer has a more level horizontal line to it from the steering neck to the seat.

The only reason the controls are set forward is all about the distance from the seat to the pedals….that being to increase it.

Take a look at this modification and consider were your ass goes and were your feet go.

http://www.bikeexif.com/wp-content/u...00-1.jpg%20%20
The position would be for a lack of a better term…squatting on it?

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my concern is in the ergonomic and the distance between the seat and the relocated pedals

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I'm with you. But don't overthink it. This is just a fun pit bike for me. I'll eventually insure and plate it so I can tool down to the local scooter night in the next town. I'm not going to be running the Tail of the Dragon on it. This is just a design exercise and an excuse to use up some spares I have laying around.

Tonight, being 96°F and about 105% humidity, I elected to work on the DF rather than ride. I got around to properly mounting the rear fender and tail light. Drilling the frame's axle plates was a bitch. Must be flame hardened. But all is square and hanging right with some cool old fender struts. They needed a fair amount of finessing to get to work.

I had my fuel tank media blasted today and the steel is fairly pitted. I'll try some high build primer tomorrow, but my plans of powdercoating it are shot. I bought another tank off of eBay and hopefully it will show up this week.

I've got a vintage bike swap meet this weekend, and I'm on the sniff for some cool old trinkets to tart-up the bike with.

/Mike

Here's the bike ready for this weekend's vintage races at Mid-Ohio. Rattle can paint job, handmade SS parcel rack, front fender reproportioned 50/50, Matchless style handlebars. I have a Lycett seat cover, 7" headlight, mini winkers and a few other trinkets to tart-up the 'ol bird once I get back.

I still have to sort-out the mid controls and a new exhaust. And a proper paint job.

/Mike

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bella looks really good man

Mike,
The DF is looking old school good.
You are gonna cause some head scratching at the Vintage Days swap meet when people are trying to figure out your bike.

A Harley guy asked me if mine was an Indian the other day. Hopefully the people at the swap meet will be more knowledgeable.

Can't quite make out what is on the pedestrian slicer.

Just back from my first outing with the reworked bike. My little retro pitbike drew rave reviews and tons of compliments at the vintage bike races & swap meet at Mid-Ohio. Every time I stopped, it drew a crowd.
Attachment 5040

One of my vendors dubbed it "La Cuca-Roach-a." As I was tooling around the track grounds drawing glares and dumbfounded looks, I was thinking how perfect the low gearing is for crawling parade speeds. That's gotta go!

Also, my clutch was giving me fits. My fault, as I removed the clutch cable when I was working with re-routing cables and wires for the new lower bars and obviously buggered-up the adjustment. Not having a 10mm wrench in my pocket, I just puttered along in 1st at almost walking pace.

So now it all comes apart again for paint, bodywork and frontend rework. And new sprockets.:mwink:
/Mike

PS: And the 90°F+ temps had me baked within minutes of getting to the track. After unloading, I tried starting the bike and it wouldn't fire. I'm sort of concerned that I was going to run the battery flat. And you can not bump-start a bike on large gravel. Thinking I had about 30 seconds of battery life left, I realized the ignition kill switch was engaged. DOI!

The Lycett seat cover did not work. The DF seat has no structure in it's center section, just a perimeter frame. The vinyl seat cover has nothing to support it and I did not want to cut-up the stock rubber seat cover. Oh well, looks like an entire seat swap is the way to go.

/Mike

I am still struggling with the ergonomics of the seat and moving the controls back, I can only find a few hard tail images that raises the seat up to a more horizontal line on the bike.

Some tubular steal and some integrated springs, maybe?

http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/y...ng/whatthe.jpg
http://i784.photobucket.com/albums/y...dhymo1_500.jpg

Mike,
I am not a fan of forward controls so I am still thinking about the mid controls and what to do with the exhaust pipe and muffler. I tried tucking the pipe under the bike but the stock one won't fit. Another advantage of moving the pipe is then a kick starter could be installed if desired.

Some bobber photos at http://motorcyclephotooftheday.com/category/bobber/

Bing-go: http://motorcyclephotooftheday.files...lessg80rr2.jpg

Bang-go: http://motorcyclephotooftheday.files...lley_100_2.jpg

The Honda really speaks to me. I love the Brat Bike vibe.

Too damn hot to be working on bikes, so I haven't torn into my RTB yet. The entire exhaust pipe must go being that it has a catalytic converter inside of it, so DF claims! There's tons of ground clearance, so I'm thinking I'll run a new pipe a little lower than stock, maybe sweeping down across the engine and looping undewr relocated foot controls. There's a spot on the frame a few inches back from stock where I'll weld-in a set of new mounts positioned above the lower frame rail. I might need to splay them out a smidge so my heels are not resting on the engine covers.

/Mike

There is a catalytic in the pipe or at least there was one in mine.:naughty:
That Matchless is sweet.

Where I to invest the time and money, this would be the look I'd go for:

Attachment 5077

/Mike